65 Responses to OPEN THREAD…

  1. Natsman says:

    According to the Daily Mail, this unsavoury character has been invited by the BBC to play at The Proms…

    “…Mikhail Pletnev – accused of raping a 14-year-old boy – was charged last month in Thailand. He is due to perform at the Royal Albert Hall in London later this month…”

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  2. Umbongo says:

    I await Martin’s response to this one.

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  3. Biodegradable says:

    BBC World Service radio just ran a piece about the 30th anniversary of the Bologna bombing.

    No mention of this though:

    COSSIGA: BOLOGNA TRAIN STATION BOMBING THAT KILLED 85 WAS A “PLO WORK ACCIDENT”

    [All notes below by Tom Gross]
    ITALY’S EX-PRESIDENT ADMITS ITALY MADE DEAL WITH PALESTINIAN TERRORISTS
    In an astonishing admission, Italy’s former president has revealed that Italy provided Palestinian terror groups with a safe haven and hideouts on Italian soil in a secret pact in which the terrorists pledged not to target Italian interests.
    In a letter published on Aug. 15 in the leading Italian daily Corriere della Sera, Former Italian President Francesco Cossiga confirmed claims of such a deal. The deal was revealed a few days earlier in an interview in Corriere della Sera with Bassam Abu Sharif, the former head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). (It has long been rumored that British and French governments also made similar deals in the 1970s with the PLO.)
    Cossiga described it as “secret non-belligerence pact between the Italian state and Palestinian resistance organizations, including terrorist groups” including the PLO and the PFLP. The deal, he said, had been devised by Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro, who in 1978 was kidnapped and assassinated by the Italian terror group the Red Brigades. At the time of the agreement, Cossiga was serving as Italy’s interior minister.
    COSSIGA: BOLOGNA TRAIN STATION BOMBING THAT KILLED 85 WAS A “PLO WORK ACCIDENT”
    Cossiga wrote last week: “The terms of the agreement were that the Palestinian organizations could even maintain armed bases of operation in the country, and they had freedom of entry and exit without being subject to normal police controls, because they were ‘handled’ by the secret services.”
    In spite of this, there were several major Palestinian terror attacks in Italy or on Italian targets in the 1980s. These included attacks on the El Al ticket counter at Rome’s airport, an attack on Rome’s main synagogue, and the hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship. Israelis, Americans, Italians and others were killed in those attacks.
    Cossiga also accused the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (a part of the PLO) of being behind the terrorist attack at the Bologna train station in 1980 that killed 85 people. He said he believes it was a “work accident” by Palestinians transporting explosives into Italy. At the time Italian neo-fascists were accused of being behind the attack, and two leaders of a neo-fascist group were sentenced to life for their role in it. The two convicted men are now expected to attempt to have their sentences overturned.

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Good catch, Bio.

      “In spit of” this special arrangement there were PLO attacks on a synagogue and the El Al ticket counter and a cruise line known to cater to Jews?  I would have thought that was the point of it.

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      • Biodegradable says:

        I was living in Bologna at the time and have followed the subsequent investigations and conspiracy theories ever since. Everybody in Bologna at the time knew somebody who was affected. One of my friends survived but lost a piece of leg muscle the size of a grapefruit – she’d been booking tickets.

        One piece of evidence that cropped up soon after the fact, and was brushed aside, was the fact that the explosive contained a “chemical signature” which identified it as being from the same batch as a bomb that targetted a Jewish restaurant in Paris shortly before the Bolgna massacre.

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  4. Martin says:

    Chris Grayling was on Radio 5 stating that he was going to ban sex jobs from job centre adverts. Now regardless of your view about strippers, lap dancers etc there is a good argument for saying these jobs have no place in a job centre. Grayling continually tried to make this point but was shouted down by the fat vile Vicky Pollard who seemed toh think advertising jobs for topless barmaids etc was just what job centres should be doing. The whole interview (and the obvious planted text messages in support of strippers) was an attack on Grayling.

    Thing is if Hattie Hatemenpeson had suggested this the BBC would have been in full support.

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      I thought those jobs oppressed women and made them potential victims of physical and drug abuse?  Sorry, wrong Narrative.

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      • Martin says:

        The BBC don’t like Grayling, remember how they tried to destroy him over the gays and B&B story.

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    • Grant says:

      Have the BBC asked Hattie for her views on this ?  Somehow I doubt it.

