OPEN THREAD

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Well, here we are on ” Axe Wednesday” – when the doomsday cuts are announced by the Coalition and hyped by the BBC. Thought we could use this Open Thread to detail their outrageous coverage of it all…

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  1. George R says:
    October 21, 2010 at 5:23 pm

    If you criticise Islam, you’re sacked. (But INBBC prefers to stick to its pro-Islam Binyam Mohamed political campaign.)

    INBBC reports the sacking of an American journalist (PBS related) for making criticism of Muslims/ Islam, but INBBC doesn’t make the political connection to INBBC’s own hostile attitude to anyone who criticises Islam. (And we don’t have to mention INBBC’s sacking of Robert Kilroy-Silk.)

    BBC report:

    “NPR fires Juan Williams over Muslim remarks”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11600084

    A fuller report, with video, from ‘Washington Post’:

    “NPR fires Juan Williams over anti-Muslim remarks”

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/21/AR2010102101474_2.html?sid=ST2010102101990

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  2. John Anderson says:
    October 21, 2010 at 5:44 pm

    Juan Willaims is a decent guy – and his remarks were innocuous when taken in context.  Moreover in the same discussion on Fox he said it was essential to avoid bigotry,  to avoid unfair treatment of Muslims in America.

    He is a decent guy.

    Maybe the real reason he was canned is that his appearances as a liberal voice on Fox was resented by the NPR heirarchy.  They cannot get used to the idea that Fox welcomes debate with people like Williams – NPR, and all the other US networks mostly avoid open discussion,  they just stick to leftie ranting.  Like the BBC.

    Plus there will have been pressure from outfits like CAIR – fronting mostly for Muslim extremists.

    So who is the Islamophobe ?  Not Juan Williams, in my book.  Phobia means fear.  And it is the networks,  in the US and here, and the press,  who are truly running scared of Islam.  How many published the Mo cartoons ?  How many mount serious investigations into home-grown Islamic extremism ?   How many use weasel words like “militant”.   How many forbid any reralistic discussoion of the roots of Islam ?

    That is the real Islamophobia.   Liberal PC  wusses !

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  3. David Preiser (USA) says:
    October 21, 2010 at 7:00 pm

    A nice segment on Gerald Scarfe and his artwork and animation for Pink Floyd’s The Wall on the News Channel just now.

    No mention whatsoever of the recent problems of Roger Waters having to change some new animation which showed planes dropping bombs shaped like Dollar signs and Stars of David.

    Of course, they couldn’t include that in this segment, because the BBC has already censored all news of the incident from its broadcasting and website.

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  4. David Preiser (USA) says:
    October 21, 2010 at 9:29 pm

    Another day, another biased blog post from Mark Mardell.

    Who wants to be in the “stoopid party”?

    Guess who he’s talking about?

    There’s been much mockery of Delaware Republican candidate Christine O’Donnell for her lack of awareness that the concept of separation of church and state is fundamental to the American constitution.

    Are there any other Tea Party candidates in the entire country?

    In any case, Mardell’s bias – and failure – is right there.  In the very next sentence, he links to a JournoLista piece in Politico, which is full of insults and misses facts.

    Here’s what Mark Mardell doesn’t want you to know about what O’Donnell actually said:

    Coons said private and parochial schools are free to teach creationism but that “religious doctrine doesn’t belong in our public schools.”

    “Where in the Constitution is the separation of church and state?” O’Donnell asked him.

    When Coons responded that the First Amendment bars Congress from making laws respecting the establishment of religion, O’Donnell asked: “You’re telling me that’s in the First Amendment?”

    The First Amendment reads as follows:

    Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

    Nowhere does it say that various religious beliefs cannot be taught in state-run schools.  This is really about the government not creating an official state church, as in Britain.  The memory of state-run religious wars and persecution was pretty fresh in the minds of the Founding Fathers in the 1770s.  They weren’t thinking about an atheist curriculum in schools.

    He doesn’t know, because he gets his opinons on US issues from far-Left sources like Politico or his JournoLista contacts.  They all believe in the commonly accepted myth that the First Amendment forbids the teaching of any kind of religious notions in state-run schools.

    O’Donnell was simply saying that the First Amendment does not forbid what Coons says it did, nor what Mardell believes it does.  Mardell didn’t do his own homework: he simply regurgitated what his elite media friends told him.

