Monthly Archives: August 2010

IS IT THE END OF THE WORLD YET?

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BBC has moved into hysterical mode concerning the alleged scale of the cuts to come across Government. Ten O’Clock News come into meltdown with apocalyptic visions of courts closing, meltdown all round. This is the beginning of the next election campaign and the comrades at the Beeb are out to help the Trade Unions by echoing the hyperbole and whipping up hysteria.

Also, I knew the BBC would be unhappy about the fact that some Councils are shutting down the speed-camera network and so it is that it shrills THIS story whilst studiously ignoring THIS story.

Finally, aren’t the people of Pakistan suffering enough without……gasp…Orla Guerin?

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Same Mistake

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Several websites, including B-BBC (open thread H/T Piggy Kosher) have mentioned the case of “The popular Tunisian singer Saleem Bakkoush” who has been forced to cancel what seems to have been a cherished long-awaited performance at a prestigious festival, all because his fellow Tunisians discovered he had once performed at a synagogue. Which is enough to render him persona non grata in Tunisia.
He’s not alone. Pity the poor Tunisian singer who chanted “Long Live Netanyahu!”

That would be because of the antisemitism by the way, in case you didn’t quite grasp that from the article by BBC World Service Middle East editor Magdi Abdelhadi.

This BBC person has previous. In response to a complaint in 2009 the BBC had to remind the middle east team of the need to explain this ‘situation’ clearly, should it arise again. Well, it has ariss.
This ‘situation’ as blogged by Notasheep, and here.
From a comment by ‘anonymous’ from the Point of No Return Blog:

“I emailed MAH last night to ask why his article was framed purely in terms of the anti-Israel, rather than also the anti-semitic, nature of the incident (..I also asked ) why he mentioned at the end that most Jews “left” the Arab world decades ago, since we both knew that most of them were forced out or fled for their lives.

Disappointingly, he responded to say that in the Arab world the two issues are conflated (which didn’t explain why he did the same); that you can’t talk in terms of European antisemitism in the Arab (…) and that while some Jews fled, others left and anyway, that wasn’t relevant to the article […]I found his response – particularly around the extent and nature of Arab antisemitism – deeply disappointing, given his role at the BBC and the previous censure from the BBC’s ECU following his report on the Refugee conference last year which ploughed basically the same furrow – life not so bad for Jews in the Arab world, no serious mention of antisemitism, all about Israel not Jews. “

“bataween” replies:

“It was indeed Magdi Abdelhadi who was censured by the BBC’s ECU for saying that Jews were ‘well integrated’ into Arab lands when historically they were constrained as dhimmis
Life Not Hunky Dory For Jews in Arab Countries It is clear as day that this instance of the singer being banned is driven by pure (Arab) antisemitism, as you rightly argue, Anon, but MAH continues to fudge and dodge the question.
Following the London Jewish Refugees conference in 2008, the BBC promised to do more on the subject, but we are still waiting. Meanwhile the articles on the Palestinian Nakba continue to pour forth from the BBC, without the slightest attempt at balance.”

An important article the BBC should read. The Nakba Obsession by Sol Stern

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New Blood

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Kiera Feldman, the BBC’s new recruit from left-wing activist radio, isn’t the only recent addition to the Corporation’s staff in America.

Matt Danzico began his job as a US BBC interactive journalist in April. His current job description:

Write, shoot, edit, and produce text and multimedia stories for the BBC News website. Conduct research and interviews with individuals on topics ranging from media and culture to science and technology.

Here are some of Danzico’s tweets (click image to enlarge):


Another April starter was Daniel Nasaw, online journalist for the BBC’s Washington bureau. Prior to taking up his new role Nasaw spent a couple of years reporting about America for The Guardian, whose worldview he still touts:


Here he is writing about a Newsweek cover which showed Sarah Palin in cycling shorts last November:

Let’s focus our attention not on her legs but on her far-right political ideology, her baseless attacks on Obama, her attacks on women’s reproductive rights and her effort to purge moderates from the Republican party.

Hmm, no agenda there then.

My message to the news media: We are under enough fire as it is. Don’t let’s make our job even harder by giving Palin and her millions of supporters a legitimate grievance.

Let’s see where that measures: Yes, quite.

Partisan reporting from the US? We ain’t seen nothing yet, apparently.

Update 19.45. In the comments Craig points out that another of the BBC’s April intake (so much for reining in spending) was former Newsweek political correspondent Katie Connolly (Twitter account here). Things may be bleak for journalists in America but at least left-wing hacks know that there’s always the chance of a job at the BBC where they can pursue their agendas protected from the horrors of the free market.

