156 Responses to OPEN THREAD…

  1. john says:

    Just saw this up on the Strata-Sphere US blog (http://strata-sphere.com/blog/) in a post about the Japanese earthquake.

    Our prayers go out to the victims and their families. It appears the massive tsunami will have been the truly deadly force when all is said and done.
    But for the BBC buffoon who tried to weave in Global Warming as part of this incident I have only one thing to say – you are a pathetic moron. Underwater earthquakes and their resulting tsunamis have NOTHING to do with CO2 produced by humanity. And to bring it up in the midst of this disaster is as cold and heartless as anyone else who looks at this incident and gets ‘green’ with greed and power.

    I’m not aware of the BBC broadcast being referenced, but it looks like the BBC’s reputation as a collection of looney tunes is spreading far and wide.

       1 likes

    • Olly boy says:

      It wouldn’t surprise me if the BBC somehow tried to tie in global warming into this disaster albeit indirectly.

         1 likes

      • stevefb says:

        Rachael Burdon on 5L breakfast just had a go at weaving global warming into the Japanese earthquake narrative.  

        Discussing the appalling devastation in Japan she said that global warming “throws up the same kind of issues”.   

        Beeboids just can’t resist it, can they?

           1 likes

        • hippiepooter says:

          Stevefb, I think you’re being pretty unfair to M/s Burden.

          Here is the bit you refer to.  The relevant bit is 11:48 in.  She’d just been interviewing a young Brit guy who was close to the Tsunami and when signing off asked him what he was doing in Japan.  He was studying the effects of climate change.  She specifically states that “the movement of tectonic plates has nothing to do with climate change” but in some sort of way I suppose it throws up similar issues.

          She wasn’t ‘clambering on the bodies of the dead’ to push MMGW.

          I haven’t heard too much of M/s Burden but from what I have heard I’ve every confidence in her commitment to impartiality.  She stood out to me the other week when at the start of an interview she emphasised that the abolition of the Film Council didn’t mean that film funding was being cut but that it would be distributed through other means.

          Please let me assure people that my defence of her has nothing to do with the fact she sounds a bit like Mariella Frostrup.

          😛

             1 likes

          • Bupendra Bhakta says:

            The interviewee was ‘… over here in Japan studying the effects of climate change’.

             No doubt spends much of his leisure hours fulminating about how the argument is corrupted by ‘Big Oil’ while quite happy to hold his hands out and take the cash from ‘Big Green’.

               1 likes

          • Barry says:

            “..what he was doing in Japan.  He was studying the effects of climate change.”

            And how did he get there?

               1 likes

          • stevefb says:

            “Stevefb, I think you’re being pretty unfair to M/s Burden”

            No, hippiepooter, I don’t believe I am.

            Even a beeboid is not stupid enough to believe she can get away with blaming the movement of tectonic plates on global warming. But that didn’t stop her trying to associate, in the minds of her listeners, the actual and terrible outcome of said movement with the potential outcomes of AGW, did it?

            Furthermore, listen to your own link. Did not Ms. Burdon sound suddenly prompted to ask the supplementary question in the interview round-up?

            I suspect that question was planned well in advance because the studio producer and Ms Burdon were both well aware of the interviewees reason for being in Japan.

            I suspect the beeboids viewed that reason as too good an opportunity to miss and Ms. Burdon was prompted/reminded when she seemed to be about to wrap up the interview without asking the question.

               1 likes

            • hippiepooter says:

              Overall BBC output certainly gives grounds for such suspicions, but for my reasons given above I wouldn’t ascribe an MMGW agenda to M/s Burden’s comments.

              Where does she make the supplementary comment?

                 1 likes

    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      “If you thought that climate change alarmists wouldn’t be so insensitive as to build their warped argument on the bodies of freshly dead corpses, then think again. Within 24 hours there’ll be a whole slew of neo-libs pointing to the suffering in Japan as a reason why we should hand over more untold trillions to globalists in the form of a carbon tax.  

      The BBC is already at it – in a discussion about a whirlpool caused by the tsunami, BBC reporter Humphrey Hawksley hastily piggy backs a dubious argument about the tiny South Pacific nation of Tuvalu disappearing under the threat of global warming on the back of dramatic pictures out of Japan. By making this completely disjointed connection, Hawksley implicitly suggests that man-made climate change also contributed to the Japanese earthquake.”  

         

      http://www.infowars.com/global-warming-did-not-cause-the-japanese-earthquake/  

         1 likes

    • Marky says:

      cold and heartless” Yes there’s a lot of sick fucks out there making political capital out of this disatster as well as genrally spreading doom, fear and hatred. Empathy is looking like a thing of the past and if YouTube comments are anything to go by we’re breeding heartless monsters who watch events unfold on the tube but they have the inabilty to feel for those suffering or who have died. Sickened.

         1 likes

      • Mohammed Lovespigs says:

        Caroline Lucas will be furiously masturbating over the news of this radiation leak.
        It’ll give the alarmists another excuse to cover what’s left of rural Britain with unsightly, uneconomic windmills and realise their dream of rationing energy supplies even sooner.

           1 likes

      • hippiepooter says:

        Good points Marky, but I would mention that from time to time DV does have to ask us to mind our language for the good of this site.  I’ve noted more and more ‘language’ creeping in of late.  Let’s try to save DV from this boring task, shall we?

           1 likes

      • Dez says:

        “as cold and heartless as anyone else who looks at this incident and gets ‘green’ with greed and power.”

        “It wouldn’t surprise me if the BBC somehow tried to tie in global warming into this disaster albeit indirectly.”

        “Beeboids just can’t resist it, can they?”

        “quite happy to hold his hands out and take the cash from ‘Big Green'”

        “And how did he get there?”

        “The BBC is already at it…”

        “Caroline Lucas will be furiously masturbating over the news of this radiation leak.”

        Yes there are “a lot of sick fucks out there making political capital out of this disatster”:

        http://biasedbbc.tv/

           0 likes

        • Demon1001 says:

          Agreed Dezzie, your mates at the BBC have already started according to the quotes you selected.

             0 likes

        • hippiepooter says:

          Dez/Scott, you quote Bupendra to hoist him on his own petard:  
           
          “”quite happy to hold his hands out and take the cash from ‘Big Green'”  
           
          Bupendra made no reference to this superquake disaster.  It looks like you’re just as motivated by animus in defending BBC bias as some people here are motivated by animus in looking to find BBC bias.

             0 likes

  2. john says:

    ……and then there’s this one on the FT Westminster blog (http://blogs.ft.com/westminster/2011/03/high-speed-rail-and-business-my-pro-letter-is-bigger-than-your-anti-letter/)

    Interesting to see the BBC today picking up the letter to the Telegraph from 21 “high-profile” businessmen and Tories complaining about the high-speed rail project.
    Britain’s public service broadcaster forgot to cover a letter two weeks ago – from over 60 businessmen – in favour of HS2, which I wrote about in the FT.
    The pro campaign dwarf the anti in both quality and quantity of signatories, it would appear. Here is the full letter from the “yes” business leaders, which include leaders of Hitachi, BAA Invensys and Mitchells & Butlers.

       0 likes

    • dave s says:

      I have no time at all for the BBC but this HS2 has all the makings of a vanity project to apppease the North and Scotland ( eventually).
      There are already two direct Birmingham lines and three to Scotland all of which could be upgraded at far less cost. The time this HS2 will save is just not worth the destruction of the Chilterns and just what do people do with these extra minutes? Hold another pointless meeting?

