264 Responses to OPEN THREAD

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  1. Restoring Britain says:
    May 2, 2012 at 9:44 am

    Sorry for the repeat – have literally just posted this on the old thread to find a new one opened:

    BBC gives its slant on research:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17903986

    At first I couldn’t quite get my head round what was happening in this story of poor unfortunate babies suffering from opiate withdrawal due to pregnant mothers. It is truly a terrible indictment that this is a problem, but it’s still a strange story in that it’s not ths usual sort of fare that the BBC would report on from the US.

    In that usual way of BBC reporting the BBC message is usally in the first half of the story and some of its more incovenient truths are in the second half where they take siginifcantly less prominence. Those that make it into the first half are very broad brush as to be almost invisible. On reading it the message was we need to protect unborn babies from powerful medications, especially those poor welfare cases. In a nutshell – the system creating problems for the poor. There’s a real emphasis on the legitimate prescription medication aspect to suggest this isn’t about substance abusers

    Of course having read both the editorial and the report itself it has been very selective in the bits that made it on to the BBC website. Where it has to touch on the real story it tucks it away down the bottom:

    “overprescribed, diverted and sold illegally, creating a new opiate addiction pathway and a public health burden for maternal and child health”.

    And in that lies the real story of this problem. What the research points to is that much of the legal medication is actually being taken illegally by being diverted to people who don’t require it – in other words its being sold on.

    In addition the story mostly misses out on the fact that most of these mothers are on methadone during pregnancy as part of a treatment programme for pre-existing addiction. They were users before pregnancy.

    Nor does the story tell you about the voluntary presecribing programmes which show, patients shopping for physicians who will prescribe opiates. Whilst the BBC make suggestions about the babies being from poor mothers, it doesn’t mention the other variables the research talks about inlcuding continued alcohol and tobacco use, relapse into opiate use etc.

    In other words the report talks about a whole host of risky behaviours during pregnancy and lifestyle choices beforehand.

    Strange that they missed that out.

       12 likes

    • Pah says:
      May 2, 2012 at 10:35 am

      This reminds me of an interview taken with an American woman who was giving money to junkies for them to get sterilised. She’d had a huge amount of success helping to reduce the number of addicted babies that were being born.

      The BBC, of course, hated her. She was a racist, they said, because she was mostly offering the money to black women. True enough but then the majority of women in this situation were black. When she said that her husband and children were black too they changed tack and attacked her on the morality of bribing women to be sterilised. But she countered that too by pointing out that simply giving women addiction treatment and social help to restart their lives always failed because they eventually went back on the drugs. When they did they sold their bodies to get money for more drugs and eventually ended up pregnant again. At least her way the woman didn’t wreak someone else’s life if she did relapse.

      Here was someone with a successful way to end this cycle of misery and the BBC were doing their damnest to destroy her reputation.

      Anyone would think that the prefered the existing misery to the solution …

         22 likes

      • jarwill101 says:
        May 2, 2012 at 10:50 am

        Pah, your last line says it all. Beeboids can never have enough opportunities to indulge in sanctimonious exhibitionism. Who cares about a hard-headed solution? The word ‘hypocrisy’ can never do them justice. They’re out there on the very frontline of narcissistic altruism.

           14 likes

        • Louis Robinson says:
          May 2, 2012 at 2:14 pm

          There is a generation of children, adopted by well-meaning parents, who are displaying all the symptoms of being “crack babies”. They display erratic behavior and are doomed to their dying day of having their lives controlled by a cocktail of medical drugs. The parents are perplexed, their lives torn apart by their act of generosity. Meanwhile, journalists move on to the next crisis du jour. Those who live in the bubble of transmission deadlines and brown nosing should know that their policy of enforced ignorance has a real effect on real people leading real lives.

             9 likes

    • Deborah says:
      May 2, 2012 at 11:29 am

      I really feel that the BBC is getting worse at only telling half a story, but they lost my trust years ago. So what do I do? Yes I listen to the BBC News, but then think ‘as this is portrayed by the BBC this story doesn’t make sense’. I then search the internet (probably in the first instance this site and Guido) to find enough information to make up my own mind. Sadly there are too few of us who question the nonesense the BBC feeds us.

         33 likes

      • geyza says:
        May 2, 2012 at 3:45 pm

        I was suspicious of BBC news from the 1980s, but I never realised the scale of their willingness to lie until I saw their coverage leading up to the Iraq invasion.

        When blogs run on pocket change at the time were telling the truth, carrying interviews with intelligence analysts, and UN inspectors who detailed the chemistry and physics and the very high level of scientific certainty about Iraq not having WMD, when they showed how the UN estimated stocks and then that estimation slowly became a certainty, despite the fact that these stocks never ever existed in reality. When they showed the chemistry and physics behind the known stocks and how they had become inert by the passage of time…

        Whilst the blogs were proving Saddam had no usable WMD arsenal, the BBC were still pushing every single lie Blair told as if it were unquestionable Gospel. As each and every lie Blair told was torn apart on these blogs, the BBC kept pushing them regardless. The BBC commentators were even calling people who exposed Blair’s lies, “conspiracy nutters and friends of the terrorists” merely for pointing out the truth and how Blair was in contravention of international law and about to commit a war crime. Not any old war crime, but the supreme war crime.

        This proved to me that the BBC are NOT impartial news gatherers and are NOT in the business of holding the powerful to account.

        This was the time when I first noticed far more of the subtle conditioning which the BBC practices in its pursuit of fulfilling its agenda. The way it is brainwashing the nation, changing perspectives and leading and manipulating public opinion, instead of reflecting it.

        Have no doubt. The BBC is a very sinister organisation and it should be broken up without delay.

           18 likes

        • Harry says:
          May 2, 2012 at 11:19 pm

          The coverage over Libya and Syria is exactly the same. Assad has the majority popular support and it is mainly Salafi Islamists who are leading this insurrection (the ones who sodomized Gadaffi with a knife while shouting ‘God is Great’, before they killed him. Libya is not a hotbed of AlQaeda, who have been seen parading proudly en masse in Sirte.

             6 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:
        May 2, 2012 at 3:51 pm

        Deborah, just keep telling people about instances of BBC bias now and then. Eyes will open. It’s all ripples in the pond.

           7 likes

      • Merlin says:
        May 2, 2012 at 7:38 pm

        Well said Deborah! There are more people than you think who are slowly waking up to the left wing infantile lies that the tyrannical Werbung Bolshevik Corp. are churning out. The BBC will select ‘news’ that fits in with the PC narrative; in this respect, it more often than not supports more than it reports.

           8 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:
      May 2, 2012 at 4:02 pm

      The facts behind the story aren’t the point. It’s a sexy/maudlin human interest deal, and ticks a number of storytelling boxes: “think of the children!”, helps paint the picture of a troubled mainstream populace, and it fulfills the “science” quota for the day.

      Mentioning that it’s mostly due to illegal drug abuse would detract from the story they want to tell, so they simply leave it out. It doesn’t interest BBC “journalists”.

         5 likes

  2. Abandon Ship! says:
    May 2, 2012 at 10:03 am

    It’s GM crop Scare Time again on the Today programme. As with a number of issues, the BBC again represents two sides as being of equal merit. However it is clear to me, and I think to the vast majority of people, that GM crop research is a vital area of research. The safety precautions in place are impressive and comprehensive. The argument put forward by the anti-GM “expert” was frankly silly and completely unconvincing, but he is given prime air time because the BBC no doubt thinks that he “has his heart in the right place” and “he probably reflects a greater truth” and is “speaking truth to power” etc etc hopefully even the BBC is staarting to see through the anti GM facade. Why don’t the BBC for instance also report that GM crops are easily the best way to feed an expanding population more efficiently amnd hopefully keep prices down. The Neanderthals in the anti-GM movement don’t care about this, cos at heart they don’t really like people.

       13 likes

    • uncle bup says:
      May 2, 2012 at 10:30 am

      Fracking, nucular, and GM crops.

      Sorry, BBC, happening and going to continue to happen. Get used to it.

         17 likes

    • Umbongo says:
      May 2, 2012 at 10:34 am

      Unfortunately for the BBC, which is giving as much publicity as it can to the minuscule group of anti-GM thugs, the loony and inarticulate anti-GM spokesman on Today completely ruined the case (if any) for the anti-GM brigade. His lunacy couldn’t be redeemed even by Naughtie taking over the case and presenting it to Prof Pickett. Mind you, Pickett – in another instance of BBC-induced “climate change Aspergers” – cited the decreasing of the carbon footprint in dealing with GM crops (ie less for the farmer to do using machinery in growing/harvesting GM crops) as a prime justification for the use of GMed seeds.
      Odd isn’t it that any old crapola discussion will be arranged or partial “impartial” analysis will be put together on Today and elsewhere (eg as on this morning’s exercise where a fringe, barely sane “activist” was brought on to attack AFAIAA a genuinely scientific exercise) when the BBC approves both the anti-scientific and/or irrational criticism and, particularly, the thuggery of many of the critics (eg GM, the Occupy “movement”, UKuncut, ANL). OTOH reasonable scepticism of the mock-science of the climate change scam or reasoned anti-EU sentiment is banished from the airwaves.

