Seems a long time since Friday evening (!) and so I offer you a fresh platform to start the week. Any bias about do you think…..?
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- Solomon Grundy Nov 15, 12:50
Midweek 13th November 2024
George Osborne suggested this as chancellor in 2015. Since then, a number of LGPS’s have merged and it looks to… - MarkyMark Nov 15, 12:17
Midweek 13th November 2024
“You really couldn’t make this up. Just days before the 1,000 day anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we have… - JohnC Nov 15, 12:09
Midweek 13th November 2024
I agree because the UN is too valuable as a ‘meeting place for all Nations’ which otherwise would not exist.… - JohnC Nov 15, 12:07
Midweek 13th November 2024
Have you EVER heard of a ‘hate crime’ from a woman or a BAME against a white male ?. Me… - MarkyMark Nov 15, 12:00
Midweek 13th November 2024
HATE CRIMES …. https://youtu.be/myjEoDypUD8?si=yyYfR8sFEAG0_Yu2&t=37 - Eddy Booth Nov 15, 11:55
Midweek 13th November 2024
“Tyson slaps Paul during final face-off” https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/articles/cly03n4r1keo [img]https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/standard/800/cpsprodpb/5cae/live/a414d290-a2f5-11ef-b299-f9ebab4415b5.jpg.webp[/img] “Novice boxer Paul, 27, will take on 58-year-old Tyson at the AT&T… - MarkyMark Nov 15, 11:50
Midweek 13th November 2024
THE END …. IS SOON …. “Iran’s morality police, also known as the Guidance Patrol or Gasht-e Ershad, is a… - MarkyMark Nov 15, 11:48
Midweek 13th November 2024
Modern Britain … Shopkeepers say Edinburgh’s Royal Mile has become “lawless” with smash-and-grab thieves stealing thousands of pounds’ worth of… - popeye Nov 15, 11:47
Midweek 13th November 2024
Not just a Muslim editor. 20 years ago one Sunday morning on my way to golf I had on the…
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agw anti-American anti-conservative anti-Israel anti Israel. pro Palestinian Antisemitism BBC - sickeningly biased at all times. BBC agenda BBC bias bbc bias and balance. bbc bias by omission BBC censorship BBC Question Time BBC selectivity bias Biased BBC climate change dhimmis general thread immigration Islam israel Mark Mardell obama obama bias Obamalove open thread pro-labour pro-palestinian pro EU pro Hamas pro Islam pro Labour bias pro Obama PRO OBAMA AT ALL COSTS. pro Obama BBC agenda question time question time live Richard Black save gordon. USA politics US economy US News US politics US presidential elections
Off the topic of BBC bias, but on the topic of poor use of the license fee, I’m half-watching this “Big School Lottery” docu-soap on BBC 2 at the moment while I work on a video editing project of a Gospel concert. Even through the heavy and loud Gospel R&B music I’m working on, I can still hear that the BBC is recycling the incidental instrumental music they use on almost every single other docu-soap they do, from the various Great British Cooking Whatever series to the thing with that odd homosexual trying to browbeat children into performing choral music to Raymond Blanc’s “I’m Closing Your Restaurant” series. (I’m a fully-trained Classical musician, as well as having many years of experience in the recording industry, from the studio to retail work, so am programmed to notice this sort of thing.)
I also have personal experience in dealing with BBC Music and the ins and outs of UK musicians’ union obstacles regarding cost, so understand – up to a point – the expense required to compose and record original music for the endless stream of docu-soaps the BBC rolls out. But it really does make me notice just how thinly spread actual intelligent talent is at the BBC.
Obviously I understand that nobody notices this stuff. But there is a proven psychological effect of music, and I wonder just how much this constant recycling contributes to the re-inforcement of a familiar comfort zone between the viewer and Aunty Beeb.
Sure, I can grasp the fact that this is more a symptom of budget needs than of any hidden Orwellian agenda. But it does add to the impression that there’s a certain kind of feeling, atmosphere, subconcious impression the Beeboids like to create. Also, it brings up questions about priorities in the use of the license fee, which is the reason I’m even talking about this here. By this I meant that they could budget some money to create original music much more often, especially in this day and age of high-end computer software and hardware which allows one person to crank out the ditigal equivalent what it used to take 100 people to create. And most people wouldn’t even notice the difference. Obviously this brings up questions of priorities at the BBC.