    Once again a BBC employee gives you only one side of a story.  Mardell does it again at the end of his post where he refers to an article in the Left-leaning Washington Post describing the contemporary notion of the “elite” this way:

    the word “elite” has, in the US, become disconnected from its roots – as a description of a privileged class who inherit wealth and power – to mean people like Obama who have risen from ordinary backgrounds and become highly educated.

    This is incorrect.  The “elite” everyone is upset with are those in the ruling class – in both parties – who are detached from the thoughts, needs, ideals, and morals of the majority of the citizenry.  It’s not about education.  In reality, many of these elite are credentialled rather than actually educated.  They have a CV which ticks certain boxes, but their actual knowledge and sophistication is often sorely lacking.  Like Chris Coons, who can’t even name the freedoms actually protected in the First Amendment.  Mardell didn’t even know about that.

    Of course those who sense their power is in danger are going to claim an anti-intellectual movement is out to get them.  That’s not what’s going on here.

    The BBC employees hired to create a rapport for you with the US are dangerously uninformed and lack knowledge and understanding.  They have all the proper credentials to act as part of the ruling elite, but they are not properly educated.

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  5. David Preiser (USA) says:
    October 21, 2010 at 9:29 pm

    The same people who Mark Mardell claims are the educated elite  don’t even know when the Boston Tea Party took place.

    Sarah Palin does, and the whole Leftosphere had a good laugh at her expense, and ended up looking like complete fools: because they’re uneducated (all censored by the BBC).  Credentialled, but not educated.  Like a President who doesn’t know the difference between Sikhs and Muslims. Mardell thinks he’s made his appropriate gesture towards balance by allowing that most of the Tea Party people he meets have knuckles which don’t drag on the ground.  So why are the vast majority of his reports about the worst outliers, with almost zero time spent on articulate and intelligent candidates or supporters?

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    • John Anderson says:
      October 22, 2010 at 12:13 am

      David

      I was chatting to a Sikh tonight in my local.  He was appalled at Obama not going to Amritsar.  All you have to do is buy a cheap piece (souvenir) of cloth to cover the head,  you MUST tie a knot.

      The Sikh religion was born out of Hinduism as a fighting way to oppose the Mughal/Muslim invasion of India.  I would imagine Sikhs the worlds over will recognise what a bloody wimp Obama is.

      It is SO stupid – he always tries to avoid the Muslim tag, 

      Googling “Obama Amritsar” gives 350,000 results already.  That is – it is a big story, especially in the US  A total gaffe by Obama.  Here is a story of Oct 17 – the Sikhs in the US so pleased about a visit – before the White House cancelled.

      http://www.indiatalkies.com/2010/10/sikh-americans-agog-obamas-amritsar-trip.html

      A search for “Obama Amritsar” on the BBC website gives just one story, tucked away on the South Asia page.

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11600680

      “How to make friends and influence people”

      Cheers. Mardell and all the other BBC acolytes in the US for failing to report the news of yet another stupid decision by Obama.   It looks like an insult,  casual or not.

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      • David Preiser (USA) says:
        October 22, 2010 at 12:42 am

        Please tell the Sikh how embarrassed some of us are.  The President and his minions clearly don’t know the difference between Sikhs and Muslims, yet the Beeboids continue to praise Him as a superior being.

        I mean, they aren’t even using this as an excuse to bash the Tea Party people again.

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      • Martin says:
        October 22, 2010 at 7:57 am

        of course what doesn’t help Barry is he’s never seen going to church in the USA, which I believe is something unusual for most Presidents who like to make sure the cameras see them at church occasionally.

        At the end of the day Barry is a crap President because he hasn’t got a clue, he’s incompetent, it’s got bugger all to do with what god he prays to.

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      • Grant says:
        October 22, 2010 at 8:26 am

        Obama is an idiot.

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  6. George R says:
    October 21, 2010 at 10:45 pm

    NPR denies free speech on Islam, sacks Juan Williams, on day Soros donated $1.8 m to NPR:

    ‘Fox News’ hires him!

    (INBBC supports NPR, one ‘public service broadcaster’ to another.)