         16 likes

    • Cradley Heathen says:
      May 2, 2012 at 10:58 pm

      I heard it too. Good comment but please lay off us Neanderthals. There’s good evidence that unless you’re pure African you have Neanderthal DNA.

         5 likes

  3. Fred Bloggs says:
    May 2, 2012 at 10:43 am

    I have developed a strong impression of the antics and mentality of the bBC and Labour. How they skew all information to their own ends.
    Here http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/london-mayor-election/9238853/Why-this-former-crony-cant-vote-for-Ken-Livingstone.html is an article about Ken, but it contains all the prejudices I have had about bBC and Labour.

    It is quite long, but I strongly suggest you read; as proof positive how the lefties manipulate and lie.

       11 likes

  4. George R says:
    May 2, 2012 at 11:24 am

    “BBC amasses £140 million surplus from licence fee.
    The BBC has built up an expected £140 million surplus of licence fee payers’ money, according to leaked figures. ”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/9240233/BBC-amasses-140-million-surplus-from-licence-fee.html

       8 likes

  5. George R says:
    May 2, 2012 at 11:42 am

    More INBBC pro-bin LADEN political propaganda:-

    “Osama Bin Laden: The night he came for dinner.”

    By M Ilyas Khan,

    INBBC, Islamabad.

    INBBC’s KHAN describes, secondhand, a scene from 2010:

    “Standing before them was none other than Osama Bin Laden, the most wanted man in the world.

    “‘We were dumb-struck,’ says the elder. ‘He was the last person we’d expected to turn up at our doorstep.’

    “He stood beside the vehicle for a while, shaking hands. The elder says he kissed Bin Laden’s hand and pressed it against his eyes in a gesture of reverence.”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17907764

    Is it only a Muslim tribal elder who has this reverence for arch Islamic jihadist, Bin Laden?

       9 likes

    • jarwill101 says:
      May 2, 2012 at 11:48 am

      The BBC seems equally enamoured of Q’en Livingstone.

         17 likes

    • Anders says:
      May 2, 2012 at 4:18 pm

      My thought upon reading the Bin Laden-for-dinner story was that it was complete bullshit. Muslims love lying to those they consider the enemy and they probably had a lot of fun with the BBC reporter. Although I would not have put it past him to have made it up, either: after all, none of it can be verified.

         10 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:
      May 2, 2012 at 4:36 pm

      They left out the part where the host’s jug of tea kept refilling on its own, never emptied…..

         6 likes

  6. RCE says:
    May 2, 2012 at 11:46 am

    Blatant right wing, pro-Tory bias on Today at around 8AM. A vacuous, waffling President Obama, unable to articulate the purpose of the decade-long Afghan quagmire and still not clear on what will constitute a victory, deliberately and mendaciously juxtaposed with the decisiveness of Margaret Thatcher accepting full responsibility for strategic decisions vis-a-vis the sinking of the Belgrano in the swiftly concluded, irrefutable succes that was the Falkands war.

       7 likes

  7. George R says:
    May 2, 2012 at 11:57 am

    Heathrow.

    Sensible and ‘politically incorrect’ advice (which BBC-NUJ will reject)
    to speed up queues at Heathrow:

    “Profiling travellers will speed up the queues at Heathrow.”

    by Ed West

    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/edwest/100154606/profiling-travellers-will-speed-up-the-queues-at-heathrow/

       11 likes

  8. As I See It says:
    May 2, 2012 at 12:42 pm

    Radio 5 Live is where the BBC segues sport into left-wing opinion. For a masterclass in BBC editorial something out of nothingness or shall we say opinion not news, one only had to catch this morning’s discussion of the Sun’s front page. (BBC’s exhibit number 1001 in their very own independent and ongoing anti-Murdoch inquiry). For those who don’t know, today the Sun takes the mick out of Roy Hodgson’s accent – his Rs it seems sometimes sound like Ws.
    Somewhere in Salford the PC alert went off! Or should that be awert went off?
    Vic Derbyshire first brings on an acedemic type – who she has been following on Twitter. (Obviously the days of dons publishing their thoughts in learned papers are long gone). Of course we get our lecture in relativism and evolving language, elitism, diversity…. (you know how and where this goes).
    Next up is a member of the stammerers’ and speech impediment community. (No honestly, it’s not some ancient Ronnie Barker sketch rescued from the ark). He cries Discrimination! So must be taken absolutly seriously. He is a victim of this sort of thing. Actually I probably commited a hate crime just now by using the word impediment. BBC editors take note – strike out the word impediment!
    Now bring on the callers…. ‘…..I refused to buy the Sun today!’ (Money shot! they cry from the production gantry. BBC paydirt is what I say).
    But my favourite was a guy – who I took to be of the left – who plummed the depths of ludicrousness by saying ‘I’m not an England supporter, but I think we should give Hodgson a chance’. Now why I wonder would a caller say that? One who practically said he would enjoy watching England lose. Does he not like the sport of association football or has he got something more generally against the nation? We will never know because Victoria Derbyshire didn’t ask him.
    I note however that the BBC is busy coalescing support for Hogdson. Are some Beeboids dependent on the FA for some of their corporate jollies? Leveson should be told. What is it about this on-message yes-man apparatchik that first attacted the support of the BBC? Now just watch the Beeboids defend the man they have taken to their corporate hearts against the likes of the nasty bullying old Sun.

       14 likes

    • Roland Deschain says:
      May 2, 2012 at 1:25 pm

      ‘…..I refused to buy the Sun today!’

      Yes, and I refused to buy the BBC today……… oh, wait.

         27 likes

    • #88 says:
      May 2, 2012 at 2:32 pm

      Yes. It was like this on local radio in the West Midlands, this morning.

      Adrian Goldberg, former ‘Stirrer’ blogger and mate of Tom Watson (who strangely enough made a brief ‘appearance) invited listeners to ring-in with the Question, Did this treatment of Hogson confirm that Murdoch was not a proper person to run NI?

      Callers of course responded in their ‘ones’, angry of Tipton-like. One caller suggested that they have an anti-Murdoch day at the next West Brom match. I’m sure that I heard Goldberg agree.

      I dont read the Mirror, but I think someone said that they had similarly used ‘Woy’ in a headline. But that went without comment – the Mirror never enjoy the same degree of scrutiny

         9 likes

    • matthew says:
      May 2, 2012 at 7:17 pm

      > Radio 5 Live is where the BBC segues sport into left-wing opinion

      As opposed to the rest of the BBC, where they merely spout left-wing opinion….

      Now on the News website, another opportunity to stick it to Murdoch

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-17928426

      ‘The Football Association has said a front page headline in The Sun about new England manager Roy Hodgson’s manner of speech was “unacceptable”.

      The story, referencing Mr Hodgson’s pronunciation of the letter R, has led to more than 100 complaints to the Press Complaints Commission.’

      Very sly writing. By omitting what they actually said, they imply it’s beyond the pale, utterly shocking.

      Even the self-declared left-wingers in The Guardian manage to show the story.

      http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2012/may/02/sun-roy-hodgson

      Shocking it is not.

      Oh no, they said ‘euwos’. How terrible.

         2 likes

    • As I See It says:
      May 3, 2012 at 8:58 am

      The BBC are still banging on about this non-story. I note that the Mirror uses the same joke.

      See cartoon of Roy’s Brain here….’Should I play Tewwy and Wio together?’

      Dame Nicky Campbell has an entire phone devoted to Woy this morning! Or course he and his little circle of Beeboid sycophants don’t often see the sins in the Miwwer.

      http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/roy-hodgson-inside-the-mind-of-englands-814842

         3 likes

  9. Restoring Britain says:
    May 2, 2012 at 12:44 pm

    Future Watch

    Not yet on the BBC but give it time and just a little heads up from me:
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2138271/Ethics-watchdog-demands-action-UK-MPs-say-Rupert-Murdoch-fit-run-major-firm.html

    It seems a US organisation wants Murdoch to lose all 27 Fox News broadcast licences in the US based on the findings of the UK report. Somehow I think this might crop up on the BBC at some point.

    However (and it’s a big one) the group is not all that they seem. The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (sounds very conservative doesn’t it?) seem to have form for only really going after Republicans despite the claims they like to make:

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

    The most interesting parts are those of the Director – Melanie Sloan. Having worked in Washington for Democratic politicians she appears to have work for one Joseph Biden and was joined by a Clinton strategist Mark Penn who became a vice president at the organisation.

    Is the whiff starting to get through yet?

    Then we come to the funding. If true we learn that CREW are also funded by George Soros and the SEIU – you know, that union that featured so wonderfully in Bill Whittle’s – The Narrative video in which he describes how the treated Kenneth Gladney.

    Wonder how long this one takes before it seems to have legs?

       13 likes

  10. As I See It says:
    May 2, 2012 at 1:33 pm

    Back in the 1980s the closest we may have got to information about Egyptian society was the girl band Amazulu telling us ‘You don’t get no giro working in a bar in Cairo.’

    Now, thank goodness (or should that be Allah be Praised) in our brave new world of the Arab Spring we have the Beeb to enlighten us.

