OPEN THREAD…

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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…

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  1. George R says:
    October 9, 2011 at 10:07 am

    South Sudan ‘goes English’.

    So, the adoption of the English language in Africa is not ‘cultural imperialism’ after all.

    After centuries of violent Islamic imperialist jihad against them, the South Sudanese have turned.

    “After decades of Arabisation and Islamisation by the Khartoum government, the predominantly Christian and African south has opted for English as its official language. ”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15216524

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  2. Betty Swollocks says:
    October 9, 2011 at 12:06 pm

    Is John ‘pig’ face Prescott the new Polly Toynbee, the cretin is everywhere over the BBC,looked like a buffoon on Strictly.

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  3. sue says:
    October 9, 2011 at 1:29 pm

    Did I ever mention the glorious Arab Spring?
    Oh yes, on Feb 24th and several times thereafter. The theme being that the BBC believes the peoples’ democratic revolution will bring about peace and understanding, justice and freedom, and hugs and kisses.
    Maybe that’s why they’re shy about this. After all, 14 other media outlets have it!

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  4. david hanson says:
    October 9, 2011 at 1:49 pm

    Oh deep joy! There are TWO programmes on BBC1 tonight about Beeboid pin-up boys U2. I think I might try to catch a dose of dysentery instead – should be somewhat more enjoyable.

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  5. David Preiser (USA) says:
    October 9, 2011 at 3:42 pm

    Caroline Hepker, yet another Beeboid stationed in the US (based in NYC, I think), has done a completely one-sided report about the teachers’ union protesting against layoffs and budget cuts in the NYC schools.

    It’s all from the teachers’ union point of view.  Not even a millisecond spent on the mundanity of the fact that – stop me if you’ve heard this one before – there isn’t enough money to go around unless we reform the public sector retirement system.  In the specific case of the teachers, their method of layoffs is known as “last in, first out”, i.e. the new hires are dumped first.  A cynic might say that this only makes the retirements burden worse, whereas getting rid of low-performing older teachers and keeping newer, better ones at a lower pension scheme would be better for the system and for the children.  But that would be an awful merit-based plan, and we can’t have that.

    It was only last year that they finally got rid of the “rubber rooms”, essentially a holding tank where teachers with a complaint against them were “assigned” to sit all day – not working at all, and on full salary and benefits – while waiting for their issue to be processed, sometimes waiting for months or years.  There’s much blame to go around on this one, yet the BBC follows only the teachers’ union on where to point the finger.

    In any case, Hepker’s report is 100% union propaganda, with no acknowledgment that there’s another side to the story worth listening to.  This, naturally, matches exactly the BBC’s coverage of the same issue in Britain.  Narrative?  What Narrative?

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  6. David Preiser (USA) says:
    October 9, 2011 at 3:54 pm

    As everyone here knows by know, there was a far-Left anti-this war protest in Trafalgar Square the other day.  While the BBC is sending several staff around the US to promote the far-Left “Occupy…” protests, they forgot to cover the anti-this war protest close to their DC office:

    Air and Space Museum closed after guards mace anti-war protesters

    Apparently a bunch of far-Leftoids tried to occupy the museum, and got violent with security.  Why were they protesting at a museum?  Because of a drone exhibit.  These morons went after a museum instead of protesting against the person responsible for having more people killed by drones than anyone in human history: The Obamessiah.  The BBC mentioned that once, but I think they got away with it.  One would think that as the Trafalgar Square protest was so massively important to the Beeboids that they’d mention this spiritual cousin.  But it’s censored from BBC News because it doesn’t help the Narrative.  There is no valid journalistic reason to ignore this while making time to report on some Amish-on-Amish scuffle.

    It’s getting curiouser and curiouser how all these protests are targeted away from Him, but no surprise at the way the BBC is studiously avoiding that angle.

