OPEN THREAD…


I know, a plethora of posts and the old Open Thread vanishes! So, here is a NEW fresh one for you to populate…

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124 Responses to OPEN THREAD…

  1. My Site (click to edit) says:

    The BBC is, rightly, a bit miffed with Iran.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2011/10/families_of_bbc_staff.html

    If, perhaps, only when it gets closer to ‘home’. Maybe the words of Pastor Niemoller might serve to be posted in the news rooms vs. dartbaords of Western leaders?

    Have to wonder at the mindset that does not see a certian irony when it comes to ‘levels of intimidation and bullying’ when it comes to wishing to pursue other value sets via democratic choice using free speech.

       0 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Now I understand why the BBC kept shtum about that Christian convert who was sentenced to execution.

         0 likes

    • Teddy Bear says:

      They must be really stretched by Iran to make this public. They didn;t reveal this when they were in Iraq under Saddam.

      Following the deposition of Saddam Hussein’s regime, the then president of CNN, Eason Jordan, publicly admitted to bias in their coverage of events in Iraq before the war. He had continually denied this allegation when made to him previously. Now he claimed that there had been severe and serious threats, physically to CNN staff based in Baghdad, as well as closure of their offices, if they did not follow the guidelines laid out by Saddam.

      The ethics of their decision to remain as part of Saddam’s propaganda machine instead of pulling out and revealing the truth to their public is questionable, but they justified their decision based on maintaining presence there.

      It is inconceivable that the BBC would not have been subject to the same restrictions. With the BBC as the world’s largest news agency, and wishing to remain that way, they have a clear motive in not antagonising any of the countries they maintain offices and cable and radio contracts with. Letters discovered by our troops from the BBC correspondent Rageh Omaar, showed him ingratiating himself to Saddam’s son Uday, one of the most despicable characters in history along with his father.

      But to this day there has been no admission from the BBC admitting bias because of force – they prefer instead to continue their propaganda of their own free will.

         0 likes

  2. George R says:

    Apparently, the French think-tank, Institut Montaigne is not one of Beeboids’ favourites because they censor this:

    “Warning over France’s Islamic suburbs which are becoming ‘separate communities in a divided nation’ ”

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2046202/Frances-Islamic-suburbs-separate-communites-divided-nation.html#ixzz1a67rq4jl

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  3. John Anderson says:

    re. the Wall Street protests/riots –

    We should remember where Obama comes from.  He was a Chicago “community organiser” – which basically means being a shit-stirrer,  exaggerating local grievances,  strong-arming local councils and businesses – the whole ACORN thing which he tried to play down. 

    Obama WANTS these riots.  He is setting up a straw-man argument,  the People versus the Fat Cats – even though he gets most of his campaign finance from Wall Street,  he staffed senior White House posts from Goldman Sachs.

    Obama is a Marxist.  He believes in class warfare,  civil strife as a means of furthering the cause.  He claimed to be transcendalist,  to heal the wounds,  but he has exacerbated the wounds by presiding over an economic disaster.  He wants riots as a distraction to his total incompetence,  this has been building up some time,  it ain’t spontaneous in the way that the Tea Party was largely spontaneous.

    And a lot of the protestors are members of leftie unions,  or being paid for by far-left outfits like Soros’ MoveOn and CodePink.

    Trust the BBC to fail to report any of this background.   Has there ever been a leftie “protest” that the BBC didn’t shill for ?

       0 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Unfortunately I think you’re onto something here, John.  The SEIU joined in the other day, and things got violent.  There’s also apparently lots of union money flowing in to help the squatters keep going for much longer.

      The President, of course, is in very tight with the SEIU (think that can be written off as campaign pandering that all candidates do? try this).  The union boss visited the White House more than anyone else during His first year in office.  No surprise that last year the President appointed him to His Deficit Commission.

      To the BBC, I’m sure union involvement means they’re on the side of the angels.

         0 likes

      • John Anderson says:

        David

        The entire Obama presidency has been based on paybacks to unions like SEIU,  the teachers and the autoworkers – and crony capitalists.  Unions that are bankrupting the individual states – and when any Governor tries to stop the bleeding of taxpayers’ money,  out come the union mobs.   With the SEIU being especially aggressive and often violent.

        All part of the “community organising” pattern.   My hope is that the OccupyWallStreet nonsense will flash back on the Democrats.

           1 likes

        • David Preiser (USA) says:

          True.  He even bailed out GM and Chrysler and restructured the deal, violating US contract law, so that union pensions were protected.  And He’s prosectuing Boeing for trying to start a non-union manufacturing plant.  He doesn’t want to create jobs if they’re not union jobs.

             1 likes

          • John Anderson says:

            “The Usual Suspects” are up to their necks in the “protests” – protests which are occurring in many cities and are headline news in the US.

            C’mon,  Mardell – tell us what is REALLY going on.   And don’t forget the allegations that this is exactly what Obama wants,  it ain’t all concidental.

            http://biggovernment.com/mvadum/2011/10/07/occupy-wall-street-jumps-the-shark/

               1 likes

            • David Preiser (USA) says:

              Mardell doesn’t dirty his hands with messy things like this. He’s doing the “big picture” stuff.  Trevalyan or the new youth hires in “digital media” – all of whom will naturally be leaning politically in favor of the “occupiers” – will end up covering it.

                 1 likes

  4. Peter Parker says:

    Dunno if anyone noticed this gem in the mail:

    “The BBC faced embarrassment after its chief operating officer Caroline Thomson appeared to compare closing a channel to the NHS shutting hospitals. She said the BBC could not close any of its services because they were too valued by the public. Asked if any other publicly funded organisation could justify saying this, she told Radio 4’s PM Programme: ‘Ask the NHS about the problem of closing hospitals.’ ”

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2045944/BBC-budget-cuts–1-3bn-axe-turns-BBC2-channel-repeats.html

       1 likes

    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      One often gets to this point quite quickly with the brain dead supporter teams, when the matter of ‘essential’ public services funded by tax is equated with Mark Byford’s pension buy-off.