    BBC News 24 tells me that it is all kicking off again with 11 killed in violent protests and retributions. The Beeb reporter (John Leyne, I think – he is named on the BBC online news report) refers to ‘Government thugs’. So clearly we are meant to sympathsise with the ‘unarmed’ protesters – that’s certainly what our BBC reporter is doing.

    What has caused the new protests? Well we are told that the protesters are upset that their favoured candidte for the elections has been barred by the military authorities.

    Gosh, no wonder they are upset. I wonder who their leader is? What party is he from? For some reason the BBC don’t tell me. I’m suspicious. I do some research. The BBC online report tells me that ‘Hazem Abu Ismail was disqualified because his mother had dual Egyptian-US nationality, violating rules laid out in a constitutional declaration approved after an uprising forced President Hosni Mubarak to step down’.

    Wow this man sounds like he might be a pro-Western democrat. I think I ought to a little more (non-BBC) research. Just to be clear.

    ‘In foreign policy, Abu Ismail is in favor of ending Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel and has spoken of Iran as a successful model of independence from the United States’.

    ‘His domestic agenda includes opposition to the dominant role of the military in Egyptian politics and Salafi social reforms such as lowering the age of marriage to puberty, or veiling women and segregating them from men in the workplace’

    [Wikipedia entries attributed to the Economist and the New York Times].

    BBC News 24: Not enough time for a full report? Thought it best not to spoil a good story?

       7 likes

    • As I See It says:
      May 2, 2012 at 1:49 pm

      Oh by the way the BBC ask….’Are you in Cairo? Did you witness the attack? Send us your comments and experiences using the form below.’

      Perhaps some Beeboid could reply a la Amazulu…
      ‘I’m on the heavy manners in the daytime,
      But on the hula, hula in the night,
      With no milkshake and no handshake,
      Sleeping in the morning like a tourist,
      Working for the dummy all the time,
      With me big wheel and me high heel,
      That’s right.’

         5 likes

  11. Lunchtime Loather says:
    May 2, 2012 at 2:20 pm

    Radio 2’s leading news broadcast journalist Jeremy Vine (well, there aren’t any others!) discussed this yesterday:
    COMMUNIST MANIFESTO – It’s May Day, International Workers Day. As the Communist Manifesto, the second biggest selling book of all time, is re-published, we ask whether Communism has any relevance in 2012

    Needless to say, I didn’t listen but he managed to upset a few people, and one in particular. Daniel Frazer wrote on Twitter (http://www.twitlonger.com/show/h7usvt):
    @theJeremyVine Of all the trash I have heard from the BBC your show today has to be the worst. Railroading Catholicism with Nazism and Capitalism, leaving Communism as the one true haven. No mention of grinding poverty in Socialist states, no mention of forced famines or gulags. No! just standing behind that Nazism had concentration camps so they were the only evil. What is a gulag or Siberian banishment if not a death camp? You are an abhorrent figure, willingly rallying and distorting the truth about the Communist manifesto and Capitalism. By playing Internationale today will you play Die Farne Hoch on the anniversary of the Munich Putsch? The anthem of a lot less brutal regime in Europe at the time? You do indeed fit the billing to partake in the worst waste of public money in all history, with your red brethren at the BBC. It is just that you and your show will end up in the cesspool of history.
    He makes some good points, and it came as no surprise that Vine retweeted the message so that his “love the show Jeremy” followers could lambast Frazer. As usual, they resorted to personal attacks while failing to make any argument contrary to his views and in just the same way as they do with my blog. I really don’t mind them telling me to “get a life” and that I am a w@nker, but I’d really like it if they told me why!

       19 likes

    • RCE says:
      May 2, 2012 at 3:42 pm

      That guy is spot on. He’d be a great contributor on here.

         7 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:
      May 2, 2012 at 3:46 pm

      But that’s not an officially sanctioned BBC account because Venal Vine has the “views my own” get-out-of-bias-free disclaimer, right?

      I agree with RCE, and someone should tweet Frazer to invite him over here.

         3 likes

  12. George R says:
    May 2, 2012 at 3:22 pm

    Is this a rare token BBC-NUJ response to the social reality of discrimination against men, especially in the area of the lack of fathers’ rights?

    “Just who are men’s rights activists?”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17907534

       4 likes

    • Reed says:
      May 3, 2012 at 12:35 am

      I notice they give plenty of time to those who wish to dismiss the equality for men argument.
      And of course, arguments about equal rights for men are filtered through lens of feminism, rather than being considered in their own right.

      One person quoted claims that men’s rights movements make the mistake of seeing feminism as a zero sum game (the men’s groups aren’t talking about feminism, but they’re not going to let blokes hijack the equality agenda for their own ends) and then goes on to do just that with the men’s side of the equation – ie women have been oppressed for centuries, what right have you to even think that your concerns might be worthy of consideration.

      Equality for some, not for all.

         4 likes

  13. David Preiser (USA) says:
    May 2, 2012 at 3:42 pm

    The homosexual spokesman for Romney has just resigned, and – what a shock – the BBC pushes the lie promoted by the Left and quotes the Washington Post that he was forced out by conservatives who hate homosexuals. Richard Grenell has been open about it for years, everyone knew, but suddenly people care? Guess what the BBC doesn’t bother to find out, because they slavishly follow Media Matters talking points these days:

    Fact: Grenell was appointed by George Bush in 2001 to be Communications Director for the US rep to the UN.

    Where was the conservative backlash then?

    Fact: Rick Santorum – the most socially conservative of any of the candidates and actually a critic of the homosexual lifestyle – had a homosexual spokesman for some time, knew all about it, and stood by him after the NY Times outed him in 2005.

    Where was the conservative backlash then?

    So why was Grenell suddenly fired? Because the Romney campaign had already put a muzzle on him for making a bunch of misogynistic tweets about women in politics. He had to delete a ton of tweets a couple weeks back. Just like the Beeboids do! Think Progress was attacking the Romney campaign for it at the time.

    I also read he got too venal about the President and Bin Laden, but can’t find the source right now. In any case, he was under pressure from without, not within, and fell on his sword for the good of the campaign.

    Instead, the BBC goes with the lie they hear from their fellow far-Left travelers in the US media: ThinkProgress, Rachel Madcow, Paul Begala, and the WaPo.

    Never, ever trust the BBC on US issues, especially when it comes to politics and the culture war.

       18 likes

  14. Louis Robinson says:
    May 2, 2012 at 4:01 pm

    As regular readers will know, I’m a great one for looking at the words people use. In Mark Mardell’s latest offering about the president in Afghanistan, he describes how the One “roared with passion” Two very positive words: “roared” like a lion…”passion” a man with a heart and a belief.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17919071
    ”In the past” he writes, “I have never felt Obama was at ease talking to the troops, but here he really got into his stride, lavishly praising them for embodying the best of American values.” Mardell sees Obama the Patriot, not Obama the ruthless exploiter of politics for personal ends.
    But my fears about this latest piece is beyond words. There is something else going on. I wish I could put my finger on it. Does Mardell not see how many people view this man? Doesn’t he feel he needs to express some of the cynicism, the profound worries about his motives and his deeds held by people in the US? He can’t really be in the tank for O, can he? Is he? Why? Something’s not right.

       10 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:
      May 2, 2012 at 4:31 pm

      Mardell is a worshiper who waits around hoping to be inspired by The Obamessiah whom he so anxiously anticipated when first taking the job here. We’ve seen it over and over again when Mardell’s mood seems to rise and fall according to how inspiring he found a particular speech to be. He actually expresses his disappointment when the great Orator doesn’t meet expectations, and hopes next time it will be more fulfilling. It’s sadly amusing.

      Mardell is aware that some people don’t approve of the President. But he said at the BBC College of Journalism that it’s mostly due to crypto-racism. It’s very difficult for him to accept that there can be a genuine opposition to His policies, because he simply doesn’t believe they’ve failed. Any problems are always someone else’s fault. Blame is shifted time and time again.

      I remember his angry outburst – I’m not inferring anything here, as it was plain for all to see – on the News Channel when Congress did that spending cut agreement that the President didn’t want. It was real anger that the President had been “forced” off His agenda. “He didn’t want this,” Mardell moaned. He was only slightly more restrained in his report for Today.

      Other times when he gets the sense that the public isn’t in thrall, he says it’s because the latest speech didn’t hit the right notes. Just another sermon on the mount is all that’s needed, he feels. Mardell does express cynicism once in a great while, but it’s only when he’s unhappy with a bit of warmongering. He gets over it very quickly, though.

      Mardell is a political junkie and an opinion-monger, not a journalist.

         11 likes

      • Louis Robinson says:
        May 2, 2012 at 4:36 pm

        Good sense. Thanks DP

           3 likes

      • jarwill101 says:
        May 2, 2012 at 5:32 pm

        And he’s infatuated with the idea of Barry Gatsby: the slightly mysterious man, come to heal the USA. And love, as we know, can be blind.

