163 Responses to OPEN THREAD…

  1. As I See It says:

    I was just about to post this thought on the riot aftermath and to head it as ‘prediction’….

    Well Radio 5 beat me to it.

    First the BBC gave a political platform to their favourite Common Purpose Blairite top cops to attack Government policy.

    Next I noticed yesterday some news reports on riot sentences being handed down. The BBC commentators were already saying ‘these are sure to be challenged on appeal’.

    So sure enough, here we go….plenty of BBC/Labour narrative being aired ‘knee-jerk reaction’, ‘the bankers get away with it’….. and so it goes.

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  2. Deborah says:

    I think London’s Calling post which is the last one on the previous open thread should be reposted as he gives examples of who considers the rioters sentences ‘too harsh’.

    I can just see the BBC managing this bandwagon – which is not in tune with the general population

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    • As I See It says:

      That group will be sure to be the BBC speed dial list then.

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    • London Calling says:

      Hattip Deborah!

      BBC up to its old tricks again. Miffed at being unable to keep calling rioters “protesters”, payback time, “Some sentences too severe” for those riots in nasty old England

      “Some of the sentences given to those involved in last week’s riots in England are criticised as too harsh by MPs and campaigners”

      Let’s see who says “too severe”

      Three professional bleeding hearts:
      The Howard League for Penal Reform (CEO improbable name of Frances Crook)
      Prison Reform Trust
      Justice (quoted from the Guardian)
      One MP: Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake
      One lawyer: John Cooper QC – “shortlisted as Human Rights Barrister of the Year 2008”

      Out of this confection bBC contrive one headline “(Some) sentences too severe” Perhaps “Public say some sentences not severe enough” might be more appropriate but that is not how bBC thinks.

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      This is why they keep reminded you of that kid sentenced to 6 months for stealing a bottle of water.  What about the vast majority of them?  Surely that’s what the public really wants to know.

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  3. George R says:

    “Paris and Berlin launch a coup to control eurozone, demanding rights to dictate economic policy”

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2026540/Euro-debt-summit-Angela-Merkel-Nicolas-Sarkozy-want-dictate-economic-policy.html#ixzz1VGyMcmJ8

    Doesn’t this fit with BBC-NUJ-Patten propaganda to end national sovereignty, and to campaign for a fully federal European Union (transformed by further mass Islamic immigration from North Africa and Turkey)?

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  4. Sres says:

    This morning I was listening to R4 while scanning my twitter feed when up pops a tweet from SkyNews saying that some company are in the process of a hostile take over of Fosters.

    Within a few minutes of this tweet there was a story on R4 about said hostile take over.

    Then a few minutes after that SkyNews Corrected saying it wasn’t a Hostile take over.

    Further news bulletins by the BBC had dropped the whole story.

    Are the BBC looking more and more to twitter for their news?

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    • Louis Robinson says:

      Nice catch Sres – but here’s a little secret. When I wokred at a commercial radio station in the South of England we knew the local BBC station monitored us so we put out false stories – heard them being repeated – and then we retracted them. Don’t tell anyone but it’s a fun game and also verification that the opposition is stealing (unchecked) your stories.

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  5. George R says:

    Mass immigration, diversity, and changing Britain:
    BBC-NUJ looks away.

    ‘Daily Mail’:

    “Immigration officer comes home to find family of Romanian gypsies squatting in her house, wearing her clothes and drinking her wine”

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2026723/Immigration-officer-Julia-High-finds-Romanian-gypsies-squatting-home.html#ixzz1VH3W2TmH

    And if BBC-NUJ did report this, who would it support: the perpetrator or the victim of the crime? No prizes.

    Now, if this happened to a Beeboid’s home….

    Supplementary report:

    ‘Daily Telegraph’:
    “Gipsies move into immigration officer’s home while she spent night away at Proms”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/8704896/Gipsies-move-into-immigration-officers-home-while-she-spent-night-away-at-Proms.html

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    • George R says:

      So, BBC-NUJ note, Romanian immigrants (see above) will shift from Spain to e.g. Britain:

      “EU allows crisis-hit Spain to restrict Romanian workers”

      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/8695688/EU-allows-crisis-hit-Spain-to-restrict-Romanian-workers.html

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      • My Site (click to edit) says:

        NUJ guidelines are completely at odds with honest, accurate reporting. 

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      • james1070 says:

        LOL, there is a God after all. Reminds me of that Viz comic strip all those years ago.

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      • RGH says:

        Romanian Passport holders but actually ‘Roma’.

        As Passport holders, free movement applies for up to three months in another member state.

        After 3 months the right lapses if EU citizen cannot demonstrate to the local authority that they have sufficient funds and health insurance as required of citizens of that country. Britain is easy on the health because of the NHS. Other countries have income related contributions.

        By not fulfilling the requirements of the Treaty, the EU citizen can be asked to leave the country. The right can only be exercised if the EU citizen fulfills the qualification for that right.

        What doesn’t the BBC get about that?.

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    • London Calling says:

      The Romanians on the move ( I exclude the good hard-working qualified ones that moved to London to take up employment) are a blight throughout Europe. Mostly they are not as daring as these squatters. You see extended families making their home in public parks and doorways, the day spent in organised begging, pickpocketing and shoplifting. Nicolae Ceaușescu’s legacy, wished on us by Brusssels. Insane decision.


      Cameron says he could (if Clegg lets him) make squatting illegal by next April. FFS next April! What would you do if you found your home invaded and occupied by these vermin? Apparently you can do nothing. Untouchable. Thirteen years of inaction and faulty laws drafted by lawyers of every stripe.

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      • pounce_uk says:

        I wrote about this on my blog last night. I ended with if this was me, I would call the police, only after I had slit the throats of every theiving gipsy bastard (Including the children) Harsh maybe, but I didn’t work bloody hard in which to allow f-ing these theiving lot to take what is mine. The good news is that due to weak British alws I’ll be out and about within a few years and the message would be sent out to these crooks that payback is a bitch in the UK.

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        • London Calling says:

          Steady on pounce, in these troubled times a whip round for your bail could be a problem. I am no lawyer but this very interesting advice turned up in tonights London ES letters page , which if true, makes the plod look once again like they just want an easy life. I quote the letter, as apparently Romanian squatting gangs are becoming more and more common:

          ..”once again the police have failed to uphold the law. Under the 1977 Criminal Law Act, Ms High is a “displaced residential occupier” All she has to do was swear an affadavit stating her position and the police could have turfed the occupiers out. There is no point in having more legislation if the police neglect to use existing powers” Michou

          Rather than look for a solution to aid the victim, the police seem to strive to avoid doing anything and pretend it’s all the law’s fault that they are helpless. Does this have a familiar ring to it? The next Met CC is going to have his work cut out not just sorting out criminals, but sorting out his own side.

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          • David Preiser (USA) says:

            Except you have to consider which issue trumps which:  property rights of a white person vs. the Universe-given human rights of migrants of an oppressed ethnicity.  Police management has rules which instruct them as to which is more important, and they act accordingly.

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          • pounce_uk says:

            I learnt at a very young age that thugs only respect one thing and that is power. After I was taken into care I found my nemesis posted into the Children’s home and as he had split my head open at school during my first year at secondary school I ensured I was always at the opposite end of the room from him. Well that was until one of the lads informed me that the thug in question had been throwing my cat at people. Really!!!
            I confronted him at the dinner table one tea time and asked him if he had been throwing ‘ginger’ around. He just looked at me in that condescending way in which bullies do, when they know there is nothing that you can do about them. He only had time to say “What are you going to do about it” before I smashed him around the head with a Heinz tomato bottle (Remember the heavy glass ones) I think I kind of lost the plot as I played at 2 aside cricket with his face being the ball and guess what he never went near Ginger again. Kind of explains why he lived to the ripe old age of 19. Now before somebody paints me as bad as the battered thug. Here’s a little more info.
            He was brought into care for cruelty to animals. Whilst in the home, he killed a hedgehog by chopping it in half with a spade. The fact that he did so in front of a woman and child didn’t prevent the so called social workers from saying it was a shout for help. Which prevented him from getting sent down until he did it again. So yes there was a reason why I rearranged his face 57 different ways over my cat and when I saw him sobbing afterwards I realised that bullies can only bully you if you give them power to do so. Nobody has ever bullied me since and nobody ever will.
            Not bad for a very small Paki lad at the tender age of 14.

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        • Reed says:

          Have a look at the scale of this problem – often featured on my local (Anglia) News. This time mostly Irish ‘travellers’.

          http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-14017865

          http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/uttlesford_s_town_and_parishes_on_alert_from_fall_out_of_dale_farm_gypsy_camp_eviction_1_959883

          This all started over 10 years ago – and no-one did anything about it despite regular complaints from locals, who I suspect were just dismissed as [insert label here]. Shame on those that refused to act and have let it get to this stage. The cost of eviction will be enormous and it looks like they won’t go without a fight. One local resident, whose (legal)home backs onto the park, recounted his struggle through planning permission to build a small extension to his house. Yet over the fence of his back garden was an entire village of illegally built bungalows that no-one has ever done anything to prevent.

          The thing that pisses me off – why call yourselves ‘travellers’ if you resent moving on?! Surely moving on is the defining trait of your lifestyle. These people are just chancers – using a bogus minority description in the knowledge that in out PC age this will be a trump card to impunity. Guess what : they were right. Until now.  Change of government? Or am I being opportunistic to call this another poisonous legacy of New Labour? Over to you…

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        • Millie Tant says:

          I cannot see what some of the comments on this thread have to do with Beeboid bias.

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          • Reed says:

            The left-of-centre, PC bias exemplified by the BBC extends far beyond the state broadcaster. On an open thread people tend to wander into these other areas. The PC brigade have many outreach officers.