It’s very, very consistent, even though these things are done by many different producers. Only when things go into post-production and under the supervision of the same old Beeboid insiders do these familiar elements get put in.
Perhaps it’s just me, but it does feel like I’m seeing the same Narrative over and over again, only with slightly different settings and players. Is it intentional? Coincidental? A combination? Maybe it’s just Groupthink, and all these BBC producers and editors think the same way and have the exact same tastes.
Damn, just as I finish making a comment on a topic other than the usual BBC bias about this “Big School Lottery” show, they shove the bias right down my throat. Did your offspring get into the top school after these exams? If they did, you and your child should feel “lucky” and “privileged”. Nothing to do with merit, then. Come see the bias inherent in the system. Anyone who doesn’t get in is “gooted” and generally demoralized, which is WRONG. Because the system does not create equality of outcome for all, it’s no good, and you should feel bad about it. Forget about merit again.
And this message is subliminally re-inforced by the same, comforting incidental music you hear in non-political docu-soaps about cooking and other light entertainment challenges.
I’m turning it all off before I get too angry to focus on the work I’m supposed to be doing.
Is this a good time to remind Justin Webb that his Obamaness has retained extraoridinary rendition and that he has blocked a court case with direct implications for BBC favourite Binyam Mohammed? A little like like George Bush really – minus the BBC vitriol.
So the BBC can’t find the time to report on the woman in Iran about to be murdered in the good old Islamic way but it does find the time to headline some tiny Church in the USA that wants to burn some Korans.
Somewhere, several Beeboids’ heads just exploded.
Fidel to Ahmadinejad: ‘Stop Slandering the Jews’
Over the course of this first, five-hour discussion, Castro repeatedly returned to his excoriation of anti-Semitism. He criticized Ahmadinejad for denying the Holocaust and explained why the Iranian government would better serve the cause of peace by acknowledging the “unique” history of anti-Semitism and trying to understand why Israelis fear for their existence.
He began this discussion by describing his own, first encounters with anti-Semitism, as a small boy. “I remember when I was a boy – a long time ago – when I was five or six years old and I lived in the countryside,” he said, “and I remember Good Friday. What was the atmosphere a child breathed? `Be quiet, God is dead.’ God died every year between Thursday and Saturday of Holy Week, and it made a profound impression on everyone. What happened? They would say, `The Jews killed God.’ They blamed the Jews for killing God! Do you realize this?”
He went on, “Well, I didn’t know what a Jew was. I knew of a bird that was a called a ‘Jew,’ and so for me the Jews were those birds. These birds had big noses. I don’t even know why they were called that. That’s what I remember. This is how ignorant the entire population was.”
He said the Iranian government should understand the consequences of theological anti-Semitism. “This went on for maybe two thousand years,” he said. “I don’t think anyone has been slandered more than the Jews. I would say much more than the Muslims. They have been slandered much more than the Muslims because they are blamed and slandered for everything. No one blames the Muslims for anything.” The Iranian government should understand that the Jews “were expelled from their land, persecuted and mistreated all over the world, as the ones who killed God. In my judgment here’s what happened to them: Reverse selection. What’s reverse selection? Over 2,000 years they were subjected to terrible persecution and then to the pogroms. One might have assumed that they would have disappeared; I think their culture and religion kept them together as a nation.” He continued: “The Jews have lived an existence that is much harder than ours. There is nothing that compares to the Holocaust.” I asked him if he would tell Ahmadinejad what he was telling me. “I am saying this so you can communicate it,” he answered.
I would love to be a fly on the wall during a BBC News editorial meeting about this one. Can’t wait to see what they do with this.
It really will be very interesting to see if they report it. It’s a bit of a test case really. And if they do, how will they spin it?
They’ve lovingly covered almost everything Castro has said and done since his public re-emergence in July, including interviews and both of his major speeches.
The only thing they ‘forgot’ to report were his loony comments about Osama Bin Laden being a CIA agent used by Bush (which most other news sources reported)!!
As this interview is by an influential writer in The Atlantic and is already taking off as a story on the American blogs (from Salon to Townhall), and is now being reported by the Guardian , the BBC will soon know about it.