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  7. David Preiser (USA) says:
    October 9, 2011 at 5:21 pm

    The BBC Trust has released its cunning plan to reduce costs to keep in line with the new regime of budget cuts.  Astonishingly, despite all the long Beeboid faces about dear friends getting the axe, somebody upstairs gets it.  There are some very intelligent and reasonable ideas laid out here, some of which follow my own recommendations.

    Specifically:

    from Section 1.1, “A Flexible Workforce”, under the “Productivity Challenge” (pg. 16)


    Reducing duplication by bringing teams with complementary output and skills together, e.g., through bringing UK and Global News together in the new Broadcasting House and creating consolidated teams for studios and graphics

    This is very wise.  There’s been massive waste in the duplication of efforts, such as sending half a dozen different teams from different channels and programmes to make the exact same report on the exact same story.

    from Section 1.3, “Reductions to management and governance and more effective external purchasing” (pg. 17):

    Leaner, flatter management structures, moving as quickly as possible to no more than five layers between the Director-General and the most junior member of staff. This principle is being used in all restructurings across the BBC
    •
    Smaller management teams across the BBC and increased sharing of back-office services, for example by sharing station sound and administration teams across English local radio and by bringing together back-office teams across Radio 1 and Radio 2, such as in live events     (Not sure if this part means less Beeboids at Glastonbury, but you never know)

    •
    Further reductions to the proportion of senior leaders in the organisation, to around 1% of BBC staff. As part of this, by the end of 2011 around 150 senior managers will have left the BBC, a reduction of 20% in headcount and 25% in cost; we plan further steps beyond this to meet the 1% target

    Long have people complained of the bloated management structure.  And perhaps the best part of this section:


    Better value from external contracts. With over £2bn of external spend, the BBC must work effectively with suppliers to ensure that products and services can be delivered at lower cost. We believe we can achieve the same for less in external purchasing: including through consolidating spend in fewer suppliers; achieving keener pricing as markets become more competitive and efficient; outsourcing some indirect categories of spend to managed service providers (as we have already done for transport, print and temporary staff); and challenging BBC staff to reduce demand for outsourced services.

    Can it be true that at least two-thirds of the BBC budget is spent on external sourcing?  Well, yes, considering how many shows are produced by Beeboid-owned, or Beeboid-crony, or ex-Beeboids production companies, as well as all the on-air talent who are technically freelance because they’ve incorporated themselves and the BBC pays their “company” and not them directly.

    Lots of waste to be cut there.  Plus I think this means less US imports like Family Guy, which surely costs a bundle.

    So, contrary to the misguided whining about the enormous salaries of top talent and senior management while their £30Kpa friends are chopped, there is plenty of intelligent, real savings to be made. And I think somebody upstairs gets it.  Sure, there will be stupid moves as well, like budget cuts forcing Radio 3 to do some idiotic phone-in show and less concerts from Wigmore Hall, but on the whole it looks pretty good.

    And to think this was all forced by the nasty Tories unfairly freezing the license fee.

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    • My Site (click to edit) says:
      October 10, 2011 at 7:21 am

      Questions may be asked why it is only now that the bleening obvious waste is being addressed.

      But they won’t.

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  8. David Preiser (USA) says:
    October 9, 2011 at 7:05 pm

    The BBC reports, matter of factly, without editorializing, on the violence in Tunisia about the airing of an animated film.  Apparently fundamentalist Mohammedans object to fantasy sequences which feature God talking to the young female protagonist.

    Protesters attacked the TV station showing it, and religious Mohammedans elsewhere also engaged in violence against police, There have been fatalities (suprise), but it’s unknown just how many.

    I haven’t seen the film, but I have read the graphic novel.  It’s pretty good, an interesting world revealed from the perspective of a young girl observing life around her during a troubled time and her adult experience later in the West.  However, there’s a lot more for fundamentalist Mohammedans to object to than those scenes.  They may be the most obvious target on a basic religious level, but there’s more going on in the story, particularly about how the glorious revolution turned out to have negative consequences, and the main character moves to Vienna and deals drugs and engages in a sexual relationship with an infidel outside of marriage.  All of that is going to be seriously objectionable to fundamentalist Mohammedans. It makes the Arab Spring look less promising than we’ve been led to believe.

