Monthly Archives: October 2010

REVOLTING JOURNALISTS…(REAPING THE WHIRLWIND)

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Many moons ago, I used to be a BBC FoC. That is, I was father of the chapel (shop steward) of the National Union of Journalists BBC information division branch. There were even in those distant days at least 70 people working in BBC spin (the total last time I counted was almost treble that), but I thus know from personal experience that we were a militant, left-wing, revolting lot. Nothing, I can safely surmise, has probably changed; and now the whole of the BBC NUJ has voted to go on strike over their pensions. Hurrah! That means that we will have four days totally free of BBC bias. But more seriously, there’s a big issue at stake here.

I reported some time ago that the BBC £8.2bn pension fund was run on an “ethical” (code for climate change/greenie fanatic)basis by Peter Dunscombe, who was also then chairman of the Institutional Investment Group on Climate Change(IIGCC). This has the following goals:

The IIGCC Investor Statement on Climate change was launched in October 2006. Asset owners and asset managers who signed the Statement committed to increasing their focus on climate change in their own processes and in their engagement with companies and governments.

Analysis of the BBC fund investment portfolio suggested a heavy emphasis on such “ethical” investments. Of course, BBC journalists no doubt supported this strategy; after all they are, collectively and individually, world leaders in disseminating greenie propaganda. So there’s a delicious irony in this strike. The BBC journalists all no doubt wanted a green investment strategy, and now they have got it. I can’t say with certainty that that’s the reason for the cutbacks that are now underway – I’m not a pensions actuary – but recent reports suggest that such investments don’t yield all that’s expected of them (to put it mildly). As the consequences and the truth hit home, and cut backs have to be made, the BBC propagandists, sorry, I mean journalists, are yelping with pain. My heart bleeds.

Update: The BBC boys and the girls in the NUJ who are worried about their pensions might benefit from a perusal of the latest Pension Fund accounts from 2008. They reveal that on top of the Peter Dunscombe connection to eckowackery, the trustees have put their faith in future investment strategy on an international investment outfit called Hermes EOS. Surprise, surprise, their reasoning is that this will effect:

environmentally responsible investing and to encourage these practices in the course of engagements

And guess what underpins their efforts? Why, it’s the UN’s “Principles for Responsible Investment”. What does this mean? Have a look here. The principles are outlined in publications such as “Launch of CEO Briefing: ‘Demystifying Materiality: Hardwiring biodiversity and ecosystem services into finance'”. In other words, its green fanaticism cloaked in UN verbiage, but meaning that they are all part of the same warmist/biodiversity religious fervour.

As you sow, so shall you reap.

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Partiality Genes?

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It must be true because scientists say so:

People with left wing views may have their political opinions controlled by a “liberal gene”

BBC US correspondent Katie Connolly is concerned:

Don’t worry Katie, we don’t need genetic tests to get to the essence of liberal bias at the BBC – we have Twitter.

In other news, the mythical BBC “impartiality gene” still eludes discovery.

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Question Time LiveBlog 28th October 2010

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Question Time tonight comes from Glasgow; twinned with Havana and a Conservative-free zone since 1982. In 2006, 29.4% of the population were on the dole and it has the lowest life expectancy of any UK city.

On the panel tonight we have Ed Davey, Nicola Sturgeon Murrell, Chris “Y-Fronts” Bryant, Hugh Hendry and Simon Schama. It’s also David Dimbleby‘s 72nd birthday.

For those playing the Buzzword Bingo, we’ll be using the Congratulations Rules so any links to people with special days today score bonus points. Double points for Iranian Threat (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad…happy 54th!), Tax The Rich (Bill Gates is 53), Gap Between Rich And Poor (Princess Sophie of Liechtenstein turns 43), Political Donations (Bernie Ecclestone is 80) and that annoying socialist whine Selling The Family Silver (Canaletto would be 313 today).

The LiveBlog will also cover the awful This Week, with Andrew Neil. According to the BBC published schedule only Michael Portillo is confirmed, so speculation as to the identity of the balancing socialist windbag is welcome.

David Vance, TheEye and David Mosque will be manning the barricades here from 10:30pm.

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BRUSSELS PORK PIES

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Very few people, apart from Richard North, admirably summing up the position here, understand the extent to which we are actually now ruled by Brussels, and how powerless we are to stop anything emanating from it. The reality is that David Cameron and the rest of his useless party, by saying that they want to be “in Europe but not run by it”, are guilty of disseminating a great big porky pie: truth is you are either in or out. And if you are in, then you do as you are told. No if or buts. Resistance is fruitless, you cannot opt out of budget increases, much as you might huff and puff and gesitculate, or make useless phone calls.

I have been a minor part of a campaign for years for the BBC to report this whole sorry saga properly, but everything that Global Britain has pointed out in reports like these has fallen on deaf ears. The sorry truth is that the BBC is an integral part of the EU project and it has repeatedly failed in its intrinsic duty to tell the British people about the awful, octopus, fascist nature of what is going on. And so the tradition continues today. In the report, they convey the semblance of brinkmanship and robustness on the part of the Cleggerons when in reality the government is powerless to resist. They spinelessly pass on vapid hot air from Labour suggesting that something can be done to avoid the £900m increase when it was Tony Blair’s budget cave-in in 2006 that made what is happening today inevitable. How short are the BBC’s memories and how limited is its ambition to carry out proper journalistic research and checks? And finally, Nick Robinson, the supposed political expert at the BBC, says that the meeting involved is a “summit”. He should damn-well know it’s not and to say it is both inaccurate and deliberately disingenuous. His innaccuracy sums up the poorness of the BBC’s journalism. The charade our leader is involved in is a rubber-stamp exercise and Mr Robinson should be saying so. He – and his colleagues – should also be talking to the Richard Norths of this world so that they can convey accurately what is actually going on. But they never do…

