Well, we’ve managed to survive the hype spewed out by the BBC concerning Hurricane Irene and made it to the start of a fresh week! Here is your NEW Open Thread and I trust you will fill it with examples of BBC bias even quicker than Usain Bolt out of the blocks…go!
OPEN THREAD…
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Mrs Omega Man loves a good thriller, so I was forced to sit through the risible Page Eight last night. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0146fz0
David Hare says “PAGE EIGHT is a contemporary spy film for the BBC, which addresses intelligence issues and moral dilemmas peculiar to the new century.”
A bet the plot will have you on the edge of your seat then. Or maybe not. There’s basically two sub-plots: US torture and British complicity, and exposing the cover-up of the Israeli murder of a peace activist, shot while waving a white flag as the Israeli’s bulldozed a Palestinian’s home to make way for the separation barrier.
What is it with BBC drama? You know the alpha and omega as soon as it starts, and then plods on drearily like an left wing sightseeing tour of accident black spots.
As soon as you see the name, David Hare, you know what you’re in for; as night follows day. As they say at my local bookies at the start of a greyhound race, ‘Hare running, Frankfurt! (school).
‘Page Eight’ clearly cost a lot of money, actors, length, filming. It was contrived, pretentious crap. I can imagine the lefties planning meeting, money no object, story must contain a couple of political controvercies, get one of our loveies to write it. This production was a crime scene, a criminal waste of my license money!!
Back in the day, in “B” Westerns, the heroes wore white hats and the villains wore black hats. It’s the way children at Saturday morning cinema shows could tell the goodies from the baddies.
BBC drama – Oh, so sophisticated! – is no different. The good guys (left-wing journalists, disillusioned policemen, jaded spies) are pitted against the bad guys (big business, the out-of-control military, corrupt politicians, persecuted minorities, ANY KIND OF AUTHORITY) in a ritual dance of sterile plots. We know the good guy activist will be shot in the last scene; the manipulative retired army officer will reveal his ultra right-wing politics as a justification for his misdeed, the Indian, Arab, Chinese character, wrongly accused, will reaffirm a belief in the unjust nature of (Western) society. The IRA terrorist will have a righteous grievance, the African freedom fighter will rail against the rape of his continent and secret (UK/US) government will stop at nothing, even murder, to achieve its evil ends.
Behind this sterile set of plot points how can any reality prevail? Good guys and bad guys all over again. On TV, have you ever seen a drama in which the head of a multi-national is a noble person? Or a competent chief constable? A corrupt investigative journalist on TV? Or a crooked Imam? Ever seen a Church of England vicar who is not a fool? A Catholic priest who is not a pedophile? Are the upper classes always idle and corrupt? The working classes always noble? (Apart from the Barnaby character in “Midsommer Murders”) Is there any happily married man in TVdom? Gay characters are seldom three-dimensional defining themselves purely by their sexuality.
All this writing, acting and producing serves the same underlying left-wing political message. And in the end, folks, it’s not drama. It’s a very glossy puppet show.
Ever seen a Church of England vicar who is not a fool?
The right-on, boy-crazy, fighting-against-the-stupid-rich-Conservative, female Vicar of Dibley. Also, quite right about the BBC’s general portrayal of homosexuals as promiscuous, yet the Beeboids are always shocked when the public makes such a prejudiced generalization.
An excellent analysis, Louis. Children used to like comforting stories before bedtime, often the same one. The BBC tells the same bedtime story, superficially & glossily shuffled, to reassure those who think they hold ‘nuanced opinions’ (but actually hold rigid one track views) that everything is well – the same bogeymen are out there, still getting up to their old, old tricks. Page 8 of the beeboid ‘narrative’ – as predictable as Page 9, 10, 11, ad nauseam. Spooks, White Girl; they could have been written by Mehdi Hasan. What passes for adult drama is actually puerile cultural dramarxism.
Let’s have a gritty drama, set in the heart of the Muslim community, that, for once, gets stuck into the ‘grooming’ disgrace. Let’s call it ‘WHITE MEAT’, as these Muslim rapists & paedophiles call their young victims. Now that’s edgy. Any chance of that, beeboids? You gutless, indoctrinated, smarmy little traitors.
David Preiser (USA), while drama can yet be prized from the jaws of the Ken Loach legions (all it takes is a good alternative drama getting through the gatekeepers by default (ITV’s Downton Abbey – hated by Liberals for showing the ruling class as human or Foyle’s War with one of the only honourable British male role models on TV), comedy is beyond saving. It has been taken over by the Armando Iannucci generation and will wither away under its own bile.
(http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/10503
I wonder if right-wing writers (or should that be non-left-wing writers), constantly facing rejection, have given up presenting their scripts to the drama department.
As a scriptwriter, I once found myself invited to a BBC writers’ drinks gathering at the Physic garden in Chelsea and found myself in Marxist heaven. The only thing that cheered me was that all looked so damn miserable.
You’re probably right about that, Louis. Maybe that’s why the funniest recent comedy on the BBC (other than White Van Man, which was still correctly multi-cultural) was from Iceland, in which the Marxist was portrayed as the worst person of all.
I had to google to find that comedy, David. I came up with ‘The Night shift’. I shall have to look out for repeats – shouldn’t be long on the Beeb. Thanks for the recommendation. BBC comedy has been very weak for a long time now, nothing of the calibre of Only Fools and Horses. Great comedy tends to come from outside the UK these days, particularly the US : that place that supposedly ‘doesn’t get irony’. (rolls eyes wearily)
“The Night Shift” was, I believe, a C4 sitcom about security guards working a night shift. It was quite good but drooled over by the press as a big breakthrough in comedy. But isn’t every new comedy a breakthrough? Why can’t they just be FUNNY?
I think you might be confusing it with ‘Nightingales’ on Ch4 with Robert Lindsay.
Reed, I was confusing the two. Thanks. I stand corrected. Next time I won’t rely no my memory.
The Night Shift was three guys working nights at a Shell station in Rekjavik. I found it very funny, and certainly the low key approach, no laugh track, made it stand out from the usual fare these days. And like I said, quite the reverse of the ubiquitous BBC political spectrum. Although, I imagine the press was so impressed because the parochial luvvies were shocked that Icelanders could do comedy at all.
“Let’s have a gritty drama, set in the heart of the Muslim community, that, for once, gets stuck into the ‘grooming’ disgrace.”
Lights blue touch paper..retreats to safe distance.
A good point. Never gonna happen.
Louis : “a ritual dance of sterile plots”. Superb!
“and exposing the cover-up of the Israeli murder of a peace activist, shot while waving a white flag as the Israeli’s bulldozed a Palestinian’s home to make way for the seraration barrier.”