           3 likes

  15. TigerOC says:
    May 2, 2012 at 4:50 pm

    1pm news and its 30 years since the General Belgrano was sunk in the Falklands war. I’m thinking to myself what angle can the Beeb take to have a go at the horrible white Englanders?
    No problem the Beeb says those horrible submariners torpedoed the poor ship that was sailing outside the 200 mile exclusion zone and just having a bit of fun. They weren’t involved and never intended to get involved. Just to prove this they show an interview at the time of some leftie lady from Gloucester asking Maggie what she thought she was doing.

    Then right at the end they mention that the exclusion zone only applied to non-combatants and “get out of jail”.
    BBC; enemy in our midst.

       22 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:
      May 2, 2012 at 4:57 pm

      Jim Naughtie still managed to undermine Vice Admiral McLement’s statement that it had to be done. He nearly called the man who sank the Belgrano a liar. Hide breakable objects before listening:

      http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9718000/9718018.stm

         14 likes

    • chrisH says:
      May 2, 2012 at 8:38 pm

      Noted tonights PM was trailing the “30th anniversary of the BBC broadcasting of the news of the Belgrano”.
      Note that it`s not the anniversary of the event itself-the fact that Iain MacDonald only told the media the day afterwards is probably as heinous a crime as shooting those poor lads looking for herring. So the BBC choose the day of their own traitorous musings to mark!
      Naval gazing bellicose pansies who would rather slip the knife between the nations shoulder blades, than dare to challenge(let alone confront) anything other than an anti-Thatcher agenda.
      Let`s turn Salfords Media City into the new Argentinian consulate and be done with it…send the BBC off to South Georgia so they can coo on CB radio about the coming glorious invasion…Senors Haw Haws all of `em!

         16 likes

    • Restoring Britain says:
      May 2, 2012 at 9:19 pm

      I saw that.

      Strangely however they left out the fact mentioned late last year by Major David Thorp that the Belgrano was sailing towards the exclusion point and that we had intercepted a signal from the Argentine command to rendezvous at a point inside the zone:

      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/8965405/Belgrano-was-heading-to-the-Falklands-secret-papers-reveal.html

         10 likes

      • DJ says:
        May 2, 2012 at 10:01 pm

        Yep, it’s been known for years that the Belgrano group was meant to be one half of a pincer movement with the carrier group as the other half.

        Fortunately, the wind dropped so the carrier couldn’t launch its aircraft and the attack was postponed – that is why the Belgrano was heading away from the Task Force. They hadn’t decided to jack it all in and sail for Rio, they’d just been caught out by the weather.

           12 likes

    • NotaSheep says:
      May 3, 2012 at 9:54 am

      The BBC line about the sinking of the Belgrano is incorrect and out of date. The facts came out years ago. I wrote this 5 years ago.

         4 likes

  16. Guest Who says:
    May 2, 2012 at 4:52 pm

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/02/london-mayor-who-voting-for
    Love the first, and most liked comment.
    Any similarity with the way the BBC rigs things is purely coincidental, one is sure.
    Yet they have been rumbled by the home crowd.
    There’s hope for the CiFers

       5 likes

    • Span Ows says:
      May 2, 2012 at 8:47 pm

      Well the Lib Dem is Dwayne Brooks! Probably edited from his original comment of “I’m voting for the ex cunt pig”

         3 likes

    • Harry says:
      May 2, 2012 at 9:53 pm

      I have noticed an increasing antipathy by CiFers towards the BBC and Guardian in recent years.

         1 likes

    • Reed - hates leftie 'comedians' says:
      May 2, 2012 at 11:46 pm

      Thanks for the link! The comments are really not going their way. As you say GW – there’s a glint of hope.
      DoingItForVanGogh
      Eddie Izzard – a blindly tribal Champaign socialist known for a surrealist take on everyday life.
      Just out of interest, has anyone ever seen Eddie Izzard & Polly Toynbee in the same place at the same time?

      Slackbladder
      Eddie Izzard:
      Supported the euro:check
      Supported gordon Brown:check
      Supported Yes to AV:check
      Supported Ken:check
      Is there any arguement this man is incapable of getting on the losing side of?

      Great stuff. I hate that Izzard reptile.

         17 likes

  17. George R says:
    May 2, 2012 at 5:15 pm

    Trade union leader, SERWOTKA, will be applauded by tomorrow’s ‘QUESTION TIME’ audience which will be packed by BBC-NUJ with supporters of strike:

    “Chaos at border control deepens as immigration staff announce strike.
    “Immigration staff have announced plans to strike next week in a move which will worsen the lengthy queues at Heathrow airport. ”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/9241415/Chaos-at-border-control-deepens-as-immigration-staff-announce-strike.html

       9 likes

  18. Guest Who says:
    May 2, 2012 at 5:24 pm

    OT-ish, but one has to wonder how long before the BBC commissions Laurie Penny with this lovely lady to ‘debate’ the issues of the day with those the BBC feel needs holding to account more than others…
    jo abbess ‏ @joabbess
    @richardabetts I’m giving you 72 hours to reply to my Tweet, after which time I am likely to try email. Do you really want that ?
    I might even watch that, as cannablism seems a specialty in some quarters.

       0 likes

  19. Doyle says:
    May 2, 2012 at 5:37 pm

    On the Daily Politics they have something called a ‘mood box’. Basically, they ask the great unwashed a simple question and then members of the general public place a ball in a clear plastic box. (Apologies to people who have seen this nonsense.) Anyway, Tuesday’s question was Tony Blair, good or bad? You might be surprised to learn that there an equal amount of votes, meaning as many saw Blair as good as thought him bad. I was flabbergasted (and I voted for the cunt), how could anyone argue he was good! He was without doubt the worst and most dangerous Prime Minister we have ever had. His worst crime in my opinion was the destruction of the Britain we knew, a Britain we won’t see again. This got me thinking, who were they asking? Asylum seekers perhaps, eastern Europeans, terrorists, lawyers from Matrix chambers. And then I thought, are the beeb trying to rehabilitate this piece of shit? And then my blood ran cold.

       20 likes

  20. George R says:
    May 2, 2012 at 6:37 pm

    The Battle of Britain, 2012.

    The unmentioned reason for all this military mobilisation?-

    -the Islamic jihad threat to Britain.

    “RAF Typhoon jets arrive in London to test Olympic security ”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17922490

       3 likes

    • George R says:
      May 2, 2012 at 10:22 pm

      “Fighter planes at Northolt for the first time since WWII as elite RAF say they will shoot down passenger jets to protect Olympics.”

      Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2138488/Typhoon-fighter-planes-stationed-RAF-Northolt-Olympics-military-build-up.html#ixzz1tkXeXTRC

         2 likes

      • Wayne X says:
        May 2, 2012 at 11:53 pm

        Think about it. They would rather shoot down a passenger plane full of innocent people rather than sort out the nests of vermin in our midst.

           17 likes

    • As I See It says:
      May 3, 2012 at 9:10 am

      I note that the peaceniks at the Beeb are uncharacteristically relaxed about all this military activity. Had to laugh at the code name – Operation Olympic Guardian.

         2 likes

    • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:
      May 3, 2012 at 9:41 am

      How dare you accuse a religion of peace of some wild jihad! Dn’t you realise that threats could emanate from Welsh baptists? or Methodists? or pentecostalists ? Odd thing is I dont seem to recall one of those being linked to terror plots and suicide type barbaric murders, or hanging gays, or opressing women or………help my blood pressure is rising here…I must stop…..NURSE please get my pills.

         5 likes

  21. Lunchtime Loather says:
    May 2, 2012 at 7:27 pm

    I have had an interesting exchange of emails today with Paul Smith of BBC Audio and Music concerning my old mate Jeremy Vine’s use of Twitter. Mr Smith has chosen to engage with me and is ignoring my placing on the “expedited complaints handling procedure” list, which is very good of him. For that reason alone I have been careful with my words as I do not wish to destroy this particular link in to the inner workings of our beloved BBC as it may prove of use in the future should he continue to respond in a like manner. Mr Smith’s BBC biography can be read here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/insidethebbc/managementstructure/biographies/smith_paul/
    Our email exchange went like this:
    Dear Mr Smith,

    There follows a transcript of a recent Twitter exchange between Jeremy Vine and Tom Watson MP. This brief exchange tells me more about Mr Vine and his personal views than any other source I have ever found. It could be argued that having such an apparently cosy relationship shows bias on his part, and following this exchange it came as no surprise at all to hear that Mr Watson was to be a guest on Vine’s programme today.
    tom_watson ‏ @tom_watson : If you worked at NoTW and don’t believe @rupertmurdoch’s account, please contact me: “Rupert Murdoch betrayed us”:http://gu.com/p/377yx/tf
    Jeremy Vine ‏ @theJeremyVine : @tom_watson Your book title is best so far this year, T. We’re ready for you in the studio whenever you want to come on @BBCRadio2
    tom_watson ‏ @tom_watson : @theJeremyVine thank you. I’d be delighted.
    Jeremy Vine ‏ @theJeremyVine : @tom_watson Have emailed producer to remind him to fix date. Know you’re busy. Have good weekend.
    Chuck Finlay ‏ @ChuckFinlay : @theJeremyVine @tom_watson Jeremy, get a room…this snivelling in public is embarrassing!
    However, I am unable to respond or comment because Vine has blocked me from following his feed. At least I would not have suggested that they “get a room”.