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  6. pounce_uk says:

    The bBC and how it promotes its anti-Semitic stance by telling a tale of Two Cities.  
    Israel-Palestinian conflict writ large on road signs  
    The increasingly heated dispute over place names in Israel underlies a much greater political struggle, the BBC’s Yolande Knell explains from Jerusalem.”Where are you going?” asked the friendly, but slightly over-familiar, Jewish-Israeli boy sitting next to me on the plane from London.”I work in Jerusalem,” I replied. His smile instantly turned to a scowl. “It’s not Jerusalem,” he said. “It’s Yerushalayim”.”That’s in Hebrew, but in English we say Jerusalem,” I protested and I was about to add – somewhat mischievously – that my Palestinian friends refer to it as “al-Quds” – the Arabic name for the city.  
    Note how the bBC describes the boy; “Slightly over familiar, Jewish –Israeli, Scowl. All negative connotations Now contrast how Knell describes his Palestinian friends. Exactly, nothing Negative or Islamic about them. Since when have we started attaching the religion identity to peoples statehood, you can be Israeli, not be Jewish and still speak Hebrew . But apparently at the bBC speaking Hebrew is now as bad as being a Jew. Has the bbC ever written an article where it starts with Islamic Pakistanis, No. Has it ever written an article about Islamic Syrians No, Yet it feels it can when it comes to the Jews, who because of the hate which is promoted at the bBC towards them face growing intolerance in the Uk. But not content with just that the bBC have not only vilified anybody who is an Israeli, but also anybody who speaks Hebrew.

    This is how the bBC brain washes the plebs into hating the Jew. Would the bBC write such a negative article about the Muslims of Brick Lane East London where road signs are in Bengali?  Silly me the bBC would refer to them simply as British.
     
     
    The bBC and how it promotes its anti-Semitic stance by telling a tale of Two Cities.  

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    • deegee says:

      Bombay ~ Mumbai?
      Peking ~ Beijing?
      Saigon ~ Ho Chi Minh City?

      Israel hardly invented the name game.

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      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        Even if the Jews did invent it, they did it 3000 years ago.  The city was called Yerushalayim since like 950 BC (at least).  The Arabic name for it can’t have existed before 633 AD, as it’s only called “The Holy” because of its association with one of Mohammed’s fever dreams.

        Who’s the recent interloper imposing names again, BBC?

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    • Biodegradable says:

      I thought that piece was familiar, in fact it was first broadcast as part of “From Our Own Correspondent” earlier this month:
      http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00j6vft#synopsis

      TrueToo picked up on it here, 08/05/2011, 23:34:19 (page 4)

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    • Cassandra King says:

      “but slightly over-familiar, Jewish-Israeli boy sitting next to me on the plane from London.”

      Oh how awful for this poor beeboid eh? Just wait until he tells his ‘Palestinian’ friends about it.

      There were Nazis more circumspect in their hatred of Jews, this scumbag sounds as if sitting next to a Jew was tantamount to sitting next to a sewer rat.

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  7. RGH says:

    Yolanda Knell is a BBC journalist. An organisation which defines and justifies its status on the basis of its impartiality. On this site we call that boast and identify not merely instances where the emplyees fall short, but consistent patterns which reveal the bias.

    All writing carries messages.  This example shows this clearly. My highlights.

    “The increasingly heated dispute over place names in Israel underlies a much greater political struggle, the BBC’s Yolande Knell explains from Jerusalem.
    “Where are you going?” asked the friendly, but slightly over-familiar, Jewish-Israeli boy sitting next to me on the plane from London.
    “I work in Jerusalem,” I replied.
    His smile instantly turned to a scowl. “It’s not Jerusalem,” he said. “It’s Yerushalayim”.
    “That’s in Hebrew, but in English we say Jerusalem,” I protested and I was about to add – somewhat mischievously – that my Palestinian friends refer to it as “al-Quds” – the Arabic name for the city.
    But at that point, the boy’s little sister spilled orange juice over his lap. Our conversation was cut short.

    Yolanda chose this anecdote. Like most career women she doesn’t relate to children as children. She derives a snooty schadenfreude that the boy’s little sister spilt the juice on ‘his’ lap. He was, of course, a Jewish boy. Over familiar. Precocious.Cocky.

    The whole thrust of the peice was a faux attempt to illustrate the identity aspect of Jerusalem (and by extension Israel as a Jewish state).

    Names for locations are important. Look at the road signs in Scotland (Alba) as the BBC labels the news from that region. Is it Königsberg or Kaliningrad. Danzig or Gdansk. Bozen or Bolzano.

    The issue is about identity and Yolanda has primed her readers for her message. That message is that the Arab identity is being ‘erased’ .

    continued next post

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    • RGH says:

      She choose as her interlocutor, a ‘Palestinian’ activist named Huda. The location is Sheik Jarrah. Named after a tomb.

      “Huda points out the landmarks that suggest her neighbourhood’s vibrant Arab history.” informs us Yolanda. The use of ‘vibrant’ as we know is highly charged in the liberal stock of adjectives. It has emerged in the past 15 years to ‘sell’ an idea. We all know how and when it is used.

      ‘Vibrant’.

      Let’s see. She then launches into falsehood.

      “occupied by Israel in 1967 and is still a mainly Arab area”

      Occupied by Israel in 1967. Yes. Still an Arab area. Yes.

      But what is the truth about the Sheik Jarrah area.

      At the Ottoman census of 1905, the Sheikh Jarrah nahiye (sub-district) consisted of the Muslim quarters of Sheikh Jarrah, Hayy el-Huseyni, Wadi el Joz and Bab ez-Zahira, and the Jewish quarters of Shim’on Hatsadik and Nahalat Shim’on.

      Its population was counted as 167 Muslim families, 97 Jewish families, and 6 Christian families.It contained the largest concentration of Muslims outside the Old City.In 1918 the Sheikh Jarrah quarter contained about 30 houses.

      A mixed neighbourhood not merely ‘Arab’ and certainly not ‘Palestinian’ as the term did not exist at that time.

      In 1956, the Jordanian  government moved  Arab  families into Sheikh Jarrah who were displaced from their homes in Israeli-held Jerusalem during the Israeli War of Independence. As permanent ownership transfer was illegal under the  Fourth Geneva Convention, the area was placed under the jurisdiction of the Jordanian Authorities but ownership remained with the original Jewish inhabitants. From 1956 to 1967, the Jordanians administered the area from which Jews had been ‘physically’ excluded without extinguishing the property rights.

      During the Si Day War  of 1967, Israel captured East Jerusalem, including Sheikh Jarrah. In 1972, the Sephardic Community Committee and the Knesset Yisrael Committee went to court to reclaim their property in the neighborhood.

      In 1982, they demanded rent for this property and the Supreme Court ruled in their favour.ruled in their favor. The Arab tenants tenants were allowed to remain as long as they paid rent.

      Yolanda chose this area to illustrate her argument and listened to ‘activist! Huda.

      She is the correspondent based in Jerusalem. She is wilfully ignorant of the facts. And is paid to offer an impartial view.

      She doesn’t.

      Her piece is propaganda. Pure and simple. Bias. pure and simple.

      A nasty piece of writing.

      I am not Jewish by the way. I am a historian by training. I like objectivity particularly in reporting current events as important as the Middle East.

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14515035

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      • matthew rowe says:

        Great post !

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        • Grant says:

          Of course, we have no independent verification that Yolanda’s story about the Jewish boy was true. Of course, journalists would never invent a story  !  Especially BBC journalists.  

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          • RGH says:

            The story of the jewish boy set the emotional tone.  A classic  tactic  for a polemical piece. She prepared her ground well and set the emotional tone. She pulls the reader into a receptive state of mind for her message couched in spurious objectivity.

            Marketing is manipulation. The ’emotional’ is the way in. It softens the reader up for the main message. Her reference to ‘my Palestinian friends say…’  leads into her activist ‘Huda’ who is described as ‘

            “For Huda Imam, a well-known, energetic Palestinian activist born in the Sheikh Jarrah area of East Jerusalem, such pronouncements are worrying.”

            Remenber the jewish boy and ‘”Yerushalayim”. Huda is where the polemical trap snaps. You have arrived at the point she intends you to reach. Huda is ‘born’ in Jarrah. She is ‘energetic’ she is ‘worried’

            What worries her is ‘Yerushalayim’ .

            Huda is an Arab nationalist for whom ‘Palestinian’ is identity based weapon of choice.

            . She has issues beyond just sensitivities. The neighbourhood was historically a location for Jews , Muslims and Christian Arabs. The properties were Jewish before 1948. The Arabs were tenants. The Jewish Shrine is mentioned  but is merely ‘thought’ to be an ‘ancient’ Hebrew priest  tells us Yolanda, but the Muslim one is of a ‘surgeon’ to Saladin.  This reinforces  the Arab nationalist concept that ;

            “Islam had not always been in a “sorry state” and attributed the military triumphs and cultural glories of the Arabs to the advent of the religion, insisting that European modernism itself was of Islamic origin. The Arabs, on the other hand, had deviated from true Islam and thus suffered decline. The reforming Ottoman and Egyptian governments were blamed for the situation because they attempted to borrow Western practices from the Europeans that were seen as unnatural and corrupt. The Arab patriots’ view was that the Islamic governments should revive true Islam that would in turn, pave way for the establishment of constitutional representative government and freedom which, though Islamic in origin, was manifested in the West at the time.”

            The bias is quite blatant.

            The reality is that ‘Sheik Jarrah’ shows no evidence of Arab ‘vibrancy’. A mixed community owned by Jews before the Ottoman empire collapsed. With Arab ‘tenants’ paying rent and a Jordanian settlement of Arabs from elsewhere in the city when the Jordanian authorities contolled the area between 1956 and 1967.

            Yolanda is up to her neck in bias.

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            • Grant says:

              Brilliant sries of posts, RGH !

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            • Louis Robinson says:

              RGH, Wonderful analysis.
              PS: IN the name game, shouldn’t we be calling call “Palestine” Judea?