So Hare’s basically taken the story of St Pancake and changed her sex. I hope he had the decency to blush a bit when they paid him.
(A reprise.)
INBBC TV has just screened a play, ‘Page 8’, a contrived piece of anti-Israel and anti-USA political propaganda by ‘leftist’ writer, Mr Hare.
What’s new?
surprise surprise
9/11 draws near….the er..”damaged goods imam” from the Ground Zero Mosque Faisal Rauf….(now the “deckchairs” have been moved around with hierachy of the project), he turns up on BBC 5Contrive breakfast, (just before 9am),
Fresh from slimily twisting words in Edinburgh…he continues his misguided attempt at “baffling with bullsh-t” laughably citing rampant & virrulent islamophobia??, from a “tiny minority”, for all this insult mosques myriad of problems??.
Name-dropping from an already discredited “latest” report on the this charade of islamophobia… insinuating that any reservations about Islam must ipso facto be “phobic.” (phobia is an irrational fear, concern or dislike).
Islam very often manifests precisely this feature, (fear, concern, dislike) through its aggressive association, never ending demands, violent teachings
As usual N Campbell, can t wait to swaps skullcaps…& follows beebo narrative, immediately, chipping in with needless drone on all the bibles violence..ya da ya da
so so despicable so so bbc
I thought NC asked some good questions.
R Spencer exposes Imam Rauf lies
http://youtu.be/6RcGFgp3apU
Ground Zero Mosque Imam Rauf lies about Sharia
Michael Coren on Sharia vs. the US Constitution
micheal coren, on imam rauf
http://youtu.be/sHDKT1tasN8
Mardell take on the Irene saga, makes a quantum leap from storm to his preferred I hate Republicans but love Obama type column:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14704771
Strange how Mardell draws his conclusion by comparing what Obama did before the storm to what Bush did (or didn’t do) after the storm. Nothing like comparing apples with pears is there?
Of course Mardell knows that if he were to compare apples with apples the whole situation might make his column stand on shakier ground. I expect he went to his trusted leftie leaning blogs for further source info but probably abandoned it when even blogs such as Huff Puff couldn’t offer succour for his worldview:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pierce-odonnell/why-has-president-obama-f_b_939706.html
especially as he might have stumbled over paragraphs like this:
Yet not a penny of compensation has been paid to several hundred thousand victims of the government’s proven wrongdoing. Instead, Katrina victims have been forced to endure nearly six years of contentious and expensive litigation. And when they prevailed, did their government reach a fair settlement?
No, the Obama Justice Department has appealed, vowing to take the case all the way to the Supreme Court. A final decision will not likely be rendered until after Katrina’s eighth anniversary. Even if citizens ultimately prevail, their legal victory may be Pyrrhic as homeowners abandon any lingering hope of rebuilding in blighted neighborhoods.
Candidate Obama rebuked President Bush for his failure to redeem his promise to “do what it takes” to rebuild Greater New Orleans.
In truth, the president’s administration is fighting against Katrina victims, opting for litigation over conciliation. Sadly, there is no discernible difference between the Bush and Obama Justice Department when it comes to scorched-earth litigation tactics against Katrina victims.
Spot on, Andrew. All he cares about is how The Obamessiah is better than Bush. No acknowledgment at all of the actions of Ray “Schoolbus” Nagin, or the idiotic Democrat woman who was Governor at the time who sat on her hands until it was too late.
Mardell is not the North America editor. He is the US President editor, and nothing else.
Mardell would like to be Obama’s human toilet roll, if ever such a job came up.
What’s with the faecal fixation. 🙂
You’ve been watching too much shit on the BBC!
“looking stern and in control, if not sounding particularly inspirational”
*facepalm*
Who made New Orleans hell, before and after Katrina? Who devastated white refuge neighbourhoods after the hurricane? What colour were the bent politicians in the New Orleans and Louisiana administrations who purloined federal aid? For clues, see recent London riots.
Did any of you happen to hear an interview on this morning’s Today Programme with a Nigerian migrant worker in Libya? He was asked a very BBC question about where he wished to be in the future: http://durotrigan.blogspot.com/2011/08/no-i-want-to-go-to-europe.html
Yes – surely the obvious question is ‘do you want to stay in Libya or go home?’ – but not obvious to a BBC employee
Yes, but he was asked if he wanted to stay in Libya or go to Europe. He said he wanted to go to Europe.
Ever such a slightly leading question, was it not? Are BBC journalists really so self-deluded as to think that they’re being objective when asking questions such as this? Any ideas?
No mattrer who he is-I would happily swap the Libyan for the Beeboid.
Why don`t the BBC offer we the British people the chance to set Justin, Sarah etc out there in Arab Spring towns of their choice with Nicholas Crane to make the programme about how they “got on and developed relationships with the natives”.
Well worth the pith helmets-and about time we swapped asylum seeking dodgy types for licence leeching Beeboid types!
I`d watch it anyway!
Just had a look at the Radio 4 schedule for today. It’s interesting in the light of a question posed above about Beeboid Corporation drama. It’s not just drama, either, but books, arts, documentaries, serials, and this and that:
Woman’s Hour Drama is Talking about Jane Austen in Baghdad
Afternoon Play: Arabian Afternoons: Casper Logue Affair
Book at Bedtime: The Reluctant Fundamentalist: a Pakistani tells an American his life story.
Crossing Continents: Dirar Abu Sisi: A Gazan imprisoned by Israel
Buddhism in the West
Taoism and China
Front Row Special: Interview with Ondaatje (South African novelist)
Portugal: Graduates having to leave to get work
American’s Missionaries of Democracy
An American Essayist
For something about dear old UK we have the meagre offerings of:
Britain’s place in Europe
The Clyde work-to-rule of 1971
A model in a wheelchair
Woman’s Hour – airline pilots
Language: the incidences and patterns of words
A serial about home and school life
Round Britain Quiz
Fossils and cholera
And that’s about your lot, folks!
Yup, a vile and steady drip of Marxist mindbending poison!! Special BBC blend for the Guardian-reading classes. Brewed by right-on loons who hate everything English. Same garbage every day, for 365 days a year.
You and Yours was about the joys to come when the Olympics come to town next year!
Oh what a circus as David Essex once sang!
Mardell in the 1000metres anyone?…an expenses form on the back of a solar-powered rabbit could coax the shy l`il hack from the minibar!
Mardell in the 1000metres anyone?…an expenses form on the back of a solar-powered rabbit could coax the shy l`il hack from the minibar!
What a thought and what an image! That’s funnier than anything the Beeboid Corporation’s plethora of comedians ever come up with.
“Fossils and cholera.”
AKA The Today Programme.