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  5. fred bloggs says:

    Just seen the bBC news; they are showing the immigrants in paris being evicted because a video has just been released.  What they don’t say is that this took place on the 21 July and the background to the story and Sarkozy response is known.  None of this is reported, just portrayed as police violence against women, with the usual interview with a bleedin’ heart.

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  6. Craig says:

    More on the BBC and its links to the JournOList (one of the many stories that dare not breathe its name at the BBC.)  
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2561229/posts
     
     
    Using the ‘Search’ function on the BBC website reveals that the following JournOListers have been quoted/linked to in articles by BBC journalists. There are exactly 50 of them (and many have appeared several times):  

    1.Spencer Ackerman  
    4.Mike Allen  
    5.Eric Alterman  
    6.Marc Ambinder  
    9.Dean Baker  
    12.Steven Benen  
    14.Jared Bernstein  
    25.Jonathan Chait  
    28.Ta-Nehisi Coates  
    30.Jonathan Cohn  
    33.David Corn  
    36.Brad DeLong  
    39.Kevin Drum  
    44.Tim Fernholz  
    45.Dan Froomkin  
    46.Jason Furman  
    47.James Galbraith  
    49.Todd Gitlin  
    56.David Greenberg  
    57.Robert Greenwald  
    62.Michael Hirsh  
    64.John Judis  
    65.Foster Kamer  
    71.Ezra Klein  
    72.Joe Klein  
    73.Robert Kuttner  
    74.Paul Krugman  
    75.Lisa Lerer  
    76.Daniel Levy  
    78.Annie Lowrey  
    79.Robert Mackey  
    80.Mike Madden  
    90.Gautham Nagesh  
    95.Rick Perlstein  
    106.Michael Roston  
    108.Felix Salmon  
    109.Greg Sargent  
    111.Noam Scheiber  
    112.Michael Scherer  
    116.Adam Serwer  
    117.Walter Shapiro  
    118.Kate Sheppard  
    120.Nate Silver  
    123.Ben Smith  
    129.Sam Stein  
    131.James Surowiecki  
    135.Michael Tomasky  
    136.Jeffrey Toobin  
    140.Dave Weigel  
    148.Matthew Yglesias  
     
    Jason Furman and James Galbraith perhaps shouldn’t really be on there, as they were quoted in their capacity as Obama’s economic advisors.

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      No, they should both be there.  Ezra Klein got them involved when they were unpaid advisors.  Peter Orszag was also in until he left to join the Obamessiah Administration.  Jared Bernstein is another Obamessiah operative.  Also, a couple of Obamessiah campaign operatives joined the JournoList after the election.  There’s no doubt that this was His unofficial campaign organization, as a couple of them said so out loud in the emails.

      More details here.  It seems that nearly all major US media except the big three networks, Fox News, and the Wall Street Journal are compromised.  The number of academics and political activists sickens me, but doesn’t surprise me.

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    • John Anderson says:

      Wouldn’t it save us a lot of money if the BBC disbanded its US news team and subcontracted the job to Huffington Post ?  Or Daily Kos.  Or just to Ezra Klein and a couple of his punk mates ?

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      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        It would be cheaper, but no less biased.

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        • John Anderson says:

          Cheaper – and no MORE biased, surely ?

          It would save us millions and millions a year – and we would not notice the difference in the BBC’s output.

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          • Millie Tant says:

            It would save them millions a year but it wouldn’t save us a bean because, oddly, nothing ever does when it comes to the licence tax – not even an increase of a couple of million in the population. (Are they all living in one house, gathered around one TV set?)

            The greedy Thompson would have more to spend on his salary, perks and pension; more to spend on other propaganda and on additional places to hide “undesirable” news on the website. Getting rid of the Beeboid propaganists based in America would be a good thing in itself but it wouldn’t do much to alter the course or the nature of the beast.

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  7. Craig says:

    Here I go again! There must be at least one JournOLista working for the BBC.   
     
    I have my suspicions about Katie Connolly, who has just joined the BBC from Newsweek, and is on regular tweeting terms with many JournOListers, and about Max Deveson, who used to work for the BBC in Washington and quoted JournOListers in almost every article he wrote (and wrote some stunningly biased reports on the Democratic and Republican conventions), but who moved to the BBC’s Political Unit.  
     