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MOSCOW MADNESS

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The eco-loons are at it again on the BBC: this time quoting that impartial body the WWF (aided an abetted by nutters from our own Met Office)as saying that the heat and smog in Moscow, as well as the cold in Siberia, the number of jellyifish seen this summer – not to mention a “large number of birds dropping dead in the skies” (to throw in the kitchen sink) – are all the result of global warming and a lack of a centralised plan by Russia to deal with it. Katia Moskvitch, who has form in terms of her reporting fantasies, has filed a story that reads more like a medieval end of the world diatribe than science. But as Richard North so deftly pointed out on Sunday, what’s going on in Russia is balanced by unseasonal cold in Siberia, and one of the coldest winters on record in the southern hemisphere. It used to be taught in elementary geography that weather is not climate – but not to the BBC; every weather event (selectively chosen, of course) is an opportunity to praise the zealots of WWF and spread the false mumbo-jumbo creed of AGW.

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WHAT FRAUD?

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Well, you can be certain that any attempt by the Coalition to cut back on the rampant Welfarism that has disfigured the UK so under Labour is going to met by BBC resistance.  Just after 8.10am on Today we had pro Labour Common Purpose loving Demos vs Chris Grayling, with the BBC as independent arbitrator! Demos were arguing for higher levels of benefit (with tougher conditionality, sure) and the BBC seemed intent to suggest that most Welfare fraud was done through error, as opposed to wilful and deliberate fraud. As time goes on, the BBC narrative is building into what will become the next Labour manifesto, one seamlessly morphing into the other.

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A LITTLE TROUBLE FOR OBAMA

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Kevin Connolly had a wonderful piece of veiled Obama worship here at 7.49am. Poor Obama – all that spending and it still isn’t enough. Don’t think Irwin Stelzer’s suggestion that the US needs to take the path to austerity went down too well!

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PAKISTANI AID…

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BBC news coverage of the Pakistani floods is saturating (!) the airwaves but I think even the BBC interviewer was surprised during this interview with a Bradford lady Anjum Tahirkheli who has set up a charity that involves sending cash to Pakistan to buy food from Pakistan that then goes to beleaguered Pakistanis, The question was posed if the food was already available in Pakistan why did it need money to go from the UK to have it distributed within Pakistan – a very poor answer was given and no follow up question was forthcoming.  Best not to delve too deep….

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NOT A RELIGIOUS BONE IN HER BODY

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The brutal murder by Islamic thugs in Afghanistan of humanitarian workers will have disgusted all civilised people. The UK media has naturally focused on Dr Karen Woo who was tragically included amongst those executed by the Taliban. The Taliban alleged these workers had been slaughtered for the unspeakable crime of spreading Christianity. The BBC seem intent to register the fact that Dr Woo was not a Christian and, as they broadcast earlier this morning “did not have a religious bone in her body.” It would not matter if Dr Woo, or any of her colleagues, had been dedicated evangelists 24/7, there is simply no excuse whatsoever for murdering these fine people and it would have been nice to see the BBC focus on the dark ages savagery that motivates the Taliban to carry out such an atrocity. Some may say it has a name – Islam. You can be sure the BBC side-steps that particular angle and instead plays up the secular card when in truth all that does is distract from the evil of the perpetrators of this violence. Dr Woo and her colleagues died because these savages hate Christianity. Why does the BBC avoid pursuing from whence such hatred comes?

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THE COALITION ISN’T WORKING!

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Had to laugh at the BBC’s promotion of the idea that the “economic recovery” (?) of the last six months is being put in peril by the wicked plans of the Coalition that the State sector should live within it’s means. Yes, the good work of Labour is being undone by nasty Mr Cameron. Economic realities are never mentioned – the crunch issue for the BBC is that the Conservatives are going to preside over rising unemployment and therefore all guns will be trained on them. Is it too late to bring back Ben Elton? The BBC appears unaware or disinterested in the simple fact that Labour allowed the State sector to grow to unaffordable and elephantine proportions and corrective action is both timely and necessary. The narrative is going to be simple one – Voting Conservative costs jobs and the BBC will be the fore in assiduously promoting this in the time ahead.

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MAGGIE THATCHER, MILK SNATCHER!

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Oh what a dream start to the new week for the BBC. They instantly move in to exploit Cameron’s slap down of the idea that subsidised milk for under 5’s could be scrapped. There was an item here on it and then how do they start the 8.10am prime time slot – by Mr Humphyrs intoning “Maggie Thatcher – Milk Snatcher, catchy slogan”. The “nasty party” inferences were present and correct and then the conversation meandered to the need for “more State involvement” in the Nation’s health, brought up by John Humphyrs. This was an example of the interviewer using his opinions to lead the debate, thoroughly unprofessional but typical. I also note that Humphrys let Professor Ian Gilmore away with the unsubstantiated claim that the smoking ban had reduced heart attacks by 10%.  

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