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            • Grant says:

              Re-reading RGH’s posts, i note that Yolanda refers to  ” my Palestinian friends”.  I wonder if she ever refers to “my Jewish friends”   ?

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              • Biodegradable says:

                Only when she says, “Moi an antisemite!? Some of my best friends are Jewish!”

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  8. Martin says:

    Poor Radio 5, they are peddling the line that the ‘protesters’ sorry rioters are being treated harshly, especially the Facbook morons. Perhaps the BBC are worried that their lefty tweeting might be picked up next?

    So Radio 5 have had a barage of texts in support of the prison sentances being handed out. But as usual the BBC don’t like this so they wheel out the usual wet liberals to try to ‘correct’ public opinion. But it’s not working.

    We even get the BBC to wheel out a fake ‘lawyer’ called Osama of all people who sounds more like a drug dealer than a lawyer.

    I might go on the BBC as a ‘wet liberal Guardian reader’ I wonder if I can pull that lie off as well.

    Now on the news Radio 5 are saying that ‘opinion is divided’. Yes divided as in 90% in favour of the sentances and 10% against.

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    • Daniel Clucas says:

      Hopefully this little scrote (ex of Indie) will have his collar felt:
      https://twitter.com/#!/jodymcintyre/status/99948381912313857

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      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        I wonder why the BBC has censored news of what McIntyre did?  They sure gave plenty of air time to him when the police moved him out of his wheelchair when he was involved in the “student” riots.  He was a poster boy for the whole “police brutality” meme last time.  Now, how about it, BBC?  Why is he not news now?

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  9. John Anderson says:

    By far the biggest news from Europe yesterday was the latest on the Euro mess.   But the BBC World Service relegated all that momentous stuff,  and led with a lengthy re-run of all the Murdoch stuff,  including several minutes of John Preston frothing at the mouth.

    Agenda ?  What agenda ?

    It seems to me that the whole BBC news organisation has a visceral hatred of the Murdochs and News International.

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  10. radiodaze10 says:

    Anyone got any ideas for a new BBC motto?

    Here’s mine:

    The BBC – we know better than you because we are better than you

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  11. Abandon Ship! says:

    And you thought Horrible Histories are biased!

    BBC history magazine podcasts – they can sometimes be interesting, but as you might expect, much of the material has a touch of the Mary Seacoles/self hating liberalism about it:

    Anyway, on this edition from July 1st, which I caught up with on podcast, we have Manda Scott, author (and dream/shamanism expert), delivering an absolute pile of tripe about the evils of the Roman occupation of Britain, and the beauty and perfection of pre-Roman Britain.

    http://www.historyextra.com/podcast-page

    Key quote from “historian” Manda Scott, at about 36 min, when asked about the most important and lasting effects of Roman invasion:

    “they [the Romans] brought us genocide and Christianity, the two being quite closely linked, and the subjugation of women by men, and they brought us the domestic family they broke apart tribal living in round houses and made women into chattels”

    Dream on Manda.

    And the limp reply from the BBC presenter:

    “OK”

    Such is the level of history scholarship and enquiry at the BBC History magazine. They should hang their heads in shame. Does our licence fee pay for this?

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    • RGH says:

      Miranda Scott view is, of course, nonsense.

      The British were romanising for 100 years before the Claudian invasion. The archaeology shows increasing volumes of cross-channel trade and cultural importation.

      The Celtic myth is a myth. The SE tribes of Britain were Germano-Celts speaking a Germanic language before the Romans arrived. Their ‘cousins’, the Belgae in Northern Gaul were ‘romanised’ and a ‘vibrant’ Celto-Roman culture had emerged.

      The ‘Celts’ practised slavery.

      They lived in ’round’ houses after they arrived about 600 BC displacing the long rectangulat houses which had been standard since the Neolithic early farmers. ie for over 2000 years.

      The Germanic concept of equality for women was evident only in the SE of Britain. Elsewhere it was not so rosy for the Celtic girls.

      Archaelogists show plenty of evidence of Celt on Celt violence with massacres before the Romans even left Italy. (Hill forts and mass graves from 200BC).

      The ‘tribes’ such as the Iceni, Durotriges, Coritani were kingdoms with coinage and a military caste before the Romans peeped over the Alps.

      Sorry about this list.

      The BBC should not permit the ‘New Age’ view of the past anywhere near ‘educational materials’

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      • Abandon Ship! says:

        Excellent RGH, why not submit your points to the BBC History magazine, they are always asking for e-mail comment?

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        • RGH says:

          Thanks for the compliment, Abandon Ship.

          One further point, if you permit.

          Christianity came through trade and appealed to the lower classes and women. The Roman establishment was not to keen. It was seen as ‘subversive’ and Christians were to be discouraged particularly when they formed ‘political clubs’ (Roman view). Meeting in secret  for strange rituals which no rational Roman administrator could be happy with.

          It was the ‘Roman’ women and the lower classes which ‘christianised’ around the new mystery religion.

          The Romans did not bring ‘Christianity’. It happened on their watch.

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          • RGH says:

            Last lecture (for those who like a bit of ‘real history’. Let’s look at the sources. Christians were a ‘problem’ for the Roman ruling elite.

            Let’s call on Pliny (he described the Vesuvius eruption). Letter to Trajan’s policy officials.

            “It is my practice, my lord, to refer to you all matters concerning which I am in doubt. For who can better give guidance to my hesitation or inform my ignorance? I have never participated in trials of Christians. I therefore do not know what offenses it is the practice to punish or investigate, and to what extent. And I have been not a little hesitant as to whether there should be any distinction on account of age or no difference between the very young and the more mature; whether pardon is to be granted for repentance, or, if a man has once been a Christian, it does him no good to have ceased to be one; whether the name itself, even without offenses, or only the offenses associated with the name are to be punished.
            Meanwhile, in the case of those who were denounced to me as Christians, I have observed the following procedure: I interrogated these as to whether they were Christians; those who confessed I interrogated a second and a third time, threatening them with punishment; those who persisted I ordered executed. For I had no doubt that, whatever the nature of their creed, stubbornness and inflexible obstinacy surely deserve to be punished. There were others possessed of the same folly; but because they were Roman citizens, I signed an order for them to be transferred to Rome.
            Soon accusations spread, as usually happens, because of the proceedings going on, and several incidents occurred. An anonymous document was published containing the names of many persons. Those who denied that they were or had been Christians, when they invoked the gods in words dictated by me, offered prayer with incense and wine to your image, which I had ordered to be brought for this purpose together with statues of the gods, and moreover cursed Christ–none of which those who are really Christians, it is said, can be forced to do–these I thought should be discharged. Others named by the informer declared that they were Christians, but then denied it, asserting that they had been but had ceased to be, some three years before, others many years, some as much as twenty-five years. They all worshipped your image and the statues of the gods, and cursed Christ.”

            So the Romans ‘brought’ Christianity.

            The BBC should not allow myths anywhere near educational materials or podcasts.

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    • ltwf1964 says:

      mine certainly doesn’t pay for it   😉

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    • cjhartnett says:

      Love the education I got from this small section.
      I reread the opening salvo oy yours-and was struck by the “dream/shamanic” bit…and her linking of “genocide” and “Christianity”.
      Beyond belief…and oh so Beeb!

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    • Buggy says:

      “And you thought Horrible Histories are biased!”

      The Horrible Histories twat was on BBC Breakfast this morning being fun and cuddly with nary a hint of the doctrinaire lefty class bigot he actually is, and the aggressive propogation of those opinions which are the entire motivation for his funny little books.

         0 likes

  12. Beness says:

    Steven Nolan this morning is berating the police. Backed up by all the callers so far. Very interesting.

       0 likes

    • George R says:

      BBC-NUJ campaigns for perpetrators of riots.

      So, BBC-NUJ lead headline is NOT:

      “Some England rioters  ‘too severe'”

      but is:

      “Some England riot sentences ‘too severe'”

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14553330

      Of course, BBC-NUJ supports perpetrators of riots  because, by and large, BBC-NUJ doesn’t think that rioters/protesters are to blame for riots; the blame, it is implied, should  be attached to:- capitalism, consumerism, government cuts, the police, alienation, boredom, poverty, etc.

      How often does BBC-NUJ campaign against soft sentences for crimes? Does BBC-NUJ have a soft political spot for these rioters? Does the anarchist NUJ President, Donnacha DeLong prefer these rioters to what he calls the ‘scum’ who clean up after the riots?:-

      “Drop the brooms, you capitalist scum ”

      (by Damian Thompson)

      http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100100831/drop-the-brooms-you-capitalist-scum/

         0 likes

      • Will says:

        “How often does BBC-NUJ campaign against soft sentences for crimes”

        Perhaps their enthusiasm will extend to campaigning for the removal of legal sanctions against TV owners without a TV licence.

           0 likes

        • cjhartnett says:

          Certainly they`ve just done it again on Marthas Vineyard…windfall bucket full of Todays dreary and predictable droppings!

          World at One( 35 seconds of news: 29 minutes of comment, goss, speculayshun and Beeb tropes!) had a bit from Lord Carlile…as Howard League for Penal Reform gargoyle: hardly the voice of the angry mob!
          Still hes was fair in what he said on the bit I heard-but Martha was having none of it!

          All those bottled waters that the young people borrowed in the “late night shopping that went so-tragically wrong” ravings of BBC groupthink..well, they don`t deserve custodial sentences…or i(if truth be known) absolutely no sentences at all!
          In Beebland all the rioteres ever took was bottled waters and a couple of T-shirts-well they`re the only ones Martha tells me of!
          Mon dieu-Van Diemens Land next!

          BBC can`t say this-but Lib Dems can…indeed they MUST!
          So up comes Alex, Tom and other LibDems (who now have their uses for all wannabe  Harry Corbetts in current affairs tableaux)..and it turns out that all those thirsty rioters may not have recycled the bottles in the right receptacles…why indeed with Plod heaving behind them-they might have been pressured into  NOT  recycling at all. Still there is NO actual proof that they did not-so they are innocent of that as well. See those sad little eyes and the bleeped out mum!…you heartless lot you!
          Only falure to recycle rightly carries said custodial sentences. So no charge to answer m`lud!