    Someone at BBC News Online is still posting articles dominated by comments from JournOListers (someone who was there before Katie Connolly joined, and after Max Deveson left). This very-biased beeboid writes most of their ‘live event’ blogs on key events in the presidency of Barack Obama and is seriously skewing the coverage of American politics in favour of the Left.  
     
    This anonymous beeboid, ‘Host’, propagandises in favour of Obama’s health reform agenda Obama applauds health ‘milestone’ by canvassing the views of four commentators – two of whom are JournOListas (the ubiquitous Steve Benen on the Washington Monthly and Jonathan Cohn of the New Republic). The third person quoted is Karen Tumulty of ‘Time’, who isn’t YET on the JournOList, but who followed their script by playing the race card.  
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8152382.stm
      
    When Obama’s healthcare bill is passed, seven U.S. commentators are quoted by ‘Host’ – three of them are JournOListers: David Corn of ‘Mother Jones’, Mike Madden of ‘Salon.com’.sen and Robert Kuttner of the ‘Huffington Post’.  
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/seealso/2010/03/us_view_obamas_healthcare_bill.html
     
     
    When Arlen Specter switched party to join the Democrats the anonymous BBC article’s “US MEDIA REACT TO SPECTER’S SWITCH” section quoted one conservative and no fewer than five liberals, including two JournOListers – Jonathan Cohn of ‘New Republic’ and Nate Silver of ‘fivethirtyeight.com’  
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8023460.stm  
     
    When Barack Obama issued a warning to the banks last September, an anonymous beeboid was there to get the US media’s reaction. One conservative critic, Robert Wenzel and a slightly sceptical Justin Fox of ‘Time’ are quoted. The rest are Democrat Robert Reich in the ‘Huffington Post’, JournOLista Ezra Klein of the ‘Washington Post’ and JournOLista Noam Scheiber of the ‘New Republic’.  
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8255603.stm  
     
    Two JournOLista, Joe Klein and Ta-Nehisi Coates, get trotted out (2/6) for an anonymous article appraising Obama’s first 100 days:  
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8025984.stm  

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Great work, Craig.  It still amazes me just how many times the BBC references these lower-profile bloggers and opinion mongers rather than major US news media and top commentators.  And there are no quotes from Red State or Fox News or the Wall Street Journal or Townhall.

      Dick Morris (quoted in the ‘health milestone’ piece) was a Clinton insider for years until they threw him under the bus when he got caught with a prostitute.  He got his job as a Fox News “contributor” because he’s now highly criticial of the Clintons and most people don’t remember how wrong his analysis is all the time.  He barely counts as non-Left.

      I also noticed SubCommander Markos’s quote about how he and his minions have been making the case since the election that the GOP is now a regional southern party.  This matches exactly with what the disgraced (except the BBC forgot to tell you he was) Howell Raines was spouting on a recent Americana.  Exact same message.  Raines was probably too high up on the food chain to be allowed on the JournoList, but we haven’t seen even half the names yet.  More evidence of the BBC at least unintentionally coordinating their journalistic efforts with the JournoList and far-Left political activists in the US.

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      • Craig says:

        Except for a derisory number of references to the Wall Street Journal, the BBC has behaved exactly as you say.

        I have looked for quotes from Fox News and Hot Air (America’s most popular political blog) and found nothing for Hot Air.

        Fox News gets quite a few mentions though – in plenty of often savage attacks by opponents!!!

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  8. Craig says:

    When “Cheney enters ‘torture’ memos row”, the anonymous beeboid calls four witnesses –  two from liberal papers, and the other two JournOListers – the ubiqitous Steve Benen and Michael Scherer of ‘Time’.  
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8009571.stm  
     
    Anonymous is back again for ‘Obama testing pundits’ patience’, where the pundits include three JournOListers: Marc Ambinder of ‘The Atlantic’, Mike Madden of ‘Salon.com’ and Sam Stein of the ‘Huffington Post’:  
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7962977.stm  
    I’ll stop now, because you’ll have got the picture!! There are more!!  
     
    BBC left-wing groupthink, and/or a liberal MSM conspiracy involving beeboids???

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  9. David Preiser (USA) says:

    The President has just declared victory in Iraq.  The US will be withdrawing all combat troops by the end of the month, and our role will switch to supporting the Iraqi government.