    In any event, I’m sure the BBC doesn’t mean to play that down.  Most of the protesters probably have no idea about any of this, and have been whipped up into a frenzy by their imams who fed them the religious talking point the BBC reports.  But the questions remain: Why didn’t the Christian protests against The Life Of Brian similarly result in violence and death?  Why will the BBC never ask this question? How does ignoring this and/or suppressing anyone who asks this question help promote or support a cohesive multicultural society?

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  9. Teddy Bear says:
    October 9, 2011 at 8:30 pm

    Well, for days now the only article on the BBC Mid-East website concerning events in Egypt was the one with this headline  
    Tantawi says Egypt in sensitive stage and in case you missed the ‘sensitive’ nuance, and a few others that the BBC wants you to get, they repeat in the article  
    Egypt’s military leader has said the country is undergoing a“sensitive stage” in its history, and called for people to “rally round national goals”.  
    …Tantawi said he was confident Egyptians could build a “strong modern state”.” …as Egypt is passing through a sensitive stage of history,”  “We are confident in the ability of the people to build a strong modern state,”


    No report however on the recent violence against Christians there, lest the reader think that the Egyptians weren’t ‘sensitive, strong, and modern’, not to forget – ‘moderate’. Besides, with only 70% of this country who consider themselves Christians, why should any be interested, or worse – alarmed?  
    Today, another attack concerning Christians – this from CBC

    Cairo Christian protest explodes into violence Riots erupted in Cairo Sunday night as Christians protesting a recent attack on a church came under assault by thugs who rained stones down on them and fired pellets.

    The BBC now probably felt that they had no choice but to make it public, but no mention of the ‘assault by thugs, leaving a quite different impression;  
    Egypt troops dead after Coptic Church protest in Cairo

    At least three soldiers have been killed and dozens of people injured after a protest in Cairo against an attack on a Coptic Christian church.
    Seems like Christians will become like the ‘damned Israelis’

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    • deegee says:
      October 9, 2011 at 11:16 pm

      FOr actual information
      http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/23714/Egypt/Politics-/Coptic-march-turns-violent.aspx
      http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/09/world/meast/egypt-protest-clashes/

      It’s the headline that gets to me. 
      Egypt troops dead after Coptic church protest in Cairo Out of the 17 (may be more) dead how many were soldiers and how many protestors? 

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  10. Teddy Bear says:
    October 9, 2011 at 9:35 pm

    Update: Finally they have revised their earlier article to acknowledge more facts and truth to prevail – took 19 deaths today for it to happen though.

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    • My Site (click to edit) says:
      October 10, 2011 at 7:28 am

      An ongoing list of stealth edits would make an interesting, and damning read.

      How the heck could that first not suggest a desperate attempt at propaganda?

      ‘Polish border guards’ aggression to peace-loving Wehrmacht on Blitzkreig visit provokes World War’. 

      I concede Godwin, but when the tools used seem to suggest a manual is being dusted off…

      If any luvvie had stubbed their toe on a copper’s helmet yesterday, one could see the outraged headlines in support of the crowd-control. Not.

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  11. John Horne Tooke says:
    October 9, 2011 at 10:02 pm

    Evan Davis gets annoyed.
    http://twitter.com/#!/EvanHD

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  12. Reed says:
    October 9, 2011 at 10:31 pm

    He doesn’t seem to get the common link – tube drivers and BBC employees – both publicly funded.

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  13. james1070 says:
    October 10, 2011 at 1:17 am

    Here’s a story about the BBC torturing  a cancer patient in prison who did not pay her TV licence. Funny this was not mentioned on the BBC news.

    Woman’s jail ordeal over TV licence fine

    http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/local/woman_s_jail_ordeal_over_tv_licence_fine_1_2460209

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