          So no custodial sentences allowed…but lots and lots of administration, forms, appeals and media scuttling…for this gives the fruitless  impression of activity-safe from laptops in Costas nearby…and means lots of cases for the wife/loving Other down the line!
          If any of their partners worked IN prisons…then ,my O my: there`d be LOTS of call for more custodial sentences!
          Martha does worry about all that admin and the “rush to judge”…indeed to judge at all…who amogst us to do that after all, apart from Martha and Crew?
          So the process is all-as long as it`s a dry coming without the shower please!

          One final point-no Labour gobshites telling us about sentences, job figures this lunchtime!
          At least we now know when the BBC and Labour get to hold their Common Purpose Brainstorms(long blown over!) over lunch.
          Brown bags-recycleable..and ,of course: lots of bottled waters c/o Kids Company! 

             0 likes

  13. RGH says:

    Operation ‘Get Rick Perry’ is well underway now.

    “Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry has been criticised across the political divide over remarks he made about the head of the US central bank.
    The Texas governor said on Monday he would view it as “treasonous” if Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke printed more cash between now and the 2012 election.
    The White House and ex-Bush strategist Karl Rove denounced the remarks.”

    Right, first off. What did Rick Perry actually say:

    “On a campaign stop in the US state of Iowa on Monday, Mr Perry said of Federal Reserve chief Mr Bernanke: “If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I don’t know what y’all will do to him in Iowa, but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas.
    “Printing more money to play politics at this particular time in American history is almost treacherous, treasonous in my opinion.”

    Rick Perry chose his words (he is campaigning on a fiscal-conservative platform, after all) quite carefully. Deficit financing is not approved of by the people he represents.

    Karl Rove (whom the Democrats and in its reporting regarded as an malign presence as George W.’s White House, is wheeled on because he is not happy with Rick Perry’s choice of words. His point is the ‘independence’ of the Fed. So Rove is now on the side of the Gods.

    The White House has no issues with QE. A Keynesian instrument which, in theory, stimulates the economy.

    Rove is intimately connected with the old Republican elite. Rick Perry is the new kid on the block (so to speak) and it was the Tea Party movement that chased the lethargy out of the Republican establishment.

    We should never lose sight of the fact that QE and stimulus is good, very good for the banks indeed.

    The Fed is ‘independent’ in the sense that it, despite it being the bank of the big banks, was ‘trusted’ to manage the financial health of the US economy for the common good.

    Clearly it did not…Greenspan and now Helicopter Ben.

    The perception that the interest of the too big to fail banks and those of the nation are somewhat in conflict.

    But as statists, who bash the bankers, the link up to the policy of the Fed, conveniently escapes the Keynesianist BBC.

    The final sentences, in explanation, show how the policy of Keynes is accepted.

    “Under Mr Bernanke, the Federal Reserve has embarked on two rounds of quantitative easing and there has been speculation among investors that he could announce a third.
    Quantitative easing is when a central bank tries to stimulate the national economy by creating new electronic money to buy corporate and government debt in an effort to lower borrowing cost”

    Is that all, BBC? Lower borrowing costs FOR THE BANKS to repair their balance sheets after their trip to the global casino.

    Oh yes, the BBC reports that Perry has mentioned ‘God’. Chump.

    Allah OK. But God is a BBC no no.

       0 likes

    • RGH says:

      I’ve looked at the source of the ‘Act of God’ quotation. And find it reported in the Huffington Post. A BBC favourite source.

      This is what Perry said  in April 2010 (a full 16 months ago, note) prior to anyone knowing the cause or nature of the explosion.

      Texas Governor Rick Perry (R) claimed on Monday that the oil rig explosion that caused a massive — and still-expanding spill — may have been “just an act of God” that could not have been prevented.
      Speaking at a conference sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Perry offered his theory to a reporter who asked if events such as the recent West Virginia mine disaster, the financial meltdown or the BP oil spill may have been encouraged by too much emphasis on free enterprise and lax regulations.
      Perry disagreed wholeheartedly:

      “We don’t know what the event that has allowed for this massive oil to be released,” Perry said. “And until we know that, I hope we don’t see a knee-jerk reaction across this country that says we’re going to shut down drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, because the cost to this country will be staggering.”

      He pointed out that no one knew the cause and that to blame the disaster on ‘free enterprise’ was a knee jerk reaction before the facts were in.

      But Perry mentioned ‘God’ in the neutral ‘Act of God’ out of context, a full 16 months later, in a report on the possibility of the Fed lauching another round of QE.

      The BBC is actually malicious.

      Perry is not to their liking. Partiality. It’s what they claim it is. It is their political preference that they disingenuously slip in out of context quotes to scoff at Perry for mentioning God at all.

      I call bias.

         0 likes

      • Louis Robinson says:

        RGH:
        It’s not the liberal media who seem out to get Rick Rerry. The number of callers to CONSERVATIVE talk radio who are bashing Rick Perry have been evident over the last few days.  They all claim to come from or live in Texas and bring up his past history in great detail. My fear is that this is organized by Mitt Romney’s guys. (Karl Rove is on the Romney team I believe). As the BBC is not on the case maybe you or David Preiser (USA) could give us some perspective.

           0 likes

        • RGH says:

          Interesting. Who says politics is boring. The BBC is like an innocent abroad on the US, but they don’t like Perry, Romney or Rove or the Republicans in fact, anyone who says anything that reflects badly on the Obama White House.

          The battle is on for the Republican Party..candidates etc. Its good ol’ elections.

          The BBC still finds ‘God’ a bit troublesome and has slipped in the reference without explanation of context or timing. That was deliberate. Perry is a no no. God! Good Heavens!.

          Romney is a Mormon. The BBC is being careful here. They don’t know enogh about it and how it fits into the narrative.

          It wouldn’t surprise me if Rove were trying a little preemptive on Perry. Not in the least.

             0 likes

        • David Preiser (USA) says:

          I would wager that callers from Texas bashing Perry are either Dems or Ron Paul followers.

             0 likes

      • Roland Deschain says:

        Don’t insurance companies often have exclusions for acts of God?

        Right wing bastards that they are.

           0 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Gov. Perry also criticized the military and the President’s patriotism.  But apparently the only thing the Community Organizer-in-Chief thought was worth responding to was the criticism of His desire to keep printing money.  The BBC doesn’t bother with any of this and simply follows the White House talking point.

         0 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      The BBC’s collection of criticisms about Perry masquerading as a news article includes this gem among the laundry list of things he did wrong:

      Last year, the Texas governor described the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as “an act of God”.

      What does that have to do with criticizing the Fed’s Keynesian policy?  Nothing.  It’s just pasted in there because the Beeboids think any time a Christian says “God”, it’s a negative.

      Two things for the disgraceful BBC News Online team to consider:

      1.  Insurance companies also refer to natural disasters as “Acts of God”, to distinguish them from other types of events.

      2.  You wouldn’t dare cast aspersions on that berieved Turkish father who openly stated that his own religious belief instructed him to accept that his son’s murder was pre-determined by God.

      Biased Bigots Corporation.

         0 likes

    • Craig says:

      Today business news reporter Dominic Laurie used the word “incendiary” to describe Rick Perry’s comments about Ben Bernanke this morning (i-Player, beginning at 0.20.54).

         0 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        It’s fair to call Perry’s comments “incendiary”, but it’s only a concern if you’re a supporter of the President. Otherwise it’s just campaign business as usual.  Are any of the President’s statements considered “incendiary” at the BBC?  Examples, please, defenders of the indefensible.

           0 likes

  14. Roland Deschain says:

    There cannot be one of us who has not met this phenomenon, and realised the same futility of trying to argue with a warped mind.

    You do not need a totalitarian state for this to happen, and it is most prevalent in the closed societies such as Westminster, where we see it in the “bubble” effect. It is also very difficult for us to avoid the taint, which is why I have taken a conscious decision not to watch BBC TV routinely or listen to the BBC news on the radio. Such value as is imparted by the information they give is negated by the propaganda.

    EUReferendum

       0 likes

  15. cjhartnett says:

    So many good posts on the thread thus far-and I`ve not even gone back properly to Louis,David and the Mormon/Muslim themes of yesterday!
    Still got loads of low hanging-fruit from the other Open Thread too!
    Glad we have this Open University of Theology, Journalism, Science and Stats etc…but really resent the BBC getting to leech off the likes of us( well some of us). R.T/Al Jazeera need the options on our license fee these days.

    Maybe a tick box wishing a % of the tellytax to go to the Biased BBC website…or” Anti-Auntie” as I see hurtling down the track!
    Based on what I`ve glanced at so far-think I`ll see Common Purpose as the Masons that do not speak their name.

    If there are rules on Masonic Lodges and their influences( and at least they HAD a Biblical basis!)-I`d want Common Purpose types in the media, universities, quangos and “research” to be flushed out, lights shone( renewable sources only!) and get them down to NewsCorp to reapply!

    In short-the likes of MPs, legal systems and police/media…I want to know the extent of Eurolimewash thay`ve been guzzling at Millbanks equivalent these last dozen or so years!
    Sinister lot…I`d start with Matthew Taylor and his dad first…Barium Meal of privilege, nepotism and cant in the Body Politic( grasping greedy consultant out on the golf course being the BBC!)
    Up the Auntie!

       0 likes

  16. Grant says:

    R4 News at 1 today pushing the BBC line that sentences are excesive and inconsistent.
    Some pontificating, supercilious Beeboid described the riots as  “disturbances”.
    God Beeboids make me sick ! 