      And confronting these bozos with the hard facts of a nurse or squaddie’s salary with the ‘need’ for Eastenders usually brings them to a grinding halt if others are in earshot.

         1 likes

    • ltwf1964 says:

      had a nice chuckle to myself when i read that this morning

      what an idiot

      some people only open their mouths to change feet

         1 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      There is a silver lining, though:

      Radio will also see more repeats, with Radio 2 and 5 Live cutting back comedy

         1 likes

      • ltwf1964 says:

        that’s comedy as in “comedy” i take it?

           1 likes

        • David Preiser (USA) says:

          Yes, as in fewer “edgy” comedians getting money and air time to spout their far-Left views.

             1 likes

          • ltwf1964 says:

            bye bye brigstoocke and his lefty ilk then

            can only be nothing but good

               1 likes

            • Buggy says:

              No. “Prickstocke vs BBC Cuts” is, I fear, the same as “Cockroach vs Nuclear Bomb”, i.e. the lone survival of something unpleasant in the face of seemingly impossible odds. :'(

              Apologies to any cockroaches reading this for comparing you with Prickstocke.

                 1 likes

    • james1070 says:

      Yep the BBC has gone into Looney Left Council from the 80’s mode.

         1 likes

    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      From what I just saw on the TV, Ms. Thompson appears to be digging some very deep holes as we speak.

         1 likes

  5. John Anderson says:

    Scandals in the US that the BBC is failing to report :

    1   Solyndra – the perfect example of corrupt Crony Capitalism,  but only half-a-billion dollars of public money gone adrift, an FBI investigation,  so why should the BBC care ? 

    – no matter that it involves Obama campaign funders and a reversal of a Bush decision to refuse to give the loan guarantee.  The head of the loan section at the Dept of Energy has just resigned – and the trail goes right into the White House.  Here is some background :

    http://www.breitbart.tv/crony-capitalism-a-history-of-obamas-solyndra-scandal/

    2   Perhaps more serious – “Fast and Furious”,  Obama’s administration providing guns to Mexican gun cartels,  most of them untracked and now lost,  one US law officer shot dead by one of the guns,  200 or so murders in Mexico linked to these guns,  one of the senior officials has resigned and it look like Obama’s Attorney General has committed perjury in testimony to Congress.  Huge stink – but I haven;t heard any BBC reporting on this :

    http://www.breitbart.tv/az-sheriff-explains-fast-and-furious-to-anderson-cooper/

       1 likes

  6. fred bloggs says:

    Like father like son: listening to R4 Today – wednesday morn, I heard this quote made on 4th Oct 2011 in the Lords.

    “When will the Government recognise that the present dire state of the economy is attributable overwhelmingly to their own stupid policies?” This was from Labour Lord Peston, why had the bBC picked this particular quote, well obvious really. So I though I would see what the sagacious Lord Peston said about his labour government.

    I found this quote by Lord Peston from Sept 2009: “My Lords, forecasting the balance of payments is incredibly difficult, because it is the difference between two enormous figures, but unless I misheard my noble friend’s Answer on this for 2010, it is ludicrously pessimistic. Did he not say that he thought that it would be well over 3 per cent of GDP? On any analysis—certainly my own—the balance of payments is improving very rapidly, as my noble friend Lord Sheldon points out. It is highly likely that the per cent of GDP and the current account deficit will be below even 2 per cent. I hope that someone in the Treasury is taking note of that.” This is certainly from a person on top of his subject, ‘the balance of payments is improving very rapidly’, so now you know where bBC Peston gets his abilities from!

       1 likes

  7. John Anderson says:

    And if Mark Mardell is stupid and lazy enough to think the US has seen the last of Sarah Palin,  he should take note of this sort of thing :

    http://dailycaller.com/2011/10/06/the-palin-movement-isnt-retreating-its-reloading/

       1 likes

  8. Louis Robinson says:

    Mark Mardell is neither stupid or lazy. For motive look elsewhere.

       1 likes

  9. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Blatant lie and Obamessiah propaganda at the end of this BBC News Online piece about the latest US jobs figures.    
       
    Mr Obama’s jobs programme proposes funding huge construction projects, schools and services, while giving tax cuts to workers and small businesses to boost recruitment.    
       
    However, with Republicans having rejected a proposed tax rise on wealthier people to pay for it, Mr Obama is fighting to get the package through Congress.
       
       
    This is an outright lie, pure White House propaganda.  The Democrats in the Senate are not only rewriting a part of His Jobs Plans For Us in a partisan attempt to appease Dems but make it even more untenable. Nobody has co-sponsored it, and even the Dems are against much of it.  Oh, and Democrat Senate Leader Harry Reid knew it was DOA so he put it on the back burner in favor of other stuff he wanted.    
       
    The President’s main obstacle to getting His Jobs Plan For Us passed is Himself.  Instead, the BBC tells you a White House lie.

       1 likes

    • John Anderson says:

      It is worth spelling that out again.

      Not one single Democrat in Congress has dared to sponsor Obama’s “Bill”.   Not one.   Nearly a month after he declaimed “Pass This Bill Now” 17 times in his address to Congress.

      His whole strategy is to prestend there is a confrontation with the Republicans – and he is full-time campaigning,  not governing.

      Lord help America if it doesn’t get rid of this bozo.

         1 likes

  10. Demon1001 says:

    What’s happened to Cassandra these days?  Not noticed her on here for a while.  

       1 likes

    • Grant says:

      Good point, Demon.  Cassie always used to shoot from the hip  !!   Much missed.

         1 likes

  11. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Mark Mardell is on the road again, now focusing on how unemployment is much, much worse for blacks than for whites.  He does the standard human interest piece, featuring sympathetic characters, generalizing from anecdotes.  That’s okay in this case as he’s just using this to set the scene and not making pronouncements based on it.    
       
