142 Responses to Open Thread

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  1. George R says:
    May 2, 2010 at 7:47 pm

    BBC not concerned with Taliban’s New York bombing attempt – as Taliban are only ‘MILITANTS’ to BBC, not Islamic Jihad murderers.

    Alternative reports to that of bromide BBC:

    1.)

    http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2010/05/nyc-times-square-terror-bomb-very-deadly.html

    2.)

    Car bomb in Times Square near Comedy Central

    3.)
    http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/05/02/new-york-city-police-investigate-failed-new-york-city-bombing/m

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  2. NRG says:
    May 2, 2010 at 7:51 pm

    R4 News at 2pm. Quick summary – a sentacne each of BBC script – on the of the main statments of the day and then “Gordon Brown has attacked the Tories” and a 30 seconds of Brown in full anti-Conservtive bluster.” No further comment, no responses. Pure party political broadcast. 

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  3. Millie Tant says:
    May 3, 2010 at 12:32 am

    I was surprised to see this on the BBC News website front page tonight: <img src=”http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/47763000/jpg/_47763844_leaders210.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”Nick Clegg, David Cameron, Gordon Brown”/> <img src=”http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/shared/img/o.gif” border=”0″/> Leaders in renewed push for votes
    The three main party leaders are campaigning hard, each seeking to gain ground as the election battle enters its final days. =========================================== Surprised to see a headline and intro about the three leaders.  During the past week, every time I looked at the website, it was about Brown. “Brown says…”Haven’t read the article.

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  4. Ronald Todd says:
    May 3, 2010 at 5:30 am

    BBC Points West is complaining that Sommalia refugees do not get to vote in our general election.

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  6. It's all too much says:
    May 3, 2010 at 7:21 am

    Today, 08:10 – The highest sneering and direct laughter (my god he implies , how can you do anything without the intervention of the state) levels yet from BBC interviewer – Gove gives his best.  Complete contrast with the fawning invitatiojn to make a party political broadcast given to Zanu earlier

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    • John Anderson says:
      May 3, 2010 at 12:15 pm

      The intro was that Tory ideas are a “hodgepotch”.  Now that’s a nice unbiased start!  Then described as a “great fluff”. And “half-baked”.

      The thrust of the ideas is that people should have more ability to call local authorities,  the police,  the local education system etc to account.

      Yes,  Gove tried manfully.  But the interview was very hostile, scornful, cynical.  The BBC might as well get the interviewers direct from the Labour or LibDem central offices.

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      • Craig says:
        May 3, 2010 at 1:53 pm

        John, Evan Davis has been spending too much time around James Naughtie. He’s caught his bias.

        As It’s All Too Much says John Denham got the soft-soap treatment from Naughtie. It must have been like being interviewed by a port-sipping old philosophy professor. Naughtie even made a point of saying that people working in the public services “may well say, ‘Look, we approve of the extra investment that went in over the last twelve or thirteen years'”

        Evan Davis was even worse with Nigel Farage last week. That was as bad an interview as I’ve ever heard.

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        • John Anderson says:
          May 3, 2010 at 11:18 pm

          Craig

          The figures you posted about Davis spending more time talking than his interviewee were very telling.

          Your “interruption quotient” is a clever measure.  Because it is objective – so cannot be denied or fudged by the BBC.

          But is there any way of measuring sneers, putdowns, querulousness ?

          As against “mmms” indicating agreement ?

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          • Craig says:
            May 4, 2010 at 4:54 am

            Andrew Marr is a devil for ‘mmm’-ing at things, especially things said by his left-wing paper reviewers.