Excellent post Millie. This is their main problem. They struggle to find anything of great worth culturally in their own country. They love to bring the rest of the world to us on our TV screens, and New Labour achieved the same in policy.
… followed by ‘Anywhere But Salford’ – (drama). They might vote Labour, but no way do they want to live among the Oikoscenti
So Al-Megrahi is suddenly in a coma now, eh? How convenient. No wonder the BBC gave air time to Salmond so he could blame Blair for it all.
I`ve already donated the Oxycontin that some dark gentleman sold me in Westbourne Park earlier…came from a firesale in Clapham a few weeks back apparently!
I will also be running the BBC marathon next year with his picture on my vest, as well as distributing wristbands as I go along…the Salmond waddle was never done with more “passion”!
Stimulating people the right way can sometimes bring them out of a coma, for example, placing a rope around the neck.
♬♪”Megrahi In a Coma….♩♫”
No. Banish that thought immediately. In totally bad taste. I’ll get me coat.. 🙂
It’s all very well for Lyse Doucet to celebrate how different the locals’ attitude is about the situation with no water or electricity in Tripoli versus the the attitude of the Iraqis in Baghdad after Sadaam was kicked out, but she really needs to mention the key difference. In the last couple days, the Narrative has been that this is much better because it was done by the Libyan people rather than Western occupiers, but where was the Iraqi rebel force fighting to remove Sadaam? It didn’t exist, and couldn’t have.
So it’s very unfair for Doucet and the BBC to make the comparison with this intent.
If you have the time, you may wish to have a look at this BBC retelling of the African Queen’
Hope yet for African Queen gunboat on Lake Tanganyika
Ships don’t come with much more historical ballast than the MV Liemba. The steamer still shudders and belches its way across Lake Tanganyika every Wednesday and Friday, a century after it was built as a warship in Germany.. The Liemba started life as the Graf Goetzen in 1913 when she was built as a warship in Papenburg on the River Ems in northern Germany. It is said that the Kaiser himself ordered the construction to further his imperial ambitions.The Graf Goetzen was then transported in parts, in 500 crates, from Hamburg to Dar es Salaam on the coast of East Africa – and from there over mountains to Lake Tanganyika where Germany, Britain and Belgium were all engaged in colonial jostling.
Err no it was built as a passenger liner which was transported by train, ship and then train to within a few miles of Lake Tanganyika I quote:
The story begins in the early 20th century. At that time, the countries that are known today as Tanzania (without Zanzibar), Burundi and Rwanda were a single German colony known as German East Africa (Deutsch-Ostafrika).This was the biggest and the most populated colony of the German Empire. One of the aims of the German colonial administration was to build up a modern traffic-infrastructure there in order to stabilize German political control in the region.To accomplish this, the railway, which is known today as the Central-Line, was built by the German East African Railway Company (Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, in short: D. O. A. E. G.) between 1905 until 1914. At that time this railway line was known under the name “Mittellandbahn”.In 1912, when the end of the works for the railway-line was in sight, the D. O. A. E. G. ordered a passenger-ship to be built by the north German machine-factory and ship building company Joseph L. Meyer in Papenburg to provide a passenger and cargo service on Lake Tanganyika. The ship was to be 67 metres long and 10 m wide. Loaded with 480 tons of cargo, 60 tons of coal and 10 tons of water, it would have a draught of 2.3 metres and a weight of 1.150 tons. Its two triple-expansion steam engines would produce together 500 horse-powers which would allow a speed of 9.5 to 10 nautical miles.
Where Germany, Britain and Belgium were all engaged in colonial jostling. Britain did not take the presence of the vessel easily. As the Admiralty put it: “It is both the duty and the tradition of the Royal Navy to engage the enemy wherever there is water to float a ship.”So London decided to send two gunboats and by an equally difficult route.The British ships were sent down to South Africa and then up the continent as far as they could be taken by rail, and after that by the sheer human power of 2,000 labourers who hauled and cut through the jungle, eventually getting them to the lake which became the site of imperial contest.
So according to the bBC, this was all about colonialism. nothing about how the Ship didn’t come on line until On February 5th, 1915, lets see what was happening at the time, something big, You know like World War 1 Maybe there lies the reason why Britain took exception to a ship retrofitted with the guns ( one 10.5 cm canon, two 8.8 cm guns and three 3.7 cm revolvercanons ) taken from the German cruiser “Königsberg” which lost out in a bunfight to the RN at the start of WW1. But according to the bBC this was all about colonialism. Which explains why they don’t mention WW1 at all.
Colonial rivalry and conflict then ensued, and, in the face of a British attack, the Germans abandoned the port of Kigoma, scuttling their ship, the Graf Goetzen, to stop it getting into British hands.
British hands bBC, here is a much clearer description of what happened:
As a result of their strengthened position the Belgians were able to bombard the fortress of Bismarckburg from the lake until the Germans had to give up the fortress and retreat to Tabora, which they did on June the 6th, 1916. At the same time, the Belgians also established an airbase for seaplanes on the western shore at Albertville and launched bombing-raids on German positions in and around Kigoma. On June 10th, 1916, four Belgian seaplanes flew their irst bombing-attack on the S. S.”Goetzen”, berthed in Kigoma harbour. Following the raid, they sent scout-planes to get a closer look at the resulted damage. The Belgian pilots reported that they had seen a trail of smoke coming from the ship’s aft deck. A few days later the scout-planes flew again, and after recognizing that the Germans were about to repair the ship on the slipway, they bombed her again. Although the damage to the ship was relatively small and could be repaired quickly, other problems arose. After a massive Allied advance the Germans were about to give up Kigoma too and retreat to Tabora. There was a fear that the Allies might be able to cut off the railway link and isolate the region completely. Lieutenant Commander Zimmer issued the order to scuttle the S. S. “Goetzen” to prevent her from falling into enemy hands. On July the 26th, 1916, guns were first stripped from the ship, because they still could be needed elsewhere. Then some of the most important parts of the machinery were removed and hidden ashore. The remaining parts of the steam-engine were greased to protect them from corrosion, the ship was overloaded with sand and carefully sunk her at night in the mouth of the Malagarasi River. They chose this place because the water there was less clear than elsewhere.
The Goetzen then remained at the bottom of the lake for nearly 10 years until she was raised to the surface. Amazingly, the engines still functioned after minor repairs… It is not clear who raised it, perhaps the Belgians or perhaps the British – but whoever did it, the old German gunboat ended up in the hands of the British.