    The following tweet came from former MP Lembit Opik in which he almost begs to be a guest on the programme to discuss his new book. Mr Opik appeared to do exactly that a few days later (5th March).
    @theJeremyVine Jeremy, hope you’re well. My book on future of Lib Dems and its leadership is out tomorrow. Your listeners may be interested?

    I find the details of Mr Vine’s relationships with his programme guests fascinating!

    Your comments on this and my other recent email would be appreciated.
    Many thanks!
    I received the following reply 3 hours later:
    Hi there,

    Thank you for your note. Although I don’t think this exchange is ideal, it is worth pointing out that no guest can be booked by the presenter without the express permission of the editor. I have spoken to the editor, and although Jeremy, as a journalist can, and does make suggestions, the editor turns down the idea as often as he accepts it. Tom Watson may have wanted to appear to talk about his book, but the programme also wanted him to appear following the select committee report of yesterday. Tom Watson had been sought by several BBC and non-BBC outlets, and I am satisfied that it was the correct item to carry, and there was no undue prominence of the book.

    I didn’t hear the Lembit Opik item, but the editor tells me he received offers of Lembit from several sources…not principally Jeremy, and decided that he would be an interesting guest for one of the programmes.

    The exchanges you have sent are public, and I think if anyone had anything to hide here, they would not use twitter.

    Paul Smith
    I responded straight away:
    Hi,

    Many and sincere thanks for your prompt reply. It is very much appreciated.

    Both today’s and my email of 26th April are nothing more than illustrations of the reasons why I would like to fully follow and engage with Mr Vine’s so-called “personal” Twitter account, which I am still blocked from doing so.

    Your explanation of the procedures in place to book guests is gratefully received, and I take it from this that when Mr Vine wrote “We’re ready for you in the studio whenever you want to come on” on 28th April (last Saturday, four days before the report was published) that this was NOT necessarily a “done deal” and the offer of air time was not guaranteed. If that is indeed the case then I hope you understand why I, and presumably others, have misinterpreted an apparently open invitation to attend at Mr Watson’s convenience.

    For balance, I would hope that similar invitations were sent to other members of the select committee, Louise Mensch for example, but these have not appeared on Mr Vine’s Twitter feed.

    Again, I would ask for your comments on my email sent on 24th April, with particular reference to the BBC’s definition of word “personal” and the use of a personal Twitter account by somebody (the producer) other than the account owner.

    I remain extremely grateful for your responses to my emails.
    Only 20 minutes later came this:
    Louise Mensch has appeared on several other BBC outlets and another member of the committee was on Today this morning. But Tom Watson has been driving forward the phone hacking aspect of the story, so I would expect him to be prioritised, although today would be the appropriate day for him to appear rather than any of his choosing.

    ‘Personal’ is what JVs account is…it’s not controlled or set up by the BBC. But sometimes material from it is interesting, and Jeremy is happy for us to use the comments sent to him directly. Twitter is about personal engagement, and Jeremy likes to indulge in public debate with some people which he is in control of.

    As I said, we are moving to a position where we will use BBC accounts for comments, but that is taking time to achieve as the audience find presenters own personal accounts more attractive.
    I had the last word though:
    Hi,

    Quote: As I said, we are moving to a position where we will use BBC accounts for comments, but that is taking time to achieve as the audience find presenters own personal accounts more attractive.

    Please be aware that this particular member of your audience absolutely disagrees with the latter part of that statement for the reasons that I have outlined previously.

    Again, many thanks for your responses. I shall now await the outcome of my appeal to the BBC Trust.
    And that was that. The definition of the word “personal” I learnt many years ago is obviously completely wrong, and I also seem to have completely misunderstood everything to do with the BBC and its use of Twitter.
    Silly me.

       10 likes

    • Wayne X says:
      May 3, 2012 at 12:06 am

      Never, never, ever does the BBC admit in the slightest that they are even a little tiny bit wrong about anything. They are more wonderful in their own eyes than any deity that could ever be envisaged by God himself.

      I marvel at your patience in even corresponding with them.

         11 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:
      May 3, 2012 at 1:13 am

      Nice work, LL. They just refuse to get it, don’t they?

         6 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      May 3, 2012 at 8:20 am

      Are these exchanges not eye-openers?
      And the po-faced tripe they do commit to writing secure in the knowledge that nothing can happen and no one will ever be held to account.
      I merely enjoy this in all its pompous, facile familiarity:
      ‘I am satisfied that it was the correct item to carry,’
      It is, I think number #3 in the ‘we think we are getting about right’ thesaurus.

         4 likes

  22. #88 says:
    May 2, 2012 at 7:50 pm

    Just to check my understanding:

    1 ‘…the programme also wanted him (Watson) to appear following the select committee report of yesterday. Tom Watson had been sought by several BBC and non-BBC outlets, and I am satisfied that it was the correct item to carry, and there was no undue prominence of the book. ‘

    So despite him appearing on other BBC outlets, they still wanted him on the programme

    2. ‘Louise Mensch has appeared on several other BBC outlets and another member of the committee was on Today this morning.’

    So, because Mensch has appeared on other BBC outlets, her contribution on that programme / radio channel is not required.

    I get it. That’s the BBC’s idea of balance. Perhaps this confirms something that I read a few weeks back, that the BBC view is that invitations to contribute to a programme and the make up and balance of contributors is an editorial decision (and nothing to do with their Charter obligations).

    Shocking use of a regulatory loophole

       17 likes

  23. Merlin says:
    May 2, 2012 at 8:17 pm

    Rupert Murdoch sells his product in the open market and we are free to choose to buy or avoid his media. With the BBC, however, there is no such discretionary luxury; they aggressively coerce the population into funding its existence whether we like it or not and as a result we are increasingly finding that the BBC is comfortably becoming ever more insidious and arrogant in its domination of British media. This is downright communism! The BBC are everywhere in our lives; the effects of their repugnant brainwashing is extensive and, I fear, irreversible for many. In light of this, I have come to a conclusion that is the antithesis of Mr Watson’s partisan view: that it is the BBC which is unfit to carry on in its present capacity and that we should have the right to vote against TV licensing – if, that is, democracy is to have any meaning and respect in this once great country.

       26 likes

  24. chrisH says:
    May 2, 2012 at 8:49 pm

    Ah I did wonder.
    Why-yet again-is there some raggedy arsed story about another priest in Ireland “fending off calls for him to resign” over the usual.
    Truly the gift that keeps on giving as far as the BBC are concerned…and will be surprised if Ed Stourton hasn`t already packed his gumshoes and holy water for Jurys Hotel in Dublin. He`s mentioned it in passing once or twice on his Sunday Squauk, so I understand!
    Why now?…why again though?
    Ah now-see there`s some BBC “programme” on it somewhere in the schedules soon- Radio or telly?…dunno, it`s the same old song!
    Hence the BBC resurrecting its conscience over paedo priests over the Irish Sea-wonder when they`ll ever get round to paedos using journalism and childrens TV to do the same over this side of the water?
    And even if they don`t-then will someone tell them that the BBC are NOT the sole arbiters for times allocated for gift-giving…they don`t believe in God or babies being born, so they should butt out of Easter and Christmas, as well as birthdays!

       7 likes

    • Rueful Red says:
      May 3, 2012 at 10:47 am

      Child abuse by clerics in Ireland forty years ago is indeed the gift that keeps on giving.

      I’m just so relieved that there’s absolutely no child abuse by clerics going on in this country today. Otherwise I’m sure the BBC would have conducted in-depth investigation into it, particularly in tight-knit patriarchal communities.

      You mean it hasn’t?

         6 likes

  25. John Anderson says:
    May 2, 2012 at 9:23 pm

    Remember when the BBC had a fixation on Donald Rumsfeld ?

    I bet they don’t run his comments on Obama shooting his mouth off about the Navy Seals and bin Laden – “It was not a tough decision! I cannot imagine any President not making that decision”

    http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/05/02/rumsfeld_not_a_tough_decision_to_kill_bin_laden.html

       6 likes

  26. Harry says:
    May 2, 2012 at 9:48 pm

    BBC2 mow has a program called “The shame of the Catholic Church”. I do not have a problem whatsoever with them exposing the paedophiles, just making the point that they would never, not in a million years, make a program called “The shame of Islam”.

       25 likes

  27. Reed - HELP ! They're everywhere! says:
    May 2, 2012 at 9:49 pm

    Let me weave a little web of incestuous lefty interconnectivity for you, that all started with this…

    Here’s a post that came through on my Facebook page…

    —————————————
    Ann McElhinney
    There is so much wrong with this story it’s depressing. New pet peeve of mine I don’t think we should have our politicians lectured to by 11 year olds who can’t vote and are just parroting the ideas of their teacher. A teacher who is using the classroom to brainwash children into this green religion. Depressing. Listen to the child giving the Gasland talking points.
    —————————————

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2012/may/01/shale-gas-fracking-school-girl?INTCMP=SRCH

    Many are commenting on the Guardian article about the cynical use of children to push the adult’s/teacher’s agenda, so the writer of the piece steps in to tut-tut, wag his finger, and warn that he will start removing people from class for talking out of turn…

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2012/may/01/shale-gas-fracking-school-girl?commentpage=1#comment-15913261

    This highlights so much that is wrong with our education system today, where young minds are taught what to think rather than how to think, and opinions are being taught as facts. I feel sorry for the children here, who a being used as pawns in the adult’s game of emotional blackmail.

