175 Responses to Open Thread

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  1. Biodegradable says:
    April 15, 2011 at 4:55 am

    The BBC and Jon Donnison, never letting a chance to promote Hamas as the good guys slip by:

    Italian activist found dead in Gaza after abduction

    He was the first foreigner kidnapped in Gaza since BBC journalist Alan Johnston was snatched in 2007.

    Strictly speaking that may be true but what about Gilad Shalit who’s spending his fifth year as a captive? When it suited the BBC/Hamas narrative they talked about his abduction as having happened “near the border” leading their audience to believe that Gilad was actually in Gaza.

    Donnison’s bottom line:

    Hamas had been credited with eliminating the threat of kidnapping in Gaza until his abduction.

    I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again now; I’m convinced that part of the deal to get Alan Johnston released was that the BBC would play Hamas’s game and promote their propaganda in order to guarantee the safety of their “journalists”.

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  2. Llew says:
    April 15, 2011 at 6:57 am

    BBC Breakfast show. Here we go again.

    Free school dinners for all children in a Peckham school. They bring on the headmaster who is doing it and next to him they have an ex headmistress who surprise, surprise is also in favour of it. Other than finding out that council tax payers are funding this (£millions), no other questioning about the cost is made. EMail after email is read out, every one supporting the scheme but not a single one questioning the scheme or asking if the tax payers can afford to fund it – now I know at least one questioning email was sent in because I sent it.

    Clearly the BBC think it’s a good idea so they made sure it was presented as such. It must be a Labour council running the scheme (Southwark) as if it had been Tory one they would have brought in at least 2 mouths to oppose/balance the story. 

    Oh and they did manage to mention the cuts again – this scheme will apparently help the people who are being squeezed by the terrible cuts (but never mind everyone else who is also being squeeze a bit more just to fund it!)

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    • My Site (click to edit) says:
      April 15, 2011 at 7:28 am

      One suspects an MSM-wide press release has gone out, as this sounds pretty similar to SKY, whose slant was that kids are turning up too weak from hunger to think straight.

      If true that is a real issue, but behind the teleprompter dollies reading the cuts, Cuts, CUTS!!! hardship scripts, might it be too much to wonder if some intrepid reporters might track back to where there are real food on the table choices being made, and where the last thing to be torn from their cold, malnourished hands is the XBox remote?

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  3. My Site (click to edit) says:
    April 15, 2011 at 8:35 am

    One suspects this chappie, and the paper he is writing for, will not be deemed representative of national views when it comes to ‘guest’ ‘expert’ ‘commentary over the next few days…

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1377103/David-Camerons-immigration-speech-Why-BBC-STILL-hideously-biased.html

    I’m guessing a nice young firebrand from a niche viewpoint, working for a publication struggling to push readership from the 5 figure levels it gains from freebies and support from the BBC, will be deemed much more of a finger on the pulse.

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  4. My Site (click to edit) says:
    April 15, 2011 at 8:58 am

    Always find it fun when the BBC and its moppets fall between two stools.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/maggieshiels/2011/04/facebook_and_king_coal.html

    The comments, thus far, are shaping up well.

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:
      April 15, 2011 at 2:18 pm

      Is this a report or an advertisement?  I can’t tell.

      But I sent in the following comment anyway:

      Seems like we should all thank Gaia for good old Mrs. Thatcher for closing all those coal mines.  If we truly know for a fact that coal is the number one contributor to climate change, then she did a great service to humanity and the planet.  Surely that’s more important than petty politics.

      Let’s see the moderators work that one out.

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      • David Preiser (USA) says:
        April 15, 2011 at 3:01 pm

        Hey, they allowed my comment through after all.  Probably the first time this sentiment has ever been expressed on the BBC website.

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  5. My Site (click to edit) says:
    April 15, 2011 at 9:29 am

    Meanwhile, over at the market rate talent quarter…

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2011/04/browne_not_going_to_glencore.html

    Seems those feeding him scoops are less reliable than they once were?

    One supposes this is the difference between journalism and the passing on of stuff that counts as reporting at the BBC.

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:
      April 15, 2011 at 2:36 pm

      Peston made his bones as a City gossip.  He’s not going to stop just because his sources are wrong somtimes.  Still, this isn’t as bad as his biography subject actually using him to float a trial balloon about raising VAT and then double-crossing him on it.  Peston had to pretend it never happened.

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  6. George R says:
    April 15, 2011 at 12:06 pm

    For all INBBC’s Mary Poppins reporters of Cairo:

    Egyptians alarmed over rise in influence of Islamic supremacist pro-Sharia forces

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:
      April 15, 2011 at 2:37 pm

      A bit late, no?  I guess they never saw those Cairo University photos.

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  7. A says:
    April 15, 2011 at 8:03 pm

    What’s happened to Any Questions tonight?