They reported Hugo Chavez’s support for Ahmadinejad so they should now report Castro’s condemnation of Ahmadinejad. Not even the BBC can avoid reporting this, surely?
Craig,
Oh yes they can !
So the BBC did copy and paste this into their webiste during the wee hours. Score one point for them, then. But they lose that point because of course they had to censor the part where their darling Castro says to stop blaming the Jews for everything and that they get a harder time than Muslims. Instead, they spent nearly as much time trying to scare everybody about somebody starting a nuclear war. Hopefully, that distracted enough people from taking too much pity on the Jews. The Beeboids just can’t help themselves.
I can just imagine the crestfallen faces around the table when the Beeboids read this and tried to figure out how to handle it. I wonder if Castro has now fallen off the pedestal they put him on?
Now I consider myself to be somewhat dim and slow, I cast around around in the murky darkness of my own ignorance and its frustrating to say the least!
Now my opinions of my own mental capabilities are a little harsh but even I know the questions to ask of Mark Thompson that would reveal his ignorance and appalling bias and double standards.
The simple questions are:
You claim the BBC has an honourable tradition of right wing journalism so name the five most senior right wing on air journalists, not centrists or apolitical journalists but the five most right wing senior on air journalists.
He will not answer because he cannot answer!
OK Mark you cannot answer the first question so here is the second:
Name the five most senior right wing editors at the BBC, not apolitical or centrists but real right wingers.
He will not answer because he cannot answer!
OK Mark the first two may have been a little hard but here is an easy question:
Name the last five right wing programme makers who have contributed shows/films/investigations/documentaries/dramas/historical progammes or in fact any BBC production.
One last question Mark:
Name five right wing members of the BBC trust.
None of those questions will be answered, Thompson would waffle and dissemble and stutter but he would not give a straight honest reply to them because it would expose the BBC for the lying cheats they truly are.
Now what hurts my sense of fair play is that Thompson will not give interviews to the right wing, he prefers the cowards way of soft interviews by his friends. If I can think of questions that would show Thompson for the lying charlatan he is then why has nobody asked these simple questions?
The Archers : Update –
A few weeks ago mention was made here about the absence of lesbians in the fictional village of Ambridge.
Well worry no more !
After nearly 60 years of “normality” in the countryside it seems that the BBC has embarrassingly woken up to the fact it hadn’t ticked that particular PC Box.
So much so they ran the story line this week through two episodes, just in case the hard of hearing missed it the first time around no doubt.
So much for me being cynical about the BBC not reading this site, and my amazement that they may have actually REACTED.
John,
Please don’t give them any other ideas !
Grant,
I wont, but I have to say that I was rather keen on feeding them the idea of the DG of the BBC taking his own life with one of his favourite sheep in the middle of the Bull Inn.
University Challenge – Jeremy Sneerer in one of his questions used the term BCE rather than BC to refer to a date.
The Hopey-Changies at the BBC never miss the chance to show their ‘right-on-ness’ do they.
They must cry salt tears that there isn’t a BM(PBUH) and an AM(PBUH) they can use. Perhaps some of the droids that lurk on here could suggest it in a letter to the Ariel.
(Credit your source though- it would only be right)
As has been covered here before Thompson ensure that the BBC does attack the Government, but only ever from the left, we saw this when Liebour were in power, the BBC would wheel out hard core lefties to attack Liebour for not being ‘Socialist’ enough.
More evidence that the Tories are mongs. OK so Clegg did PMQ’s and the Socialists just went on and on about Coulson, YET not once did Clegg attack Liebour for the mes over the back TAX!!!!!
Now I’m listening to Liebour twats trying to blame the Tories for this mess!!!
Peston was on the BBC World rolling news program earlier, taking an inordinate amount of time to say nothing very consequential about BP’s report of its investigation into the oil spill
That’s because Peston is a twat and the report is a ‘technical’ report and requires an IQ bigger than Peston’s shoe size to understand it correctly
Don’t expect mong boy Harratwat to understand it either. Susan Watts is probably the only one at the BBC who does.
Anyway the BBC doesn’t care, it’s all the fault of ‘big oil’ and ‘Boosh’
His City contacts are mostly yawning over this, so Peston has nothing to contribute today. He’d much rather be bashing bankers.
