152 Responses to OPEN THREAD…

←Older Comments
  1. hippiepooter says:
    April 13, 2010 at 5:56 pm

    The BBC manages to safely obscure the issue of Labours cancer postcards so that not even Rod Liddle can understand it.

    http://www.spectator.co.uk/rodliddle/5906068/moral-compass-anyone.thtml

    Way to go Beeb!

       0 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:
      April 13, 2010 at 6:36 pm

      The online version says the postcard was sent to 250,000 women.  But the BBC still thought it appropriate to stick this in:

      However, one man who has had treatment for another form of cancer recently said he had received another leaflet on policing and did not believe he had been singled out because of his condition.
      Alan Woolley, from London, said the “most important fact” was that his medical care had been “superb”.

      So he didn’t get the postcard at all, yet his opinion that he wasn’t targeted for an entirely different postcard about policing is still relevant to this story just because he’s a cancer survivor? Plus the bonus plug for “superb” NHS service?  Only if the reporter is trying to make this into another anti-Tory scaremongering issue.

         0 likes

      • hippiepooter says:
        April 13, 2010 at 9:31 pm

        Whew!  Great scoop by the BBC.  No other news outlet managed to get that.  I wonder why??

        Do a search under ‘diane dwelly cancer’ and plenty of hits come up that she thought her photo was going to be used by the NHS, not Labour.  The BBC doesn’t mention this part of the story though.  They do however mention a guy with a tangential connection that no other news editor thought relevant to the story apart from someone at the BBC.  If the Conservative Party was fit to govern they’d be on to the BBC about this clearly bent Labour spin and giving them a really hard time, but they’re not so they dont.

           0 likes

      • John Horne Tooke says:
        April 13, 2010 at 9:34 pm

        Actually Dave – I fell for that the first time I read it. I thought (as I was meant to think) that it was all related. This really is blatent misleading reporting by the BBC.

           0 likes

  2. dave s says:
    April 13, 2010 at 8:53 pm

    I have not noticed much mention of the BNP by any of the media outlets. And the coverage of UKIP is also scanty despite their manifesto launch today.
    But much space devoted to the Welsh and Scottish Nats.
    There seems to be a concerted  effort to portray UKIP as extremist and almost allied to the BNP- a patently ridiculous position- but one the powers that be have decided as probably effective in neutralising support.
    If the ruling liberal elite cannot have Brown then they will accept Cameron in order that the programme can go on. Albeit more slowly and with subtle changes of emphasis.
    What really scares them is a polarisation of left and right around the BNP and UKIP repectively.
    Cameron is no more scary than a slightly petulant meerkat

       0 likes

    • Grant says:
      April 14, 2010 at 8:24 am

      UKIP described as a “maverick ”  party by the BBC on BBC News at one yesterday by Rita Chakrabati.   

         0 likes

  3. Dick says:
    April 13, 2010 at 9:30 pm

    Did anyone else hear this appalling eulogy for pre-1979 socialism on Radio 3 last evening, with the interviewer enthusiastically cooing along?  http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00rwwdq [first item].   I await with enthusiasm a similar hagiography of Margaret Thatcher during the Election period, to provide the balance to which the BBC are so solemnly committed (LOL). 

    Apart from anything else, what a load of absolute b****cks!

       0 likes

  4. John Horne Tooke says:
    April 13, 2010 at 9:39 pm

    OT – but why does Al Gore get addressed as “Mr. Vice President” when he isn’t?

       0 likes

    • deegee says:
      April 14, 2010 at 7:26 am

      I believe that American protocol is that there can be only one President and one Vice President at a time. The former holders should be addressed by the last office they held before President/Vice President. George Bush 41 should be addressed as Ambassador Bush. Jimmy Carter should be addressed as Governor Carter.

      Al Gore has been VP a Senator, a member of the House of Representatives, an environmentalist, and most recently a Nobel laureate. In practise The Honorable Al Gore is probably correct and calling him Mister to his face would not be disrespectful.

         0 likes

      • hippiepooter says:
        April 14, 2010 at 10:56 am

        I believe American protocol is anyone who attains the Office of President retains that title for life.  That’s what I remember Alistair Cooke once saying when reporting how Richard Nixon once ignored questions from reporters until one of them addressed him as ‘Mr. President’.  I dont know whether this applies to VP’s though.  I guess so?

           0 likes

        • All Seeing Eye says:
          April 14, 2010 at 11:31 am

          This is indeed true, and applies quite far down the food chain.

          It is correct protocol to say “Governor Palin” still, for example, even though she has left the post, or “Ambassador” to those who have left that office. It applies for other positions too (there is a list somewhere that I needed for reference when I used to have to deal with such people) which is formally laid down. For a classless society, the American interest with titles always amuses me.

             0 likes

          • David Preiser (USA) says:
            April 14, 2010 at 1:31 pm

            We like to tell ourselves it’s about respect for the office.  It’s a bit silly, I agree, to address someone like Newt Gingrich as “Mr. Speaker”, when he’s been out of Congress for like a decade.  But that’s how it goes.

               0 likes

      • Jack Bauer says:
        April 14, 2010 at 2:35 pm

        calling him Mister to his face would not be disrespectful. 

        How about “you fraudulent, hypocritical, ass-hole?”

           0 likes

  5. deegee says:
    April 14, 2010 at 7:14 am

    Radovan Karadzic toys with judges at Hague trial
    I’m no Karadzic supporter and find the war crimes charges against him quite credible. However I’m a private citizen with no obligation to unbiased reporting.

    Karadidzic is facing charges for genocide although he will not be executed it is reasonable to assume that if convicted of even one of the charges he will die in gaol. As it is not unlikely that gaol will be in Bosnia that death may come sooner rather than later.

    Under those circumstances his claim to requiring longer time than the prosecution to cross examine is quite understandable.

    The prosecution team had said they needed just one hour to question today’s witness, Ahmet Zulic. Mr Karadzic however, had told the tribunal that he required four hours for his cross-examination.
    Looking ahead to the fourth witness on the list, prosecutors say they need three hours to hear from Herbert Okun, a former United Nations adviser.
    Mr Karadzic, on the other hand, wants 14 hours set aside for the cross examination. And so it goes on.

    All a neutral reporter can report is that he claims his defence will take more time than the prosecution. The headline that he is toying with the court rather than doing everything he can in his own defence is nothing more than speculation and opinion by the BBC.

       0 likes

    • hippiepooter says:
      April 14, 2010 at 11:01 am

      But then as we all know BBC reporters are allowed to completely disregard standards of decent conduct that they think should apply to everyone else because they’re ‘morally superior’.  We should consider it a privilege that such beings walk on the same earth as us.

         0 likes

  6. Bupendra Bhakta says:
    April 14, 2010 at 8:57 am

    From the station that gave you ‘…and Budget coverage this afternoon from Gabby Yorath and Richard Bacon’… we had Nicky-I’m-Funny-Me-No-You’re-Not Campbell reporting Captain Insensible’s mea culpa on how he wanted to regulate banks more tightly but was persuaded otherwise (yeah right).  Of course (no surprise, as the production team had been frantically googling since Peter sent them the press release) they managed to find a quote from Cameron praising the City to mention in the same breath.

    I suppose that’s what the BBC calls, ‘balance’.

       0 likes

←Older Comments