    Only that’s not how the BBC is analysing it.  Even though this is a victory for what George Bush started, the BBC will never allow that word to pass their lips, unless in a negative, sarcastic way.

    There will also be minimal to no speculation about how this might be an act of desperation to boost His abysmal ratings.  See, He has ended Bush’s “illegal war”, just as He promised.  Gaudeamus!  Laudeamus te!

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Okay, I was slightly wrong.  Kim Ghattas – a dedicated Obamessiah worshipper – just said that the withdrawal of combat troops should be looked at in the context of the President’s domestic difficulties, as He’s reminding everyone that this was a campaign promise.  I did say “minimal to no”.  How much more of this will there be, though?

      But I’m also right because she said that this should not be looked at as a “victory”, things might still go wrong, etc.  The BBC wants Iraq to be a disaster to the very end.

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      • Craig says:

        David, the key word there is ‘slightly’.

        The glamorous Emily (courtesy of the autocue) emphasized that President Obama is “fulfilling a presidential campaign promise” but also highlighted the “discrepancy” between US & Iraqi numbers of civilian casualties. Obama good, Iraqi War bad. Both sides of the BBC narrative being pushed.

        The-latest-Davros-on-Dr-Who-fame-lookalike Hugh Sykes then propped up both sides of the narrative.

        Katie Connolly’s twitter pal Kim Ghattas did begin, as you say, by conceding a few points against Obama but  (as you also say) immediately swung back on board the narrative by also emphasing his success and those doubts about the Iraq War…

        The BBC never stops churning out its propaganda.

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        • Craig says:

          Kevin (not Katie) Connolly:

          Barack Obama made his promise to end combat operations in Iraq last year – the purpose of today’s speech was to remind America’s voters that he is keeping that promise.

          Obama Good.

          That’s a logistical feat on a staggering scale but the president was careful not to repeat the mistake of his predecessor George W Bush who famously declared that America’s mission in Iraq had been accomplished seven years ago – long before the violence and instability were ended.

          Obama good and Bush bad.
          http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10839342

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          • David Preiser (USA) says:

            Except Connolly is lying.  Bush did not declare “mission accomplished”. That was a banner put up by some over-enthusiastic sailors.  An ill-advised photo op, yes, but not actually what Connolly claims it was.  In any case, that mission was the removal of Sadaam, full stop.

            I guess the US has now won three wars in Iraq!

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  10. David Preiser (USA) says:

    BBC News Channel giving a free, unlimited platform to some activist asking for money to be sent to Nigeria for hunger relief.  The BBC shows the usual photos of emaciated people and animals, all dust and skeletons.  “This is drought,” Emily Maitlis intones dramatically, posing in profile with chin resting on hand, always acutely aware of her camera angles.

    “There just isn’t enough aid going in,” says the activist.  She allows that there was a military coup recently, but they’re on side with asking for international aid.  What a shock.

    “Thanks for explaining that all so clearly to us,” says Emily in closing.

    A 100% charity appeal, in place of news.  For this they want to put the license fee up?

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  11. David Preiser (USA) says:

    So while the US President does everything possible to harm small businesses and reduce the US economy so it will become state-controlled, the leader of Cuba is removing some shackles of the state to encourage the development of small businesses in order to help the economy grow.  
     
    Do I laugh or cry?  Where is the BBC’s astute analysis?  The inset is not so much an analysis as it is a summary of the report.

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  12. Umbongo says:

    Meanwhile – while reading Craig’s comments with admiration (why can’t the paper MSM find this stuff or, more to the point, why don’t they even bother?) – in another part of the BBC narrative, BBC1 London News last night at 10:30 pm constituted a public service announcement to Moslems everywhere (with the BBC-approved imprimatur of a imam from the East London Mosque – that home of tolerance and pacifism [or not according to according to Andrew Gilligan here http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewgilligan/100041386/east-london-mosque-normal-service-resumes/ ] not to stop taking medication just because it’s Ramadan.

    This isn’t news.  On the contrary it appears to be a deliberate part of an attempt to Islamise London by implying that what might be important to Moslems – and of supreme indifference to the rest of us – deserves valuable air-time even if it means that no local news of general interest is broadcast.  I’ve never seen a BBC warning to Jews not to stop taking medication on Yom Kippur or to Christians not to give up medication for Lent,  When is the BBC going to tell Jehovah’s Witnesses that, maybe, blood transfusions might be a good thing. 