       0 likes

    • cjhartnett says:

      Welcome back Grant!
      All we need now is Sue and Craig and most of the leading lights can be arrayed in squadron formation!
      Having just returned from the bike sheds that are advertised as Bournemouth Airport…I`m in mind of Douglas Bader…wonder what his grouse re disability on “In Touch” might have been then?

         0 likes

      • Grant says:

        cj
        Many thanks.  I have been a bit indisosed recently, including being stung on foot by a wasp to which I am seriously allergic. Just managed to stay out of hospital !
        BBB-C  seems to have gone from strength to strength in my absence   !

           0 likes

  17. David Preiser (USA) says:

    A Beeboid with the last name of Fleming just said that Hugh Orde is very popular with the police rank and file, and very popular with the public, “I get the idea, because he has been outspoken” this past week, clashing with the Home Secretary.

    Anyone else get this idea?  Any evidence for this?  Or is it just another feeling offered as fact?

       0 likes

    • matthew rowe says:

      Well he is to the public that matters to the BBC I.e the Grundy and C.I.F  freak show as for anyone else you will get a blank look or oh god not that berk who is dragging the police into an ill thought out and politically motivated attack on a democratic government in complete contempt of the rules of his service and the democratic tradition in this country !
      mind that last bit may seem a bit biased but I used the BBC model and  guessed what they would say and made it fact !!

         0 likes

    • OWEN MORGAN says:

      Hugh Orde is the police equivalent of Arthur Scargill.   With any luck, he will do to ACPO and the conscience-free Police Federation what Scargill did to the NUM back in the eighties.

         0 likes

  18. pounce_uk says:

    The bBC, and how it remains silent on how a British man has murdered 8 people in Pakistan.  
     
    How often do you see the bBC knock up a headline about the latest drone attack in Paksitan. While the vast majority of dead are terrorists the bBC paints them all as victims. well here’s a story which the bBC hasn’t bothered its arse in reporting, in fact the bBC would refer to the man as British. (He isn’t but the bBC don’t worry about a few falsehoods)  
    8 years ago, Afghan Ghaffar Khan married a girl he was related to in Pakistan and then buggered off to England. For 8 years, nothing was heard from this man until this week when he turned up and demanded that his wife return to England with him. Well, naturally the family were a little apprehensive about letting their girl go with a man she (and they) hadn’t heard of for the last 8 years. Gaffar, angry that even his wife was hesitant to go away with him, returned to his in-laws’ house and murdered 8 people, including his wife. Like the true Muslim he is, Gaffar has done a runner, and you can bet that when he returns to the UK, he will use his human rights in which to not be returned to Pakistan on charges of 8 counts of murder.   
     
    That killing took place in Pakistan, that Pakistan which ahs seen around 20 people a day killed in Karachi for the past few weeks. Yet according to the bBC the only worthy news is how 4 terrorists met their end by UAV. Nothing about how a dog owner beat her 12 year old servent to death for not feeding her dog. But harm the hair of a terrorist, well there’s allah to pay.

       0 likes

  19. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Yet another segment on the New Channel about “disproportionate” sentences for looters/rioters.  How about providing the context of the rest of them, BBC, so that the public doesn’t get the idea that the nasty Government is cracking down on innocent lambs just to appear tough?

       0 likes

  20. Roland Deschain says:

    Now, I don’t want to appear heartless at what would be a dreadful thing for the people involved, but does this really merit red ticker at the top of the news page?

    BREAKING NEWS: Wife of Briton killed in shark attack – ‘We were having so much fun and we were so excited about our future together’

       0 likes

    • pounce_uk says:

      I’ve noticed that as well. It seems the bBC which loves to look down at the likes of the Daily Mail. Has no problem in aping the very newspaper it derides.

         0 likes

  21. David Preiser (USA) says:

    “Disproportionate sentences” is the BBC top Narrative of the day, that’s for sure.  The top of the hour and they’re at it again.  They even mention one guy sentenced for using Facebook to incite rioting, and wring their hands over somebody busted for having a stolent TV in their car, as if possession of stolen property is somehow not an offense worth a jail sentence.

    Then comes the laundry list of petty theft, as if the vast majority of looters and rioters and violent criminals were merely taking penny candy and not expensive goods, or burining down people’s buisnesses and homes.

    This is a sick Narrative.  BBC News producers should hang their head in shame for their disproportionate news agenda.

       0 likes

    • cjhartnett says:

      As I`ve said elsewhere…it was all only a dream.
      It was “perceived” to be rioting…but all it was was a few inarticulate shy young persons who were only borrowing ethically-sourced bottled water in order to create wet T-shirt competitions for charity!
      Their only crimes may have been not recyling those bottles-but it WAS hot, dark and various scary p`licemen were wheezing behind them…flashbacks to abuse I`m certain!
      Only Gaia had any cause to consider criminally violated after all those smoky fires and things…if we all just plant a poplar though, she may yet forgive us!
      Can only give comfort to Messsrs Bowe and Khan…united in diversity , a la Ebony and Ivory!
      I for one rejoice. One day YOU TOO might “live as one with us”...come and join us!

         0 likes

  22. David Preiser (USA) says:

    More BBC hand-wringing over the “ciminalization” of agnus innocenti caught stealing and rioting.


    England riots: What is the impact of a criminal record?


    As the courts deal with some of the hundreds of people charged in connection with the riots, igniting a row over whether the sentences being handed out are too harsh, the BBC asks what is the real cost of a criminal conviction?

    When college student Nicolas Robinson set foot in a Lidl supermarket as he walked home from his girlfriend’s house, he probably didn’t think his actions would land him behind bars.

    But stealing a £3.50 case of bottled water during the riots in Brixton has cost the 23-year-old dearly.

    Robinson, of Borough, south-east London, is now serving six months in jail.

    As if to highlight this sickness, the BBC News Channel has just now been showing footage of destroyed businesses and homes in Croyden, with somber narration by Clive Myrie about devastated lives, etc.

    Then he and Sophie Long use this as a segue to go right back to the Narrative of sentencing being too harsh.  Typical twisted BBC priorities. What about the vast majority of them, BBC?  What is wrong with you people?

       0 likes

    • Craig says:

      It all seems to show Martin’s theory of BBC agenda-setting in action.   

      The Guardian website makes this angle its second story overnight (main story: hacking at the NOTW) and Newsnight runs with it. This morning it’s the lead story on the BBC website, Some riot sentences ‘too severe’.    
         
      Though Today, like the Guardian, still majors on hacking, it also discusses this same angle. From reading all the comments, it sounds as if 5Live, BBC local radio, the World at One and the news channel have been been busy pushing it too.    
         
      Coming home tonight, and the lead story on the BBC website is PM defends ‘tough’ riot sentences and ‘concerns about the severity of some jail terms’ leads the Six O’Clock News on BBC1.    
         
      As others have said, I’ve heard so many comments about this at work in recent days (from people of all political persuasions), and no one has been worrying about the sentences being ‘too tough’. No one.

         0 likes

      • London Calling says:

        The concerns of the looney-left riot-apologists about harsh punishment, disproportionate sentences, why eviction is wrong, the whole BeebGuardianIndy guacamole, are dismantled with forensic skill by  the eminently sensible anna racoon, here 

        http://www.annaraccoon.com/politics/fisking-the-brain%e2%80%93dead-loony-left/

        Going down the pub with some Guardian reading mates? Subject turns to rioters unfair sentencing? Just scrawl some crib-notes from Anna’s fisking on your sleeve, never lose another argument again.

           0 likes

      • Grant says:

        Craig,
        Beeboids don’t mix in the same circles as people like you and me  !

           0 likes

      • dave s says:

        The riots were not merely riots. They were a demonstration of what could happen as a complex society collapses into chaos.
        Vast numbers of us instinctively understand this and how close we are, at any moment ,to this chaos.
        The law is not some idealised impersonal artifact separate from our lives but part of how we view the world. It is our fears and wishes codified if you like.
        Nothing like this has occured in centuries- this random savagery and it threatened us all.
        Harsh punishment is our way of defending our civilisation and must happen. Collectively it is our will.
        These BBC Guardian commentators just do not understand and so try to rationalise their descent into unreality by appealing to some higher truth of their own devising.
        They are fools talking only to themselves.

           0 likes

        • jarwill101 says:

          dave s, you make a vital point, & I cannot reiterate it enough. These riots were a game changer. And everybody outside of the chattering, robotically apologist, pathologically liberal, bleeding heart BBC that I have spoken to agrees. We are the people who have to live amongst the burgeoning nihilist army that has grown like a malignant tumour; a cancer induced by the cultural Marxist elite hell bent on destroying Britain in record time.
          Our worst predictions were forming before our eyes. Any violent outrage was possible. The atmosphere was poisonous. Our society was burning. Many people did not feel safe in their homes. I didn’t, & I do not frighten easily. I had weapons placed around my home to defend not only my family, but elderly neighbours who were petrified. The power of the mob could be seen in all its wanton cruelty, its undying love for looting & destruction. Look at the You Tube videos (filmed in daylight) of the hyena packs strutting around Croydon picking off people with impunity. Are they ‘protesters’? Like fcuk. No; they are murderous sociopaths who will never slot into a half-decent society. They have alienated themselves, & all most of us want from these mob handed retards is distance. All they understand is superior force, so, let them have heavy punishment hammered into them. That may stick in the beedoid craw but it is the will of the majority. And where does the BBC go? ‘Ooo, this sentencing is a bit over the top.’ The sentences should be exemplary – the crimes were exceptional. Large areas of London, Birmingham & Manchester were RIOT ZONES. Nowhere near the tax-funded dachas of the BBC’s pontificating elite, though, that’s a given.
          I would have enjoyed seeing a beeboid multiculturalist ‘peace flotilla’, led by Anita Anand, sailing down Croydon Broadway last week, instead of whittering on in some secure, hopelessly detached studio. It would have been shredded by the very people the BBC is so keen to ‘understand’. And that, you corrupt, leeching, treasonous, ladies & gentlemen of the BBC, would have been nothing less than poetic justice.