10 years, how about 1 year the first and 4 years the second. I quote:
So after Germany had lost its colonies, the Kigoma district came under the control of the Belgians. Informed by local Africans, they found the S. S. “Goetzen”. They were able to raise her already in 1916 and towed her back to Kigoma. Unfortunately, in the bay of Kigoma she sank again, probably in 1920. Some say this happened because of a mistake during the process of refloating, others say it happened as a result of a heavy storm. In 1921, the former colony of German East Africa came under British administration as a mandated territory. After two years of preparing salvage operations and nearly eight years under water, on March 16th, 1924, the S. S. “Goetzen” was brought to the lake’s surface again and to everyone’s surprise, presented herself in unexpectedly good condition.
Oh and as for why the engines were in such good nick after such a long time underwater:
On May 16th, 1927, however, the ship was christened S. S. “Liemba”, Liemba being the Swahili name for Lake Tanganyika. The ship’s original superstructure was changed in some points and renewed. Original parts of the steam-engine, which had been hidden ashore during the German retreat, were found in good condition and were once again installed in the ship.
Since then, the ship has been refurbished twice the first in 1978 the second in 1993. This has included 2 new sets of engines, upgrading the accommodation and fixing the superstructure. None of which he bBC mentions, simply so they can promote their anti-colonialism speil which it does by rewriting history. Now imagine what damage that has done to somebody who doesn’t know the full facts, you know like WW1 was the reason for conflict in the region and not subjugating the blackman.
Shoddy story based on shoddy research but hey that’s the bBC.
Typical example of BBC bias on Radio 5. On the 4PM news they did an article from some tool in charge of the prisons moaning that Magistrates were breaking sentencing guidlines for political reasons and filling up the prisons.
Well this tool is in charge of the prisons and that’s his job, unless he sat in every court case how does he know? None the less Radio 5 allowed a brief reply from some bloke in representing the Magistrates, but then the BBC decide to give some bleeding heart ‘uman rites’ lawyer free airtime to spout (in effect the BBC’s view) a load of crap.
The BBC just don’t get it, they have been on the wrong side of this since the riots started and still are.
Martin, yet again we’ve heard the same thing on R5L and have come to radically different conclusions. I thought the Magistrates bloke was given free rein and stated an excellent case for the Prison Governor leader’s comments being devoid of all propriety.
We know what the BBC-NUJ political agenda is on scores of issues; in the case of sentencing at court cases for riot perpetrators, BBC-NUJ is politically inclined to take the side of the rioters.
So, what does BBC-NUJ do? – It gets a self-appointed ‘human rights’ type of person to put his criticisms of sentencing first, and then when magistrate is on the back-foot, BBC-NUJ goes off on its political line: ‘aren’t your sentences too harsh’.
Where is the viewpoint on BBC-NUJ that the sentences for convicted rioters may be too lenient? Nowhere to be heard.
Heard the 11a.m news, and it`s clear that any vestige of adult supervision is out the window.
Prisons too full because of rioters, Al Magrabhi was n`t kidding-he WAS ill you lot-didn`t get the rest but it will be that we`re not European enough, gay enough or Islamic enough….we`re just NOT..and how you blend these to suit byour own lifestyle choice is not for the Beeb to tell you.
If you get stabbed in Amsterdam, then you`re probably lacking in Vitamin Allah!
I think the BBC leave a suggestion box on reception on Fridays before the bank Holiday..and some chimp stitches them together as a running news narrative, until the adults return. Or until the drugs wear off…smug pills and self-loathing shots in equal measure?
JUst heard the trail for a programme on Radio 4 this Thursday called “The Class Ceiling” (9 a.m. and 9.30 p.m.)
Now just who would the BBC pay to present such an opportunity to espouse their (distorted?) view on such a matter.
Why, none other than our beloved Polly.
Anyone out their who would not use their contacts, knowledge etc to give their child(ren) a head start in the world, no matter of what “class”.?
We used to have a system called grammar schools which, to my mind, helped many to get on in life from unpromising backgrounds. Because it wasn’t prizes for all the state could afford to fund the brightest through university.
That opportunity was of course closed by Polly and her friends.
But not in Kent where fat Polly and her dyke mate Hattie Hatemen sent their own kids.
Saw a piece on Simon Langton school in Kent the other night( Channel4)
The school is cited as brilliant with all its scientific research etc…NASA, Human genome project people beating a path to the school gates etc.
In short exactly the beacon of excellence so beloved by the liberal elite.
Only two problems
1. State school yes?…but it`s a grammar school and is therefore selective.
2. It has never bothered its arse with the National Curriculum.
Hence no “celebration” of its achievements at the BBC, I`d guess…and the two things that make it so good, will of course have made them serious enemies amongst The Pollys and the Fionas etc.
Let`s hope now that Fabio Capello stops picking out better players…I want disabilty access and all our minorities picked by ratio from now on.
They couldn`t do that much worse, to be honest!
INBBC Radio 4 on Libyan mass immigration to E.U (inc UK):
“No, I want to go to Europe”
http://durotrigan.blogspot.com/2011/08/no-i-want-to-go-to-europe.html
Also:
Camp of the Saints: The Fall Guy
Brendan O’Neill on the violent hate-filled Communist scum from UAF:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/brendanoneill2/100102396/in-finding-itself-banned-unite-against-fascism-has-fallen-victim-to-its-own-brand-of-boneheaded-illiberalism/#dsq-content
Approaching ten years after 9-11 and the BBC kick off their season on 9-11 films with an hour devoted go the barmy conspiracy theories and giving the idiots at Loose Change airtime.
What utter contemptible balony!
I thought the BBC said they didn’t need to forsake accuracy in the interests of balance? Oh, wait, that was about Climate Change. I forgot that many of them still believe in this nonsense that Bush knew and that Al Qaeda were merely pawns.
Conspiracy Theory No.1…the BBC still think the Labour Party are in power, poor deluded bastards
I wonder if al beeb will be reshowing that infamous Question Time programme from shortly after the attacks?
Mailman
In a way I wish they would. That was the day that broke my faith in the BBC. It wasn’t the straw that broke the camel’s back, so much as the sword of Saladin.
they can get away with this and that, but that week and that QT was the biggest disgrace that ever came my way. They can burn for me.
That 9-11 Question Time was one of the most shameful episodes in the entire history of the BBC. I was disgusted by the hate and outright satisfaction displayed by the audience. A nice, wide selection of opinion, brought to you by the BBC. Just dreadful.
The bBC, Nottinghill carnival and reporting what it wants you to hear
Notting Hill Carnival: Police hail ‘peaceful’ event
Police say the Notting Hill Carnival has been peaceful, with 214 arrests so far during the two-day event.Officers are investigating the stabbing of a man, thought to be in his 20s, near the London carnival on Monday.He is said to be in a serious condition in hospital. Three people have been arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm.
So somebody gets stabbed and the bBC hides in from the headlines by saying the police say its been a peaceful carnival.
