323 Responses to OPEN THREAD

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  1. Reed says:
    January 19, 2012 at 1:32 am

    Twitchy, self-regarding, pompous, load-mouthed, hectoring, chippy,  Labour donating, lefty luvvie ‘historian’ at the BBC doesn’t like popular ITV drama Downton Abbey – shocker.    
             
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2088224/Downton-Abbey-branded-cultural-necrophilia-historian-Simon-Schama.html          
             
    Mr. Schama comes across as the uber-snob, I think. There seems to be a rather precious element of ‘stay off our territory‘ here ; bringing history alive for the plebs is the preserve of us academics, it’s not for the likes of this populist toff. It’s interesting that those on the left that often play up to the class angle and hint at some ingrained snobbery in others are usually doing so whilst looking down their noses with contempt at the tastes of regular people.  
             
    Someone tell him it’s fictional entertainment, not a documentary series.

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    • matthew rowe says:
      January 19, 2012 at 9:55 am

      Hmm pity his ego about history didn’t kick in over the B-BBC’s Rome or Tudors maybe even Horibbly [cwap] history’s nope he just sat still mouth shut and took the cash !well he and the Mzzz [oh I have a book out as well ] Newby can stick it !
      I don’t watch Downton but I can see it’s better then all the crap the B-BBC produce and they know it as we can tell by their crowing over beastenders viewing figures they wouldn’t know quality if we painted it gold and covered it with tree lights ! !

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    • Barry says:
      January 19, 2012 at 10:40 am

      Can’t help feeling he would have approved if Ken Loach had written it.

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  2. wild says:
    January 19, 2012 at 3:28 am

    It is fair that they should use the smug Tory hating Mark Easton to represent the BBC, but the fact that he was the chairman just exposes the futility (not to say hypocrisy) of the debate.  
     
    It is like making the leader of the Labour Party the judge and jury of a debate about whether or not we should vote for the Labour Party at the next election.    
       
    Decisions about the adequacy (or otherwise) of the BBC should be made by viewers and listeners having the freedom to decide if they want to purchase the “Current Affairs” output of the BBC, it should not be about the BBC deciding if they got it “just about right”.

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    • My Site (click to edit) says:
      January 19, 2012 at 8:11 am

      ‘Decisions about the adequacy (or otherwise) of the BBC should be made by… folk who are not employed by or beholden to the BBC on any aspect of its function. However, as such as the complaints system ably demonstrates, they instead ‘get it about right’. If uniquely.

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  3. David Preiser (USA) says:
    January 19, 2012 at 4:15 am

    Oh, dear:


    Hollywood Moguls Stopping Obama Donations Because Of President’s Piracy Stand: “Not Give A Dime Anymore”

    He’s got big fundraisers in La-La Land at the end of the month, and He needs the money. Not only that, but He really needs that public, vocal celebrity support this time around.

    I’m sure Mark Mardell is busy trying to figure out how to make the President look good here.

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  4. LJ says:
    January 19, 2012 at 8:12 am

    This is not anti-BBC, specifically, but regarding the media in Europe generally –

    The Costa Concordia has a massive EU symbol painted on it’s side. The flag is unmissable.
    So I thought it would be a great screensaver to get a photo of the ship holed and beached, lying on it’s side.
    I have done a fair bit of searching, of all the hundreds of photos taken, I have not found a single image that reflects the flag – is this possibly a massive media / image conspiracy??

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    • cjhartnett says:
      January 19, 2012 at 10:38 am

      Haven`t noticed this yet-but will be looking now.
      When I heard of this story, my first image was of the Euro and the behaviour of the crew as being that of the political elite…especially those lies about “temporary loss of power”!
      I saw yesteray that Celine Dions song from Titanic was playing on the tannoy amidst the lies as well-as if the elite are seeing how far we`ll agree to get our faces rubbed in their nappies.
      Whole thing a fine metaphor.
      Berlusconi was right to let himself be drummed off the singing gig wasn`t he?

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      • LJ says:
        January 19, 2012 at 10:51 am

        Yes, which is why I wanted to get the image of the EU flag half submerged with a massive gash running along the ship below it, Captain having a nice cuppa at home with his friends while the paying customers (ie. taxpayers) are left to sort themselves out or drown. Warming to the story, Cameron can be the angry coast guard shouting at the captain to get back and fix the problem – oh, no he can’t!!! That part will have to be played by Nigel Farrage.

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  5. Martin says:
    January 19, 2012 at 8:53 am

    Remember this year is the 30th anniversary of the BBC’s betrayal of the British forces in the Falklands (or the enemy as the BBC saw them)

    The BBC informed Argentina of the error they were making in the fusing of their bombs which were hitting our ships but not detonating, thanks to the BBC Argentina put that right and started destroying our ships (much joy at the BBC over that)

    Then the BBC  betrayed our soldiers attacking Goose Green by informing Argentina that the attack was taking place BEFORE it actually started.

    I suspect there will be a lot of champers sipped by beeboids in April

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  6. My Site (click to edit) says:
    January 19, 2012 at 9:39 am

    Still in a ‘debate’ (well, ever more senior bods tell me they’ve had a gander and don’t see a problem) with the BBC of how story headlines get shaped.

     

    So I was interested to note Paul Mason has made a rare foray back out the bunker (still no word on his expressed views on the toy/pram UK EU incident) to pen some more thoughts.