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      It’s a senseless display, in that one could easily interpret this as evidence that most Mohammedans are so unbelievably backwards and fundamentalist in their beliefs that they don’t know this and need to be reminded.  Probably not what the BBC had in mind, though.  I gather it’s supposed to educate the white British public so you understand that Islam isn’t as barbaric as you all think it is.  Honor killings are still okay during Ramadan, although the BBC probably didn’t mention that.

      The Beeboids just can’t help themselves.

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  13. Martin says:

    Ah once again the beauty of cultural diversity in England today, the BBC will love this.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-10795681

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  14. Martin says:

    More bollocks from the BBC, this report on Barry’s statement about leaving Iraq is a joke. How can Obama declare anything? He opposed the war AND the surge which is mostly responsible for the drop in violence. Note in the BBC report the only mention Bush gets is the famous ‘Mission Acomplished’ story.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10839342

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  15. David Jones says:

    Guardian vote on the licence fee – http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/poll/2010/aug/02/bbc-tv-licence-fee-adam-smith-institute

    Only one third against. Come on let’s get that figure up!

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  16. Martin says:

    Another example of the beauty of diversity in England today, bet the girl was white and I think we all know what ‘religion’ this scum are.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-10844915

    Not that the BBC reports it.

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    • All Seeing Eye says:

      Curses, was just on my way here with that very link. Nice one Martin.

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    • It's all too much says:

      Correct me if I am wrong but hasn’t the BNP been stirring up racial hatred by making unfounded allegations that this discusting activity has been going on for some time in Manchester, Bolton and Halifax

      “She has been treated like a commodity: beaten, threatened and sexually exploited.”

      I wonder if these men have anything in common beyond their criminality?  Perhaps they are all Methodists

      “A vulnerable 14-year-old was sexually exploited by a series of men……………”

      Aftab Kha
      Abid Khaliq
      Noorzai Ahmed
      Mohammed Anwar Safi
      Mohammed Khan
      Najibullah Safi
      Asad Yousaf Hassa
      Mohammed Basharat
      Mohammed Atif

      Perhaps the BBC could do an undercover investigation to see if there is any truth in the ‘urban myths’ promulgated by the extreme right

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    • RCE says:

      You just beat me to it, too.  I live in the North West and this is not uncommon.  A lot of asian men see white girls as fair game.  Notice the low-profile location of the link – of course, if these scumbags were white it would be the lead article… But could you imagine if they were white and the girl asian?

      I should add that that in a just world they would be hanged in the street irrespective of their background (as opposed to getting such utterly pathetic sentences).

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    • Buggy says:

      Can’t see a lot of the much-vaunted “diversity” in the mug shots there. Obviously racial quotas don’t apply in certain businesses.

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    • Millie Tant says:

      Why does this type of crime not count as racist if it is perpetrated by “Asians” against English girls? After all, the law says a crime is racist if someone thinks it is. Lots of people, including me, think it is. Ergo it is racist. Yet it is not reported by our wonderful media, including the Beeboid corporation as such. Could it be that the BBC is remiss or is it that our wonderful justice system doesn’t recognise it as such?

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    • Terminal says:

      Look at the headline and how it is written to omit all mention of the abusers:
      Girl, 14, forced to be prostitute in Greater Manchester

      Headline should read:
      Manchester Muslims imprisoned for child sexual abuse


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  17. Cassandra King says:

    You can imagine the BBC reaction if the girl was muslim and the offenders were Christian or Jews, the rage mobs and violence and BBC coverage would be wall to wall day and night, no expense spared furious anger.

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    • Martin says:

      Cassandra it would be the top story on the BBC for weeks.

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    • RCE says:

      … Live broadcasts from outside the victim’s house, interviews with relatives and ‘community leaders’, in-studio analysis, the subject of phone-ins and talk-shows…

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  18. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Here’s another group of right-wingnuts who hate the fact that a black man is President doing another one of those incitement-to-violence Tea Parties:

    Tea party group to organize in Wounded Knee

    The Tatanka Oyate Tea Party will hold an organization meeting focusing on traditional Lakota rights and Second Amendment freedoms from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, Aug. 6, at the Fire Lightning Tiyospaye Building in Wounded Knee.

    A feed will follow at 6 p.m.