And here is how the Daily Mail airs the same story:
Pictured: Incredible moment Good Samaritan tries to stop knife-wielding thug fleeing stab scene
And they even show a photo of the man who stabbed somebody still with the knife in his hand. with his victim in the background .
And yet during the Royal wedding, a much larger gathering, there was no aggression or violence at all. A very different crowd of people. Whilst the BBC seems intent on putting an entirely positive spin on the carnival and preventing any dissenters from spoiling the cultural joy, they were more than keen to provide lots of negative articles on the wedding, giving plenty of voice to those who wished to pour scorn on the event.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13214984
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13091768
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-13141349
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/midwales/hi/people_and_places/newsid_9403000/9403646.stm
The political build-up to coverage of 11 September, 2001 in parts of the British media is not auspicious.
Instead of remembering and analysing the Islamic jihad motivation and implementation of the massacres in America, what are INBBC and Channel 4 diverting us with?
1.) BBC-NUJ is yet again focusing on ‘conspiracy theories’; it is not investigating e.g. case-studies of the particular Muslim murderers of 2001. BBC-NUJ is retreading whether it happened, instead of why the Islamic jihadists carry out these atrocities, and so often.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14665953
2.) And Channel 4 deflects attention away from the Islamic jihad reality of 9/11, by putting on a comedy relating to it a few days before:
“Channel 4 to show suicide bombing comedy Four Lions to mark tenth anniversary of September 11”
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2031161/Channel-4-suicide-bombing-comedy-Four-Lions-mark-tenth-anniversary-September-11.html#ixzz1WStyhnAf
If the BBC is the “Grauniad” of the airwaves, then CH4 is the “Independant”.
Both (forgive me) piss-poor, both frankly disgusting and reprehensible.
Sorry, when I say both, I mean all four.
George, I actually watched that 4 lions video inside a Sgts Mess Bar, which one of the lims brought in for everybody to watch.
Nobody complained and boy did we all laugh. (now the people laughing have all undertaken tours in Northern Ireland, Iraq and of course Afghanistan) Granted squaddies have a weird sense of humour. (I really do have to water my remarks down for fear of causing offence) but the simple fact of the matter is, the film is a piss take, if anything it really does stick 2 fingers up to the mindset which promotes religion inspired murders and from me, it isn’t a big deal. The only thing I can’t understand is why Muslims aren’t angry over how they are depicted in the film. Thick as pig shite. Give a watch, you’ll be surprised.
Definitely a film that deserves a critical watch ,maybe not on this date but 4 has really got the Oliver stone approach at the mo cause a ruckus in the press and watch the ratings jump! sad really that they feel the need to follow the beebs lead !
“White House’s 9/11 Anniversary Guidelines Ask Officials to ‘Minimize References to Al Qaeda’”
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/white-houses-911-anniversary-guidelines-ask-officials-to-minimize-references-to-al-qaeda/
And, no doubt Mardell and co will take their lead from the Islam appeasing Obama in relegating key role of Islamic jihad in 9/11 massacres.
Look how this programme about spice is refered to.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b013scp7/Spice_Britain/
It could of course just as easily have said “far off lands” or somesuch.
No no, has to mention the religion of peace.
{scroll down to info bit on the frontpage}
A reminder of the time when the BBC told children that it was only an American idea that members of Al Qaeda committed mass murder on 9/11:
http://biasedbbc.tv/2007/09/several-readers-have-pointed-out.html
http://biasedbbc.tv/2007/09/since-bbc-has-removed-its-childrens-bbc.html
http://biasedbbc.tv/2007/09/bbc-apology-that-is-y-thin-g-but.html
http://biasedbbc.tv/2007/09/it-looks-like-weve-had-result.html
http://biasedbbc.tv/2007/09/following-our-ongoing-coverage-of.html
http://biasedbbc.tv/2007/09/roy-greenslade-blogging-at-grauniad.html
http://biasedbbc.tv/2007/09/following-on-from-scandal-of-childrens.html
There are people at the BBC sympathetic to 9/11 conspiracy theories. There are probably quite a few truthers still there.
A main figure in the 9-11 truther movement in the USA : Charlie Sheen! They’re in great company, aren’t they. WINNING!
Started watching ‘Page Eight’ on the BBC yesterday. Yes, I know, I should have known better than to bother with something from old Labour’s David Hare, but the cast looked good – Bill Nighy, Rachel Weisz, Michael Gambon and Ralph Fiennes.
Got as far as the bit where someone’s brother was killed by an Israeli soldier. I groaned ‘Here we go again’ and switched off to keep my blood pressure down – or rather my wife did (I still have a wife, not a ‘partner’).
What annoys me is that the BBC had obviously spent a fair amount of my cash on this drama but, like some adolescent student, it just can’t keep its politics to itself. Drip drip drip – all the time.
Yes, and it will probably be made into a TV series with the same continuing political agenda. Hare was clearly angling for a series with the way he had written and directed the ‘ending’. It’s what Hare and BBC-NUJ do.
I only listen to Radio 4 for few minutes at a time now because that’s all it takes usually to hear its bias (sometimes some really blatant and heavyweight bias like Woman’s Hour).
This morning I had it on for 5 minutes and they trailed a forthcoming programme about class which they’re calling “The Class Ceiling”, presented by Polly Toynbee. No bias there then!
It really makes you sick having to pay for this stuff no matter what channel you watch.
Apparently for BBC-NUJ, what may be correct economic policies for Ireland cannot be correct for UK ( ‘Today’, 08:46 ):
“The Irish economy is currently growing faster than the UK’s with some claiming the tough prescription of cuts and tax rises may be having a positive effect.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9575000/9575737.stm
I’m quoting from a BBC invite to apply for tickets to an upcoming audience debate chaired by Today Programme’s Jim Naughtie to be held in Brirmingham with the theme ‘What caused the rioting?’
‘….promises to be an evening of lively, informative and passionate debate…’
A lot of leftist heat and not much conservative light shed is what I’m guessing.
‘Hightlights from the evening will be broadcast….’
‘In the interest of ensuring the audience at the event is politically balanced you may be asked about your voting intentions. It is at this point you will be advised if your application has been successful’.
Where to start? Here is one point – so the BBC sets up its own unofficial inquiry into the events of the day and feels that it has the authority to quiz its audience as to their voting intentions.
And also this – the BBC obviously sees any debate over the riots as a straight forward party political issue. There are not expecting a particularly nuanced debate then? Very interesting!
It’s revealing that they expect people’s opinions on this issue to exactly match their party affiliations. Intellectual fascism at the BBC, as usual.
I can’t remember the BBC broadcasting a nuanced debate over the last few decades, let alone one this year.