    There is one commenter who’s fully on board, though…
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2012/may/01/shale-gas-fracking-school-girl?commentpage=1#comment-15911782

    …do read this post at her site, for an insight into her world view…
    http://alicerosebell.wordpress.com/2012/04/12/do-your-pupils-have-an-energy-gap/

    …and now for the home straight – the ‘about’ section of her blog…
    http://alicerosebell.wordpress.com/about/

    —————————–
    “My PhD examined children’s popular science books. I also have a teaching qualification, an MA in Sociology of Education and a BSc in the History of Science. You can see a list of most of my academic work here. I continue to be interested in children’s science media and am developing research on science blogging. I played a small part in the empirical research for the recent BBC Trust review of impartiality and accuracy of science coverage.”
    —————————-

    What an incestuous little clique it is!!! No wonder that BBC review of impartiality in science reporting was such an exercise in ‘impartiality’!!! I’ll give them this – they really do know how to network and find each other, don’t they.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/our_work/other/science_impartiality.shtml

    http://biasedbbc.tv/2011/08/23/untrustworthy/
    http://biasedbbc.tv/2011/08/24/untrustworthy-again/
    http://biasedbbc.tv/2011/07/21/key-bbc-trustee-is-climate-activist/

       6 likes

  28. chrisH says:
    May 2, 2012 at 10:14 pm

    I follow the BBCs “Education Webpage” and I do wonder why they have not said a dickie bird on it, concerning those two girls in Dumbartonshire who jumped off the Erskine Bridge.
    Both girls were “in care”-which would normally trigger the Childrens Rights/Young Minds quangos/cheridee types getting a soundbite up on the Beebs pages.
    Both of school age at the time-yet it only makes a regional story with no Scottish Educational input at all.
    Very unusual from the BBC who love their Celtic education stories, to show us all how more money, devolution and more of Alex Salmond would do us if we only opened out hearts and wallets.
    Sense the BBC would rather we not bother ourselves with that hideous education/care home stuff when its a Scottish Labour Party/SNP issue…had this been Shropshire or Kent, there`d be uproar I`m sure.

       10 likes

  29. Reed says:
    May 2, 2012 at 10:36 pm

    Is Robert Mugabe running for office in London? Seems we’ve imported some ̶n̶a̶s̶t̶y̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶r̶d̶-̶w̶o̶r̶l̶d̶ ̶e̶l̶e̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶v̶i̶o̶l̶e̶n̶c̶e̶ wonderful cultural differences. Celebrate that diversity, folks…

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/the-first-punch-came-landing-on-my-nose-sending-blood-down-my-face-1961464.html

       10 likes

    • Merlin says:
      May 2, 2012 at 10:55 pm

      What’s the old saying? A liberal is simply someone who hasn’t been mugged yet!

         14 likes

    • jarwill101 says:
      May 3, 2012 at 7:25 am

      The East End is a socially-engineered, third world shithole. A grotesque monument to our traitorous political class & their servants. Heartbreaking. And no amount of awaydays by Cultural Marxist minstrels from Castle Bragg, can ever disguise the deliberate, callous, ethnic replacement of the white working classes. Go sing about that, Billy, you fucking class traitor. You didn’t cut it in the British Army, but you’re fighting in the Fabian war against your own people. The East End is a dirty bomb just waiting to go off. Unforgivable.

         27 likes

  30. jonuk says:
    May 2, 2012 at 10:37 pm

    i wonder when the BBC will do a ‘documentary’ about the various world religions regarding their views on anal sex

       8 likes

  31. JaneTracy says:
    May 2, 2012 at 11:16 pm

    Stephanie Flanders has been demonstrating today that her lack of talent extends way beyond economics.

    Stephanie Flanders ‏ @BBCStephanie
    Just tried to vote. My polling station, in Hammersmith, had closed two hours early. Has anyone else had same problem?

    Stephanie Flanders ‏ @BBCStephanie
    My democratic outrage is now in abeyance. Apparently all stations closed because, er, today isn’t Thursday. Clearly I need an early night.

    just like her economics…

       22 likes

  32. George R says:
    May 2, 2012 at 11:28 pm

    While BBC-NUJ wants Labour-Islam Livingstone for Mayor:

    “Why Labour supporters should shun Ken.”

    by Andrew Gilligan.

    http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/7821798/why-labour-supporters-should-shun-ken.thtml

       5 likes

  33. James says:
    May 2, 2012 at 11:36 pm

    Comedy on the BBC news. In a ‘shock’ news report the BBC has discovered that some civil servants have use a loophole to minimise tax by setting up a company.

    But wait, isn’t this the same loophole the BBC uses for it’s stars, and does it by using license fee payers money to fund accountants to set up the schemes. And finally aren’t BBC employees technically civil servants?

       20 likes

    • Wayne X says:
      May 3, 2012 at 12:22 am

      I wondered why they were playing this one up. It’s simply to divert attention away from them and back onto the Tory government. “It could even be happening in George Osborne’s office”, said the BBC news reader.

         8 likes

      • James says:
        May 3, 2012 at 9:57 am

        “It could even be happening in George Osborne’s office”

        That is the problem with the BBC news. This is an opinion not a fact. And if the BBC news team can’t tell the difference, they should not be allowed to read or write the news.

           8 likes

        • Guest Who says:
          May 3, 2012 at 10:34 am

          This is an opinion not a fact.
          Which is what the BBC now calls ‘the news’.
          And, worse, is allowed to on pain of fine or imprisonment for any seeking legitimate means to protest, peacefully, that it is not, self-evidently.
          That they are so empowered now they feel confident in spinning fantasy out of thin air on top of corrupting reality, should be a matter of real concern to any aware of the corrosion propaganda and censorship can impose on free speech and democracy.

             5 likes

      • #88 says:
        May 3, 2012 at 10:55 am

        The cartwheels and contortions that the BBC have travelled through on this story are hilarious.

        You will remember that Newsnight originally broke this some months back and in doing so attempted to embarrass the Governement.

        Unfortunately such was the scale of the abuse, the story got out of control and last night their attack was blunted somewhat when an interviewee happened to mention that this went back to Labour times (neither did it help when it was mentioned that this was a device used by BBC staff – ‘Don’t know who they would be’, said Paxman – yeah right, I believe you, say I)

        Then the contortion. a) The Government are critisicised for facilitating tax avoidance. b) The Government have done something about it and are criticised that in doing so they will actually cost the country money in additonal NI and employment costs.

        And there you have it. You can’t win with this lot.

        And of course Miliband who joined in the noise when the story broke is now given the opportunity to chose from couple of bandwagons, even though they’re travelling in opposite directions.

           4 likes

  34. TPO says:
    May 2, 2012 at 11:39 pm

    Here I am, sitting in Western Canada reading all about the Govenor of the BoE slamming Gordon Brown for creating 1,000,000 unemployed. Here it is:

    Labour lost a million jobs, says Bank chief
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9242161/Labour-lost-a-million-jobs-says-Bank-chief.html

    I thought I’d look at what the BBC has to say about it.
    Well it’s certainly not front page news for them. They’ve also altered the story to read:

    Sir Mervyn King renews push for bank reform
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17929120

    Theyy’ve even slipped in a nasty comment about Mervyn King from that Brown sycophant David Blanchflower.
    How odd of them to do that.

       19 likes

  35. Reed - was he really our PM? says:
    May 3, 2012 at 12:15 am

    Gordon Brown – The Iron Chancellor. It might as well have been iron that he sold, considering the price we got for it.

       8 likes

  36. Alfie Pacino says:
    May 3, 2012 at 12:50 am

    Jeremy Vine doesn’t even try to hide his bias:
    he nails his little red rag wherever he can

    Tweeted tonight by @theJeremyVine:

    02/05/2012 11:49 PM
    Peter Oborne’s brilliant piece on why the Conservatives are on thin ice with the Murdochs –

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/leveson-inquiry/9241162/The-Murdoch-and-News-Corporation-scandal-wasnt-about-Conservative-Party-sleaze-but-it-is-now.html

       7 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      May 3, 2012 at 8:10 am

      Tweeted tonight by @theJeremyVine
      A classic piece of BBC ‘one degree of separation’ editorial selectivity.
      I was going to say, near impossible to prove, but actually it would not be hard to log politically skewed highlights to assess a weighting in this case.
      Pointless of course because, even though the BBC and employees (especially influential ones) are meant to be, and be seen to be impartial, the twitter disclaimer offers a get out incredulity free card to that mockery.