    But he ends by saying that tomorrow he’ll “try to find out why” blacks have been hit much harder by unemployment than whites.  It’s pretty obvious to someone who doesn’t live inside the bubble, but let’s see if Mardell discovers for himself that a far higher percentage of blacks work in blue collar and service industry jobs.  These are always the first to go when the economy sags.  I wonder if Mardell will understand the irony of the President’s penchant for attacking the rich, when it’s the rich who provide the bulk of the jobs in the service industry.    
       
    If rich people have less to spend, they don’t hire cars, they don’t have parties, they don’t go out to dinner as often, they don’t spend so much on vacation, they don’t buy more products so less needs to be manufactured, their businesses don’t have as many cleaners or secretaries or maintenance workers.  I can say from personal experience and lots of first-hand accounts I’ve heard that the service industry in NYC has been hit very, very hard.  When there are less of these kinds of jobs, there are a lot less employed black people.

       

    And it’s not just the evil rich, of course.  The unloved middle classes also spend money on all these things, and they’re tightening the belts as much as anyone right now.

    Not to mention the fact that there are a lot of blacks in blue-collar government jobs, and guess which jobs get cut first in times of budget restraint.    
       
    Why blacks are overwhemlingly employed in the lower, more vulnerable job ranks is a topic for another discussion entirely.  But the fact remains that they are more vulnerable, no matter who is in charge.  We’ll see how Mardell deals with it.

       1 likes

  12. John Horne Tooke says:

    Eco-friendly school left out of pocket after ‘unproven’ wind turbine breaks

    “It all started when the Gorran School got the bright idea that a wind turbine would solve all their electrical bills while doing some feel good environmentalism. The BBC was ecstatic when they reported on it back in 2008”
    http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/10/06/wind-turbine-fail-school-left-holding-the-bag-for-53000/

    “To coincide with the start of the project the children will be sealing their aspirations for the future of the Earth in a time capsule.

    The capsule will be buried by the foundations of the wind turbine until 2058, which will mark the 50th anniversary of the turbine. ”
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/7271533.stm

    I notice that this news item has not been updated on the BBC website.

    You have to feel sorry for the school, if it wasn’t for stupid people like Huhne and the propaganda department at the BBC these things just would not happen.

       0 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      The turbine company went bust, eh?  Sounds familiar somehow…..

         0 likes

    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      I notice that this news item has not been updated on the BBC website.  ‘

      Another Craigworthy list would be of all the half-@rsed, gushing, fact-free, aganda-dripping promotion the BBC and its legions of ‘reporter’ moppets have inflicted on the public, abusing their ‘trusted’ status to seduce the naive and innocent into being guinea pigs for their mayfly-attention span stories for long enough until they move on to wreak misinformation havoc in their next area of sociallly-engineered delusion.

         0 likes

      • London Calling says:

        Agree totally (and a bBC Literary Award for the longest sentence of the week!)

           0 likes

  13. Martin says:

    I was listening to Dotun Adebayo on Radio 5 last night and he was doing his usual piece with a guy from USA Today. The US reporter mentioned the Solyndra scandal and asked Adebayo if he’d heard of it. “No nothing” was Adebayo’s reply. Now I’m not surprised that the BBC haven’t reported it (the BBC have ignored the Fast and Furious scandal as well) but you’d think that the Radio 5 Up all Night slot is very much about the US political scene so the presenters would be up on these stories.
     
    As those of us who don’t rely on the BBC for ‘news’ both Solyndra and the Fast and Furious scandal are two of the biggest shit storms facing St Barry at the moment, but the BBC are silent on it, preferring to have a go at Sarah Palin instead (yawn)
     
    It’s going to come as a shock to people when they find out St Barry loses the election next year (as he will, he’s toast now). Obama is being driven further and further to the left and is turning off a large number of independent voters.

       0 likes

  14. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Check out the latest example of the BBC treating the far-Left “Occupy Wall Street” protesters.  This time, the BBC sent Daniel Nasaw to Cleveland.  Totally sympathetic piece, full of heartfelt statements by the protesters.  No scowling or scaremongering about “anger” or how they are beginning to get violent.  180 degrees from the BBC’s treatment of Tea Party protesters.

    Censored by the BBC:


    Email: ‘Time to kill the wealthy’


    Several influential New York state lawmakers have received threatening mails saying it is “time to kill the wealthy” if they don’t renew the state’s tax surcharge on millionaires, according to reports.

    “It’s time to tax the millionaires!” reads the email, according to WTEN in Albany. “If you don’t, I’m going to pay a visit with my carbine to one of those tech companies you are so proud of and shoot every spoiled Ivy League [expletive] I can find.”

    The violence comes from the Left.  And the BBC will protect them at all costs.  Hey, Paul Mason: how about encouraging your buddies to report this?

       0 likes

    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      Mr. Mason seems to currently a bit busy tweeting with Penny Red on their respective iPhones, about how awful capitalism is.

         0 likes

  15. Louis Robinson says:

    Looking for good news: an eager Mardell tweets at around 9am: “Breaking : unemployment in US holds at 9.1 : 103 000 new jobs last month

    Then at 10am he has to correct the first tweet but underline Obama’s infallibility: “Correction : construction figures up. US unemployment figures confirm sluggish economy but NOT headed in the wrong direction.

    Look on the sunny side, always on the sunny side, look on the sunny side of life…

    PS I am so looking forward to Mardell’s take on Herman Cain!

       0 likes

    • John Anderson says:

      I see a poll today shows Herman Cain has surged to a 20 point lead over Romney !

         0 likes

      • ltwf1964 says:

        Cain would get my vote

        I just want to see the bbc getting their panties in a twist over a black GOP president

        on second thoughts,Mark Mardell’s panties in a twist…….

        what an obscene concept 😎

           0 likes

        • Grant says:

          Itwf,
          It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Mardell wears ladies’ underwear ! 