So, it is a time like this, that one has to rely on contributors such as Dez, Daisey and Scott to refresh a lesser mortal such as myself as to what it was called and when it was on.
Then I can bang my head on the wall for missing it.
So they fnd out who people vote for to mkae a mostly left wing audience with ust a few token Tory supporters…
Page Eight:
I know this has been mentioned more than once but I have jJust finished watching it and I must say it was a waste of a fine cast. Disappointed that Rachel Weisz should lend her talent to a blatant piece of anti-semitism, as this sort of attack on Israel must be classed.
However, I must congratulate Hare and the BBC for a completely and consistently biased piece, they couldn’t have made their nasty prejudices more blatant if they tried. I actually enjoyed mentally ticking off all their prejudices and I think they all came out – I might have missed one or two of course:
1. Anti-semitism – check (Those nasty Jews deliberately murdered an innocent man waving a white flag).
2. Anti-USA – check (Those evil Americans are torturing people in at least a dozen countries around the world).
3. Anti-Conservative – check (It was clear that this was a new Prime Minister which signified a change of government. Although it did not make clear how this new PM was the one kept in the loop by the Americans at a time when he must have been in opposition).
4. Pro-Palestinian – check (Nice, beautiful Rachel Weisz, whose only brother was murdered by those evil Israelis, and her father who only wanted legal justice and not revenge. Strange that a good Muslim girl was drinking Brandy at one point).
5. Pro-Democrat – check (The one good American politician’s website made clear he was a Democrat.)
6. Good old, honest and full of integrity Aunty Beeb – check (The news media that these whistle blowers turned to to publish their “findings” of course. Though, to be fair, it was a BBC production so this at least is understandable.)
The contradictions were amateurish, but it still seems a shame that the once excellent BBC Drama section has now resorted to this blatant type of Der Sturmer propaganda.
Yes, Hare’s play, ‘Page’ 8′ is imbued with a political presumption of Western guilt.
Before writing his play, Hare starts with his anti-West, pro-Islam conclusion and merely sticks black hats and white hats on his cardboard cut-out predictable ‘characters’.
Of course, it did rain on BBC-NUJ’s ‘multicultural’ parade:
“Knife-wielding man pictured running from scene of Notting Hill Carnival stabbing”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8730016/Knife-wielding-man-pictured-running-from-scene-of-Notting-Hill-Carnival-stabbing.html
Supplements on BBC-NUJ-Labour’s ‘multicultural’ London:
1.)
Anti-gang lessons for nine-year-olds: police to shock pupils over knife crime
2.)
Neighbours form ‘home guard’ to keep out Romanian squatters
Completely moronic policy statement from Shiv Malik, an author!, on the News Channel about how the current alleged shortage of new homes and rising prices is “stripping wealth from young people”. Unchallenged by Sophie Beeboid, of course, as this is exactly the kind of political stance they love at the BBC. It’s also a clarion call for more Gordon Brown-style PFIs.
Malik whines – correctly, at first – that for the past ten years everyone has been treating their home as a cash source, which has led to the current messed up market. Something is driving that cash market, he says. “That money (buying up all those new homes, driving up prices) has to come from somewhere.” He then tell us it comes from young people. At no point did he explain how this was so, or provide any figures showing that “young people” have put more cash into the market than other demographics, or anything of the sort. It was all political platform bullet points.
Now that prices are going up and there’s a shortage, young people are having their dream of home ownership stolen from them, and the situation is “stripping money from young people.”
Sophie’s challenging question to him: “Is the Government doing enough, then?”
You can all write the answers yourselves, I’m sure.
Here’s some info on Shiv Malik. The BBC did not identify him as being involved in the “student” riots of last December, or that he was disgusted by sympathy for the US after 9/11, or that he thinks the recent “England Riots” were caused by the current economic conditions, that it was just mob activity, where people use social media to “invite others to break social norms.” He does apparently try to speak out against Islamic terrorism and Hizb-ut-Tahrir, but that doesn’t excuse the BBC’s actions here.
What I find so frustating about commentators such as Shiv Malik who are always so beloved by the BBC is that they are essentially Marxists. And yet you will never hear them own up to that fact. They will pontificate about young people failing to find jobs or housing – yes, but what they don’t own up to is that they envisage some all providing state doling out jobs and housing.
Sky News just had, appropriately, a financial advisor on to talk about this very issue.
Who does the BBC get : an anti-American, pro-Palestinian, left-wing activist. W.T.F.!
Make that two left-wing activists.
I saw that interview as well. I was most surprised at how Malik was able to criticize the current lack of housing (both ownership and rental ) without mentioning the elephant in the room. I was also surprised at how while he could berate the current administration he never mentioned the last 13 years of a Labour government and I wasn’t surprised at how the female interviewer never even questioned him on any of those.
Now I did ‘A’ economics at school, which explains why I subscribe to the Economist to this day. And the first thing I was taught was supply and demand. By not building homes, (private yes, public no) allowing into the country millions of immigrants and by ensuring that any feckless child who finds herself pregnant is given a roof over her head. We now find ourselves in the position where demand outstrips supply. When that happens prices go up and yet World sage Malik could not understand why the prices for renting is on the up.
He could not also work out that for the millions of young people who are thousands of pounds in debt after earning a 2.1 in basket weaving in the combat zone (South London) or even a 2.2 in media studies and who cannot find work basket weaving or even working for the bBC, the last thing on their mind is buying a home. Which kind of explains why so many young girls push out rug rats in which to get a roof over their head.
Can’t believe I’ve only just noticed this, but all the Beeboids I’ve seen in Libya are either with the rebels or reporting from areas now under rebel control. Are there any Beeboids hanging around the loyalist forces? I mean, there’s supposedly still battles going on, so the rebels and the European and US forces must be bombing somebody, so where are they? Am I missing something?
Can any lurking BBC employee please point me to a BBC reporter embedded with the loyalist forces? If not, why not?
“MPs persuade Beeb to catch a falling Star”
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2031262/MPs-persuade-BBC-to-feature-Morning-Star-newspaper.html#ixzz1WWWy63my
Following on the political platform segment about the housing market, Sophie on the News Channel is now talking to a young woman introduced purely as Ruth Patrick, an individual from Leeds who is looking to buy a home with her partner. Oh, the humanity, she’s pregnant, and with her partner only earn about £40,000 pa, and rents are going up and up. She’s having trouble finding a mortgage, options increasingly limited, etc., helped along by the concerned sympathy and leading questions from Sophie Beeboid.
