Here we are, frantically battling against the bias at the BBC. Year in, year out, we stab away at our keyboards, foam-flecked spittle flying, blood pressure on the point of spontaneous combustion.
Auntie, meanwhile, gaily carries on, undeterred, oblivious and undaunted.
Then, along comes Bob. Hell hath no fury like a live-aid organiser scorned. The BBC sits up and openth one eye.
So. Should we recruit a celeb?.
Well if you do! can you get one that looks less like a orc/troll thats having a bad hair/face/life day !.
I`ve never really been a fan of St Bob from his Boomtown Rats days to the present. He`s just too loud and shouty/sweary. But I must admit, he seems to be showing a degree of the disgust that some of us here feel on an almost daily basis for the BBC.
I somehow doubt that his rage will extend beyond the next couple of weeks.
I foresee a special documentary commissioned by the Beeb, showing how band aid enabled everyone in Ethiopia to buy their own windmill,or some such nonsense.
No. Never recruit a celebrity. They become bigger than the campaign and then all that’s needed is to target the celebrity and bring them into disrepute along with the campaign.
I second that motion.
Geldoff is just pissed that the bbc, for once, has exposed a scam. And his efforts have been contributing to it. I’ve never contributed to his ‘give us the f***ing money’ coercive money gathering boreathons. And don’t intend to. He’s not anti-bbc. Just anti anyone or anything that makes him look like the asshole that he is.
Geldof was skint at the time he dreamed up Live Aid since when he has gone on to become a multi-millionaire. He certainly didn’t attain his riches through his musical talent so it is not only the poor and starving of Africa who benefitted. Perhaps I am being cynical but, maybe like Oxfam, only a small percentage actually reaches those in need whilst the bulk of collections go towards running the huge industry that charities have become.
I thought what he put together with Midge Ure for LiveAid was an all time classic. I remember, I think it was on Desert Island Discs, of Sir Bob recounting a combative encounter with Maggie Thatcher at a No 10 reception debating the issue of surplus butter. He said that before she left she made a point of coming up to him to say goodbye in a felicitous, motherly sort of way.
He was also attacked by Glenys Kinnock for criticising the EU’s contribution to famine relief in Ethopia while praising Britain and the US.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/2947560.stm
Here’s a good piece in the Mail that argues Sir Bob has a point … and he doesn’t ..
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1257735/Get-real-Bob–buying-guns-better-buying-food.html
You’re not being cynical. I long since gave up on donating money to charities that have become vast multinationals employing countless well paid professionals, in large office buildings in prime sites.
Giving to these charities via a Telethon using a credit card while you stuff your face with pop-corn seems obscene to me too.
I learnt as a kid that charity begins at home when my father used to take me, every Xmas, to the children’s’ hospital where we would personally distribute my last year’s toys and books to the poor little sick buggers who would be spending the holiday season in hospital.
It’s what the luvvies now call “direct action”!
I have a friend who instead of sending Xmas cards and buying gifts works out how much she’d spend and gives the money to a homeless people’s shelter.
Clearing out the larder yesterday I came across some packaged food and cans well past their best-by date and instead of simply throwing it in the bin I remembered seeing people scavenging in the containers nearby. So I went for a stroll and found one, warned him that the stuff was a bit old but probably still fit for consumption – he was delighted and I knew that 100% of my donation was going to a good cause.
Screw Sir Bob Effing Geldof and the rest of those attention seeking gits.
O:-)
“How the EU bought our charities”
(Daniel Hannan, 2008)
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/3677301/How_the_EU_bought_our_charities/
The BBC hasn’t “exposed” anything. Supposedly the ‘envy’ of the world, it has put about a number of allegations (which may be true), which they have so far atterly failed to adequately back up. At best this is rumour-mongering, not journalism.
I’m no fan of Sir Bob, least of all his music. I also believe that aid does nothing to solve a country’s problems and only serves to perpetuate a country’s misrule. For this reason I am glad that Sir Bob and his aid-pushing chums at the BBC have fallen out. For too long they have been blaming outsiders and the global trading regime for Africa’s problems when they are evidently the result of corruption.
Its hard to know with this story. Like the stopped clock that is right twice a day dear old Aunty Beeb may have stumbled onto an actual story and is now back pedling furiously. As AndyUK06 says they have made the allegation then gone no further but then again thats what passes at the beeb as new reporting these days. Geldof has lived off Live Aid for the last twenty 20 years though and won’t go down without a fight especially as this is what brings him (and the entire Geldof clan) the attention they crave.
Sadly I fear Rightofcentre is spot on this spat will all blow over soon enough to be replaced with no Live Aid love in “documentaries”.
I bet the BBC will back down. I don’t know if they’ll actually sack Plaut, although they did get rid of Andrew Gilligan, and he wasn’t entirely wrong. Maybe he’ll get the phone call about “other projects” like Ed Stourton did. Either way, the BBC feels the teat pulling away with this noise from Geldof. So, as they did with Gilligan and Tony Blair’s sexed-up 45 minutes. as well was with China, Tibet, and the Olympics, I bet they won’t fight for the story.
Alternatively, they could do a Balen job on it. Investigate it at your expense, find their answer and, no, you don’t get to see it. Meanwhile, Geldof gets to keep his Band Aid reputation intact, as the Beeboids won’t have pursued the money trail any further. And the appearances and broadcasting rights keep coming to the BBC for all the usual celeb-driven (and drug-fueled) charity events the BBC promotes every year, getting the very best result for your license fee.
That’s my prediction, anyway.
Having said that, I bet Geldof’s rant went over really well during morning coffee at the BBC. Apparently he sees no irony in a celebrity known primarily for attracting attention to an otherwise unremarkable point of view calling it a “dubious tactic” when the BBC and Guardian do it.
The thing is, everyone would benefit from a real investigation into this story. Not the least of which would be the actual people about whom Geldof and his new enemies at the BBC claim to care so very much.
When I saw the picture I thought it was about Quentin Crisp.
I read somewhere that, since Live Aid in 1985, twice as many Ethiopians are now living in dire poverty.
That is probably because there are now twice as many Ethiopians.
Yes, I should have made this clear.