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  7. prpw says:
    May 3, 2010 at 10:08 am

    So after the events of last week, what better way can BBC World find to start the new week than a HARDtalk interview with Billy Bragg ? (Don’t know what really qualifies it as `hard’ talk as it was more a cosy fireside chat than containing any particularly searching questions, and the Geiger counter for interruptions certainly wasn’t needed for this interviewee).
    Anyway the distilled wisdom of the show was that if a perfectly reasonable, lifelong Labour-voting lady raises some valid questions and reveals the Prime Minister (and by extension the many apologists for his behaviour in his party and the commentariat) as the real bigot(s) in the world, it means the far right is now on the rise. PATHETIC

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:
      May 3, 2010 at 3:18 pm

      It’s the same way they treat the Tea Party movement.  Anything outside of the approved thoughts is “far” right.

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  8. George R says:
    May 3, 2010 at 11:38 am

    BBC: Mumbai conviction – don’t worry, he’s only a ‘MILITANT’, not an ISLAMIC JIHAD murderer

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8657642.stm

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  9. George R says:
    May 3, 2010 at 11:45 am

    Not on BBC’s political agenda:

    “Plans for $27 million mega-mosque scrapped”

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  10. Bupendra Bhakta says:
    May 3, 2010 at 1:09 pm

    BBC news radio 4 2pm Monday.

    Starts with

    ‘David Cameron has denied accusations …’ (subtext: made by us at the BBC of course) and continues with…

    ‘Gordon Brown has vowed to fight for the future of the country’.

    My advice to that News Editor – polish up your CV on May 7th because Big Nasty Dave will be coming after you (and quite right too).

    The BBC has abandoned any pretence whatsoever at impartiality and I assume the Tories will look to begin dismantling it in their first term.

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  11. George R says:
    May 3, 2010 at 4:04 pm

    SOMALIA.

    The BBC, its pro-Islam manner, shows continual interest in the welfare of illegal Somali immigrants and jihadists in the UK; BUT, the BBC shows little interest in the welfare of the BRITISH couple who are now in the hands of Somali Islamic jihadists:

    “Islamists take Somalian town where British couple are held.”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/somalia/7669441/Islamists-take-Somalian-town-where-British-couple-are-held.html

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  12. George R says:
    May 3, 2010 at 4:13 pm

    BBC’s secret, non-election promise to ITSELF – at licencepayers’ expense:

    “The BBC is expected to divert a part of its licence fee to its pension fund to plug a £1bn ‘black hole. ”

    http://www.newstatesman.com/broadcast/2010/05/pension-fund-hole-bbc-licence

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  13. David Preiser (USA) says:
    May 3, 2010 at 5:54 pm

    World Have Your Say is talking about the oil spill disaster off the US coast.  Naturally, the environmentals at the BBC can see only two facets of this issue:  is oil evil or this is just an accident?  They have an anti-oil activist from Greenpeace in the studio along with a woman scientist who works in the oil industry.

    This seems balanced, but only the oil industry rep is asked to back up her claims and explain details.  The Greenpeace guy is allowed to say that oil is bad, full stop, without having to go into any more detail other than the standard “we need to go to sustainable sources of energy”, which is a platitude and not an explanation of anything.  No substance is required from the anti-oil side.

    Also, the BBC is finally forced to ask out loud if the current US President is doing badly on this environmental disaster compared to the previous President’s response to Katrina.  Answer: nothing to see here, we need to blame BP, and move quickly on to other damage that the oil industry does.

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  14. David Preiser (USA) says:
    May 3, 2010 at 6:54 pm

    The BBC reported unquestioningly last week that GM repayed one batch of loans from the government (taxpayers).  It turns out, though, that GM used other money loaned to them by the government (taxpayers) to pay it back.  They lied about what they did, and it was encouraged to do so by The Obamessiah Administration.

    The BBC is silent on this.  They don’t inform, they parrott White House propaganda.

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  15. NRG says:
    May 3, 2010 at 7:37 pm

    A chilling example of BBC bias at work.

    From Slugger O’Toole, a moderate and respected left / Irish Nationalist blog, discussing the IRA Northern Bank robbery,

    http://sluggerotoole.com/2010/05/02/northern-bank-robbery-redux/

    Interestingly, the party references I noted in May 2009 seem to have been edited from the original BBC report, but at least one report from 2005 remains accessible online describing Hegarty as a ”Sinn Féin activist”.  The iol report noting that Hegarty “is also known as a Sinn Féin member and republican” also remains.