    Organizers Karmelita Plains Bull Rowland and Garry Rowland said the meeting will emphasize the importance of honoring the traditional tiyospaye form of government and preserving the Second Amendment on the reservation.

    What is it with these crazy ‘mehricuns and their guns?

    Wounded Knee and Pine Ridge have some serious historical signifance regarding the rights of the native tribal peoples in the US.  It was the last real armed uprising against the white government.  It’s no accident they’re staging an event there.

    In addition to the gun rights and strenghtening of local government (which is what they mean by preserving the tiyospaye form), they will also focus on fiscal responsibility in local government.  Sounds like a Tea Party protest to me.  This is the kind of thing the BBC doesn’t want you to know about, because it hurts the Narrative that Tea Parties are only extreme right-wing white racists and fringe elements who hate the President.

    Instead of this stuff, they send a crew to traipse around the country doing a propaganda piece about immigration, in order to create the desired impression in your minds.

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  19. David Preiser (USA) says:

    We all know that the BBC is not happy about the Pope’s upcoming visit to the UK.  For further proof, now they have an article on the website fretting about Pope merchandise.  They list items and prices, including a Swarovski thingy.  Oh, the humanity.  I suppose this is expected to elicit cries of astonishment, but does anyone except serious Catholic-haters actually care?  
     
    The Beeboids only made this report so they could juxtapose the evil money that will be earned against the cost to the taxpayer for the visit.  Another attempt by the BBC to whip up anti-Papal sentiment.  
     
    (Yeah, yeah, DG Mark Thompson is a Catholic. But how many hardcore Catholics who feel deeply connected to the Church marry Jews?)  
     
    Funny I don’t remember the BBC ever giving a damn about the cost to the taxpayer whenever their favorite exiled feudal lord, the Dalai Lama, comes to visit.  And the stupid Beeboids are probably the first in line to buy Tibetan-themed merchandise.  
     
    Some religious leaders are beloved by the BBC, and some aren’t.  And their reporting openly reflects their personal feelings.

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    • Millie Tant says:

      Good find (although I don’t suppose this article was hidden away in some obscure corner of the website under a heading like Berkshire. šŸ™‚ ) 

      Any excuse will do for a Beeboid to have a go at the Catholic church. Beeboids don’t ever seem to have pointed articles aimed at certain other religions.   šŸ˜‰

      Tsk, tsk. Look at the T shirt with a picture of the Pope and look at the price of it!  Notice how prices for all the individual items of merchandise are diligently quoted. So informative, the BBC.

      However, having looked at the linked article, I noticed a couple of sly tricks.

      One of these is the old “could” trick: “In July, the government said the cost to taxpayers of the Pope’s visit could rise to £12m, up to £4m higher than previous figures. The trip will also cost the Catholic Church £7m.”

      The message is clear: it is possibly going to be worse than we, in the role of earnest truth teller and saviour of the populace from Popes, told you before.

      But Beeboid trickery gets worse with the caption to the photograph: “The Pope’s visit is expected to cost taxpayers up to £12m, with the Catholic Church also contributing”.

      Two things about that caption: the speculative  “finger in the air” sense of “could” has now been upgraded to “is expected to”. Even worse, though, is how the caption omits the figure of £7m that the Church is contributing.  The BBC is suddenly not so eager to inform.

      So casual viewers of the article, without reading to the last paragraph of the text, would not see the £7m figure but the photos and captions might catch their eye, and if so, could (!) be left with the distinct impression that the public is paying a large sum (at a time of national austerity) while the Church is merely contributing some unspecified amount which isn’t even worth specifying. So it can’t be substantial, can it?

      Job done, beeboid style.

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  20. Craig says:

    A tiny piece in the jigsaw this one but…

    Katty Kay (Matt Frei’s partner-in-crime over at BBC America) began tweeting on June 2nd 2009 and stopped tweeting on July 3rd 2009 (tweeting just 25 times in total).
    http://twitter.com/KattyKayBBC

    In that short space of time she tweeted:

    obama on father’s day urges dads to step up. he’s right. but moms can help by allowing them to and letting go.
    3:59 PM Jun 19th, 2009 via mobile web

    Listening to Obama’s speech. Really good. He doesn’t try to duck complexities of region. Now back to womenomics!
    5:25 AM Jun 4th, 2009 via web

    Her last-ever tweet was:

    how wierd was palin?
    2:47 PM Jul 3rd, 2009 via mobile web
    (How weird was Katty Kay’s spelling?)