             0 likes

  16. Martin says:

    Oh dear, the BBC are on a wank fest. They’ve got some twat on from the ‘Dandy Warhols’ who is claiming that the ‘Tories are the party of no jobs who have to get Labour get elected to create the jobs again’

    Then the twat admits he knows nothing about UK politics but goes off on an anti Republican rant instead.

    So let’s get this right, the BBC manage to report on some thick halfwit over a song used by Theresa May but the BBC can’t report on the Solyndra or Fast and Furious scandal. The halfwit interviewed doesn’t know anything about UK politics yet the beeboid lets him clearly make a political statement that the BBC can’t make themselves, it’s clearly a childish attempt by the BBC to get back at the Tories for the fact that the poor darlings are having to get rid of 2000 useless Cocaine addicts.

    Your licence fee being pissed away once again.

       0 likes

  17. Louis Robinson says:

    And to help explain the US figures:

    “Payrolls rose by 103,000 after a 57,000 gain in August, the Labor Department said today in Washington. The median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of economists called for an increase of 60,000. The figures reflected the end of a strike at Verizon Communications Inc (VZ) that brought 45,000 people back to work. The jobless rate held at 9.1 percent”.

    The end of a strike! 

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-07/u-s-payrolls-rise-103-000-in-september-jobless-rate-at-9-1-.html

       0 likes

  18. David Preiser (USA) says:

    While the BBC doesn’t bother to report on so many important issues in the US, and are cutting Radio 3 lunchtime concerts by 25%, they are increasing spending, staff, and coverage of lightweight magazine-style pieces such as this one:


    Millions stroll in New York’s ‘park in the sky’

    Value for money? Or a boon to the BBC-owned Lonely Planet travel guide?  You decide.

    In any case, I do like this park, even though it can get too crowded fairly easily on weekends because it’s so narrow.  But the highly-trained media experts who put this together, while producing a segment that follows formula perfectly, and hits all the requisite marks they tell you to hit in training courses on how to make these features, ignored my favorite feature of the park.

    There are a couple of brief glimpses of it, but if you blink you’ll miss it.  For one stretch of the park, the public is treated to a cool juxtaposition of the smaller, very old buildings on the east side against the larger, very modern structures on the west side.  Old New York and new, laid out on either side.  Too bad they were focused on following formula, and trying to reflect the talking points of a new book and the founder, rather than looking around and understanding it.

    This is what they teach in the courses leading to jobs at the BBC, and reflects what media types value.  And Mark Thompson thinks it’s more important than hard news or high culture.

       0 likes

    • Wally Greeninker says:

      David Starkey is the morning guest on Radio 3’s Essential Classics all next week (at about 10.30am). It’s nice to see he hasn’t become an unperson with the BBC bt I wonder if he’s been told not to mention the riots etc.

         0 likes

  19. John Horne Tooke says:

    Do you ever see Black and Mann in the same room?

       0 likes

    • John Anderson says:

      Superb takedown of charlaton Michael Mann and his hockey-stick nonsense :

      http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/10/05/dr-martin-hertzberg-responds-to-dr-michael-mann/

      All this will catch up with Richard Black one day.  I hope it happe3ns soon,  he cou;d join the BBC’s 2000

         0 likes

      • John Horne Tooke says:

        “When I am engaged in a scientific dispute with an adversary, and that opponent instead of citing the facts or the data that might support his argument, instead directs an intense barrage of ad-hominem slurs toward me, I am fully confident that I am winning the argument.”

        Which indeed is the difference between science and politics

           0 likes

      • John Horne Tooke says:

        I would recomend the presentation linked to in the article.

           0 likes

  20. Martin says:

    So some poncy left wing Oxford Professor comes up with a list of iconic images and Che Guevara just happens to be one of them so the BBC news just HAS to use it in the piece of crap they just put out.

    “What does it signify” spouts thick beeboid “Freedom” says some idiot. Really? More like mass murderer.

    A pointless article but clearly giving hard ons in the BBC newsroom.

       0 likes

  21. Ben says:

    Just heard a trailer for a series of reports on Five Live Drive next week  to mark the world’s population reaching 7 billion.

    Now then, I wonder what the general thrust of these reports will be?

    Celebration of mankind’s success and ingenuity, fewer people in absolute poverty than ever before, more people being fed than ever before, etc

    Or

    Malthusian doomfest,

       0 likes

  22. As I See It says:

    BBC London News, probably the greatest cheerleader for the massively expensive 2012 Olympics, are suddenly concerned about the cost of a capital project….

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-15035471

    ‘Thames Cable Car costs rise above 60 million’

    Strange, has Keynesian investment on capital projects gone out fashion at the BBC? While the National Audit Office warns about Olympic costs overrunning by billions? Oh I was forgetting we’re six months from the Mayoral election and this Cable Car thing is a Boris project.

       0 likes

  23. Louis Robinson says:

    11.30 GMT Business Report on the World Service.

    “The US is creating more jobs than expected…”

    How mths are born

       0 likes

    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      Still think my normally sensible MP is addicted to the DP sofa more, to come out with tripe like ‘but it is a national treasure I must supp… that must be preserved for the country’. But pocket money can’t hurt.

      Read on to discover how a market rate talent on hundreds of thousands has no clue what the vatsly overpiad BBC middle mnagement legions actually do for their high tens of thousands.

      Credit where due: teased out by Kirtsy Wark. Mind you, a person embroiled once in a ‘bit of a do’ about the floodlighting of her Med villa tennis courts, a problem with which many of us must empathise.

         0 likes

  24. My Site (click to edit) says:

    I’m not sure if anyone still cares about bias against the spineless socialists that currently pass as the ‘Conservative Party’, – given that they’re too weak and pathetic to do anything about it themselves, but if so, then this may be of interest:
    7:00 onwards

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b015ctw6/Clare_in_the_Community_Series_7_Rude_Girl/

       1 likes

    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      politicshomeuk politicshomeuk Bob Crow faces questions on R4 Today about tube staff salaries, asks Evan Davis: “How much do you earn a year?”.