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  16. John Anderson says:
    May 3, 2010 at 11:22 pm

    The last BBC Chairman delares for Cameron.  BBC failing to report it. Why ?

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article7115184.ece

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  17. Cassandra King says:
    May 4, 2010 at 3:53 am

    The BBC and its love of a manufactured false reality?

    The actual realtiy saw the three party leaders adressing a group of community activists, all three were warmly recieved and all three were applauded warmly at the end of their speech. Thats the actual reality OK?

    The BBC reality showed clips of the three leaders with Brown first getting the same applause as the others with Nick Robiscum panting with exitement saying that Brown had energized the crowd with his speech and was showing his fire and determination and with barely contained exitement his face lit up with a zeal we rarely see that Brown has come alive showing us why he joined politics in the first place blah blah blah.
    Ooooh yes here it comes and its typical BBC, a sullen Robinscum and a quick shot of Cameron adressing the silent crowd and then the BBC cut out the applause for Cameron completley, so in the BBC reality we see Cameron adress a silent crowd, then back to Robinscum with sour face asking a question and then its onto Nick Clegg where he gets a warm reception and the applause is shown in full.

    See the difference in Nick Robinscums face from the bookish serious to the shiny eyed excited panting activist to the dour po faced git.
    The BBC stooping to grubby and dishonest cutting and chopping and editing to make Brown and Clegg look popular and good and make  Cameron look isolated and disliked.

    You just cringe when you watch things like this because the bias is stunningly open and obvious, you start to hate the BBC and the likes of Nick Robinscum because they make this partisan trash with impunity and in the full and certain knowledge that they are untouchable.
    Watching that few minutes of TV crookery on behalf of a desperate desire to save labour via a liblab pact is to watch the demise of our democracy, the essence of a third world democracy rammed up our arses like a mess of broken glass.

    Conclusions? The labour party is desperate to hang onto power and its only hope is through ballot rigging postal vote fraud and a liblab pact so the BBC are using their(our)money to make their reality into  actual reality using the gutter methods of the crooked liar.
    Of all the things that infect our democracy the worst and most insidious is a state media trying to blatantly influence the outcome of an election to suit their own political interests, I hate the BBC because they represent everything a democracy should despise.

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    • Craig says:
      May 4, 2010 at 5:12 am

      Their live election blog was up to the same thing: 
       
      1644: There’s rapturous applause for Mr Clegg when he tears strips off the immigration system and champions an amnesty for illegal immigrants. 
       
      1700: Having entered the venue for the Citizens UK event to very enthusiastic applause, Gordon Brown is waiting to take centre stage. But he’s just got up from his chair to comfort a young girl who broke down into tears while trying to tell her story. 
       
      1708: “Wealth must serve more than the wealthy, good fortune must serve more than the fortunate, and no injustice should endure for ever”, says Mr Brown. He says he wants to “testify” today, in front of them, to who he is and what he believes in. He also talks about his achievements as chancellor, not least introducing the minimum wage. Big applause for that – and Mr Brown is feeding off it. I think this is the most animated I’ve seen him during the campaign. 
       
      Then there’s the usual selective use of comments from ‘Have Your Say’ and ‘Twitter’: 
       
      1827: David in Staffordshire, UK, writes: Gordon Brown gave a great speech to Citizens UK. Full of fire, full of passion and full of conviction – where has this Gordon Brown been hiding in this election?Have Your Say 
       
      1655: EmmaLangman tweets: Man! Clegg knows how to leave space for applause. Audience love him. Especially when he attacks banks. Whatever you think of his policy – great speaker. Read EmmaLangman’s tweets 
       
      David Cameron’s comments are just described, with no mention of any applause. There are no tweets or ‘have you sayings’ in his support. 
       