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      How nice that Katty used her BBC Twitter account to promote her book.

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    • Millie Tant says:

      We don’t know whether she meant “wired” or “weird”. šŸ˜€  Gawd, look what our education system is producing!

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  21. David Preiser (USA) says:

    BBC still lying about the “mosque” being planned near Ground Zero in New York City.

    Attempt to block ‘Ground Zero mosque’ fails

    At least the BBC is no longer censoring the name of the project:  “Cordoba House” cultural center.

    However, opponents are not objected merely to the idea of a mosque near the site of a mass murder perpretrated in the name of Islam.  Opponents are really unhappy about the name – Cordoba – and the fact that this is intended to be a Mohammedan cultural center, celebrating Islam and promoting it.  That’s a hell of a lot more than a mere house of worship.  Yet the BBC continues to sanitize that fact and play it down.

    What the BBC doesn’t want you to know about Cordoba is that it was the seat of Muslim power after they conquered Iberia.  In short, it’s a victory mosque. The name has historical significance, and the BBC is trying to hide that from you.  They know what it means, but have censored that information so you go along with the approved thoughts they want you to have.

    What the BBC also hides from you is the fact that the wife of the imam behind the project and partner in the project is the executive director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement.  Not an interfaith outreach group, I think.

    To counter all the protests, the Muslims in charge of this are telling everyone that they’ll consider putting in an interfaith chapel and a memorial to the victims of 9/11.  It will be at most one little corner of the victory mosque.

       1 likes

  22. Craig says:

    Neil Kinnock’s son in major tax scandal!!!

    That’s not how the BBC puts it on its Europe page. It chooses the far more boring headline Tax furore rocks Danish politics, which isn’t much of a temptation to click on the link and investigate!! I only checked because I’ve been on the look-out to see how the BBC covered this very interesting tale of dodgy Kinnocks, which has been knocking around for weeks!!!
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world/europe

    The headline when you click on the link is Danish politics rocked over Kinnock tax status. Now that’s more like it!!

    There has been no link to this on the BBC website’s Home page nor on its World page. You’d think they were trying to bury it in Berkshire again!!

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  23. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Robert Peston has been all over the News Channel all day, both in the studio at different times (not repeated – different live segments) as well as a video report, talking about how Northern Rock has good news and bad news.

    It’s all very cute how he spins it as a tale of the “good bank” sadly taking a loss whilst the “bad bank” (the one with the dodgy mortgages) actually made a profit.  The problem is that the shareholders get @#$%ed because when Gordon Brown took it over, he left them with the “good”, deposit-based bank, which – duh! – doesn’t have the revenue stream of a commercial mortgage lending bank.

    Except Gordon Brown’s biographer keeps forgetting to tell you whose fault that is.  Mr. Brown’s name hasn’t passed his lips all day long.  Is it on his blog?  Of course not.  Nasty bankers in one half made a profit, while the moms and pops and pensioners who make up the bulk of the shareholders of the other half get nothing.  Naturally the BBC is keeping quiet about that issue today, whereas they usually love to talk about how nasty bankers who ruined the economy are making profits while everyone else is soofering.

    But not when there’s Gordon Brown to protect.  Not to mention that Peston has to cover his own ass because it was his careless blogging which caused the Rock’s shares to plummet unnecessarily, which ultimately led to the fiasco he’s talking about today.  Sure, Peston is trumpeting the fact that Northern Rock is probably going to be profitable once again, and the Government might even be able to sell the half that it owns (at the taxpayers’ expense) at a profit.  Oh, yes, Peston made sure to repeat that earlier today as well.  But then he has his own reputation to protect as well as Mr. Brown’s.

    This all could have been handled differently from the start (i.e. like the US government did with TARP), but Peston’s big mouth and Mr. Brown’s incompetence led them down a different path.

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  24. David Preiser (USA) says:

    BBC News really is revealing its scientific ignorance and personal belief-system bias with all the noise they’re making about some milk from the offspring of cloned cows making it into the supermarket.  Even as they admit that all scientific evidence proves that not only milk but even meat from a cloned animal is totally safe (of course it would be, BBC. What the @#$% do you think “cloning” means?  And they’re not cloning diseased animals, FFS.), the Beeboids ask, “But is it still safe?”