         1 likes

    • George R says:

      Supplementary from Vicki Woods’ article:  
       
      She comments on Eddie MAIR’s (NUJ) interview on ‘PM’ with Caroline THOMSON, BBC-NUJ’s chief operating officer:  
       
       
      “It was a meaningless piece of broadcasting. I was left dizzily wondering whether  
      a) Eddie Mair is a BBC union organiser;  
      b) Caroline Thomson has ever worked anywhere else but the BBC;  
      c) why Caroline had to do the BBC-eats-its-own-feet exercise instead of Mark Thompson; and 
      d) why the director-general is such a gloomy-looking cove? Obviously, he has the final ‘responsibility’ for cutting the jobs of BBC employees, and obviously he will have to put a special face and voice on if, or (more likely) when, some of them go on strike. But he is not going to lose his annual performance bonus or anything. ”  
       
      From:  
       
      ‘All I get on the BBC these days is … the BBC’ 


      (Vicki Woods) 
       
      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/8813428/All-I-get-on-the-BBC-these-days-is-…-the-BBC.html

         1 likes

  25. joseph sanderson says:

    The BBC website has an article on the Dutch government planning to reclassify high strength cannabis, the article then has this comment with the largest coffee shop owner in the Netherlands

    Marc Josemans, who runs a cafe in Maastricht, says he believes that the new tough approach is being driven by the increasingly influential far-right in Dutch politics.

    “You immediately can taste the difference. Everything which is considered unusual for them – they call it ‘left hobbies’ and under this name they want to ban all ‘left hobbies’, like using cannabis.

    As you might understand there are some problems with this article, firstly the BBC fails to identify that Marc Josemans owns an entire chain of coffee shops, the BBC also fails to mention that Mr Josemans is the Chairman of the coffeeshop owners activist group, the BBC also fails to mention that the Dutch government is a coalition which is left leaning, the BBC also fails to mention that Maastricht which has been at the forefront of attempts to close down the coffeeshops is and has been for years a left wing council!

    What is true is that as of last week drug tourists who are not Belgium, Dutch or German will not be allowed to purchase drugs from Maastrichts coffeeshops, this is the start to a complete closure of all coffeeshops in Maastricht by the end of next year, people wishing to purchase drugs will have to travel to Amsterdam, funnil enough the voters of Maastricht support the closure of coffeeshops by a 75% majority, something I note is also not in this article.

       1 likes

    • George R says:

      This is a report on the same item from Glenn BECK’s site which doesn’t slant the story in a pro-drug dealing way, unlike BBC-NUJ:

      “Dutch Classify High-Potency Marijuana as Hard Drug Alongside Cocaine, Ecstasy”

      http://www.theblaze.com/stories/dutch-classify-high-potency-marijuana-as-hard-drug-alongside-cocaine-ecstasy/

         1 likes

    • As I See It says:

      I heard a news headline on 5 Live about this story.

      It went something like this…. ‘Dutch Coffeeshop owner blames the move on a change in the political climate….’

      In other words the story is framed as a negative backward step caused by that great source of nuisance: political change due to public opinion.

      That sums up the BBC take on a lot issues, don’t it?

      The BBC, the non-reversable ratchet of leftist progress.

         1 likes

  26. My Site (click to edit) says:

    liarpoliticians liarpoliticians Ha ha, woman on BBC “Newswatch” says BBC impartiality has gone up. Did I blink and miss this impartiality?

       1 likes

    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b015f89p/Newswatch_08_10_2011/

      So… more twitter via the bubble as a ‘source’.

      Twitter is free. Along with being less than accurate. I have to pay the BBC to add their mates’ spin to it …why?

      Hugs in top form. A market rate talent indeed. If you are trading in tripe.

      ‘It’s useful having two of you’. A Beeboid interviewing a Beeboid being the icing on a very stinky cake.

      Silly bint obsessing over being first vs. being accurate. Should be first on the redundancy roster.

      But at least we still get Robert Peston and Stephanie… and their opinions.. as if that is not a major part of the problem.

      I can agree on one thing: we will not feel much difference; it will remain baised, zero-integrity, unprofessional cr@p.

         1 likes

  27. George R says:

    “The bloated Beeb was crying out for job cuts”

    By Amanda Platell

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2046654/BBC-budget-cuts-The-bloated-Beeb-crying-job-cuts.html#ixzz1aBc1fQZ6

    (Ms Platell also has interesting comments on a.) Ms May, and b.) Ms Knox, etc. Scroll down page.)

       1 likes

  28. George R says:

    ‘Newsnight’s Comrade MASON won’t like this:-  
     
     
    Occupy Wall Street is a fashion show masquerading as a political movement”    
       
    (by Brendan O’Neill)

       1 likes

    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      Well, Mr. Mason has rather tried to have his cake whilst eating it (or supporting the barricade stormers decrying capitalist billionaires like Penny Red, whilst both exchange notes on which latest iHypocrisy toy they have added to their extensive collections).

      So if that discrepency in words vs. deeds, or indeed words vs. other words is not to his liking, then tough.

         0 likes

    • cjhartnett says:

      The beauty of the corporate toads that squat over our media and choice of story is that the likes of Brendan O`Neill have them banged to rights.
      Like Melanie and Peter H….they speak(as do I) as one who himself was a useful idiot way back, and would not have mocked or poured scorn on these affected, solipsictic “good(i.e safe and well paid) gestures and shows of rebellion.
      The fashion guide to what to wear on a protest is priceless…yet no-one there will be laughing or seeing what donkeys arses they are.
      I remember Alexander McQueen being carried out of his flat, and the media discussing the tartan checks on the blanket!
      I myself am thinking of providing a rioters packed lunch if I get wind of things kicking off next time…pastie, fizzy drink and adverts featuring 24hour duty solicitors on the (obviously recyclable) lunch boxes with attachments for the low slung bike!
      Yet-will I get a laugh of the elite…not a bit of it?
      They prefer Marcus and Jeremy….safe house-trained rebels from Brighton or Surrey instead.
      Reckon I could pass off a sherbert sachet as some new drug in my Riot Repast line….any ideas?