         0 likes

      • john says:

        I think that I agree with you, Dave, and the BBC, that it is a vanity project. It’s exactly the sort of thing we would have expected under New Labour. The money could probably have been put to much better use by leaving it in the pockets of the tax payers.

        However, this BBC ommission, reporting only their side of the argument is an excellent example of the subtle way they promote their agenda.

           0 likes

        • Dez says:

          “However, this BBC ommission, reporting only their side of the argument is an excellent example of the subtle way they promote their agenda.”

          Or perhaps, just perhaps, it’s an excellent example of how the FT Westminster blog promotes its own agenda.

          It says; “Britain’s public service broadcaster forgot to cover a letter two weeks ago – from over 60 businessmen – in favour of HS2…”

          Except the BBC did cover it:

          “HS2 ‘vital’ to level West Midlands and South East economies… Sixty nine leading business executives have also pledged their support for the HS2 in a letter to the Financial Times…”

          http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-12570251

          Published the day after the letter to the Telegraph; which the FT Westminster blog conveniently failed to notice. Or perhaps they just “forgot”.

             0 likes

          • John Anderson says:

            The BBC reported the anti-letter on air.

            I heard no report on air of the pro-letter.

            Please compare “like with like”.

               0 likes

  3. Jane Tracy says:

    This morning on BBC Breakfast we had the extraordinary sight of Susannah Reid trying to influence an eye-witness from Tokyo about what was happening in Tokyo.

    Quite how Ms Reid who was sitting on a sofa in London knew the situation was dreadful and knew that  making apocalyptic comments was appropriate I do not know. The eye-witness said that in Tokyo emergency measures were working and that he had seen the fire brigade responding to problems. He seemed calm and logical whilst Ms.Reid acted like an extra from one of Charlie Brookers programmes

       0 likes

  4. George R says:

    Update for Democrat-compliant, Muslim Brotherhood-compliant INBBC:
    Dems at King hearings recite Muslim Brotherhood-linked group’s talking points

       0 likes

  5. fred bloggs says:

    O.K.  put your hand up who did it.  Some wag on Guido has claimed that the bBC are reporting Lord Ashcroft caused the Japanese earthquake.  Now you know a spoof story is supposed to be utterly unbelievable.

       0 likes

  6. George R says:

    If ‘Guardian’ comes up with this, can INBBC be far behind?

    ‘Just Journalism’ has the confirmation of the obvious political bias which ‘Guardian’ has had for decades against Israel (as has INBBC, of course  😉 :

    “Guardian admits Israel ‘straightforward target’”

    [Extract]:

    “Assistant editor Michael White admits that Guardian journalists actively avoid reporting some subjects, such as immigration, in favour of easier ‘targets’ like Israel.

    “In an incredibly candid blog entry on media self-censorship by veteran Guardian journalist and staunch Israel critic Michael White, he confesses to:
    ‘middle class ill-ease in going after stories about immigration, legal or otherwise, about welfare fraud or the less attractive tribal habits of the working class, which is more easily ignored altogether.’
    “By contrast, in, ‘Media self-censorship: not just a problem for Turkey,’ Israel is put forward as one of the archetypal ‘targets’ of The Guardian:
    ‘Toffs, including royal ones, Christians, especially popes, governments of Israel, and US Republicans are more straightforward targets.’
    “White, who has been at the publication for 30 years, also alleges that positive stories about Tony Blair are rarities despite other ‘tyrants’ being granted positive coverage…”

    http://justjournalism.com/the-wire/guardian-admits-israel-%E2%80%98straightforward-target%E2%80%99/

       0 likes

    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      I should imagine that Michael White despises his surname! 

         0 likes

      • Span Ows says:

        hahaha. Indeed.

        “What’s your name?”
        “M. White”
        “I can see that but what’s your name?”

           0 likes

  7. Phil says:

    I’m not impressed with the BBC’s veiled threats to its local radio stations.

    I live in Manchester. BBC Radio Manchester is not widely listened to in the city and its environs but it does provide programming which various minority groups find useful and which the commercial sector simply could not provide and make a profit.

    Local radio which isn’t exclusively pop music based is surely exactly what a public service broadcaster should be proud to provide. Nobody else does. 

    But no. It isn’t glamorous enough for BBC types.

    Instead of closing of vastly expensive and trashy TV channels like BBC 1 which duplicate the dross of the commercial sector, we get threats about the future of BBC local radio. 

    The public service ethic of the BBC is a joke.

       0 likes

    • Chuffer says:

      Sorry, Phil, gojng to have to disagree with you. I suppose it depends on the local station, but mine – Solent – is a 24-hours-a-day farce. The presenters are idiots (I cought one yesterady discussing with a moron phone-in person the claim that skiffle groups had been closed down by the government in the 1951s!), the newsreaders can’t read aloud or press their buttons at the right time, and the weather bimbos redefine the word airhead.

      I suppose 5 live would make me even angrier, though!

         0 likes

      • hippiepooter says:

        Chuffer, please do try Breakfast 5Live in the mornings.  I highly recommend it.  Although watch out for when Rachel Burden fills in, her sexy husky voice might cause you to swerve your tractor into a ditch if you’re not expecting it.

        😀

           0 likes

  8. J J says:

    I think there needs to be more focus on BBC entertainment and documentary programming which is heavily ideologically and culturally biased. These are probably even more influential on the British people than its news and current affairs and people are less likely to notice the ideology involved. When was the last time someone saw a sitcom or drama or even documentary on the BBC that endorsed, even as a background, traditional British and Christian values.

    The only example I can really think of is Songs of Praise and that is rather a niche program. Even their seven-part show on Christianity had at most only two shows(Widdecombe’s and maybe Cherie Blair’s.) that I’d call generally receptive to traditional Christianity.

    Not of course that the other networks are much better. No wonder British youth are so culturally liberal, it is the unconscious background to their lives, they rarely see any other position in a positive light, from school to the establishment to tv to movies and newspapers(even the rightwing press is hardly a bastion for traditional values and culture.). They don’t stand a chance. We don’t stand a chance.

       0 likes

    • NotaSheep says:

      The deliberate drip, drip, drip of the leftist poison for 20+ years has pretty much succeeded in setting the narrative for many areas of public debate. THEY HAVE ALL BUT WON.

         0 likes

      • J J says:

        Some of it the fault of conservatives, or more properly traditional conservatives or traditionalists, of course. We are divided and often we have not thought hard enough about our first principles and our positions. Too often we have compromised, too often we have thought only about the parts and not the whole.

           0 likes

      • hippiepooter says:

        notasheep, I hope this helps to restore your morale:-

           0 likes

    • Dez says:

      What on earth are “traditional British and Christian values”? 

         0 likes

      • hippiepooter says:

        Dez/Scott, it says a lot about you that you need to ask that question.

           0 likes

      • J J says:

        I could explain on the internet or I could point you to Disraeli’s Vindication of the English Constitution and Edmund Burke’s Reflection on the Revolution in France. They may even be available online, though of course purchasing them is better.

           0 likes

  9. pounce_uk says:

    The headline reads:
    Palestinian ‘kills five Israelis’ in West Bank attack
    A Palestinian has killed five Israelis in an attack on a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, Israel’s military says.The five were members of the same family, a couple and three children, according to Israeli media reports.