Here’s what the BBC doesn’t want you to know about Ruth Patrick. She’s a grad student in Sociology and Social Policy at Leeds University, and is doing a paper on “the lived experience of welfare reform”. Patrick also co-wrote an advocacy paper criticizing the welfare reform plans of the Conservative-led Coalition (PDF file). She’s apparently also disabled, and is an activist against the Tory policy to reform the disability allowance (unless there are two Sociology PhD candidates at Leeds named Ruth Patrick with the exact same academic agenda). She’s an academic activist with a specific political agenda, and the BBC doesn’t want you to know about it and instead presents her as an unbiased, innocent victim of the housing market.
What a coincidence that the BBC found someone from this end of the political spectrum who is upset about housing costs. Where do they find them?
£40000! Lovely if you can get it.
I know, right? And seeing as how she’s still a grad student, most of that income probably comes from her partner, which means their household income will go up very nicely after the child is born, she get her degree, and gets a job in academia or for some think tank which the BBC will not label “Left-wing”.
Poor child can’t get a low-rate mortgage for that nice three-up/three-down, with a nice garden that is apparently her birth-right.
I was going to ask that very question : Where do they find these people. Some BBC News producer’s rolodex must be full of like-minded comrades who are willing to pose as ‘regular people we just happened to stumble upon to tell us their story(agenda)’.
If the BBC were to enact a ‘declare your interest’ policy in their news department in these kinds of situations, their deceptive agenda would be stripped bare for all to see. There would also be precious little time left to report any news.
The BBC needs to be held to account for these context-lite/rigged guest or vox pop segments.
Such a partisan source should be clearly outed to make their motivations clear, and allow the already Marinas Trench hole dug by the fallacy of the argument be further excavated by the blatant ‘thee-pay-for-me’ political mindset that has shaped it.
Sopel just said one of the stupidest things ever to come out of his mouth. He’s arguing….sorry….having a challenging interview with Nick Herbert, MP. This came directly after a clip of Ed Miliband saying the cuts are wrong and will decimate front line police numbers.
First question, of course, is the Labour attack line: we all saw that the Thin Blue Line has gotten thinner at the last riots, police cuts are wrong, don’t harm the front line. Herbert strenuously objected.
So then Sopel says, “But I was in central London” during the riots, and states that he saw vans from all around the country. He said this was proof that the Met didn’t have the resources to deal with it. This means Sopel thinks that the police force always keeps the maximum amount of personnel on hand needed for a large-scale riot. As if it’s somehow unusual for a city to bring in support from other forces when there’s an extraordinary crisis.
And this wasn’t just a question prepared by the producers to push a disucssion: this was Sopel’s personal opinion based on his own experience. Fool.
I’m quite sure he remembers the miner’s strike. Pretending to be ignorant is worse than just plain ignorance, especially for a ‘journalist’.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/picturegalleries/signlanguage/8730458/Sign-Language-week-167.html?image=12
Kind of reminds me of one of those market rate talent posts that get popped out (and quickly closed) on the BBc “The Editors’ blog: ‘We’re listening, but reserve the right to ignore or attack you if you fail to agree with us’.
Activist and Uman Rights campaigner Vanessa Redgrave pays a visit to Dale Farm to support ‘travellers’. The BBC will love that, she’s one of them : hardcore socialist.
“I am certain that the eviction of the Dale Farm traveller families is illegal under international, mandatory, human rights conventions.
“I am appalled that such an eviction can be upheld by our government.”
Of course, the rest of us aren’t entitled to the same ‘human right’ to build homes wherever we please without purchasing the land or obtaining planning permission or paying council tax.
If they are travellers, why have they built permanent, unmovable homes? Surely moving on is the defining part of their lifestyle. Chancers.
The article also tells us : “Activists from Sweden, Italy, Belgium and France, arrived at Dale Farm to set up the protest camp over the weekend.”
Nowhere in the article is any voice given to any LOCALS that might be less than charitable or probably absolutely livid at the double standards at play. My local ITV Anglia News has done just that. One local saying that he feared impending trouble from the ‘tree huggers’ that were getting involved. Can you imagine a comment like that getting through the editting process on the BBC? No, me neither.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-14720689
Just checked the ‘related stories’ at the bottom of the artcle. None of them even mentions any negative opinions of the locals who live nearby. Plenty about human rights, gathering protesters, campsites, vegan meals, welcome packs for supporters, resistance strategies and mock eviction practice. They’re really getting into it, aren’t they.
Correction…just found one single reference to disapproving attitudes from local residents, which is dismissed imediately in the following sentence. I’m sure you can guess what the line is :
“Sympathy has been in short supply towards the travellers among some in the general population.
The Irish travellers cite racism, and it is true that prejudice does exist in some quarters around the village of Cray’s Hill – but here was genuine warmth.”
‘Activists’~ hm…I think I’d call them inactive, when it comes to doing anything useful, such as working and paying their way or doing unpaid work to help the needy in their neighbourhoods, as opposed to flocking to some media-hyped cause abroad.
I was bored the otherday, so I went for a google maps walk to Dale farm. Now according to the news, there isn’t enough land to go around and so, the travellers (more on that later) have broken out of dale Farm and started building elsewhere. Now do a google and see why they are building elsewhere. Something the bBC doesn’t mention. Oh and one last point if I build a brick house with huge gardens surrounded by brickwalls does that make me into a traveller.
Vanessa Redgrave is also radically anti-Israel and almost cetainly anti-Semitic. That makes the BBC love her even more.
Interesting how while the bBC sees the airing of state secrets via Wikileaks as justified.The naming of Australian Islamic terrorists is deemed to be a step too far.
Australia condemns ‘irresponsible’ Wikileaks cable leak
I must admit I did like this little bBC touch to the story:
“The US Department of State has not commented specifically on the release.”
Maybe the question should be directed at the founder and CEO of Wiki leaks bBC, by the way what nationality is he?
Littlejohn has a good go at the Beeboid Corporation, calling the controller of Beeboid One to make good his Edinburgh promise to cater for older viewers – average age of the TV audience is 50. This being Beeboidland however, said controller also wants to be innovative and experimental. But of course.
Oh dear. I do hope that doesn’t mean the kind of programmes Cohen commissioned when he was running BBC3 are destined for the mainstream.
I’m not sure BBC1 viewers are quite ready for Snog Marry Avoid; F***Off, I’m A Hairy Woman; or ground-breaking documentaries such as My Penis And Everyone Else’s.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2031514/Danny-Cohen-says-BBC1-cater-older-viewers-The-Daleks-doing-darling.html#ixzz1WXOZomL3
A few worthy comments that many at BBBC will be familiar with, but worthy seeing highlighted…
‘Of course, there’s always the ‘off’ switch. And it’s not as if there aren’t hundreds of other channels out there. But we’re paying for this through our licence fees.
BBC drama, like its news output, is always refracted through the prism of the metropolitan prejudices held by the people who work there and take their world view from the pages of the Guardian.