             0 likes

    • James M. Gowland says:

      You beat me to posting this. Hideous BBC crap, oh diddums he stole a bottle of water and now he has a criminal record its so unfair.

         0 likes

  23. david hanson says:

    Just to keep you all up to speed with the coverage by BBC WM in the Midlands, we were treated this morning to the opinions of human rights lawyer John Cooper, and coming up shortly we will be honoured by the view of the Howard League for Penal Reform . Give me f*****g strength!Oh, I nearly forgot – according to an interviewee earlier on, the shark attack in the Seychelles was probably the result of (you’ve guessed it!) climate sodding change! I kid you not.

       0 likes

    • Hugh says:

      Anyone thinking of swimming in the indian Ocean should read the accounts of those who survived shipwreck there. Especially those who were on the troopships torpedoed in WWII. 25% of those who went in the water were eaten and the sharks followed the lifeboats.

         0 likes

      • London Calling says:

        Somewhere on the bBC this morning a Seychelles Tourist Bord official came up with the risible explanation that it was a”foreign shark”

        Give that man a job, at the Daily Mail!

        He also threw in that such an attack was unprecedented. Apart from an exactly similar attack on a French tourist earlier in the month.

        Now that inexactitude warrants  job with the Milliband campaign team.

           0 likes

        • RGH says:

          The government said the ban will help restore shark numbers, which have fallen in recent years due to hunting.

          The Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture, Dr. Ibrahim Didi, said the ban would make the Maldives a ‘shark safe haven.’

             0 likes

  24. gordon-bennett says:

    More proper research about looters:

    http://humstats.blogspot.com/2011/08/uk-riots-ethnicity-statistics.html

       0 likes

  25. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Poor Mark Mardell is worried about how the President’s big black tank of a bus isn’t the sign of Hope everyone has been looking for. Awwww.

    Read his latest blog post and notice that Mardell sets the reader up to think that the President’s message is correct.

    Two years in, the problems you inherited are now the problems you own. Part of President Obama’s message is that it is not his recession, not his fault. It’s the blame game.

    The first sentence is Mardell’s editorial opinion.  He’s writing as a political pundit here.  The subtext is “fair or not, that’s how it works for the man in charge”.  This sets him up to lay out – what else? – the President’s message: It’s not His fault.

    What a shock.  Where have we heard this before?  Only in just about every single report or blog post Mardell has ever done in the last two years.  Do you really need a specially appointed BBC editor to explain to you the propaganda…..sorry….message to the people of the leader of a foreign country?

    After Mardell spells out the talking points he’s been discussing with his DC Dem friends, he then gives you his personal opinion that the President needs to be….wait for it….more inspirational.

    It is a fair strategy, delivered without much verve. Mr Obama is good only when he has to be, and today felt more like a practice run than anything else.

    Neither inspirational nor angry enough, he needs something fresher – and to find another mode of transport than the battle bus from Mordor.

    When was the last time Mardell talked about anything other than something that revolved around the President?  Even when he’s walking amongst the great unwashed at Tea Party events, scented handkerchief clasped to his nose, he’s only there to discuss how it might affect the President.  He’s not reporting on the country: everything is seen through the prism of Him.

    It’s time to declare that Mardell’s job title is a misnomer.  He doesn’t report on North America.  He reports only on the US President, and things that affect Him or relate to Him in some way.  At least the “editor” part of his title is accurate, as much of his “reporting” is more along the lines of editorials in newspapers: opinion pieces rather than journalism.  I suppose it’s just something that comes naturally to him, seeing as how he used to be Newsnight’s political editor once upon a time.

    Mark Mardell should be called “BBC US President editor”, as he does little else.  And once again this calls into question the entire concept of BBC editors.

       0 likes

  26. John Anderson says:

    Rick Perry is definitely persona non grata at the BBC now – in one of his first statements since declaring his candidacy he says he thinks Global Warming is a crock :

    http://hotair.com/archives/2011/08/17/perry-rejects-global-warming-debt-ceiling-compromise/

       0 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      This article will explain much of why Perry thinks the Warmists have been harmful and why the President is a problem for the economy.

      What’s Obama got against the Lone Star State?

      Consider the excessive delays imposed on the energy industry in the Gulf of Mexico by Obama’s Department of the Interior in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon tragedy. Other states border the Gulf, of course, but the Gulf region’s energy industry is centered in Texas, so when the federal government stops issuing drilling permits and promulgates costly new regulations on drilling in the Gulf, Texas suffers most. An econometric study released Friday by House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., describes the magnitude of the Obama administration’s regulatory strangulation of the Gulf energy economy:

      “The Obama Administration has systematically blocked domestic energy production in the Gulf of Mexico, and today’s report puts that action in stark terms. It documents a 250 percent increase in the deepwater exploration permit backlog with a decrease of nearly 80 percent for plan approvals and deepwater drilling. That means a loss of $9 billion in capital investment in 2011, along with a projected loss to the government of $25 billion in royalties and tax payments over the next three years, to say nothing of the tens of thousands of jobs lost.”

      Also getting into Obama’s anti-Texas act is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, with its new Cross-State Air Pollution Rule. This rule is clearly designed to shut down coal-fired power plants in the nation’s heartland. Because EPA is giving industry far too little time to adapt to the new rule, starting next year millions of people are going to have to make due with less electricity for air conditioning and heat. Lots of people will be put out of work as well.

      It couldn’t be more clear: the President’s anti-industry ideology combined with the Warmist ideology of the EPA becomes a destructive force.  No Act of God here, but and act of The Obamessiah.

         0 likes

  27. D B says:

    BBC adventurer Bruce Parry’s three most recent tweets.

       0 likes

  28. cjhartnett says:

    Royalty are a right laugh to the BBC-until they suit the linen suits up on the top floor!

    The walking wingnut has been out and about doing his grannys tribute act over the ruins of the Blitz in Croydon today.
    He says that joining a gang is…and he`s always thought this…a “cry for help”…sling that on the strapline luvvie!

    Pretty galling really until you think that he`s in the biggest council house in the country-has never worked in his life( a generational thing too) and has a known history regarding guns. An absent dad with form as an adulterer. Soft Uni certififcate and strong immigrant background(with perhaps a little too much inbreeding as befits Eastern European Gangs).
    In short-just the kind of gang member with that air of wounded surprise and entitlement we`ve seen plenty of.

    In conclusion-I don`t recall him wringing his tissues out as poor vulnerable Charlie Gilmour and Co were only trying to wish him and Camilla a Happy Christmas( albeit a bit early!) late last year.
    Maybe the noise of a coming Kristallnacht in embryo just drowned his hearing all these “cries for help”.

    Lot of people were crying for help last week Charles-but you only care about those of your pet gangsta de jours, as opposed to dads giving CPR to their own kids…and pensioners being kicked to death!

    Still-he got a  rappers CD for free…so guess who`ll be doing the Ali G impressions THIS year at Sandringham! (no policing issues of cuts ;or insufficient protection: were cited form there were there?)
    At least Phiip has no shame about his featherbedding!…

       0 likes

  29. Reed says:

    Pat Condell – telling it like it is. Ouch!

    http://blip.tv/godless-comedy/britain-is-a-riot-5460051

       0 likes

  30. James M. Gowland says:

    I see the BBC 10 O’Clock news is still pushing the same old line that famlies in riot effected areas aer outraged at the tough sentences being handed down, to prove this is fact they spoke to ONE woman! It must be fact then!

       0 likes

  31. john says:

    Anyone else noticed the Government swapping unemployment figures with those incapable for work ?
    The BBC haven’t as yet picked up on this.
    Nor would they, IDS is a hate figure in Bush House and yet blinded by their hatred for the man, Reith’s finest descendants curiously haven’t “twigged” – well yet !
    But in keeping with BBC tradition, there’s always to-morrow for yesterdays news.

       0 likes

  32. OWEN MORGAN says:

    Eight PM tonight was Socialism Hour on Radio (Gang of) Four, with “Ed” (I iz daan wiv da kidz innit) Stourton presenting “Iconoclasts”, a programme in which favoured lefties get to air their bonkers views and other lefties get to nod in enthusiastic agreement.    Tonight, the subject was inheritance tax and some character from the LSE, central to the thinking of “new labour”, apparently, was the main act (he was all in favour of IHT, the more, the merrier).   An e-mail contributor nailed the LSE man right at the start, with an observation to the effect that you can’t easily get more discredited than “new labour” (obvious, but well worth repeating).   Madsen Pirie, the token sane person, skewered the LSE guru very easily, but the leftie ranting rumbled on and I switched off.   As it happened, I had to drive somewhere else before the end of the hour (I forget….   Oh, yes, I needed to maximise my carbon footprint.).   My car radio came on again, with some character, who put the glottal stop into “glo”al stop”, lecturing the world about “socialist city-planning”.   He ended up blaming capitalism for the state of British cities.   Unfortunately, I missed most of the rest, because I was too busy spending money in Tesco. 

    Any chance that “Iconoclasts” will be hearing from those favouring British  independence from the eu, or advocating the return of the death penalty, do you suppose? 

       0 likes

    • cjhartnett says:

      Me too Owen!
      I too was parking up in Tescos at the time when Ed wrung his damp hankie in regard of lots of French billionaires choosing to live just over the border in Switzerland.
      As if Switzerland had its canton system of local democracy( no minartes in Zurich), its own Franc and was no part of the EU!
      Imagine that-independent, local accountabilty and not part of the EUSSR beign cobbled together by Sarko and Merckel!
      Imagine there`s no Yoko!…until then Stourton won`t question anything that might upset the quaffing coiffures upstairs!

         0 likes

    • MarkE says:

      Any chance that “Iconoclasts” will be hearing from those favouring British  independence from the eu, or advocating the return of the death penalty, do you suppose?

      No chance at all.  It takes a special sort of lack of self awareness to call blind parroting of the orthodox “Iconoclastic”, but the BBC has just that lack.  We also see it in their very establishment, “anti establishment” “comedians”.