    For a news agency which reports any slight against Palestinian children or even for that matter any incident when whole Palestinian families have been wiped out. The bBC relays how a whole family were stabbed to death (Including 3 Children all under 3) as just one of those things that happens.

    Yes the impartial bBC which reports verbatim when given the facts by medical workers in Gaza. Questions the veracity of the only free media in the region. Now imagine the bBC headlines if a Palestinian baby had been stated to death by an Israeli. Would they have headlined the same story as so:
    Israeli ‘kills five Palestinians’ in West Bank attack

       0 likes

    • deegee says:

      It’s the ‘scare quotes’. The headline would be Israeli kills Five Palestinians in West Bank attack because the BBC would report it as a fact while here they are reporting a ‘dubious because Israel makes it’ claim.

      Still it’s much better than it could have been. Typically Five Israelis dead in West Bank settlement leaving one in doubt whether it was a murder, an accident or a suicide and hiding the Palestinian connection. If they were ‘settlers’ they had it coming to them, anyway. 

         1 likes

    • hippiepooter says:

      Strewth, what chilling reportage.  
       
      Did you notice, one ‘Israel’s military says’ and two according to ‘Israeli media report’.  All in a short, 10 paragraph report, that contains 5 paragraphs referring to stalled peace talks and ‘Israeli culpability’.  
       
      It is very difficult for any objective observer to escape the sensation that what the BBC are reporting is that ‘if the Jews’ aren’t lying it doesn’t matter – the couple and their 3 young children had it coming’.  
       
      As this type of truly chilling reporting is par for the course for the BBC this particular observer has no doubt that this is exactly what the BBC is saying.  
       
      Please Melanie Phillips, do whatever you can to get a new political party off the ground and let’s do something to restore British honour.

         1 likes

      • hippiepooter says:

        The BBC Report has changed somewhat now, but still spine tinglingly chilling in its cold blooded indifference to the horror of what has happened and eagerness to put Israel in the dock and not these murderers and the hate that drives them.

        The Telegraph report is worth comparing it to.

        BBC, this is how the story is reported by an organ that doesn’t want to see a second Holocaust.

           1 likes

    • TooTrue says:

      Truly sickening murders and sickening “reporting” on it from the BBC. I’ve gone  back to the updated page and now they start with this:

      Israeli troops have launched a manhunt after five members of a Jewish settler family were killed in the West Bank

      They just had to get the settler bit in straight away. It’s evidently not enough that they mention the Itamar settlement further on in the article.

      Then there’s this:

      Officials have blamed Palestinians for the overnight attack, which left a couple, two children and a baby dead in the Itamar settlement, near Nablus.

      Those unreasonable Israelis, goes the narrative, always blaming innocent Palestinians. And the scare quotes are still in the headline:

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12721170

      If there were any actual journalists reporting for the BBC in the Middle East, they might have noticed that the Al Aksa Brigades claimed responsibility.

      They might also have noticed that Hamas praised the murders and Palestinians in Rafa handed out sweets in celebration – that last bit was on Israeli TV news.

      http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=211849

      Scum of the earth “reporting” for that foul organisation.

         1 likes

    • Andrew says:

      How odd that with all their Palestinian embeds that they won’t pick up on the sweeties story that is also mentioned here:

      http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4041106,00.html

         1 likes

    • Andrew says:

      There are other things missing from the BBC report which if true will throw some serious doubts on their narrative and are therefore unlikely to see the light of day. 

      Although I’m obviously not certain of the veracity of their sources, Debka are running a story about Hamas having regrouped in Samaria and Judea with a plan to kidnap or kill Israelis on both sides of the green line.

      One of the key problems it would seem is a collapse in the security situation.  A key contributor to this is that the “intransigent” Israeli’s have given in to US pressure to allow virtually unrestricted movement in an effort to bring the PA back to the negotiating table.  One way of doing this was by abandoning certain checkpoints that the PA was supposed to use its security services to fill the void – something they haven’t done.

      So, it would seem that Israel isn’t the blocker to peace that the BBC would have us believe (not that we thought so anyhow), but in fact in an effort to support the peace process, they are creating a situation that creates a security risk to the people of Israel.

      I have said this repeatedly – the BBC cannot continue to report and analyse so casually.  This isn’t the politics of the student union bar any more.  People are dying and they cannot pretend otherwise.

         1 likes

      • Craig says:

        Interesting that Dez says “No comment” here. Clearly not even a defender of the indefensible can defend this.

           1 likes

      • hippiepooter says:

        Andrew, Arab terrorists are killing people with BBC complicity.  The BBC are propagandists for anti-Semitic jihad.

           1 likes

      • NotaSheep says:

        So long as it is Israeli settlers that die, I really doubt that the BBC care.

           1 likes

  10. Cassandra King says:

    This highlights the ugly nature of the BBC perfectly.

    “They are held to be illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.”

    A story about murdered defenceless children and it ends like that? A family murdered and the beeboid filth just have to repor the barest details while excluding as much as they can even as they repeat the grubby islamist propaganda, its amost as if the BBC are using the tragedy to blame the children and parents for somehow offending the ‘Palestinian’ psychopath. No detail on the murderer or the motive I note.
    Its as if the filth who wrote the story were trying to remove any component that could lead to the reader having any sympathy with the Jewish victims, the story is set up to portray the victims as somehow deserving their fate.

    ‘Some Jew occupiers of Palestinian lands which is illegal under imnternational law died somehow’?

    The gist of the report is that the Jews deserved what they got even though they were mere babies, the jews got what was coming to them, the reader must not be allowed to forget the BBC/islamist agenda. The Jew is to blame for being murdered right? If the Jew family was not there stealing Palestinian land then the murderer would not be enraged enough to go out and murder a family plus infants right?

    Some illegal settler Jews got what they deserved by some poor oppressed Palestinian who only murdered them because he felt oppressed by the Jews?

    One of the primary rules of BBC reporting must be that the Jew is to blame for their own murders and that on no account must the BBC report include anything which may lead the reader/viewer to see the Jews in a sympathetic light. The Jew is always to blame, somehow the ultimate responsibility for the crimes against the Jews must be laid at the feet of the Jews, in effect the Jew infants got what was coming to them. This is not news this is Nazi hate propaganda. What sickness infects the mind of a human being that allows them to kill infants? This is not rage about supposed injustice, this is evil cruel sick butchery, there is no excuse for that.

       1 likes

    • ltwf1964 says:

      I’ve siad it before and it’s worth repeating

      Goebbels had NOTHING on beeboid scum

         1 likes

    • Deborah says:

      I have noticed that the most anti-Israel statements or News items are made/shown on a Friday evening/Saturday ie the Sabbath when many orthodox Jews do not watch televison/radio – it therefore reduces the possible number of complaints.

         1 likes

      • OWEN MORGAN says:

        That’s an interesting point, Deborah.   I’ll be looking out for that in future, because I’d never thought of it before.   I’ve also tended to feel that complaining to the BBC about any blatant bias (anti-Jewish, or anti-Israel, anti-capitalist or anti-private sector, pro-labour or pro-eu, anti-Christian or pro-Islam) makes about as much sense as complaining to Robespierre about his anti-monarchist leanings, but the time has come to complain about everything that is wrong with the BBC’s output.

        I don’t imagine for a moment that any number of complaints will shift the arrogant mindset at the BBC, but future FoI requests should be able to compare not merely the number of complaints received by the BBC (something used by the BBC as a smokescreen for at least thirty years, to my recollection), but also their substance.