We’re not shocked by the BBC’s attempts to be ‘controversial’, just bored rigid with the depressing predictability of it all and the risible excuses used to justify it.
We can also live without every news programme droning on about the wicked ‘cuts’. Most people, particularly the over-50s, understand the need to balance the budget, so stop insulting our intelligence with a daily diet of doomsday Leftist propaganda.
Oh, and would it be too much to ask to round up a Question Time audience which doesn’t look as if it has been dragged out of a students’ union bar via a diversity czar’s wet dream?’
Rather sweet where the stout defence was proudly coming from:
Wood Green, proud part of the EU
I have to wonder if many pro-BBC posters on such blogs are in fact plants, because if they are not, and from genuinely supportive folk, they seem to have the brains of a cabbage.
I see the bBC is going Hammer and tongs about the current housing crisis, not only have they an article where they heap all the blame on Maggie Thatcher. Err bBC she left office in 1990, but the figure you quote after blaming the Tories in cuts in social housing resulting in just 300 been built in 1999 was during a Labour Government which had been in power for 2 and ½ years. Or 30 months. They have knocked up a have your say where people are allowed to bitch about the lack of housing.
Yet how is it, that I, somebody from a children’s home, went out looking for a home in 1999, bought it in 2000 and now 11 years later, have a mortgage which is £1.40 a month. Could it be how I stopped going out with the lads. Cut back on the car, cut back on nearly everything, plus bought within my means. Now I’m laughing, I have a home, I have money and the current financial crisis doesn’t bother me one bit. That ethic of saving up for what you want was drummed into me as a child by my guardians, who refused to buy me what I wanted and instead made me save up in which to get the object of my hearts desires. Which is why I owned that portable radio for nearly 20 years.
Unfortunately, the last 14 years has seen a society develop which has been taught that everybody owes them a living, that the government will bail you out if you haven’t saved for your future and that anybody who has must be taxed as they are evil.
Now who was in power for 95% of that time?
..and of course, the population has grown quite considerably in the last decade, which can’t have helped with the pressure on housing. Who let that happen?
Sorry to add something further on this, but if it was such a mystery to Mardell – he could have rung him on the two telephone numbers on the CV and asked him what his political vision was or does our vast taxpayer subsidy not stretch to phone bills?
Quite disgraceful Newsnight yet again. Emily makes no attempt to disguise which side of the abortion debate she is on ( we can all guess ) and aided by a typical BBC report rubbishes the coalition’s attempt to balance the advice given to pregnant women.
Mind you the whole debate was couched in the usual BBC ” non judgemental” terms by all concerned.
But abortion is a moral issue. This is the reality. Either you believe that a woman is sovereign over her body without qualification or you believe that once a child is conceived then it is a human being and it’s destiny is to come into the world for good or ill and to interfere in this is no man or woman’s right.
It has always been a moral issue and always will be.
This sort of argument is anathema to the liberal mind so the BBC confuse the issue which is why we end up with the rubbish tonight on Newsnight.
Just what are they really afraid of?
While everyone in certain quarters are bleating about people’s Gaia-given right to a free liberal arts university education for jobs that don’t exist, there are jobs out there to be had: in the skilled trades.
On The Job Hunt: Unfilled Jobs Across America, Are You Qualified?
And Gentex has jobs it can’t fill. More than 200 of them. And it plans to add another 1,150 in the next five years.
“Our problem right now is – we’re growing like crazy.” That’s Bruce Los talking. He’s Gentex’s Vice President of Human Relations. He bears a striking resemblance to actor Bruce Willis. He’s the guy in charge of finding people to fill vacant jobs.
But he’s having a big problem.
“Our problem is finding people who are qualified to work in this environment,” Los said. The type of workers he needs are engineers with advanced degrees. Highly skilled technical workers. And people who have a terrific work ethic. They’re just not out there. Los said it’s because of a lingering stigma around manufacturing.
“I think part of it is the mindset on manufacturing”, Los said. “People grow up and when you go home to mom and dad and say – hey – I’m going to go work in manufacturing, they’re kind of like oh – geez…you couldn’t find a real job somewhere?”
“When you’re at a cocktail party, do you want to say – my kid is going to Brown, or my kid is going to a technical school?” said Jeff Joerres, CEO of Manpower Group.
Every year, Manpower conducts a survey of how many American companies are having difficulty filling “mission critical” positions. In 2011, 52 percent said they were having problems.
Does this sound familiar? Where are the dozen or so Beeboids assigned to cover the US? Why can’t they ever report on something relevant? One would have thought that solid job creation under the Obamessiah Administration would be the kind of thing they’d want to shout from the rooftops: Look, He’s really doing it! Hell, they might even all be union jobs. The BBC loves unions almost as much as the President Himself does.
But no, they aren’t interested, as the White House hasn’t given them a specific policy they can point to as a success. Equally important is that it goes against their free university education agenda. So it doesn’t exist for them.
Have to love the po-faced professional courtesy throughout the entire media estate.
SKY bloke just now referred to Gaddafi spokesperson as ‘highly educated’, what with him having… well, there’s a thing.. a media studies degree from Exeter Uni.
Could be worse… and a well funded qualification from the LSE, with certain media and their favourite spokespersons seem to be being a wee bit circumspect for now on that noble institution and its various alumni and supporters.
After a few weeks’ hols (mostly failing between the cheerful ‘I’m off for the summer’ in beebworld, making one wonder if their market rate contracts are the same as those in educational circles, at least in terms of leave), I’ve now had an opportunity to ‘catch up’ across the blogs. Well, as much as possible.
Amazing how little has moved since i left.
And those that have been updated seem to have closed as soon as they open (Mr. Black has tried one toe-dip since getting back that got watertight oversighted pretty darn quick. The latest from his prodigious output looks like going the same way).
All rather epitomised by this one from Mr. Robinson:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14526254
‘15 Aug – Whilst party leaders are speech making I have snuck away on my holidays. The blog and I will be back in September.’
One presumes not the 30th? As far as i can judge, on the main politics blog from the £4Bpa national broadcaster, things kicked off and then closed in a brief window on the 22nd. Which by coincidence is the number of comments… 22.
That’s two footy teams’ worth, since Aug. 15.
‘Speaking for the nation’, Aunty? Only 69,999,932 more to go.
If this is the calibre of interaction the BBC can manage, and few seem to be missing what they do, the argument for uniquely funding its erratic news output seems rather wanting.
This latest outing from a market rate navel fluff gazer does still seem open to share one’s thoughts on their awesome professional output, for now…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2011/08/newsnight_the_facts.html
Not sure one can expect a reply, mind, on past evidence.