         3 likes

      • Lunchtime Loather says:
        May 3, 2012 at 10:30 am

        Another cosy Vine Twitter session appeared late last night:
        JackDromeyMP ‏ @JackDromeyMP
        Unusually, BBC gets it wrong. Birmingham is a Tory/Lib Dem Council. That’s why the city is suffering. @theJeremyVine
        Jeremy Vine ‏ @theJeremyVine
        @JackDromeyMP Surely “no overall control” though, in the sense that no one party has a majority? Best wishes by the way
        So that is “Best wishes” to Dromey and “Have a good weekend” to Watson in the space of a few days. I’ve never noticed any similar remarks to MPs from other parties.
        And when I told him the BBC had got it wrong I ended up blocked on Twitter and part of the “expedited complaints handling procedure”. One rule for one…

           7 likes

        • Guest Who says:
          May 3, 2012 at 10:41 am

          One rule for one…
          Given the attention, and not much good, being focussed on this odd ‘dispensation’ on what is said on twitter by employees, and the free hand in censorship imposed to ring fence it, one can only presume such ongoing flaunting is either a sign of a true bunker delusion or belief in being untouchable. Or both.
          Poor historical precedent on either there, Jezza.

             6 likes

  37. Wayne X says:
    May 3, 2012 at 12:59 am

    “New from our reporters around the world” said the information pop up screen when I clicked the info button on my remote during the BBC 10 O’ Clock news. If there was any I missed it when I put the kettle on.

    If I want news from around the world I watch ITN, Sky News, CNN, Fox News, France News, Russian TV, Al-Jazeera, or any of the many other TV stations now available. All Free!

    The BBC news is now simply anti-government propaganda with tit bits designed to fill in the time. There are apparently hundreds of foreign reporters on the payroll at the BBC and the cost must be many, many millions of GB Pounds. What on earth are they all doing with our (pay up or go to prison) billions of hard earned cash?

    I think there should be an inquiry into this now.
    It should be headed up by a very eminent judge.
    It should be given carte blanche to dig very deeply into the management and all of the finances at the BBC.
    It should examine in great depth the political affiliations of all of the employees, directors and trustees.
    It will need to take at least a couple years of thorough investigations, never mind the disruption, to establish if the BBC is a fit and proper organisation.
    In the meantime the TV Licence Tax should be suspended.

       16 likes

    • Reed says:
      May 3, 2012 at 3:14 am

      I’ll sign up to that! – Let’s include a detailed examination of expenses aswell. They were keen to report on the MPs’ expenses scandal, let’s have the same scrutiny for other public sector workers, starting with those at the BBC.

         10 likes

    • George R says:
      May 3, 2012 at 9:24 am

      Yes, and in a couple of years BBC licencepayers, rather than taxpayers, will be directly paying for the BBC-NUJ’s masssive and expanding global broadcasting empire.

      Increasingly, the Beeboid cultural imperialists are NOT representing the interests of British people, but those of countries such as the Islamic Republic of PAKISTAN where INBBC has a heavy concentration of staff representing the interests of Pakistan people, NOT British people.

      This pattern of political representation is evident globally. EGYPT is another prominent example where e.g. LEYNE and KNELL put out daily endorsements of the Muslim Brotherhood.

         7 likes

  38. Reed - it's not mine, promise! says:
    May 3, 2012 at 4:55 am

    What will the (Islamic) neighbours say…

    –Mr Galloway, who is teetotal, said he realised someone had been living upstairs when he went to investigate – wielding a sword ‘given to me in Saudi Arabia or somewhere’ – and found an empty gin bottle and a gay video in a closet, which ‘would never be in my house’.

    Here’s the most relevant bit…

    –Once the gin bottle and gay video were FOUND BY HIS STAFF in one of his closets, it was realised another person was living in the property.

    OK….sure thing, George…I pass no judgement….only God knows who is a good muslim and who is not.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2137870/George-Galloway-orders-tighter-security-London-home-homeless-man-broke-left-gay-video-gin-bottle.html#ixzz1tkIIouGZ

       10 likes

    • Cassandra King says:
      May 3, 2012 at 5:35 am

      Gay porn and Gin?

      Gordon Brown has been on one of his nocturnal visits.

         8 likes

    • Harry says:
      May 3, 2012 at 10:48 am

      Hahahaha!!!!

         4 likes

    • Mat says:
      May 3, 2012 at 10:50 am

      Aww poor man I mean this this a growing crime ! the man down the street has been burgled hundreds of time when alcohol and porn was left in his house and then there is the local bobby who has been forced frequently by evil thugs who dress him up in women’s clothing and get him to hang around bars !

         6 likes

    • Hymie O'Blimey says:
      May 3, 2012 at 1:11 pm

      I’d like to see this one run.

         2 likes

  39. johnyork says:
    May 3, 2012 at 4:58 am

    Time for Bias

    Here’s something that doesn’t seem to have caught on with the BBC as of yet.
    I’ve been watching the French Presidential debate and below the two leading protagonists are “the lazer display screen” indicating how long each has been speaking.
    Now as much as this would be an anathema for our State Broadcaster to contemplate, I would suggest that if they were forced to try it they would need more screens.
    An extra specially large one for the Chairman’s interruptions.
    One for the Left-wing cooing from the “selected” audience.
    And one for the number of people who have turned the fucking thing off in disgust.

       18 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      May 3, 2012 at 9:38 am

      The whole MSM is so tribal now any ‘news’, especially backed by overpaid or guest or overpaid guest ‘analysis’ is a farce.
      Brown accuses Murdoch of lying, despite testimony to the latter’s account from BBC’s Andrew Neil… watertight oversight.
      Hollande & Sarkozy accuse each other of lying… selective amnesia all round depending on how it suits.
      Pathetic, the lot of them.

         4 likes

  41. David Preiser (USA) says:
    May 3, 2012 at 5:06 am

    This won’t come as a surprise to anyone here, but it’s worth mentioning anyway, just as more evidence of the deeply Left-wing ideology entrenched in The Obamessiah Administration:

    DHS senior staffer’s Twitter account goes into hiding after pro-May Day tweet

    On Tuesday evening, Nate Snyder, the special adviser to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for “Community Partnership and Strategic Engagement,” tweeted “Happy May Day! #solidarity.”

    Just like we’ve seen the Beeboids do, the tweet has been deleted and the account gone private. Background on this extremist is equally unsurprising, but again worth mentioning for future reference:

    Snyder has had his current Homeland Security post since March 2011, according to his LinkedIn page. He was previously the department’s deputy White House liaison. Before joining the Obama administration, he worked for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and for Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.

    How sad that it just reads like a cliché we joke about. No experience outside of Community Organizing, yet he was liaising between the White House and a powerful government organization, and now has the ear of the head of that organization. One wonders if he’s the one who advised Janet Napolitano to have the FBI spy on the Tea Party movement on suspicion of being dangerous terrorists.

    If he gets fired from the DHS, I’m sure there’ll be a job waiting for him at the BBC. Next time you hear anyone tell you that The Obamessiah is a centrist, not as Left-wing as people claim, or any such nonsense, shove this in their face.

       10 likes

    • Reed says:
      May 3, 2012 at 5:37 am

      One only has to look at the people that Obama has CHOSEN to surround himself with to realise that he’s certainly no centrist – except in BBC-land, where the presumed centre is so far to the left that even the dripping wet Cameron is portrayed as a raving right-wing monster.

         9 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:
        May 3, 2012 at 2:50 pm

        The problem is that, while what you say is absolutely true (Van Jones, Steven Chu, Valerie Jarrett, Patrick Gaspard, Eric Holder), most of those who voted for Him but are now disappointed feel that He hasn’t governed Left enough.

        Madness.

           3 likes

    • Wayne X says:
      May 3, 2012 at 10:32 am

      From David’s post above.
      “No experience outside of Community Organizing”.

      This of course was Obama’s own background and it is typical of the background of most of the people in any elite position in Britain today. That is to say those who have never (in my opinion) had to earn a living in the commercial world. Typical of this species are those in charge of large charities, QUANGOS, councils, governments, particularly the Eurocrats, and of course the media. The BBC is of course the prime example of this Cloud Nine mentality.

      Hiding behind vast amounts of tax payers cash why should they worry about fiscal responsibility? So, this attitude now pervades all aspects of life in Britain from the top to the bottom. From the union bully Tom Watson, the expense cheat, who finds great joy in bringing down a successful entrepreneur, down to the young girl who wants independence and can only find it through having babies at the expense of us, the tax payer.

      The fact is that it is now impossible to draw on good business leaders for the important positions in our country when there are so few of them left. They were driven out of the country many years ago, never to be replaced, by the Labour Party, the unions and the socialist ideals of teachers in the education system.

      Who now in this country wants to be held up to ridicule for being a greedy capitalist? It is much easier to be successful and highly paid by being a footballer, a TV presenter, winning the lottery or appearing on X factor.

         8 likes

  42. hatethebias says:
    May 3, 2012 at 8:17 am

    Did anyone else see that Stephanie “flounding” Flanders tried to vote yesterday, rather than today, then complained on Twitter that her polling station had closed early??!! A disgrace to her father!