           1 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Well said, Cassandra.  The editorial policy is deliberately biased so as to demonize Israel at every opportunity, although the BBC disputes this.

         1 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        I’d just like to hear the BBC for once have a discussion about whether or not Jews should be allowed to live in Hebron or other areas inside an official Palestinian State.  Yeah, if only…..

           1 likes

  11. OrdeS says:

    As the government currently makes a fuss about top universities admitting students from disadvantaged backgrounds, supposedly to illustrate this, there was an item on yesterday’s BBC1 Breakfast programme on how the initiative would help people like the charming, brown, female, student, (accompanied by her head teacher), who expected to get into Oxford this year.

    What a difference this delightful, well spoken, articulate girl was from the hundreds of inner city deprived, often black, kids that I’ve met. She was obviously from a middle class background, and although few in number, it won’t have been too hard for a disingenuous or perhaps niave BBC, to put her forward as an example of the unfairness of the system. Never mind the reality that most children from so called disadvantaged families can’t string two words together, have no interest in education and are nigh on impossible to teach effectively in current circumstances.

    This interview merely demonstrates the possibilities for an individual; it tells the public nothing about the real reasons for the lack of university entrance from poorer backgrounds. They get poorer grades because there are fewer of them, they are poorly taught, have unsuitable homes and parents and most of them arn’t interested in education period. But this goes against the leftist/BBC wisdom that all children have equal intellectual potential. They don’t. So be witness to another failed government initiative engendered by fundamental misunderstanding!

       1 likes

  12. Chuffer says:

    Anyone know why India vs The Netherlands gets 45 minutes of highlights, but England vs Bangladesh gets 30 minutes?

       1 likes

    • matthew rowe says:

      ‘England’ maybe the clue here ! :-$

         1 likes

    • Buggy says:

      Seriously, you wanted to see MORE of England’s match ? Lawks ! =-O

      Whilst on the topic of the Sloggit World Cup, why are we to be denied the wonderful Sonali Shah for the rest of the tourney ? Is she not allowed to leave Sri Lanka or something ?  :'(

         1 likes

  13. geewiz says:

    What is the point of Raymond Snoddy and Newswatch? One beeboid ”grilling” another beeboid. One so-called viewer email began with ” your consistent and unbiased news coverage”…..
    They must must be laffing into their caviar in the canteen every morning. Pompous and patronising.

       1 likes

  14. Daphne Anson says:

    I love your site but have never posted here before so I hope I’m doing this correctly!
    Did you see Trevor Asserson’s piece re Patten and Al Beeb in the Jerusalem Post magazine?  http://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Opinion/Article.aspx?id=211606

       1 likes

    • ltwf1964 says:

      Daphne

      I’m sure I speak for many when I say a thousand welcomes to you

      your blog is on my google chrome favourites bar

      please post here as a regular if you have time

         1 likes

      • Craig says:

        Agreed.

        And that article, Daphne, is one of the best and most comprehensive summaries of the reasons for being deeply worried about the BBC that I’ve read in some time. Thanks for the link.

           1 likes

      • hippiepooter says:

        Shalom Daphne.  I thought your name seemed familiar .. and yes it is.  I believe Sue has referred at least once to one of your blogs last December.

           1 likes

        • Daphne Anson says:

          Oh, thanks, everyone.
          Regarding naked Al Beeb bias against Israel, when I began blogging I did a bit of digging and suggested that it began with Keith Kyle.  Since I had my blog pretty much to myself at the time, you may not have seen it – it also points to the tie-in with the Grauniad:
          http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/2010/08/man-who-begat-multitude-of-anti-israel.html

             1 likes

          • Craig says:

            A long line of them followed.

            Another ‘aha!’ moment on your blog was this about one of the main BBC Middle East reporters of the 1990s, who’s been busy since leaving the Beeb:

            One speaker, Tim Llewellyn – a former BBC Middle East correspondent (just fancy that!) – declared his support for boycotting Israel, whose “government is uncivilised and Israelis who support it take part in that uncivilisation. Israel is a rogue state in the Middle East.”

               1 likes

            • Daphne Anson says:

              I’m really flattered you read my blog, Craig.  I’ve read your revelations on here with enormous interest – they make great reading. 
              Whenever “He Who Must Be Obeyed” is in possession of the “switcheroo” at our house, I have only to say “Los Diablos!” (no idea whether that really is Spanish!) and he know to switch the channel to the BBC News 24.  It exerts a diabolical fascination…

                 1 likes

              • hippiepooter says:

                ‘The Devils’

                On that note, my soujorn in Spain started 9 years ago.  In my first 5 years there were always constant problems with drought.  ‘¡Uuf! El ‘global warming’!’  In the last 3-4 years there’s been no problem with drought.  Today its been raining since 7:30.  The key danger of ‘global warming’ when it first started getting bandied about was ‘drought’.  It doesn’t actually seem to be a problem that is getting worse!

                   1 likes

                • Span Ows says:

                  …and heavy rain. Usually it rains for half an hour and flash flods wash cars away in some towns, this is ‘good old’ soaking rain (just north of Barcelona)

                     1 likes

              • Craig says:

                Your site, Daphne, has lots of eye-opening stuff about the BBC. I came to it from following Sue’s links (which are always worth clicking on).
                   
                Just taking the most recent, there’s your post on Jeremy Bowen interviewing – at huge length – the anti-Israeli Left’s darling Robert Fisk about “madders of importance to all of us” (he meant “matters”, but his mid-Atlantic accent got in the way), with Bowen calling Fisk “in my opinion a great reporter of what goes on there” and asking about impartiality (without irony).

                There’s also your post about the BBC’s strange, strange sense of priorities revealed when its College of Journalism blogged about the sexual /anti-semitic assault of Lara Logan in Tahrir Square.

                And your post that discusses (among other things) an article on the BBC website by Professor Fawaz Gerges (of Saif Gaddafi’s favourite British university, the LSE), who – along with anti-Israeli ex-diplomat Oliver Miles – has hardly been off the BBC News Channel in recent weeks. 

                And (with plenty of nods to us here!) your post about the BBC’s side-taking in Egypt and a closely related post about its treatment of the oh-so-moderate Muslim Brotherhood here and here.

                And it’s always great to read someone who shares my ongoing shock at the respect the BBC accords to the odious Abdel Bari Atwan (star of Gavin Esler’s Dateline).

                And those are just from the last 6 weeks. (The blog began last June).

                   1 likes

          • George R says:

            Avishai Cohen (in London in 2 weeks): ‘Shalom’



               1 likes

        • John Anderson says:

          That was an excellent blog article !

             1 likes

    • Cassandra King says:

      Welcome to our site my friend 😀 .

         1 likes

    • David vance says:

      Hi Daphne

      You are very welcome  🙂

         1 likes

      • Daphne Anson says:

        Many thanks again – and Craig, you do wonders for a gal’s ego! :*

           1 likes

  15. ltwf1964 says:

    “there’s a major problem with a japanese nuclear reactor which may leak radioactive material

    here’s a report from our middle east editor Jeremy Bowen standing right beside the nuclear reactor core”

    wouldn’t it be great if it could be just like that?

       1 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Lovely day out, and I will enjoy it early.

      The Japan situation is gripping, but the way it is being treated by the demands of the 24/7 news cycle is so dire that I am having to tear myself away.