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OBAMESSIAH MEETS SAINT JON

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Online reports so far from the BBC:

Obama tells Daily Show more time needed for reforms
Obama appeals to voters on satirical TV show The Daily Show
Obama’s mid-term election pitch on US television network
Cagey Barack Obama spars with Daily Show’s Jon Stewart
‘Yes we can… but’ says Obama

(If you spot any more add them in the comments)

UPDATE 5pm. If you were thinking that what the BBC’s midterm election coverage really needs is Billy Bragg taking cheap shots at Christine O’Donnell then worry no longer – BBC World News America has made it happen. No agenda though. Impartiality is in their genes.

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SPENDING REVIEW

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If you’re getting your information about the US midterms only from the BBC you are no doubt aware that Republicans are outspending the Democrats by millions of dollars. Yesterday’s report by Katty Kay on campaign funding focused almost entirely on Republican spending (there’s a very brief mention about union support for Democrats, but the thrust of the piece is clear – Republicans and their supporters are trying to buy the election. See short version here, longer version here). When Matt Frei blogged about the subject he name-checked only Republican candidates.

Hang on though, what’s this? Politico, 26 October:

To hear top Democrats tell it, the party is being wildly outgunned this year in the fight for campaign cash as Republicans rely on outside groups to funnel money to GOP contenders.

But the numbers tell a different story.

It’s true that conservative third-party groups are outspending their Democratic rivals. But the Democrats still have a sizable cash advantage in their party committees – making this year’s elections a lot more of a fair fight than Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi let on.

And this? New York Times, 26 October:

Lost in all of the attention paid to the heavy spending by Republican-oriented independent groups in this year’s midterm elections is that Democratic candidates have generally wielded a significant head-to-head financial advantage over their Republican opponents in individual competitive races.

The Times article also points out that Democrat-supporting third party groups have now begun splashing the cash around big-time:

Last week, for example, [America’s Families First Action Fund] spent $362,000 on a television ad attacking Steve Southerland, the Republican challenger to Representative Allen Boyd, Democrat of Florida.

None of this fits the BBC’s narrative, therefore it is ignored. They’re not going to let the facts get in the way of their relentless anti-Republican propaganda.

Update. Check out Matt Frei’s chat with Jimmy Carter. Not a single assertion by Carter is challenged. It’s like one of those obsequious 1950s political interviews (“Is there anything you’d like to say to the British people, Minister?”). Pathetic.

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ECONOMIC SUICIDE…

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North Sea oil and gas transformed the economic fortunes of the UK from the grim days of the 1970s and underpinned our re-emergence as a world power. The boom ensured that we had abundant energy and could keep warm cheaply. This is a fundamental reason why our living standards are so relatively high today. Now the Cleggeron government is severely limiting further exploration (and has needlessly restricted the number of exploration licences)because – no doubt partly as a result largely of a deluge of greenie PR by the BBC – Greenpeace and others now dictate energy policy. This means that more emphasis is now placed on marine wildlife than human welfare, and that the days of cheap energy are well and truly over. The BBC, of course, report the whole disgraceful charade with the emphasis on the Greenpeace perspective; the picture of their pathetic publicity stunt has been carefully chosen so that the greenie concerns are foremost. And note how they give credence to the idea that the economy can be “de-carbonised”. Which planet do they live on?

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Race Riot

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The BBC is overjoyed today because there is a disturbance in an Israeli-Arab village. What’s more, it’s a deliberately provocative incitement by a hardline right wing group, reminiscent of the Orange marches in NI.

Last year on a similar occasion a clip on the BBC website featured Katya Adler in a fetching baseball cap, ducking the occasional missile, saying that all the Palestinian residents want to do is live in peace alongside their neighbours.

This time, no Katya, but more of the same.

Meanwhile back on BBC News 24, we’re given the background.

An extremist Rabbi was murdered in Manhattan. His party (racist) was outlawed by the Israeli government. There’s a resurgence of such (racist) sentiments in Israel, and right wing (racist) Israelis are trying to carry out their annual supremacist march, provoking clashes in Umm al-Fahm, an Arab village in the West Bank.

There’s a handy reminder of the proposal (racist) by right wing hardliner Avigdor Leiberman, requiring all Israeli citizens to swear an oath of allegiance (racist) to the Jewish state.

Unfortunately though, the violence seems to have subsided, but the BBC is anxious to squeeze every drop out of the story.

But wait. Rupert Wingfield-Hayes is on the scene too. He’s saying there is an Islamist resident in peace-loving Umm al-Fahm. The BBC anchor is telling Rupert that the right-wing Leiberman and his ilk are after booting all the Arabs out of Israel. Rupert is attempting to elucidate. It’s not quite like that, he tries to explain. They think there should be a transfer of Israeli Arabs from Israel / West Bank to Palestinian /West Bank in a future Palestinian state.

But the BBC is very keen on tolerance. Obviously everyone everywhere should be free to vent their spleen, even if it means tolerating those who would happily stop you venting yours. Literally. So Israelis should be like us, tolerant and accepting of hostile groups in their midst. (Which they actually are) They should even be tolerant and accepting, as the BBC is, of the quaint and quirky (if a tad racist – it’s their culture innit) diktat that no Jew will ever be allowed to live in a Palestinian land.

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