Deep sea drilling – it’s like making a curryaccording to Peston.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2010/09/bp_stands_for_blame_placing.html
Quite astonishing.
And still no mention whatsoever at the BBC that The Obamessiah’s very political banning of offshore drilling has cost the country at least 27,000 much-needed job for this devastated region.
EU Referendum Campaign – http://eureferendumcampaign.com/EU_Referendum_Campaign.html
I wonder what Richard North thinks of the name! Anyway you can sign the pledge on this site.
He’s unimpressed!
So the BBC is so concerned about a handful of losers wanting to burn a Koran on Saturday that they have to mention the “international condemnation” at the top of the hour, and in every recap segment? How about making it a big news story when European politicians make classic anti-semitic statements? Oh, wait, the BBC censors that news because it doesn’t help the rapport with Europe they want to create for you.
Perhaps if the BBC (and others) ignored it there would be less likelihood of certain communities, peace be upon them, to over-react.
Agreed 100%!
Yes apparently the Koran burning (I might burn a copy as well) puts the lives of soldiers at risk in Afghanistan.
NO F**KING SHIT! So have I missed something? Haven’t the mad rag heads been murdering and torturing in the name of their dickhead god for centuries?
How does book burning make it worse? The rag heads are already barking mad, had can it make them even madder?
I don’t remember the BBC making such a big deal out of Newsweek’s fake story about throwing a Koran down the toilet, a story which really did lead to violent protests by loads of Mohammedans. Newsweek actually did put soldiers’ lives in danger simply because they wanted to score a political ant-this-war point against George Bush. But because the Beeboids agreed with their friends at Newsweek (where they found JournoList groupie Katie Connolly), they kept shtum.
Mark Mardell visits a jobs center in California and finds people smarter than he is.
At jobs centre, ambivalence about new stimulus
Mardell is looking to see what those who will – in his mind – benefit most from the President’s latest cunning plan to print money and throw it around. As Mardell revealed on the eve of the last EU elections back when he was BBC Europe editor, he sees Socialism as the solution the world’s economic ills. However, much to his surprise, he does not find fellow travelers at the jobs center.
Eric Thomas has been unemployed for nine months. He’s a welder who has retrained as a forklift truck driver.
He is ambivalent about the president’s plan. He thinks updating the rail lines is a good idea and might provide work for him, but he says he is against the idea of building for the sake of building and worries that any jobs created will not last very long. What happens then, he asks. What he wants is some stability and a permanent job.
Sound like Eric Thomas has a clue. Mardell, on the other hand, does not.
Talking to people in the centre is a reminder of how different America is to Britain. Mr Thomas’ unemployment benefit ran out some time ago, and he’s now living off his savings.
This might be the most accurate observation Mardell has ever made since being appointed BBC North America editor. Only he obviously thinks that Britain’s benefits culture is better, more humane.
A woman named Carol who is in her 50s tells us she has been out of work for six years and can live on her savings for another two before it will all be gone. She doesn’t know what she will do then and worries about becoming homeless.
Something tells me this woman’s problems are larger than the recent economic crisis and Depression we’ve entered. But never mind that, she’s perfect for Mardell to hold up as another victim of US cruelty, someone the President will save with His Other Other Stimulus Plan For Us (reminds me of the Piranha Brothers somehow). So Mardell gets back on track with the Narrative.
This centre itself has been helped by stimulus money, getting about $3m to boost its training staff. The cash will run out next year, but the manager says they need it more than ever.
Yep, these unemployed ingrates just don’t realize how important that next influx of printed money is.
She says the economy is picking up a little but more and more people are chasing the few jobs that do come up. People with college degrees are looking for two or three jobs so they can pay the mortgage.
So things are getting better, but then maybe they aren’t if people need a second job to make ends meet. But that doesn’t bother Mardell.
She would welcome more stimulus money but thinks it would be best spent on giving tax credits to employers who create new jobs.
So that’s another person with a clue.
Annie Birthistle has been searching for work for two years. She too relies on her savings, plus some money from her parents.
She is a health care worker who looks after older people in their own homes. She finds with the recession some families are tending to look after their elderly relatives themselves rather than pay for outside help. She seems vaguely in favour of spending to stimulate the economy, but, like Mr Thomas, is more concerned about the ends than the means.