      SKY is beyond a joke. I can’t imagine what the BBC is like, but surely it is possible to simply ‘report’ without weaving in any bizarre ‘could’ or ‘may’ extreme.

         1 likes

    • matthew rowe says:

      Yep that would work as Bowen is a vacuous useless hole in space all that radiation wouldn’t stand a chance! mind we could help boost the effect if we threw in a few more  collapsed stars  say ross or paxo in there dunno if it would  really work but if we keep chucking BBC staff in to the reactor I’m sure some good will come of it !!

         1 likes

  16. hippiepooter says:

    Check out the endings of this edited version on Lybia and the unedited version of Mr Paxman’s interview with Noam Chomsky.    
       
    Edited version    
       
    Unedited version    
       
    Spot the difference?

       0 likes

    • Craig says:

      Just as an add-on to the other points you’ve been making this week about Paxman’s toadying to Chomsky, wasn’t it revealing that the only moment in the whole 22-minute interview where Jeremy Paxman did his “arched-eyebrows, incredulous voice” routine was when he asked Chomsky how Obama rated compared to Bush and Blair and the old humbug said “Worse.” Paxman laughed in surprise, interrupted and asked “Why?” and then “Why is he worse?” in a tone of amazement.

      Amazing, as that’s one of the few comments Chomsky made that didn’t deserve a raised eyebrow, a challenge or a sarcastic response. (The nearest he came to doing so again was when he interrupted Chomsky’s attack on the Republicans over AGW to ask “Why do you care about stupid people?”)

         0 likes

      • hippiepooter says:

        I take it you noticed that in the unedited version it ends with Paxman saying:-

        “That’s great.  Thank you very much.”

        In the falsified end to the edited version it cuts to Paxman saying:-

        “Professor Chomsky, thank you”, in a manner you’d expect some simpering student whose just been awarded a good mark by his guru professor for agreeing with his opinions, but still without that tell tale “That’s great”.

           0 likes

        • Dez says:

          Oh, for goodness sake. When you are reduced to claiming political bias because of the way the interviewer says “thank you”, you really are scraping the bottom of the barrel. 

          Then to use one version of an interview published by the BBC  to try and show bias in another version published by the BBC – as proof of BBC bias?

             0 likes

          • hippiepooter says:

            Paxman to Chomsky, at the end of 22 minutes of Chomsky’s tendentious far leftism:-

            “That’s great.  Thank you very much”.

            Only someone determined to perpetuate BBC bias would pretend that’s not it.

               0 likes

          • Daniel Clucas says:

            you really are scraping the bottom of the barrel.”
            Or picking low hanging fruit Dez 😛

               0 likes

  17. George R says:

    BBC-NUJ-Labour, ‘Guardian’, and Mass Immigration to Britain.

     ‘The Guardian’ covered up Labour’s Mass Immigration:

    “Assistant editor Michael White admits that Guardian journalists actively avoid reporting some subjects, such as immigration, in favour of easier ‘targets’ like Israel.”

    http://justjournalism.com/the-wire/guardian-admits-israel-%E2%80%98straightforward-target%E2%80%99/




    And whereas the ‘Daily Mail’ has this today, BBC-NUJ-Labour has nothing:

    “Tony Blair changes his tune over immigration saying it produced a ‘challenge'”

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1365526/Tony-Blair-changes-tune-immigration-saying-produced-challenge.html#ixzz1GNRvYUFH

       0 likes

    • George R says:

      ‘Gates of Vienna’:

      Muslim Immigration into the UK: Part Two

         0 likes

    • NotaSheep says:

      Since Tony Blair was Prime Minister when it was decided to to ‘rub the right’s nose in diversity’, he has a to do more than change his tune and apologise deeply and profoundly. Every time I drive past the Blair mansion just off the Edgware Road and  see the police protection officers I get really very angry as WE are paying for this multi-millionare’s protection.

         0 likes

  18. John Anderson says:

    The Today programme was full of the Japanese earthquake/tsunami,  of course.

    Right at the end,  a few moments before 9am,  they turned to another correspondent for presumably an expert view on what was happening in the nuclear power station emergency.

    The “expert” ?  – Roger Harrabin !

    I fell out of bed laughing.

    But seriously – when the BBC turns to someone like Harrabin for “expert” comment on nuclear matters – let alone climate issues – it really is scraping the barrel.

       0 likes

  19. james1070 says:

    Not on BBC, the Atheist persecution of Jedis

    UK Atheists Hope to Eliminate Jedi Population

    😀

       0 likes

  20. Daphne Anson says:

    Oh lawks!
    Patten’s been approved – and I reckon Al Beeb’s Media Correspondent Torin Dougls in his “Analysis” should get Private Eye’s OBN Award.
    Note the reference to “cultured and civilised values”. Pass me the bucket, please!
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12719136

       0 likes

  21. George R says:

    With INBBC propaganda photo of a smiling hijabed Muslim woman, and a hand with the word ‘peace’ (‘religion of peace’ – do we get it*) written on it, the Islamophilic INBBC continues with its pro-Islam agenda in America, at our expense, politically and financially.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12661941

    (* religion of peace’):-

    http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/

    INBBC censors this:

    Dems at King hearings recite Muslim Brotherhood-linked group’s talking points

    and INBBC censors this:

    “Dear Rep. King: Forget ‘Radical’ — Islam is the Culprit”

    (by Amil Imani)

    http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.8959/pub_detail.asp

       0 likes

    • George R says:

      Islamophilic INBBC tres to sell its ‘Islamophobic’ narrative, without an analysis of the nature of thge tenets of Islam.

      INBBC’s Mr BURRIDGE has this as his vague pro-Muslim conclusion of the King hearings:

      “US Muslim ‘radicalisation’ hearings spark unease”

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12693982

      INBBC Mr Burridge’s last sentence:

      “But for many Muslims, the real fear appears to be that the hearings will increase Islamophobia in the US.”

      That should be:

      ‘But for many non-Muslims, the real fear appears to be that the hearings will increase dhimmitude, like that of INBBC, in the US.’

         0 likes

  22. Bupendra Bhakta says:

    One for the Yoohoo, Everyone, I’m Soooo Right On slot.

    On Newsnight Review thing last night there was the usual Scot Tired Old Trot, some peroxided granny who for some reason was got up to look like a crack-whore, Historian (ie History graduate) Dan Snow, and Channel 4 News Autocutie, Samira Ahmed.

    True as I live and breathe, but for a number of years Samira was my next door neighbour.  Some Asian ghetto sandwiched between the Picaddilly Line and a Heathrow flight-path.  Her family name was always and is pronounced – Ahmid.

    Sadly, Kirtsy Nasal Screech Wark, in a bid to bolster her own culturally- aware ‘sensitivities’, referred to the fragrant one as Samira Achmed.

    I know it’s an act of futility telling an organisation to shut up.

    But al-beeb, just for little old me, will you STFU.

       0 likes

    • John Anderson says:

      and wasn’t the whole Newsnight Review truly right-on awful ?   I was flicking channels,  saw they had an item on Niall Fergusson,  then spent the time pondering who was the most stupid person in the studio.    

      Even worse than when anti-Semite Tom Paulin was on

         0 likes

      • Foxy Brown says:

        I’m guessing that Niall Ferguson’s new book and accompanying tv programme on Channel 4 got the thumbs down?

        BBC Delenda eat.

           0 likes

    • Buggy says:

      Did Kirsty do the whole phlegm at the back of the throat thing on “Achmed” ?