    “NPR fires Juan Williams: Fox News expands his role”

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/10/21/npr-fires-juan-williams-oreilly-appearance/

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    • Martin says:
      October 21, 2010 at 11:16 pm

      Yes nice of Fox News to take Williams on or expand his role. He’s a liberal and I disagree with much of what he says but he was treated very badly.

      funny that no one in the media seems to be using the race card here, I wonder why? Is he the wrong sort of black man?

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      • John Anderson says:
        October 22, 2010 at 12:47 am

        Martin

        Like you, I disagree with most of what Juan Williams says.  But he is so evidently a civil and decent man,  I’d have a beer with him anytime.   And he is a staunch civil rights guy,  educated and fairly erudite.  It is a total insult what NPR have done to him,  and is making a lot of Americans ask – “why are we funding by tax this leftie NPR outfit,  and PBS ?”

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  7. George R says:
    October 21, 2010 at 11:35 pm

    Supplementary:

    Note how the INBBC report on all this censors the following about Soros, NPR and ‘Huffington Post’, because INBBC is politically allied to all of them.

    INBBC censors:

    1.) that Soros donated $1.6m to NPR on day NPR sacked Williams;

    2.) that Soros has just donated (about)$1m to ‘Huffington Post’.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11600084

    In contrast:

    http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/46931/

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    • John Anderson says:
      October 22, 2010 at 12:58 am

      Soros gave bundles to Media Matters.  The US equivalent of those nutty folks at Medialens

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  8. George R says:
    October 22, 2010 at 12:23 am

    Bill O’Reilly, ‘Fox News’ NOW is electric in its condemnation of NPR, Soros, and their scandalous sacking and insults of Juan Williams.

    INBBC ears should be burning.


    (In UK, ‘Fox News’ is on Sky channel 509;

     Weekdays: Glenn Beck 8 pm UK time;

                            Bill O’Reilly 1 am UK time.

     Also extracts available at ‘Fox News’ website, and at Beck and O’Reilly sites.)

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  10. John Anderson says:
    October 22, 2010 at 1:10 am

    As Megyn Kelly says in the TV link at the foot of this link – the sacking of Juan Williams is causing a firestorm across all the US media.

    Thanks, Mardell,  and all the other US team, for keeping us informed. Not.

    http://hotair.com/archives/2010/10/21/megyn-kelly-to-cair-whats-your-problem-with-juan-williams/

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  11. John Anderson says:
    October 22, 2010 at 1:23 am

    The core of Williams’ remark was that he gets nervous when on a plane with Muslims dressed in Muslim garb.

    Not Muslims per se.  Muslims in suits, or casual attire.

    He meant Muslims in a Western country dressed as if they were in Pakistan.  Not in Western dress – but in a Western country.

    There is a mosque down the road from me.   Every Friday half the people walking past are dressed as if they were in Pakistan or Bangladesh.  I don’t mind the women dressed demurely.  But I worry about all the men – young, old,  dressed as peasants.

    That strikes me as failure to even start to assimilate. Wilfully separating themselves from the host community.

    But at the BBC,  all this will be seen as a quaint folk custom.

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  12. John Anderson says:
    October 22, 2010 at 1:59 am

    Sorry for the flurry of posts – but here is Juan Williams dumping on NPR :

    http://www.therightscoop.com/juan-williams-responds-to-npr-on-oreilly-factor

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  13. David Preiser (USA) says:
    October 22, 2010 at 2:24 am

    Juan Williams also said the following on Fox News in August, but did not get fired by NPR.  I would wager there wasn’t a single complaint:


    I think that this is a malevolent effort by people who are his critics to make him out to be the “other” in American life–that he’s not “really an American,” he’s some sort of Manchurian candidate. . . . I think it’s the same people who say, you know, “This guy’s a socialist.” I think it’s now about a third of Americans who–and overwhelmingly Republicans–who say he wasn’t born in the country. People who want to say that he favors whites over blacks [sic] in terms of what the Justice Department is doing with the New Black Panther Party, it’s about reparations for slavery. I think these are people who are uncomfortable with a black president, or uncomfortable with his policies. They don’t like Barack Obama.

    One thought is approved, the other isn’t.  Notice how the approved thought is exactly what the BBC has been telling you (except the bit about the Black Panther deal, which they’ve censored).

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  14. David Preiser (USA) says:
    October 22, 2010 at 2:33 am

    So reality has forced the BBC to report that the President ducked out of visiting a Sikh Temple for fear of someone thinking he’s a Muslim.