      Tass in action.

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    • Craig says:
      May 4, 2010 at 5:18 am

      And the worst was yet to come. This isn’t a spoof. It really is on the BBC’s live election blog:

      1917: Gordon Brown’s speech earlier to the Citizens UK event seems to have gone down well. “His best speech of the campaign”, says James Macintyre in the New Statesman. The Guardian’s Michael White says on Twitter he hasn’t seen the PM “speak with such fluent passion for years”. “As a party member, I’m kicking myself that we haven’t seen Brown like this until now,” writes Luke Bozier, on the LabourList website. Alastair Campbell, as one might expects, thought it was “GB at his best, fired with passion and conviction”. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/liveevent

      So Gordon Brown’s speech earlier to the Citizens UK event seems to have gone down well with…someone from The New Statesman, Sir Michael Shite, someone for LabourList and  Spinmeister Campbell!!

      Who would have expected them to say nice things about Gordon Brown’s speech?

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  18. Cassandra King says:
    May 4, 2010 at 5:24 am

    Labour must know that the postal vote fraud and ballot rigging will have a marked effect on the election, they could well steal this election by electoral fraud with at least rigging enough seats to get a liblab pact with labour in control.
    The BBC and labour working in perfect harmony with the BBC rigging a late performance by Brown to show a supposed turning point in Browns fortunes when they must already know that the industrial scale postal vote fraud and the ballot stuffing could well save labour from defeat.
    Labour aims to steal this election and the BBC aims to help them by providing the illusion of a fake popular pro labour late surge, be prepared for labour to steal this election from us, and be prepared for the dire consequences of this theft.
    The BBC and labour already knows the result of this election, they know just how many fake votes are being stuffed into the ballot boxes, in just over a decade the UK has turned into a replica of Zimbabwe.
    I wait the result with a sickness in my heart that I cannot begin to describe, I have never known such boiling anger deep in my soul at what labour are doing all because they desire power. If they do steal this election I will become an enemy of this criminal state.

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    • dave s says:
      May 4, 2010 at 9:02 am

      I see the Daily Mail leads with the postal vote story. At last there is some real concern in the MSM. This election will be rigged. It has to be otherwise there are going to be some very awkward questions asked about the last 13 years. I see the Commonwealth is sending a monitoring team. Not enough we need international observers. I fear the worst.

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  19. Guest Who says:
    May 4, 2010 at 6:55 am

    An interesting ‘light-hearted’ piece:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/rorycellanjones/2010/05/mobs_music_and_martial_arts_th.html

    Though it is interesting that, amongst a load of fluff, a BBC ‘reporter’ does get rather specific (and inaccurate) in highlighting (hey, it’s always good to support those you agree with)  anti-Cameron FaceBook page. 

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    • Roland Deschain says:
      May 4, 2010 at 7:51 am

      The trouble is, I haven’t heard the Tories over-excercising themselves over this either. It’s not as if it hasn’t been known about for a long time.

      Interestingly, I note that my constituency of Edinburgh South is mentioned. I shall be looking closely at the figures after the election, although my gut feeling is that the sanctimonious Lib-Dems will take it. The Tories seem to have given up campaigning here.

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      • hippiepooter says:
        May 4, 2010 at 8:36 am

        At the very least I’m surprised the Daily Mail didn’t seek opinion from the Party leaders on this.

        Like you said, its been known about since Labour first opened up postal voting how wide open to fraud it is and the Labour Government has chosen to do absolutely nothing about it.  I was going to ask rhetorically ‘why is this I wonder?’, but even asking that rhetorically makes one look stupid.

        It’s a fine judgement call for the Tories to make something of this given just what a powerful propaganda machine Labour’s adjunct the BBC is.

        Cameron is doing nicely in the polls at the moment, and proper examination of the postal votes scandal stands to do huge damage to Labour so the BBC would go into warp factor spin to reverse the damage if the Tories raised this.