      It seems to be lefty habit to show how oh-so-sensitive they are to other cultures, and dates back (for me) to Rhodesia c.1979 when Joshua Nkomo (formerly pronounced UNKOMO by newsreaders) suddenly metamorphosed into Josh-WAR N…….KERMOE. If you’d like to try this pronunciation at home, it’s probably best to strangle yourself a little first to get the right effect.

      I wonder if French lefties refer to ‘England’, ‘London’, ‘Dover’ and ‘Edinburgh’ in the same spirit ?

         0 likes

      • Span Ows says:

        hehehe. Yes, some of the contrived throat and mouth convulsions that put themselves through is quite amusing…but very selective.I noted in the World Cup that it was always Côte d’Ivoire so I wondered why they say Germany and not Deutschland.

           0 likes

      • Foxy Brown says:

        Let’s not forget ‘Mumbai’ in place of ‘Bombay’.  Also notable is the usage of ‘Derry’ for ‘Londonderry’ on Radio 4.

           0 likes

        • NotaSheep says:

          Oddly most residents of Mumbai call it Bombay.

             0 likes

        • Demon1001 says:

          And we used to always hear Ireland refereed to as Eire.  Not hearing that so much now, I think they’ve realised that few Irish people call it Eire either.

             0 likes

  23. Guest says:

    Just thought I’d check in to report the travesty passing as “debate” on the BBC World Service at the moment. The subject is “Is Homosexuality un-African”. The whole programme is rigged in favour of the gay agenda, the moderator Zeinab Badawi is really making no attempt to hide her ideological bias. She even talks about “legalising gay people”, as though the debate was about making people illegal. The audience is clearly handpicked, and some the panelists putting forward the moral position don’t even speak English as a first language.

    Fortunately the bias is transparent, and should make the BBC less relevant across the globe.

       0 likes

    • George R says:

      INBBC’s  ZEINAB BADAWI, as a Sudan-born Muslim, should know all about Islam’s hostility towards homosexuality.

         0 likes

  24. Chairman of Selectors says:

    has anyone SEEN RICHARD BLACKS report on the nuclear “disaster”?

    Tjis man is an evil, lyuing propagandarist. It is UNNAACEPTABLE. LIke all warmist greenie psychos, he is loving tbhis Japan nuclear stuff. He is rasiing conspiracy theories, unrelated inciddents 40 years ago etc in an attempt to highlight the “dangers” of nuclear. He of course fails to mention soem key facts: No one has received any remotely lethal doses. as to the leak, you woudl need to stand next to the reactor for 55 days to recevie a standard annual dosage. there is no damger to ANYONE. the affect plant was about to be de-commissioned, so despite being one of the oldest plants in the country, it has still coped with the worst earthquokae in jap history. And all the pother plants in trh area are fine. in fact, the whole evetn shows how sfe nucldear is.

    How would they get the power they need with windmills hey Richard you lying sack of sh1t?

    Black is a disgrace. He must be stopped.

       0 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      An interesting series of exchanges (some citing BBC footage and commentary, with links), from here on:

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/richardblack/2011/03/the_united_nations_environment.html#P107201012

      Some lack of faith that the BBC has public-safety reporting in mind over petty agenda.

         0 likes

      • Craig says:

        Richard Black clearly has a lot of explaining to do.
           
        The man from Japan who charges him with being “highly irresponsible” makes his points so strongly that even one of the regular pro-BBC sentinels eventually concedes the the truth of his charge (graciously).

        Black should answer him for starters (on his blog) and issue an apology.

           0 likes

        • John Anderson says:

          Craig – come on !!!   Richard Black issue an apology ?

          You gotta be joking.

          It was ridiculous from the start that the BBC should turn to arts graduates/enviro-activists like Black and Harrabin for comments on nuclear engineering and safety. 

          If Black wants to talk about “cover-ups” – why not the covering-up of the true costs and pathetic performance of all those damn wind turbines ?   Why not his and the BBC’s utter failure to report on all the evidence against AGW ?  And why not the BBC’s failure to promote any proper debate about the horrendous economic and human costs of
          of the sort of policies that Black, Harrabin,  Shukman et al keep pushing ?

             0 likes

          • John Horne Tooke says:

            I’m sure Black does not read the the comments on his blog. I have not once seen any “clarification” of the points he makes in his “report”. How can he? His “blog” is usually just a re-write of some gossip or press release from his friends in the eco-facist gravy train.

            It would be an eye-opener if Black was questioned live by someone who was not a member of his propaganda group.

            That Black has any role at the BBC is a disgrace, I wouldn’t employ him to make the tea.

               0 likes

  25. Tomfiglio says:

    Saw this, via Anna Raccoon. Not sure if it’s been pointed out already…

    http://uksnowolf.blogspot.com/2011/03/stick-fork-in-them-theyre-done.html

       0 likes

  26. George R says:

    “Palestinian ‘kills five Israelis’ in West Bank”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12721170

    Not forgetting the celebrations in Gaza:
    No Title

       0 likes

    • deegee says:

      This received quite a bit of attention on the previous open thread but I would like to add something about subtle photo bias.

      Rather than use an actual picture from the scene, such as pictures of the family, pictures of the carnage – with or without bloody bodies, anguished relatives or the funeral, BBC went with a file picture presumably, from the caption, from 2002.

      The picture shown below shows an anonymous, heavily armed but unfocussed Israeli soldier infront of road signs in Hebrew (also English and Arabic) not so subtley reinforces the BBC narrative that it was the occupation to blame.

         0 likes

  27. Guest Who says:

    OT, apologies, But just finding the ‘recent comments’ highlight column can, though mercifully rarely, get chokker with tripe as a troll can get all ‘For heavens’ sake’ high-horsey if they think they see a glimmer of a point, and see some merit in bumping the list along at least if not deigning to bother with replying.

    Is it possible to create a little section (and it would be pretty small), maybe called the Cherry Twig, where the trolls can be diverted with their ad homs based on perceived excess by one person on one comment on one issue, whilst mute on the vast orchards of bias shared. 

    Legitimate rebuttal and polite debate is entirely legitimate, and the ‘likes’ often reflect this. In particular I appreciate a factual correction backed with a link (NOT a 10-year archive frantically sourced on a niche web page to attempt to counter main news item slanting).

    But the petty sniping really only reveals the paucity of ability that exists in the ‘defence’ industry, along with how little ground the faithful have to stand on.

       0 likes

  28. Guest Who says:

    @BBCPolitics Hague rejects claims he may quithttp://bbc.in/i33j4S

    Claims? But, by whom?

    Senior Liberal Democrat Sir Menzies Campbell is among those..’


    Labour leader Ed Miliband said..’


    BBC political editor Nick Robinson said that response had partly prompted the questions about his enthusiasm.’

    So, a few less than stellar pols say something the BBC likes the sound of, and hence release the hounds. Reading the piece, it is textbook in vague allusions and circular justifications, with incest quoting spun up to ‘reports’.

    Such as…

    ‘Mr Hague has been criticised over a botched SAS mission to Libya, and the slow evacuation of UK nationals there.’
    Criticised? But, by whom….?

       0 likes

  29. Philip says:

    Why the Itamar massacre proves conclusively what most of you already know – that Islam as most assuredly NOT a ‘religion of peace’.