     

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/correspondents/paulmason/

     

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16613193

     

    I simply have to wonder why, in getting from one to the next the change was deemed necessary in headline to what was/is the same story, before getting to his ‘wisdom’, initially billed as ‘what could be’ to ‘getting the sequence right’. Subtle.

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  7. As I See It says:
    January 19, 2012 at 9:44 am

    Of course the more PC you are the better you get on in the BBC.

    Monarch of the Glen Nicky Campbell is talking regional accents this morning.

    ‘Can regional accents hold you back in modern Britain?’ (agenda, what agenda?)

    Just as I would have expected from the Beeb I hear that home counties speech is ‘homogenised’ and ‘dull’. If only I were a Geordie or a Scot then I could have ‘pride’ in my accent.

    Dame Nick has a caller who reckons that a colleague of his once whispered in his ear ‘your accent will hold you back….’

    Dame Nick says ‘that’s outrageous!’

    Quite right Nicky, it’s your job to be as PC as possible.

    Inform, educate and entertain is out, BBC now go with air greivance, enforce PC and dumb down.

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  8. pounce_uk says:
    January 19, 2012 at 10:22 am

    How many times have you seen the bBC report that due to their reporting standards they are forbidden from using certain language. Have a look at this screen dump and tell me do those headlines I have red-lined send a totally different message than the story deserves. 

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    • My Site (click to edit) says:
      January 19, 2012 at 12:01 pm

      ‘do those headlines I have red-lined send a totally different message than the story deserves’

      Ah, well, what I now have been given to understand is that there are problems (albeit of the BBC’s own creation) with ‘space’. Hence accuracy or fair context flies out the window so things ‘fit’.

      Plus, while ‘quotes’ are often used for..um.. actual quotes, basically ediotorial can ‘summarise’ the piece for social media, etc, but pretty much make up whatever they like from the actual story, popping that in a pithy two-worder in ‘quotes’, and run away giggling.

      If tasked on the accuracy or bias of such attempts, they may change it, explaining that rampant porkies, unprofessionalism or lack of intergrity is all fine ‘as the story evolves’.

      And in any case, whatever any BBC emplyee creates on the BBC screen is not really representative of anything to be trusted anyway.

      Funny way to run a media business. If unique.

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  9. Nota Sheep says:
    January 19, 2012 at 10:24 am

    Well there was the Balen report not that we’ll ever be allowed to see that.

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  10. pounce_uk says:
    January 19, 2012 at 10:28 am

    So the bBC have on their front page the story about how the president of a student society has resigned after, shock, horror, the sleepless nights they posted a cartoon of Mo and Jesus having a drink at a bar (taken from the Mo and Jesusu cartoons) the strange thing is, they still ahven’t bothered their arse in reporting how at another Uni the otherday, muslims taped people in a theatre who were going to discuss Sharia law and threatened them and their families with murder if they mentioned -mohammed. Gee I wonder why that is.

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  11. noggin says:
    January 19, 2012 at 10:32 am

    Muslim armies were conquering more Christian land and increasingly terrorizing and persecuting Christians? Or that the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim had recently desecrated and destroyed a number of important churches—such as the Church of St. Mark in Egypt and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem—and decreed several, even more oppressive than usual, decrees against Christians and Jews? , and brutal retribution for those who even  attempted a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
    It is in this backdrop that Pope Urban called for the Crusade.

    http://answering-islam.org/Authors/Stenhouse/crusades.01.htm
    THE CRUSADES IN CONTEXT By Dr. Paul Stenhouse.

    after that little light reading, can anyone explain this????
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b01b3ftw/
    crusades by tom asswipe
    apparently history?? by apparently a historian ???
    if you think his “R Bacon” advert was appalling 😀

    look if a fictional depiction, turns up on el beeb 2, to me unwatchable,
    (as i don t appreciate intelligence insults) … but, the old mohamhead
    cult might, even though they don t need anymore conspiracy theories.
    But it is that, fiction, biased agenda lead nonsense – didn t see that on the el beeb blurb.

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  12. Jeremy Clarke says:
    January 19, 2012 at 10:37 am

    ‘Ello, ‘ello. Seems the BBC/Guardian’s favourite Guantanamo poster-boy has been fingered as a snitch. Harry’s Place, take a bow.

    Naturally, most informed people know Moazzam Begg is a nasty little Islamic supremacist and failed jihadist, and they also know his Cageprisoners ‘charity’ is a nasty little Islamic supremacist presssure-group and a front for various jihadist activities.

    Not the BBC, though, for whom he is go-to man for all things Gitmo – and they regularly quote Cageprisoners without question.

    But it is doubly serendipiditous because the source for Begg’s duplicitousness is revealed to be…Wikileaks!

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  13. noggin says:
    January 19, 2012 at 10:44 am

    any chance of another el beeb special to explain this contradiction 🙂 V.Drearybyshire might be at the airport, does she fancy another jolly?”


    French judge seeks Guantanamo access over ‘torture’  
    E. Fontaine (AFP) A French judge has requested access to Guantanamo to probe claims by three Frenchmen that they were tortured at the notorious jail which US President Barack Obama once promised to close”.  
     
    Al Qaeda magazine got into Guantanamo cell,” by R.Lardner Associated Press, Jan 18 …  
    (yep! its from the tv lounge, next to the remote, under the samosas 🙂 )

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