         0 likes

  29. Beness says:

    Seems that Billy Bragg will not be attending todays “Stop the war” campaign.

     He’s not feeling to well.

     All the best billy you are obviously bedridden with something that is so incredibly hard to overcome. Probably would be life threatening to people without the resolve(unlike yourself) to fight the good fight and keep on to the end.

     Wish him well everyone. You know he is a true warrior, when he’s up and about that is

       0 likes

    • cjhartnett says:

      He was overheating rather with all those big words in Salford on Thursday evening.
      Poor chaps little red book of stock cliches and SWP twaddle rather failed him at times, and it is a long way back home to the lovely Dorset coast too.
      Bit of sea air, a cream tea or two and a bit of Bob Marley as sung by Brixtons finest on the cd…and his plaid shirt will be brushed and pressed ready for his next prison visit!
      Now if THAT does`nt cut crime in the South West-nothing will!

         0 likes

    • It's all too much says:

      http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/celebrity/billy-bragg-has-absolutely-gigantic-house-201101063402/

      The story is a spoof but it is the house of the tireless class warrior

         0 likes

    • London Calling says:

      Could someone not mount a “Stop Billy Bragg Coalition”? I’d be prepared to carry a banner outside his Dorset Mansion.

         0 likes

  30. My Site (click to edit) says:

    As some folk block a bridge for reasons one is sure the BBC as PR support will help to edit into some form of coherence, I have seen shared this, and cannot stop laughing as the ‘cuts’ to their vital staff numbers are lamented.

       0 likes

  31. George R says:

    BBC-NUJ, Al JAZEERA, HAMAS, and global mega-MOSQUE building.    
       
       
    Isn’t BBC-NUJ proud of its links with Islamic broadcaster chum, Al Jazeera (of Qatar and London) any more?    
       
    Presumably BBC-NUJ applauds not only Qatar-Al Jazeera support for Islamic jihad Hamas (mirroring that of BBC-NUJ), but also for Islamic Qatar’s spending of $70m on global mega-mosque building in e.g. Tajikstan. Come on, BBC-NUJ don’t censor it.   
       
    ‘Telegraph’:    
       
    “Tajikstan starts building one of the world’s biggest mosques”    
       
       
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/tajikistan/8813420/Tajikstan-starts-building-one-of-the-worlds-biggest-mosques.html

       0 likes

  32. Michael says:

    The Question time audience is selected “with great care”.

    The Question time audience has always been pro EU (except for the odd ‘nutter’) until last month; the BBC news website has never questioned the EU until a month ago .

    Now all of a sudden the audience is split on opinion, a big coincidence the “with great care” selects in a manner similar to that of BBC news opinion.

    Why do the BBC not include in its cost cutting mesures the selection of the audience at random, from each suburb close to the location.

       0 likes

  33. cjhartnett says:

    Oh dear…AN Wilson won`t be welcomed back to Today anytime soon.
    He had heard Bluestocking Sarah sticking the boot into Dickens and the writing of the death scene involving Little Nell in the previous piece.
    His sin was then to link this mockery to the gloop and slavering weeping and wailing over the death of Steve Jobs by the media and the saddos who spend all their time as professional grief thieves as opposed to doing a days work.
    What-you dare to apply our market segmentation and careful silos of received wisdom-then cross the wires to show us up for the slushy sentimental fakes that Victorians are( by our unchallengeable lights?)
    How very dare you…lots of eggy stares and no party bag or route map to Salford for YOU ,Sir!
    Brilliant…poor old Sarah will be recovering after her fit of the vapours.
    A word downstairs if you please…

       0 likes

  34. George R says:

    Islamic Republic of Iran, and BBC-NUJ’s silence.

    BBC-NUJ is concerned with its own in Iran, but doesn’t extend that concern to Christian pastor who is under a death sentence by the Iran regime.

    Horrocks:

    “Families of BBC staff being harassed in Iran”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2011/10/families_of_bbc_staff.html

    Cranmer:

    “International Day of Prayer for Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani”

    http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.com/2011/10/international-day-of-prayer-for-pastor.html

    Why this reticence, BBC ?

    Is it because:

    1.) Iran regime is an enemy of Israel?

    2.) BBC is more conderned with restoring its Persian Service, and so doesn’t want to offend Iran regime too much?

     3.) This is only the case of a Christian pastor, and not a Muslim jihad trainee, Binyam M ?

       0 likes

  35. james1070 says:

    I have  just been  thinking up some slightly spoofed up programmes, the sort the the BBC could make. Can anyone think of any other spoof programmes?

    BBC Drama Spring/Summer 2012

    Muhammad the Muslim Detective:  Fighting crime and institutionalised Islamophobia in the Met Police. First episode deals with a suspicious fire at a local mosque that leads to a sinister organisation called the British Defence League.

    Ikenga: An African science fiction series. The year is 2099 and Nigeria has founded its first colony on Mars.  The colony is surviving well until they discover a nearby base filled with racist rednecks.

    Justin: A heart-breaking drama series about a gay professional footballer experiencing homophobia.

    Protesters:  A Steven Soderbergh  style docudrama investigating the lives of four young Britons  caught up in the London Summer Disturbances  of 2011. This series examines the question, were these young Britons victims of Thatcher’s policies.

    Posh and Poor:  The proles really like that Downton Abbey on that other channel, so let’s do another rip off.  This time a drama set on a 1920’s trans-Atlantic  luxury liner, contrasting  the three different passenger classes and the hierarchy of the crew

       0 likes

    • George R says:

      Plus:

      Wallanderwahhabi.