    And how the BBC are up to their usual pro-Pali self censoring again – accentuating the territorial dispute at the expense of the the blame – and censoring the sheer horror of this racist hate crime; committed in the name of Allah, by a people who are as we speak venerating the perps and handing out sweets in the streets of Rafah.

    al-BBCeera even had the editorial gall to state that the two children not noticed by the murderer/s were ‘spared’.

    All of it on the blog, none of it on al-Beeb – official British media partner of the Intifada.

       0 likes

    • hippiepooter says:

      “al-BBCeera even had the editorial gall to state that the two children not noticed by the murderer/s were ‘spared’.”

      Yes, I noticed that.  Gives every impression that those who stabbed to death a 3 month old baby were somehow ‘merciful’.  There’s no report to suggest that these butchers ‘spared’ them, just that they didn’t come across them or panicked and left before they ‘finished the job’.  Using the word ‘spared’ is a subtle endorsement of this satanic bloodlust.

      Lines really are being drawn in the world we live in.

         0 likes

  30. Roger C says:

    The BBC still defending the left, Mike Dixon lib dem bludgens a cat to death & is put in Jail. No mention on the BBC that I can find,these are the type of people Gardian readers vote for.

       0 likes

    • matthew rowe says:

      Having met this repellent tosser I can say that what ever the BBC say he better not turn up down the town centre again as he may not like the  response he gets O:-) !

         0 likes

  31. George R says:

    “Patten won’t change BBC”

    (by Neil Hamilton)

    [Extract]:
    “THE BIGGEST joke of the week was the BBC cowering in terror at the prospect of Lord Patten as chairman.

    “Patten, the most wringing-wet member of the Eighties Tory governments, was the apotheosis of anti-Thatcher, euro-fanatic, social-liberal political correctness. When he lost his seat to the Lib-Dems in 1992, Rightwing wags called it a Tory gain.

    “Patten has spent his life as a political insider and bureaucrat, moving from one Establishment job to another.”

    Read more: http://www.express.co.uk/ourcomments/view/234279Patten-won-t-change-BBC#ixzz1GTCr8UT9

       0 likes

  32. George R says:

    Who does this Eugene Sullivan think he is? Mark Thompson?

    “Spending watchdog’s £4k travel expenses for a one-minute walk from his hotel”

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1365651/Eugene-Sullivans-4k-travel-expenses-minute-walk-hotel.html#ixzz1GTG4NbKB

    The British Government is finding that the financial waste of quangos is even greater than first thought:

    “Up to £20billion of taxpayers’ cash will be saved by scrapping hundreds of quangos – FOUR TIMES the first estimate”

    “Official figures out this week will reveal that £3billion will be salvaged in fat cat salaries alone. The huge savings expose the massive waste inside hundreds of publicly-funded agencies. Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude will publish the stats this week as he reports on progress of plans to axe 192 of 901 bodies. The sums will discredit an MPs’ report which branded the bonfire of quangos a “botched operation”.” – News of the World (£)

    (-as reported at ‘Conservative Home’.)

    No doubt, BBC-NUJ-Labour will go lighty on reporting this, in case the spotlight is focused more brightly on Beeboid extravagance.

       0 likes

  33. familyjaffa says:

    “An Israeli government spokesman said the construction move had been planned for some time but the BBC’s Jon Donnison in Ramallah says it’s hard not to see the timing of the announcement as linked to the killings.”

    Yup! The Israelis lie and the BBC tells the truth!

       0 likes

  34. Craig says:

    On the Andrew Marr Show paper review this morning, Marr teed up Greg Dyke to have a go at Murdoch’s News of the World for not leading with the Japanese earthquake/tsunami. (It lead instead with less “challenging” stories about Prince Andrew and some footballers.) Dyke gave the NOTW a good kicking, with Marr muttering along throughout. It ended:
                    
    Greg Dyke: It’s not a very challenging…
    Andrew Marr: Mmm
    Dyke: …position for an editor to be in, is it,…
    Marr: No, it’s not.
    John Simpson: No.
    Dyke: ..to ignore the biggest story of certainly the year….
    Marr: Mmm
    Dyke: …and probably for some time?
                   
    Both Andrew Marr and John Simpson were grinning broadly and nodding their heads during this attack. They clearly enjoyed it. 
                              
    Though most people will doubtless strongly agree with Dyke’s point, should an “impartial” BBC presenter like Andrew Marr be saying “No, it’s not”, in agreement with that point, during an attack made by a guest (which he’d set up in the first place) on a rival media outlet?

       0 likes

  35. familyjaffa says:

    This Tuesday evening BBC2 Bible’s Buried Secrets.
    I quote from the Radio Times
    “How reliable is is the Bible’s account of King David?………As leader of a unified Israel,(he) is held up by some as evidence of Israel’s historic right to the land.”
    “Stavrakopolou wants to see archaeological evidence, and it’s thin on the ground”

    Drip, drip drip.

       0 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      I’d like to see the BBC do a report about the archaeological destruction perpetrated by the Mohammedans on and around the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, which is intended to obscure forever any Jewish historical claim to the site.  That’s the site which BBC editorial policy dictates must always be described as Islam’s third-holiest site, but never gives such favor to Judaism.

         0 likes

    • ltwf1964 says:

      well,archaeoligcal evidence wouldn’t be “thin on the ground” if the mad mozzies wouldn’t keep-  
       
      a.threatening “intifada” at the very mention of digging on some sites  
       
      b.deliberately destroying archaeological finds-especially around the temple mount-which clearly demonstrate the jews having been there for thousands of years  
       
      simples

         0 likes

      • familyjaffa says:

        THis from the Jerusalem Post regarding archaeological evidence;-

        “Israel alone may have some 20,000 archeological sites in a country of some 22,000 square kilometers (8,500 square miles). Many of the most potentially important findings are under the streets of Jerusalem, the site of much Biblical history, not to mention Roman, Byzantine, Islamic, Crusader and later periods. Today it’s a bustling city of 750,000 people.

        Israel is so replete with archeological history that builders can’t begin construction until the archeologists have been called in. That’s an extensive and time-consuming process. Further complicating matters are religious sensitivities. Key sites, like the Temple Mount, or Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem’s Old City, are off-limits to archeological digging altogether.”

        I wonder if the programme will mention this. Let’s see.

           0 likes

  36. pounce_uk says:

    I don’t know about you guys, but I’m getting pretty sick of the bBCs coverage of Japan. Don’t get me wrong, it is a disaster and as such should get reported, but come on having different people regurgitating the same story time and time again. It is now approx 72 hours since the quake hit and yet the bBC only reports the negative aspects of the story.(Along with the same pictures of waves rushing in land)  Has anybody seen the bbC report on how the country is responding. You know that Japan which trains on a yearly basis on how to react to such an event. The same Japan which in 1995 saw over 6000 deaths in another earthquake. What lessons did Japan learn from Kobe which have been implemented now. How has the country responded? Why no coverage of the help from US forces?  

    Then there is the current ongoing coverage of the nuclear plants. Is it me or is the bBC concentrating on one of the lesser aspects of the current situation in which to push and promote its own leftwing anti nuke agenda in the Uk. Yes the bbC which has no problem promoting that everybody has a right to nuclear power when it comes to Iran, is surreptitiously saying that if Japan didn’t rely so much on Nuclear power then they wouldn’t have to worry right now.  


    Lastly only at the bBC would some smug twat ask somebody living in Japan if the authorities are up to the job.