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  8. John Horne Tooke says:
    April 15, 2011 at 8:44 pm

    “It doesn’t matter how you dress it up. We have had enough.”
    http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2011/04/intellectual-mildew.html

    Can’t add anything to that.

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  9. George R says:
    April 15, 2011 at 11:52 pm

    INBBC censors IMMIGRATION debate by still playing the race card:


    “Why is the BBC STILL so hideously biased on immigration?”

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1377103/David-Camerons-immigration-speech-Why-BBC-STILL-hideously-biased.html#ixzz1JdSWERjV

    And, INBBC particularly censors this: –

    “Who is to blame for fractured Britain”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8451917/Who-is-to-blame-for-fractured-Britain.html

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  10. My Site (click to edit) says:
    April 16, 2011 at 6:28 am

    Educate and inform guys…  
     
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/8455118/Talksport-challenges-BBC-Radio-5-Lives-fluffy-news-content.html  
     
    ‘The trust report said that the complaint “raises some significant and valid questions about what constitutes news on 5 Live ‘  
     
    Indeed. And, further, how actual ‘news’ when constituted is handled in an objective manner.  
     
    Meanwhile the comments would suggest the likes of Messrs Bacon & Nolan are not appreciated for their impartial professionalism.    Today, 07:27:01 BST

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  11. My Site (click to edit) says:
    April 16, 2011 at 6:35 am

    O/T-ish, but I have not seen this on the BBC (yet), and if and when it is, one wonders to what extent their idealogical soulmates will be challenged upon the comparsion:

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/8454765/Labour-entirely-isolated-by-Barack-Obamas-deficit-cuts-says-George-Osborne.html

    Having read the comments as well, one wonders how such as Messrs Peston or Mason might address this, or will the simply ignore it in favour of cosying up to UKUncut activist planning their next spectacular at a country retreat?

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  12. My Site (click to edit) says:
    April 16, 2011 at 7:10 am

    An interesting inside insight to QT (way past my bedtime):

    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/cristinaodone/100083988/what-you-didnt-see-on-question-time-last-night/

    Many of the comments interesting too.

    I also picked up on this: ‘What the television audience did not see, as it was expertly edited out of the pre-recorded programme’

    How does that work, live?

    All in all it sounds about as close to live reality as Big Brother.

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  13. NRG says:
    April 16, 2011 at 7:27 am

    5 minutes of Today – evil government using CPI inflation measure rather then higher RPI measure to cheat public sector pensioners out of even more massive pensions. Public Sector Union mouthpeice given free ride to spew his parasitic filfth.

    Not mentioned

    CPI introduced by Labour to disguise real inflaiton – union parasites hoist by their own pertard.

    Public sector pensions crippling rest of the country

    No alternative comment or view allowed.

    BBC / public sector socialist brothers in full on propaganda mode.

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  14. George R says:
    April 16, 2011 at 9:59 am

    “Something to watch for as the BBC’s election coverage gets under way”

    (Daniel Hannan)

    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/100083953/something-to-watch-for-as-the-bbcs-election-coverage-gets-underway/

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  15. George R says:
    April 16, 2011 at 10:19 am

    BBC-NUJ: officially (by NUJ policy) anti-English Defence League.


    In this item, BBC-NUJ manages to:

    (a) not say what the proposed EDL demo in Blackpool is about, i.e. this:

    “English Defence League (EDL) Blackpool Demo: Justice for Charlene Downes”

    http://www.libertiesalliance.org/2011/03/27/english-defence-league-edl-blackpool-demo-justice-for-charlene-downes/

    (b) in last sentence, below, manages to put cost of a previous demo elsewhere at the door of EDL, without mentioning the presence and cost of UAF.

    “English Defence League postpones Blackpool march”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-13096850

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  16. hippiepooter says:
    April 16, 2011 at 12:09 pm

    Major, major news.  What have the BBC to say about it?  
     
    Nowt online that I can see.

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    • Umbongo says:
      April 16, 2011 at 2:53 pm

      Maybe you should try “glasman”.  There is mention of him on the BBC site but not, funnily enough, the “major news” you reveal.  Mind you, as I recall, there were always days – even weeks – of delay before a revelation contrary or just embarrassing to Soviet interests was spun (or just suppressed) by Pravda.  OTOH I don’t recall Pravda boasting about its “impartiality” in its coverage of Soviet or international events.

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  17. George R says:
    April 16, 2011 at 12:15 pm

    “Talksport challenges BBC Radio 5 Live’s ‘fluffy’ news content ”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/8455118/Talksport-challenges-BBC-Radio-5-Lives-fluffy-news-content.html

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  18. james1070 says:
    April 16, 2011 at 6:11 pm

    Viva la Revolution. The BBC is still celebrating the victory of Castro on that island paradise of Cuba.

    But it was amusing to hear the reporter saying that Castro had to implement cuts because socialism had failed.

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