      This episode of the Swedish detective series (by Islamic flotilla activist Henning Menkell) investigates a serious outbreak of the crime of ‘Islamophobia’ in Malmo, as Jews leave the city, with the Muslim population there rising to 40%.

         0 likes

    • cjhartnett says:

      Hell…these will be taken very seriously if you`re not quick in telling the fools at the BBC that you`re being ironic!
      I`d get them copyrighted for treatments….at least you`ll benefit!
      If you want me to do the catering for the casts, do tell!

         0 likes

    • It's all too much says:

      Traditional costume drama

      Far from d’ Maddin’ Crowd – set in rural 19th Cetury Yobe province (which groans under the imperialist exploitation of the British)describing the life of Gabriel O’Konkwo – a goat farmer who is opressed by Sgt Troy, an evil scheming minion of the perverted District Commissioner Boldwood who lusts after Bathsheba Everdene (haughty daughter of the govenor) who is conducting a passionate (and explict post 9PM) fling with O’Konkwo as she realised he is an ‘authentic’ person representing real wisdom and humanity as he is from an older, wiser, culture.

      A City Parish  Twelve episodes following the life of a Rochale Imam as he advised, councells and provides pastoral guidance to local families.  Ep 1 shows the “prepartion for marriage” classes held in the womens quarter of a council house.

      Ante Mortem  A programme that takes an edgy approach to obituaries – before people die.  A panel show engages in witty banter.  Chaired by Jeremy Hardy, this week Jeremy introduces Marcus Brigstock, Will Self, Akexi Sayle and Steve Punt as they discuss how they will react to ‘Fatchers death.

      Cutz Kidz A topical youth programme exploring the impact of the cuts on typical young people.  With an Urban soundtrack.

         0 likes

      • james1070 says:

        It’s all too much

        You have hit comedy gold with Ante Mortum. I’d watch it, so copyright the format soon, this series will run.


           0 likes

    • London Calling says:

      Wives Swap
      In which a polygamous Bradford Muslim exchanges his five wives with with some other Muslims’ five wives, to see if any of them notice any difference. (Also includes fully-veiled episode, to be screened by The BBC World Service)

      Secret Pauper
      A victim of Tory cuts, reduced to penury, poses as a millionaire, meeting bankers and titled gentry to discuss huge investments, before revealing at the end of the programme that he is indeed a peniless git and asking for money. Ends in heart-warming tears.

         0 likes

      • It's all too much says:

        London Calling – Love the “Wives Swap”, just about wet myself laughing at that one.  How about

        New kidz show set in the North East – Burka Grove or the new reality show for BBC 3 based on the trials [arising from inappropriate, culturally insensitive] of ‘dating’ in modern Britain – Flog, Stone, Behead.  What about “Horrid Histories” an easy to digest educational programme aimed at children which de-bunks euro-centric nationalism and demonstrated that there is no such thing as Britain.

        etc

           0 likes

  36. David Preiser (USA) says:

    From the “Your License Fee Hard at Work” Dept.:


    MPs paid thousands to appear on the BBC: As Corporation cuts back, politicians are given licence fee cash to go on TV and radio


    One of the most lucrative shows is Have I Got News For You, which can attract a fee of £1,500, but BBC2’s Cash in the Attic – currently under threat of being axed – once paid Miss Abbott £1,000 for an appearance.

    Some MPs give the money to charity, one at least donates it to her local party and others simply pocket the cash.

    Although the BBC’s stated policy is not to pay frontbench ministers or their Opposition counterparts, the Daily Mail’s research has revealed this has happened.

       0 likes

    • james1070 says:

      No wonder why the BBC are forever inviting Labour MPs on TV and Radio. It is a good way for the BBC to pass over bribes, know what I mean. A £1000 for a couple of hours work is a nice way to keep Labour’s minions on side.

         0 likes

  37. Jonathan S says:

    That hypocritical blob John Prescott is in the audience of Strictly tonight, i wish someone else in the audience would go over and punch the twat in the face

       0 likes

  38. My Site (click to edit) says:

    What impresses me most about the BBC’s Billy Bragg is his courage and determination to stand up for what he really believes in, and to offer us so many suggestions of real workable alternatives to the current system.

    Many loony-left cranks just take the easy option and keep moaning relentlessly about views and people with whom they disagree . . . . 

       0 likes

  39. Teddy Bear says:

    See if you can figure out from the picture below what the jobs that these titles are advertising for actually involve.

    Don’t know? Well don’t feel too bad, neither does one of the BBC bosses – Caroline Thomson, herself earning £385k pa.

    Notice the stock answer, whenever the BBC are questioned on the high salaries they award themselves; ‘we are paying significantly less than the market for the people to manage it.’

    Since their titles are unheard of in the private sector, we’ll never know.

       0 likes

    • cjhartnett says:

      Thanks for these Mr Bear!
      WE really ought to regrade the shower of schmucks that fly under the BBCs very copious and all-inclusive “flag of convenience”.
      Well includes any prep school wristband wearing gay Muslim with a keffiyah and hating all things English, white and male…excludes we the civilians anyway.
      My thinking is a few flat grades…tosser, pinhead, wet lettuce, daddys name….let finer minds than mine consider the Soviet-General style plaster medal system we could propose(it being our BBC an` all!)
      Got to be an index from Evan to Marcus via Dimblebys and Fry to be made…can`t all be pillocks first class can they?…
      Pay grade to vary between the minimum wage and Big Society voluntary grade (£6.08/hr down to zero).
      They`ve already had their fill at the trough…time for a few Latvian hospital radio types to do it beter and for nothing!
      Let`s raise those empathy quotients…Today toadies could deliver Guardians( instead of reading them to us for half a million or what have you).

         0 likes

  40. George R says:

    BBC greenies and their man-made global warming dogma.  
     