      Any real iconoclasm would scare the poor loves too much.

         0 likes

  33. john says:

    Now look ! We have to be very careful on David’s site.
    We seem to be in danger of getting 700 plus comments on the first day without Dez and Scott having to bat on for the next four.
    So, impartialiy, may I take this opportunity, as someone who is hideously wearing whites, ask if I can throw a ball at them from the Multi-culture, Guardian reading, BBC hospitality and Dyke second hand bookstall End ?

    Or will rain stop play ?

       0 likes

  34. George R says:

    Biased BBC decides phonily to stop a programme on Malaysia because it might not be impartial –

    Note BBC-NUJ does not use inverted commas around the word ‘impartial’ but it should:

    “BBC drops film-maker over Malaysia impartiality fears”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14556988

    BBC-NUJ tries to give the impression that such possible bias is a rarity in BBC-NUJ output, instead of the daily norm, which it is.

    The BBC-NUJ is infamous for  politically biased programmes which are broadcast on TV and radio DAILY.

    To take but one specific example:

    INBBC’s Muslim head of religious broadcasting, Aaqil Ahmed commissioned Muslim Rageh Omaar of Islamic Al Jazeera TV to make a propaganda TV series in 3 parts on Mohammad (broadcast on BBC 2, 2011).

       0 likes

  35. cjhartnett says:

    Only three hours now until Martha Kearney breaks free of the Womans Hour “Wise Wound” Tent and brings us…and I quote her verbatim…”thirty minutes of news and comment”…it`s their slogan you know!
    Feel I`m a bit guilty of too much comment myself at times…not enough news…it`s common to all us pale and sensitive types (empathy/cow eyes!)
    I therfore will be doing as decent an impression of the greats on this blog as I can…and will be attempting to get that magic News:Comment ratio that the World at One “provides…but never in the right mix for the rest of us.

    My hypothesis is that said show is 95%comment and 5% news…if that!…but I am happy to be proved wrong. “Facts are sacred” are they not?
    Maybe a few good people out there might do something similar, so it`s not “mere anecdote” as most BBC criticism will always be!

    Martha Kearney is a failed Newslight poppet who bakes Jennis brownies for her “Little Homemaker” badge, when not being allowed to stay up late on Friday nights to flick patchouli oil around the “Culture Review”.
    I`d file this one under “News”…and moderators out there, by way of “callibration”?

       0 likes

  36. George R says:

    INBBC: forever campaigning for Islamic jihad suspects, such as Babar Ahmad.

    In this report INBBC’s Casciani omits details as to why Ahmad is in prison.

    So, it is necessary to turn to ‘Wikipedia’:

    “Babar Ahmad was arrested in London on 5 August 2004 on charges that of providing material support to terrorism, providing illegal support to the Taliban, money laundering and conspiring to kill people. An affidavit filed with the US court details that Ahmad used aliases to operate Azzam.com, a website supporting Chechen and Taliban fighters. It further describes that items recovered from a house used by Ahmad included a British Airways Executive Club card in his name and next to it a floppy disk containing a password-protected document containing a detailed description of the US Fifth Fleet, its ships, the date and time of its expected passage through the Straits of Hormuz, and that it was vulnerable to attack by “RPG” (rocket-propelled grenade).[9] Ahmad was later indicted by a grand jury of US citizens in October 2004.[10] Another man Syed Talah Ahsan, was indicted in 2006 of involvement with Ahmad and with the battlegroup information in the document,[11] and thereafter a US former navy seaman, Abu Jihad was indicted and convicted of passing this information to them.[12]
    Under the Extradition Act 2003, the US does not have to provide any evidence before seeking the extradition of a British citizen.”

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babar_Ahmad

    INBBC’s pro-Ahmad propaganda:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14567546

       0 likes

  37. pounce_uk says:

    The bBC, and its daily pro Islamic message for Ramadan.
    Since the start of Ramadan , the bBC has churned out on a daily basis article which promote the virtues of Islam while at the same time knocking out how only Muslims can be victims. Todays example is a report into how 3 Terrorist suspects banged up in Prison needed to be treated a little more humanely.
    Long Lartin unit for terror suspects criticised
    A watchdog has criticised a maximum-security “prison within a prison”, saying too little attention is paid to the terrorism suspects’ isolation.The chief inspector of prisons said the unit at Long Lartin, in Worcestershire, needed a better balance between security and humane care. The unit holds seven men suspected but not convicted of terrorism, while they await deportation or extradition.
    Two foreign men have been held for more than 11 years, while one British citizen, Babar Ahmad, has been held for seven years, while he contests extradition to the United States. A senior judge recently said he hoped Mr Ahmad’s “ordeal” would come to an end, one way or another.
    The restrictions on the men now include a ban on them celebrating the Islamic festival of Eid alongside other Muslim prisoners.
     
    So the bBC knocks out another poor Muslim terrorist article. Maybe there lies the reason they inserted:
    “A senior judge recently said he hoped Mr Ahmad’s “ordeal” would come to an end, one way or another.”
     Into the article. In a so called impartial piece that bit would never have seen the light of day, but then this is the bBC where Islamic terrorism is an obligation. Then there’s how the bbC writes up how the terrorist suspects are not allowed to mix with the general population. Err bBC they are fighting a case against extradition , the sole reason for their incarceration. That means by law they are not allowed to mix with convicted men.  Or is it as I feel that the bbC would rather have a different law system for Muslims?

    Oh by the way bBC currently during the holy month of Ramadan where all Muslims must think good thoughts, Muslims have killed  915 people (And that’s only the ones we can link to actual news coverage) But somehow I don’t think the bBC will air that news snippet.

       0 likes

  38. pounce_uk says:

    Listen to what is said at 1.21 on this bBC news report

       0 likes

    • cjhartnett says:

      This is astonishing!
      To be accused by our own DFID that we are actually exporting our terrorists to Somalia-and not keeping them here for the riots-is appalling!
      So Somalians can see us as Pakistan is seen by us?
      Wonder how long this will be allowed to remain on file!

         0 likes

  39. pounce_uk says:

    George you left out how the bBCs fav Islamic terrorist victim was caught out lying like only a good muslim can:   
    Police not guilty of violent assault on terror suspect  
    During the trial the jury heard a recording from an MI5 bug that had been hidden in Ahmad’s home.  The defence said the recording, played to the jury, did not include any screams of agony and that no officers could be heard mocking Ahmad’s faith by forcing him into a Muslim prayer position and asking: “Where is your God now?”  
     
    Sorry about using a guardian link, its just that the bBC version of that story makes no mention of the hidden bug:  
    Babar Ahmad police officers cleared of misconduct  
    Four policemen acquitted of attacking a terror suspect have also been cleared of misconduct by Scotland Yard.  Pc Roderick James-Bowen, 40, Pc Mark Jones, 43, Pc Nigel Cowley, 34, and Det Con John Donohue, 37, were previously cleared of assaulting Babar Ahmad. Now a misconduct review by the Met’s directorate of professional standards has also found in their favour.Mr Ahmad, 37, was arrested at his home in south London in 2003 on suspicion of leading a group supporting al-Qaeda.He was never charged in relation to his arrest but is in custody awaiting extradition to the US for alleged terrorism offences. Scotland Yard said in a statement: “The officers have been informed that there are no misconduct matters to answer in connection with the incident and have had the related restrictions lifted against them.”Mr Ahmad told the policemen’s month-long trial at London’s Southwark Crown Court he feared he would die in the dawn raid.  
     
    But jurors rejected claims he was attacked, taking less than an hour to reach their decision.  

     
     
    Funny how in a court case where a terrorist suspect has been caught out lying out of his back teeth by playing the relgion card the bBC still continue to play the victim angle 

       0 likes

    • pounce_uk says:

      Further to my last here is the actual report, reads a lot different to the bBC article:
      Report on an unannounced follow-up inspection of the detainee unit at HMP Long Lartin
      Here are a few of the recomendations:
      Drug testing should only take place where there are grounds for suspicion.

      The incentives and earned privileges scheme should be withdrawn and only re-introduced if the unit grows in number.

      Attempts should be made to recruit Muslim staff and to recruit or train Arabic speakers.

      Staff in the main prison should receive awareness training about the circumstances and needs of the detainees held in the unit.

      The disabled-designated cell should be made suitable for wheelchair users

      Lagging to the fence in the outer exercise yard should be removed
      Not achieved. The fence surrounding the exercise yard was clad, therefore preventing detainees from seeing into the distance. Staff told us that it was not possible to remove the cladding as it allowed detainees to see people entering the visits area. However, this was clearly not an insurmountable problem, as visits did not take place constantly. All detainee unit cells overlooked the inner courtyard and detainees therefore had no opportunities to see into the distance, and some complained of deteriorating eyesight

         0 likes

      • cjhartnett says:

        Unbelievable-as if their “committing crimes” somehow means that they are entitled to even more than most of us out here>
        I just have this picture of the whole liberal elite have given up.
        They want the processes, legal appeals, cavilling about evidence…for that is only the old school debating society at our expense. Thay want the Nareys, Shamis and the like to spray lavender round the murder scenes, and rather hope you`ll use THEIR services for your makeshift shrines…planning permits can be paid for later.
        Yet they don`t want the product…the shit and dross that we are expected to polish ,damp down or pay protection to. WE are told to live with them, and just stop being judgemental or intolerant.
        In short-they are mere ciphers and conduits…we are the buckets that the shit gets to be collected in.
        For how much longer?…

           0 likes

  40. hippiepooter says:

    Wow! These open threads now get filled up quicker than an alchoholic’s tumbler.

    David Gregory interviews Michelle Bachmann!

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/vp/44136638#44136841

    Oh, hold on, it’s not our David, is it? :p

       0 likes

  41. John Anderson says:

    Time for a new Open Thread ?

    …………………..