    There’s even a shocking criticism of His minions:


    Correspondents say that it had earlier been strongly hinted that Mr Obama would visit, and it appears the White House has not done its homework on the Golden Temple and the requirements and sensitivities associated with entering it.

    Officials at the temple said that although heads needed to be covered, a simple cap for Mr Obama would suffice.

    It’s amateur hour.  How embarrassing.  But of course the BBC has to shift blame as much as possible, and spends the last part of the article telling you about all those idiots who supposedly think He’s a Muslim.  As if that has anything do with the Sikhs.  The country learned after 9/11 that Sikhs aren’t Muslims after some moron killed a poor Sikh clerk at a convenience store or something because he didn’t know any better.  So there’s no excuse at all here.

    At no point does the BBC even try to point a sneering finger at the Tea Partiers or anyone else by pointing out that Sikhs aren’t Muslims.  That’s because they realize that the nuanced, finely-tuned brain of their beloved Obamessiah had no f@#%ing idea, and the amateurs who run the shop didn’t either.

    If it was Bush, etc.  Any bets this won’t even make the next installment of HIGNFY?  Any edgy comedians care to have a go next time you’re on the radio or Mock the Week or whatever?

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    • matthew rowe says:
      October 22, 2010 at 9:03 am

      Obeey and his minions are having a good go at trying to to play the
      ‘not looking too muslim’ bit! but to me this smacks on not offending muslims by going into the wrong temple !.

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  15. David Preiser (USA) says:
    October 22, 2010 at 2:41 am

    Speaking of amateur hour, check this out.

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  16. Guest Who says:
    October 22, 2010 at 5:35 am

    Meanwhile, back on consummate professionals who make Obama and crew seem like Joe Biden, we have future star live host and spontaneous grasper of issues, rubber spatula in the knife drawer, the fragrant Susannah Reid…. who, so far in 5 minutes has squinted her lovely eyes and wrinkled her pert little nose several times this morning to exclaim that she can’t read the autocue, coquettishly asking Charlie Stayt to deputise for her in the multi-hundred thousand pa role of reading long words (such as ‘…continuing our analysis…’ guessing more the views of a fat old bloke who did PPE in the 60’s at poly, then) out in a row.

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    • Buggy says:
      October 22, 2010 at 8:37 am

      As I pointed out the other day, the Reid-Bot’s circuits got frazzled by Melinda Gates going-off message when given an open goal to have a pop at the gov’t.

      The alleged fragrancy of her is acually the heady smell of WD40 and burning wiring.

      Maybe they can replace her withe the Roy Hattersley lump of lard…..

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  17. Guest Who says:
    October 22, 2010 at 7:59 am

    If the scale of of support for the current first comment is anything to go on (on a blog about Labour & Miliband E’s grasp of economics and realty in general), Mark, Helen, David etc have a bit of troubel brewing…

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/jeffrandall/8078864/Spending-Review-2010-Lets-remind-Ed-Miliband-where-the-deficit-came-from.html

    ‘It never occured to her, and the BBC reporter of course didn’t ask if she thought her standard of living might be too high. ‘

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  18. George R says:
    October 22, 2010 at 8:34 am

    BBC-NUJ: anti-Murdoch, pro-Soros.

    BBC-NUJ had two spots for criticism of Murdoch on ‘Today; one by its Business (and Political?) Editor, Mr. R. Peston.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9116000/9116694.stm

    And, of course, BBC-NUJ is predictably silent on the role of George Soros in financing NPR, Huffington Post, Media Matters, etc.

    It is necessary to turn to ‘Fox News’ and the Bill O’Reilly and to Glenn Beck for information on that. £ video clips:

    1.) O’Reilly on NPR, etc

    http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/oreilly/index.html

    2.) Bill O’Reilly with Juan Williams

    http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/oreilly/index.html#/v/4382210/juan-williams-speaks-out-about-npr-firing/?playlist_id=86923

    and:

    Beck on Soros funding of NPR, Huffington Post, Media Matters, etc.

    http://video.foxnews.com/v/4381950/bedford-falls-or-potterville

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  19. Guest Who says:
    October 22, 2010 at 8:35 am

    If ever there was proof there is a bubble…

    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyyoung/100060176/nick-robinson-blogger-of-the-year-thats-like-giving-obama-the-nobel-peace-prize/

    …and one overdue or bursting.

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