     
    According to the following, (‘Daily Express’) there is a prospect of another cold winter in Britain:  
     
     
    ”  -20C TO HIT BRITAIN ”  
     
    http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/276202/-20C-to-hit-Britain
     
     
     
    Still, Beeboid Black’s having none of it:  
     
    -he’s only looking at warming, not cooling –  
     
    “One thing that I don’t think can be considered comforting – though others may disagree – is that this PNAS analysis looked at a crisis caused by cooling, whereas in the near future it’s warming to worry about.”  
     
     
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15202668

       0 likes

  41. Jonathan S says:

    PNAS analysis…titter..only on the BBC

       0 likes

  42. George R says:

    “Jeremy Paxman: BBC bosses failed in making cuts ”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8815919/Jeremy-Paxman-BBC-bosses-failed-in-making-cuts.html

    Paxman points to, among other BBC extravagances, the costs of refurbishing building in London, Manchester, Glasgow.

    One example is the BBC massive and wasteful  spending that has gone on at Broadcasting House, one of BBC buildings in London.

    Broadcasting House (the East, Mecca-facing wing), is now the HQ of BBC’s Arabic TV propaganda service which British people finance for the pleasure of Arabic speakers of the Middle East and beyond.

    “BBC blunder as bosses forget to build prayer room for new Arabic TV channel” (2008)

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-511159/bbc-blunder-bosses-forget-build-prayer-room-new-arabic-tv-channel.html#ixzz1aERdWcUz

    BBC Broadcasting House Portland Place:

    “First radio, then management, now switching back to becoming more multimedia – home of BBC Arabic TV and the rest of World service radio eventually.”

    [Photo]:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonathanmarks/2312501612/

    “The Daily Mail attacks BBC over ‘lunacy’ of Northern move”

    http://www.thedrum.co.uk/news/2011/02/07/18365-the-daily-mail-attacks-bbc-over-lunacy-of-northern-move/

    Of course, Paxman restricts his critique of BBC management to such areas as wasteful spending on buildings, and over-expansion of broadcasting services; but Paxman has a vested interest in not criticising the high salaries of the higher paid BBC  staff, including himself.

    “BBC has 382 staff earning more than £100,000 ”   (2010)

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/7230366/BBC-has-382-staff-earning-more-than-100000.html

       0 likes

  43. John Horne Tooke says:

    Lets see if the BBC follow thier friends at the Guardian and put this deeply flawed “opinion poll” on thier website

    “There is only one real test of opinion, and that is an individual leaving his or her home, and putting an ‘X’ in the box on a ballot paper. And I’m suspicious of opinion polls, too. It is easy to make instrumental use of the attempts to gauge public opinion they hire pollsters to carry out. Questions are too easily framed to elicit the desired answer…
    http://www.climate-resistance.org/2011/10/the-poverty-of-opinion-polls.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+climate-resistance%2FwCKX+%28Climate+Resistance%29

       0 likes

  44. Philip says:

    Interesting juxtaposition on al-Beeb website this morning. Two pictures placed together in the ‘Special Reports section’ appear to illustrate that while propaganda-like shilling for Islam and islamism continues its steep upward trajectory, editorial standards plummet – like doomed ‘aircrafts’.

       0 likes

  45. My Site (click to edit) says:

    The morning surf on the BBC blogs often throws up intriguing trends.

    Messrs Black and Easton seem to have closed quicksmart, perhaps having opened Pandora’s boxes in their respective areas of ‘expertise’.

    And Mr. Mason seems to have found a new wheeze with his latest..

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15217615

    Currently the comments page seems stuck on the first.

    I do recall a few flying about questioning his support of his young Padawan at yet another protest, whilst both traded just how much they missed billionaire consumer capitalist Steve Job’s product ranges.

    An odd level of support by a a BBC staff member, along with a strange multiplicty of standards.

    Probably pure coincidence another of his blogs has ‘experienced problems’, recalling the recent ‘be the first to comment/closed for comments’ classic from this new, improved system.

       0 likes

  46. hippiepooter says:

    Phil Woolas supports Theresa May

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2046938/Madness-Secret-diary-Labour-Immigration-Minister-rails-Human-Rights-Act.html

    Not coming to a BBC studio near you soon.

       0 likes

  47. nick says:

    Will Self made me almost cry when he was describing the Dickensian conditions of British jails on the opinion slot r4  8.50 am today .Perhaps he is on drugs or his past dalliance with them have rendered him completely morally and intellectually impaired.Planet Self is weird for sure but very illuminating if studying the psychopatholgy of the Left  in all its militant irrationalism.It would be nice just for once to hear from a speaker who does not hail from the wilder shores of Leftism on radio four but no one hold their breath..

       0 likes

    • John Anderson says:

      There were some incisive Points of View from Clive James a year of so ago – but I haven’t heard anything but leftie stuff since then

         0 likes

      • Craig says:

        The list of presenters of ‘Point of View’ (going backwards in time over the past couple of years) certainly shows the left-liberal strangehold on the programme. Clive James is the maverick among them (even though he describes himself as being a man of the Left too):  
         
        Will Self  
        John Gray  
        Alain de Botton  
        Joan Bakewell   
        Sarah Dunant   
        Lisa Jardine  
        David Cannadine   
        Simon Schama  
        Lisa Jardine  
        Clive James  
        Katharine Whitehorn  
        Harold Evans  
        Clive James  
        Lisa Jardine  
        Katharine Whitehorn  
        Lisa Jardine  
        Lucy Kellaway  
        Clive James  
        David Cannadine  
        Lisa Jardine  
        Tim Egan  
        Lisa Jardine  
        Clive James

           0 likes

  48. My Site (click to edit) says:

    A_Liberty_Rebel A Libertarian Rebel On #marr Harman promises to be “strongest supporter of BBC”. Of course: #BiasedBBC is Labour propaganda channel
    First Ivan Lewis (pre-shafting) and now Ms. Harman.
    Is there a theme developing here? And might one wonder why from this quarter?

       0 likes