    Every expert they have on says it’s a non-issue.  One of them even sounded surprised that anybody would even ask such a thing.  The BBC had some deranged activist on earlier today crying about the dangers and babbling something about free-range animals, but seem to have dropped her segment from subsequent news cycles.  Yet just now – again – the Beeboids are asking if the food supply is safe.  The reporting and further question from the female Beeboid in the studio is not being done from the perspective of educating the public to allay any fears, but from the misguided perspective that it might really be a problem and they need to know.

    They just don’t like the idea because it scares them.  BBC News is full of scientifically illiterate people (pace David Gregory, who really ought to be smacking his colleagues around over this) who base their opnions on their emotional reaction to things and not on reason or intelligent information.  So it’s just like evil old GM food to them.

    There’s no scientific reason why milk from the healthy offspring of a healthy cloned animal is going to be a problem.  It’s an absolute joke, a non-story, something totally made up by BBC News because they are as ignorant and frightened as a medieval peasant.  A news story created purely out of the personal biases of BBC News producers.

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  25. Grant says:

    I just, accidently, caught the tail-end of “Woman’s Hour “.

    “Tomorrow,  how will talking to the Taliban and the removal of allied troops affect Afghan women ?  And we talk to a 59-year old lesbian who is proud to call herself a dyke “.

    ( Didn’t say if the lesbian was an afghan ).

    But, really, the BBC, impossible to parody !

       0 likes

  26. Stanley Ukridge says:

    Must see to believe stuff:
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-10832722

    On a separate entry, have you heard of a certain Alan Hurt?
    He used to report the Beeb Panorama from the Middle East.
    Check out his webpage:http://www.alanhart.net/
    And now a video where Alan speaks about his views on 9/11.

    Only the names are changing there.

       0 likes

  27. David Preiser (USA) says:

    I cannot believe I’m hearing some animal rights wacko crying her red eyes out about the animal cruelty of cloning.  The Beeboid asked her what the cruel part of cloning is, and she started bawling about how many embryos don’t go to full term and are discarded!!  Where’s Justin Webb to tell this woman she’s unfit for public office because she thinks embryos have rights?

    Unf#$%ingbelieveable.  The BBC is giving a platform to somebody defending cow embryos, but would never do the same for human embryos.

    Yesterday I was laughing at the BBC for ignoring all the experts they had on who kept telling them that there are no safety issues with milk from offspring of cloned animals.  I noticed that by the end of the day, the BBC pretty much stopped bringing them in, and only repeated the segments with the fearmongers.  Now it seems the BBC has abandoned the idea of having on any opposing views altogether, in order to continue driving home the idea that everyone should object to the idea of milk from the offsrping of cloned animals.

    They’ve stepped up the ante this morning, dropping the actual story and transformed it completely into something else.  Instead of a story about possibly safety issues regarding milk from the offspring of cloned cows (note the milk doesn’t even come from cloned cows) into a story about possible cruelty to cow embryos and people not wanting to support a meat industry which engages in that process.  In other words, a story they manufactured to replace a previously manufactured story.

    I’ve got $100 that says this woman is pro-abortion, as are all the Beeboids behind this story.

       0 likes

  28. David Preiser (USA) says:

    More crap about the dangers of cloning cows, but I just had a laugh-out loud moment. 
     
    The Beeboids accidentally talked to somebody with a clue (Imagine that:  an ordinary dairy farmer being more knowledgable about this than the entire BBC News division), and he just got the female in the studio all freaked out by callng it a “scare story”.  Indeed it is, but the Beeboid is still stammering about proceeding with caution, we don’t know all the dangers, etc.  Now she’s moving the goal posts by whining about confusing rules. 
     
    What a joke.  Give it up, BBC.

       0 likes

  29. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Now the Livestock editor of Farmers’ Weekly is telling the BBC that this noise about the offspring of cloned cows is a “storm in a teacup”.  Once again the Beeboid in the studio asks if the rules might be too “confusing for famers who want to go down this route”, and the guy laughs in his face.

    Oh, and apparently it’s now meat from the offspring of cloned cows, not milk, that’s making the BBC cry doomsday.  Science?  Expert opinion?  Who gives a damn when that contradicts the Narrative for the day?  Probably time to trot out another hysterical animal rights activist.

    I suppose now the BBC is going to come up with a list of “cloning danger deniers” and never ask them on for an opinion ever again.

       0 likes

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