That’s three people smarter than Mark Mardell now. Not so stupid and ignorant, are we, BBC? Time for the final Narrative strike:
I ask her what she would say to the president if she could talk to him.
“Just be more aware of the little people like us who are trying to do the best, to help us help the economy grow,” she says. “I don’t really have an answer, but just to be more aware of people like us.”
And there it is: It’s not about how the President’s actual policies are wrong – it’s about reassuring folks that the President hears them and feels their pain. That was Mardell’s intent with this piece. The President is really doing all the right things, and it’s just ingrates like these people who are harming the country’s confidence. The President doesn’t need to change policies, just make better speeches. Classic BBC.
And only today Justin Webb was telling us Obama had done pretty much everything he promised to do – LOL
I’ll be watching the vermin at the BBC covering the death of David Cameron’s dad. Expect the BBC vermin to make political points out of it. They can’t help themselves, the BBC will link it to Andy Coulson for sure.
“The BBC, we can’t but help being utter shits”
Is it really necessary for the BBC to get Matthew Somebody to come on and say that Cameron is going to play his father’s death for political advantage? Even if he immediately qualified that by saying Cameron’s emotion will be “genuine”. Very cold.
BBC News Channel devoting yet more air time to moaning about the Pope’s visit to Britain. Who invited him at the taxpayer’s expense, BBC? I forget. And the Beeboids want you to forget, as well.
daily_politics On the @daily_politics Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt praises BBC News and drama but also criticises BBC spending http://bbc.in/93UkPr
BBC News! Bless.
Guess the Tories don’t need every vote they can get.
Unless this is not quite an accurate representation of events (have yet to listen)
The BBC really needs to shut up about these morons wanting to burn the Koran on Saturday. This is only a story so the media can bash the opponents of the you-know-what being built you-know-where. This pastor is just a piss-ant, and now the BBC is trying to tell you that this act will cause a disaster in Afghanistan and possibly “endanger the mission itself”. Shut up! You’re just giving empowering these idiots and telling violent Mohammedans that they’re right to kill for this.
The BBC will play this for all it is worth regardless of the consequences. They just can’t help themselves,
In contrast the mass assaault on the white schoolboy at Wroughton School Swindon has at last been admitted to be a racist attack. The BBC seems most anxious to avoid all mention of this. There is some mention on radio Wiltshire but the report drips liberal equivocating and cannot resist mentioning white racism as a counterweight.
In contrast I am sure the BBC will concentrate on the white Christian book burner to the exclusion of all else- no moral equivallence about him. Link him to the Tea Party and any and every opposer of the 9/11 mosque if they can.
21st century liberalism is a disease which affects reason and judgement. The BBC has an epidemic of sufferers
Miraculously, the Swindon story is actually well up the page on Ceefax (as opposed to the usual Beeboid trick with news that makes them uncomfortable, i.e. putting it on the spinning ticker thing at the bottom).
Won’t give them much credit, though: they’ve put “racism” in quotes. And not mentioned that the victim of the attack is white.
I see the BBC are going all out flogging the koran burning down in the ole southern USA, boy them red necks are sure somthin aint they?
I wonder why the BBC would go wall to wall coverage on a tiny church with few followers? Could it be that the BBC sees a perfect opportunity to attack the right yet again, those red neck book burning fanatical religious nutters from the right wing consrvative right wing…did I mention the right wing? Because thats what they are you see and that is what the right wing are all about.
With the BBC you get all the opportunist attacks of a band of hyenas, news? er nope just opportunities to attack enemies and the obama machine is in trouble so if a book burning right wing red neck didnt exist they would have to make one up.
Have the misguided Koran-burners started shouting anything along the lines of, oh, I don’t know, “Death To The Infidel !” or “Behead Those Who Insult Holy Islam !”, yet ?
‘Cos that’d be intolerant, now, BBC, wouldn’t it ?
Speaking of intloerant, see this article by Stephen Glover in the Mail on the “liberals” going for the Pope. Dishonourable mentions for the BBC at the beginning of the article and specifically for the Today programme towards the end. It’s amusing to see the usual suspects getting into gear and working up a sweat in advance of his arrival. If only he knew it, Dawkins himself is one of the best illustrations of why we should defend the value of religion and morality.