    Everything the bBC has aired is negative, negative, negative. But hey what else should I expect from ansgt filled liberals.

       0 likes

  37. George R says:


    BBC-NUJ’s extravagance, and its ‘cuts’.


    Will BBC-NUJ make the following cuts? Or will THOMPSON renege on them, as he has apparently reneged on his promise to close down its apartheid radio station, ASIAN NETWORK, due, according to him, for closure in 2011?

    “Wimbledon, F1 and Lineker are under threat as BBC bid to save £40million”

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-1365699/Wimbledon-F1-Gary-Lineker-threat-BBC-bid-save-40million.html#ixzz1GV8LkAXM

     ‘Daily Mail’, summer, 2010:

    “BBC summer junket: 1,000 staff in splurge on Wimbledon, the World Cup and Glastonbury”

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1288436/BBC-staff-splurge-Wimbledon-World-Cup-Glastonbury.html#ixzz1GV6n4DV2

    Will BBC-NUJ spend more of our money on the 2012 London Olympics than it did on those of Beijing?

       0 likes

  38. Craig says:

    The BBC’s instant experts on Japan – BBC reporters and presenters themselves – were getting in a bit of a tangle on this morning’s Broadcasting House.

    There was the BBC’s Shanghai correspondent Chris Hogg getting his figures wrong:

    “I can update you. In the last few minutes they’ve said that the total number of people they’ve moved from that plant is more than half a million people now, something like 5.3 million people have been removed from the surrounding area.”

    And then getting the date of the 2004 Asian tsunami wrong:

    “…scenes of utter devastation. It recalls the pictures that we saw as a result of the 2000 tsunami in South East Asia and elsewhere.”

    The programme’s presenter (Paddy O’Connell) stepped in to correct the first error (“Mmm, and just a point of clarification, it’s 500,000 people you’re saying, not 5 million which we may have heard from you there”) but not the second before going on to make an (uncorrected) error of his own:

    “Just as the sea can wreak havoc, in the history it has saved Japan. I believe Genghis Khan’s fleet was sunk and Japan was not taken over by Mongol hordes and the sea has been the saviour as well as wreaking havoc.”

    It was Kublai Khan’s fleet that was sunk by the ‘divine wind’.

    Such slips happen, and I’m in danger of sounding like Dez here.

       0 likes

    • John Horne Tooke says:

      Excelent Craig – it shows how the BBC “reporters” open their mouths without engaging the brain.

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    • hippiepooter says:

      “and I’m in danger of sounding like Dez here”

      That would be a dezaster!

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  39. George R says:

    INBBC : its permanent hatred for Israel, and its censorship of Gazan Islamic jihad murderers.


    In the following propaganda ‘report’, INBBC decides to mix up, confuse and deflect the story of:

             1.) the brutal Islamic jihad murders of an Israeli family,

    with    2.) Israel’s plans to build houses.

    INBBC headline (omitting Islamic jihad murders of Israeli family):

    “Israel approves new Jewish settler homes in West Bank”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12725487

    In its nasty political propaganda on the Islamic jihad murders (the words ‘Islamic jihad’ do not exist for INBBC), it is noticeable that INBBC also censors this:

    Gaza: Muslims pass out candy to celebrate brutal murder of Israeli family

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  40. John Anderson says:

    Of course the news has been dominated by the Japanese disaster.  But at the end of the day,  it is what we used to term an “Act of God”,  caused by unavoidable shifts of tectonic plates.

    But the massacre of a family was an act of man – or rather “men”.  So in some measure its sheer callousness is just as newsworthy.  I listen a lot to the BBC but have not really heard any mention of it.  And from posts here it seems the BBC has played it down – flavour being that it is the Joos own fault ?   Failing to report on the grisly celebrations in Gaza,  which the BBC knows full well about given its obsession with of Gaza,  is inexcusable.

    The BBC’s immense news organisation has certainly failed to infom me properly about this tragedy,  whereas I find plentiful reports on the news-aggregation websites I visit.

    The blunt fact is that the BBC deliberately plays down this sort of story.   The link here gives me the real flavour of what happened,  the utter heartlessness of the attackers.  Don’t link if you don’t want the upsetting images :

    http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/03/028585.php

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    • John Horne Tooke says:

      When an act of nature causes devistation it is truly horrible. Where people murder inocent children it is nothing but pure evil.

      John is right. The sheer evilness cannot be ignored.
      These people are beyond the pale. Can you imagine any other culture that celebrates the deaths of innocent people?

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      • hippiepooter says:

        And only in the Muslim world:-



        I wonder if this mentality has any bearing on the conduct of Muslim youths in our country?  I know my answer.

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      • hippiepooter says:

        And only in the Muslim world:-



        I wonder if this mentality has any bearing on the conduct of Muslim youths in our country?  I know my answer.

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  41. Roland Deschain says:

    James Delingpole has noticed the Beeb’s bias.

    “The BBC, unsurprisingly, appears to have decided that potential nuclear disaster is the single most important aspect of the entire story.”

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    • Guest Who says:

      I have certain doubts about nuclear myself, but more around the less than certain means of disposing of its waste.

      But the hysteria being whipped up by the MSM, especially those who get their story lines via twitter from those they follow or who have direct access to their iPhones, is wearing.

      Engineering involves risk.

      Every ‘reporter’ headed for Japan to consume rooms and resources, or pontificating away based on a researcher’s grasp of a Greenpeace press release, might give pause to think that climbing aboard a plane is not a guarantee of 100% safety.

      Yet those weekend midnight doubles matches on the grounds of Majorcan villas would not be possible without accepting that, to advance life experiences, stuff can go pear-shaped.

      Whilst a radiation leak is an awful potential consequence – of a magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami – and for sure part of the story, for now I simply need to know how I can help by getting what’s needed to the right folk fastest.

      It would appear the BBC, and others, are more into disaster porn mode still, with added petty agenda to top it all off.

      Most non-MSM discussions I have read concede that things are bad, but this is no Chernobyl. 

      Not sure I trust any government much these days, but the word of a bunch of media studies grads I trust even less, especially if from the BBC.

      Hence the quote from the bald bloke in a blazer (‘their ‘man’ in Tokyo – is it a uniform?) just now seems extraordinary: ‘I have spoken to a few expatriates here (guessing lack of Japanese precluding actually interacting with the locals) and they feel they are not being told everything’.

      So, unattributed guesswork from a comfort zone for a national broadcaster of one country to accuse the government of another of some pretty serious stuff, at a point where unity and support may be more helpful than division.

      Nice one, Aunty. If… unique.

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      • Guest Who says:

        SKY are marginally more objective on the science, but the obsession with ratings is pretty much driving their ‘reporting’.

        Just saw a ident that summarises their footage thus far, including the explosion at the nuke planet. A small thing, but I was surprised that there was added audio. Only it wasn’t, it was a SFX soundbed added ‘for effect’.

        Such as this is not in the realms of news. Nor is endless interviews with distraught relatives.

        [click]

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      • hippiepooter says:

        An excellent phone-in by Nicky Campbell on nuclear power this morning.  A recording should be up and running about 9:30

        http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/bbc_radio_five_live

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  42. Guest Who says:

    Good use of air miles and carbon offsets…?

    r4today BBC Radio 4 Today This morning’s programme being co-presented by Sarah Montague in London and James Naughtie in #Japan

    Just what Japan needs, more English-speaking ‘reporters’ to spread doubt about their government at this juncture.

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