        The line the BBC would endlessly howl out at full volume till polling is ‘Tories smear Labour’ plus ‘Tory islamophobia’.  Contending with such BBC bias at this moment in the campaign just doesn’t pay dividends.  Had the Tories done what they should a long time ago and prepared the grounds for launching attacks on BBC bias that its bias merits, this wouldn’t be a problem, but they’ve allowed it to be.

        As is, when even the Daily Mail treads on egg shells and says the fraud is being practised in ‘Asian communities’ instead of overwhelmingly by Muslims as it is, what chance would the Conservative Party stand?

        A line that Cameron could take is ‘I have read with deep concern reports of widespread electoral fraud in Labour’s favour with the postal vote.  I urge for the sake of British democracy as many people to get out to the ballot box as possible to make sure voter fraud doesn’t effect the result of this election’.

        Between voter fraud at the ballot box and propaganda fraud at the BBC, it’ll be a wonder if Labour dont get a majority. 

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        • Lloyd says:
          May 4, 2010 at 9:00 am

          The Kerry McCarthy/Bristol east postal votes story should have set alarm bells ringing with the conservatives. Is it really plausible that she has recieved more than twice as many postal votes than all the other candidates put together?

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  21. George R says:
    May 4, 2010 at 8:13 am

    New York bomb threat, and pro-Islam BBC.

    The BBC, over the past two days, has been pushing its political line that the bomb suspect was ‘white’, and not Islamic.

    Now, in its political bromide way, the BBC only goes as far as reporting that the arrested suspect is ‘of Pakistani origin’.

    He BBC studiously, and deviously, avoids any reference to the ‘MUSLIM’/ ‘ISLAMIC’ nature of the arrested suspect:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8658888.stm

    In contrast, ‘JIHADWATCH’ tells it straight:

    “Pakistani Muslim Shahzad Faisal arrested in NYC car bomb case“

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  22. NRG says:
    May 4, 2010 at 9:17 am

    Yesterday the BBC was shrilling that the NYC bomb did not have an islamic connetion and that the suspect was one of those nasrty white men.

    Today the Beeboids report:
    US investigators have arrested a suspect in an attempted car bomb attack in New York City, police sources say.
    The arrest follows reports that police had discovered the identity of a man who bought the car used in the plot.
    The vehicle was left in New York’s Times Square on Saturday with a bomb made from fertiliser, fireworks, petrol and propane gas tanks.
    The bomb was discovered and dismantled before it could explode.

    Notice the missing bit. The guy was a Pakistani Muslim.

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  23. Bupendra Bhakta says:
    May 4, 2010 at 9:23 am

    BBC radio has been turned over to Peter Hain today.

    The same Peter Hain who the Commons Standards and Privileges Committee ruled that his late disclosure of £100,000, given to his 2007 campaign to become deputy Labour leader, was a “serious and substantial” breach of the rules.

    The same Peter Hain who put his 80-odd year old mother on our payroll.

    Tune in now to Radio Hain and hear about those Nasty Tories and their Savage Cuts.  Don’t forget, folks, Nasty Tories and Savage Cuts.

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  24. Roland Deschain says:
    May 4, 2010 at 9:24 am

    The BBC really seems to be going to town on Labour’s “vote tactically to keep the Tories out” call. Peter Hain got the prime 8:10 slot on Today to promote this, and as far as I could tell there was absolutely no airing of the Conservative side of the story, with perhaps one mention for the Lib Dems.  (He was also allowed to spout about electoral reform, including PR, only coming from Labour without it being pointed out just who has been in charge for 13 years and who left the voting system alone when it suited them.)

    Yes, they said they would be speaking to Tories and Lib Dems later, but the fact is that it is Labour’s side which has been given prominence by getting the plum spot with no right of instant reply.

    Having said that, I think this could backfire on Labour.  There must be just as many people wanting to vote tactically to get rid of them.

    PS any chance of a new open thread?

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