    Funny,  I seem to have missed all the reports on the BBC that Obama’s polling figures have gotten worse and worse and worse – that the people of America overwhelmingly reject any idea that he is competent :

    http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/08/obama-tanking-on-economy.php

    The figures in that article should be headline news.  Instead,  the BBC merely gives the impression that Obama faces a few little local difficulties – events, dear boy – but not to worry,  all his Republican opponents are wierd and unelectable.

       0 likes

  42. Roland Deschain says:

    Meanwhile, on Mark Mardell’s latest offering, on gaffes:

    This entry is now closed for comments

    Be the first to comment

    My Site will not be pleased.

       0 likes

    • John Anderson says:

      The only alleged gaffes that the oleaginous Mardell cites are from Republicans.

      Because it is of course unknown for Obama or VP Joe Biden to make gaffes.

      How blatant can Mardell get ?

         0 likes

  43. John Anderson says:

    Since midday I have been seeing multiple reports on the ‘Net about a series of terrorist attacks near Eilat,  including several killed and many wounded.   But have heard nothing from the BBC.

    This has all been on the Associated Press wire service for many hours.  Their latest records the 4th attack and is timed over 2 hours ago.

    Is the BBC waiting for Bowen et al to be contacted so that a spin can be added ?   (Normally AP reports get topped and tailed and pub;lished by the BBC often without attribution)

    What euphemism will they cook up this time to avoid using the word terrorist ?

       0 likes

    • Roland Deschain says:

      It made it at 14:51.

      Today’s euphemism is “gunmen”.

         0 likes

      • Peter Parker says:

        From the BBC news report

        > …series of attacks on vehicles in southern Israel…
        >The attacks began when gunmen fired at an Israeli bus
        >that was travelling near the Egyptian border. Officials said
        >two other vehicles were hit…

        It’s OK because the ‘gunmen’ where only ‘attacking vehicles’ (not people you understand). And it was because the evil Israeli bus had the nerve to ‘travel near the Egyptian border’ (albeit on the Israeli side of it).

           0 likes

    • cjhartnett says:

      Talk about conspiracies of silence/manipulation from Israel?
      For weeks now there has been a massive demonstration against the Israeli government-near as dammit the olny one out there you can vote out and not get tortured or killed for opposing.
      That would be newsworthy elsewhere…indeed RT and Al Jazeera seem to think it matters…but hardly a peep from OUR medis here.
      Why not?…a few guesses.
      1. It`s not supporting the Palestinians…it is non-political and bot Arabs an Jews are protesting together…as well as the others up and down the political scale.
      2. It is class-based…too few rich tycoons are featherbedding themselves and too many badly squeezed middle class teachers etc resent being the jam in the sandwich between the rich few and the 25% below their poverty line.
      Dangerous and familiar here…too close to our positions here!
      3. No tanks, strafing or terrorised hand held mobile uploads..so would give us all the misleading impression that Israel is just like here…but more accountable to its electorate than here.

      Makes me hate the BBC even more-if that were yet possible!

         0 likes

  44. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Mark Mardell’s video report on the President’s “bus from Mordor” contains this gem:


    “America has always had a Triple-A rating from Standard & Poor’s, but because of wrangling in Washington, it’s been downgraded…”

    Shifting blame away from Him, as always.  Naturally, this supports the White House talking poing that “our politics are broken”.  Mardell simply won’t admit that this is the President’s fault, due to a joke of an attempt at a budget earlier this year, and His own bullying and failure of leadership to get a better deal done sooner.  White House propaganda on the BBC, as usual, all at your expense.

    Mardell isn’t the BBC North America editor any longer.  He is simply the BBC US President editor, and nothing more.

       0 likes

    • Reed says:

      More evidence that they are all tuned into the Democrat’s talking points. It was a ‘Tea Party Downgrade’. Shifting the blame indeed.

         0 likes

  45. james1070 says:

    The BBC is getting so biased even the Guardian is having a go at them. On the Popes visit to Spain.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2011/aug/18/pope-madrid-world-youth-day

    From Andrew Brown.

    If I were a Catholic, I would be feeling rather pissed off with the BBC. The news bulletin in this morning’s Today programme carried an report of the pope’s visit to Madrid that concentrated entirely on the “thousands” of protestors against the visit. It did not once mention World Youth Day, the extraordinary global Catholic gathering that the pope is also visiting. That has brought something like 1.5 million young people from around the world to the Spanish capital to greet him. Whether or not you approve of this, it is important and – above all – newsworthy simply because it is unexpected and goes against the grain of what the media tell us. So why is it not reported?
    One might think this is an instance of consciously anti-Catholic bias and perhaps it is.

       0 likes

    • RGH says:

      We are. Sarah Rainsford has done the same. In fact, one feels she is rather put out that  young Catholics from all of the world (paid for by their parishes and sponsored social work) should be on the Indignantes Plaza del Sol….Sacred turf for months of anti austerity and cuts violence and anarchist fervour.

      The report on the website has the following sub headings:

      Pilgrims in Madrids’s protest square

      Big Circus

      Crisis of Faith

      Lonely Believers.

      One Paraguayan girls comment is presented:

      “There are so many churches and no one in them – just old people”
      Pamela Nunez Paraguayan pilgrim

      What Pamela said:

      “Spain introduced Catholicism to my country, to Paraguay,” says one of the pilgrims in Sol, Pamela Nunez.
      “But that faith has been lost here. There are so many churches and no one in them – just old people. I believe that’s why the Pope called us to come to Spain.

      The event is being covered live all over the world.

      It looks like a lot of fun considering the thousands a smiling, cheering and self-financed young faces.

         0 likes

  46. HALman says:

    Compare and contrast…
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/8708650/Five-dead-in-terror-attack-on-Israeli-bus.html

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14577593

    Had to search the BBC site to find that – not even a mention of israeli deaths in the article.

       0 likes

    • HALman says:

      I see they’ve added a line at the bottom mentioning the Israeli fatalities now – clearly an afterthought.

         0 likes

  47. Anthony Masters says:

    This is an interesting manifestation of bias. Here is an article about the historic visit to Somalia by the DfiD Minister Andrew Mitchell.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14571573
    This article is meant to be about Mitchell proving that the aid here is not wasted, and so forth. However, a few paragraphs in, the scene of British Minister in Somalia is called “a PR coup” and “disaster porn”.
    This leads to the BBC to summarise the article in the sidebar as “PR Coup”. Hence, we have gone an article about British aid in Somalia to a sidebar sneer about the “PR” nature of the government.

       0 likes

    • cjhartnett says:

      Previous page by pounce has something that shocked me.
      If Mitchell is honestly telling us all that trained British terrorists are active in Somalia, then we`re the new Pakistan or so it seems!
      I`m sure I heard him right as well!

         0 likes

  48. RGH says:

    Here we go again.

    “Israel pounds Gaza after deadly attacks near Eilat”

    So what is pounding.  Repeatedly smashing. Hammering. Pulverising.

    The BBC headline had me thinking in terms of a full scale air assault on the whole of Gaza.

    But down, way down in the text, this:

    “Reuters news agency quoted the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), a faction in Gaza that often operates separately from Hamas, as saying its head and four other members had died in the airstrikes.
    Palestinian sources, also quoted by Reuters, said two people had been killed in a house in Rafah after Israeli drones – often used for airstrikes – were heard overhead.”

    That sounds like precision strikes to me.

    The way to check on the BBC is to follow straight through to Reuters.

    It is wise to check the source.

    http://uk.news.yahoo.com/israeli-air-strike-kills-chiefs-gazas-prc-group-161521855.html

    Now compare and contrast.

    The attack was single. It was precision guided. It took out a command group that even Hamas claims is out of its control.

    The intelligence for the strike would be speculation on our part.

    But was Gaza POUNDED?

    I don’t think so.

       0 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Emotive terms are sanctioned in the BBC style guide in certain cases.

         0 likes

  49. Cassandra King says:

    Israel pounds Gaza after deadly attacks near Eilat

    The Israeli military has confirmed carrying out air strikes over the Gaza Strip following a series of deadly attacks in southern Israel.

    At least six people, including a senior militant, were killed in the air strikes, Palestinian sources said.

    Earlier, Israeli officials promised a strong response after attacks on vehicles near Eilat left seven dead.

    Israeli officials said Gazan militants were responsible, although Gaza’s Hamas government denied involvement.

    _________________________________________

    This is the disgusting BBC at work, this is the result of a billion pounds a year from a thug enforced tax. Notice the BBCs priorities in the order of the BBC website report. The innocent bus passengers are not the priority, they do no not even appear until well down the report which tries to mislead the reader into believing that the IDF struck first, that Israel was the aggressor. Notice how ‘Palestinian’ deaths come first and the BBC go straight to their ‘Palestinian’ sources.

    Its like the BBC need the reader to believe that first came the IDF “pounding” Gaza and then the deaths of of six “people” and one militant leader. Its cleat to see that whoever penned this report and the editor who approved it are hate filled racist jew baiters. Its not as though the BBC do not know full well that innocent civilians were targeted by terrorists intent on murdering jews, the BBC knows what came first and why, its just that they choose to portray Israel as the aggressors. TERRORISTS murdered civilians in an unprovoked TERROR attack and the BBC instantly springs to the defence of the TERRORISTS.

    A truly disgusting article from a truly disgusting excuse for a news outlet.

       0 likes

  50. Cassandra King says:

    Gunmen Launch Deadly Series of Attacks in Israel Near Egyptian Border


    Published August 18, 2011
    | FoxNews.com

    Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/08/18/israel-radio-says-second-bus-attacked-by-gunfire/#ixzz1VPA6rlaq
    This is a real report from a real news outlet, one not twisted up with race hate. The report from Fox news, what journolism should be all about. Read one and then the other and see what the BBC filth miss out, they miss out the wounded, they miss out the roadside IEDs they miss out the missile attack.
    The truly disgusting BBC at work, complete and utter bastards.

       0 likes