       12 likes

    • George R says:
      May 3, 2012 at 9:09 am

      Stephanie Flanders explaining/dumbing down on ‘quantitative easing’:

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15492115

         4 likes

    • jarwill101 says:
      May 3, 2012 at 9:10 am

      If Steph had been in Tower Hamlets she could have multiple-voted anytime. Every day is polling Thursday. A lot of dead people in the caliphate seem to be going with Q’en. And rather a lot that don’t exist. Love the smell of ‘enrichment’ in the morning. Thanks, Harriet & Jack, & all down at The School of Frankfurt.

         16 likes

    • GotItAboutRight says:
      May 3, 2012 at 9:55 am

      Yes, just seen that on Guido. For a BBC correspondent to go to the polling station on the wrong day really does take some doing. And as Guido also suggests, given all the snide stuff the BBC came out with when Theresa May apparently did not know what day of the week it was (real life translation: she was given questionable legal advice on the counting of days for legal purposes from a saintly public service employee) I’m looking forward to her being ridiculed as confused and out of touch on Radio 4 light hearted comedy shows for the next few weeks!

         12 likes

    • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:
      May 4, 2012 at 8:13 am

      Dopey cow!

         3 likes

  43. Colonel Blimp says:
    May 3, 2012 at 8:33 am

    I suspect someone will already have mentioned this:
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17933864
    Salacious tittle tattle? check
    Tabloid sensationalism? check
    Iffy personal behaviour? Check
    Mention of the word “Democrat”? Um…

       2 likes

  44. George R says:
    May 3, 2012 at 8:45 am

    BBC-NUJ’s ‘working-class’ feigning cultural dictators make their leftist actors redundant because of BBC-NUJ class ideological motives.

    “BBC axed My Family for being too middle-class, says show’s star Zoe Wanamaker.”

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2138654/BBC-axed-My-Family-middle-class-says-shows-star-Zoe-Wanamaker.html#ixzz1tn36co00

       3 likes

    • George R says:
      May 3, 2012 at 8:49 am

      Supplementary:

      “BBC axed My Family because it was too middle class says Zoe Wanamaker”

      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9242476/BBC-axed-My-Family-because-it-was-too-middle-class-says-Zoe-Wanamaker.html

         1 likes

      • George R says:
        May 3, 2012 at 8:54 am

        Director General THOMPSON reneges on closing down radio station, ‘Asian Network’, because he decides it is appropriately apartheid in its promotion of ‘British Asian’ concept.

           6 likes

      • jimbola says:
        May 3, 2012 at 9:17 pm

        My Family is so ver painfully middle class I’ve never been able to do a whole episode. It almost brings out the Wolfie Smith in me. Almost but not quite.

           0 likes

    • Roland Deschain says:
      May 3, 2012 at 9:07 am

      From the Mail:

      They admitted their output had become too focused on one social group with shows such as My Family and Outnumbered, and that they were actively searching for more working-class comedy.

      God forbid they should search for some funny comedy.

      [Disclaimer: I actually like Outnumbered. Sorry.]

         9 likes

    • Pah says:
      May 3, 2012 at 12:40 pm

      Which is ironic as Wanamakers family is British due to her father fleeing investigation by the US Commitee on Un-American Activities(?).

         4 likes

  45. Pounce_uk says:
    May 3, 2012 at 9:50 am

    I see the bBC has taken up the mantle of Argentina yet again with it anti-British stance subliming into yet another hate filled fest against the people who fund its leftwing propaganda campaign
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-17932669
    Argentina has held ceremonies to mark the 30th anniversary of the sinking of the warship General Belgrano during the Falklands War with the UK.The Belgrano – a cruiser – was torpedoed by the British nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror on 2 May 1982.
    sinking remains one of the most controversial actions of the Falklands conflict. The General Belgrano was sunk on the orders of Prime Minister Magaret Thatcher, who said it had posed a danger to British ships. However, the warship was outside the 200-mile maritime exclusion zone Britain had declared around the Falklands and was said to be sailing away from the islands when she was hit. Critics said the action was excessive and scuppered any chance of a diplomatic solution to the conflict.

    How the left hate Maggie who denied them what they wanted the most, the humiliation of the Uk on the world stage.

    The bBC the traitors in our midst.

       13 likes

    • Pah says:
      May 3, 2012 at 12:30 pm

      It’s also a measure of how stupid they think the public is. This cruiser was capable of firing its guns in any direction so its heading is meaningless. Ships can also change course quite quickly.

      Other facts the BBC hide.

      The Argentines were also in possession of air-to-ship missiles and the ship carried two helicopters.

      The exclusion zone was for the benefit of neutrals to demark a danger zone. Argentine armed forces were legitimate targets anywhere in the world not just within 200 miles of Port Stanley.

      The captain of the Belgrano himself has said that the ship was a legitimate target and so did later Argentine Governments.

      Only left-wingers & enemies of the country consider the sinking illegitamate.

         9 likes

      • Pah says:
        May 3, 2012 at 12:36 pm

        And one more fact curtesy of Wikipedia.
        The ship may have been facing away from the exclusion zone but it was about the head for a point within it as part of an Argentine Navy pincer movement on the task force.

           4 likes

      • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:
        May 4, 2012 at 8:25 am

        Gotcha!
        it’s the sun wot said it!

           0 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:
      May 3, 2012 at 2:43 pm

      They still don’t accept the reality. Yesterday Naughtie nearly called V Adm McClement a liar for saying the ship was in the midst of a pincer move. It’s only considered controversial because the Beeboids hate it.

         2 likes

  46. noggin says:
    May 3, 2012 at 9:56 am

    0747 R4 – Today
    Thought for the Day with Abdal Hakim Murad –
    Muslim Chaplain at the University of Cambridge
    sharia – el bbc

       12 likes

  47. Guest Who says:
    May 3, 2012 at 10:26 am

    Can’t find the others, but there were postings on the BBC’s rather selective memory hole on newspaper insensitivity, gunning for The Sun but giving The Mirror and it’s brain a pass. Here’s the latest just in..
    Raymond Snoddy ‏ @RaymondSnoddy
    The Sun’s mockery of Roy Hodgson speech patterns was not disrespectful – merely moronic and then they use “Wossy” to compound matters     One could run this hypocrisy in coverage past, say, Newswatch, but I wouldn’t bet on the topic getting past those ‘unique’ BBC editorial filters the market rate talents get to deploy so impartially.
    I guess they could go for the old ‘we were not aware of it’ excuse… again… per Mr. Hughes’ tweet campaign but post Murdoch lampooning, that might seem a bit rich to attempt. Wouldn’t it? Cherry vultures?

       7 likes

  48. Pounce_uk says:
    May 3, 2012 at 10:27 am

    I see the left wing gay co-k suckers at the bBC have their knickers in a twist over how the Met stockpiled rubber bullets after the riots last Aug. In order to play the righteous card they zip over to Northern Ireland were they mention that the rubber bullet (actually its a plastic round) had killed several people. But for some reason the bBC doesn’t give any actual figures, hey let me inform the great unwashed with what the bBC doesn’t tell:
    From 1971 to 2012 (41 years) over 95,000 rubber/plastic round have been fired in NI. In that time a total of 16 deaths have been caused primarily to rioters , yes rioters.

    After the death carrying thug ‘Mark Duggen’ kicked off riots across the UK, 5 people were murdered and the bBC feels sorry for the cu-ts who carry out such crimes.

    The bBC the traitors in our Midst.

       16 likes

    • Pounce_uk says:
      May 3, 2012 at 10:33 am

      Further to my last, so quick is the bBC in trying to promote anarchy as a legitimate way of life and that keeping law and order is against their mantra they forgot to check what they publish as a crime against humanity
      MET’S GROWING BATON ROUND STOCKPILE
      1 December 2010 – 1,361 baton rounds held
      9 December 2010 – student fees disorder in London
      1 July 2011 – 700 baton rounds held
      6 August 2011 – London riots begin
      1 December 2011 – 10,024 baton rounds held

      I wonder why they included the first 2 serials from 2010?

      The bBC the traitors in our midst.

         7 likes

    • Span Ows says:
      May 3, 2012 at 6:37 pm

      That’s only 1 death every 6000, the police are obviously not trying hard enough! 😉

         3 likes

  49. Biodegradable says:
    May 3, 2012 at 10:41 am

    Time for the regular Israel bashing piece from the BBC. After “the most expensive lemon tree in the world” we now have “Bethlehem nuns in West Bank barrier battle“. The mind boggles” What’s this? The IDF beating up defenceless nuns?

    No such luck:

    The barrier Israel has been building in and around the West Bank is set to deprive a Christian community of its land, and appears to have caused an unholy row between some monks and nuns – who could now end up on opposite sides.

    So its monks and nuns fighting, but of course Israel is to blame.
    “In the green Cremisan valley, west of Bethlehem, a goatherd leans against a rock while his flocks graze under the olive and fig trees.

    You can read the rest of the BBC puff piece, or see the winery’s own website:
    http://www.cremisan.org/html/history.html

    Cremisan Sandwiched in between Israeli apartment blocks and Palestinian luxury villas lies the monastery of Cremisan, an almost forgotten landmark.

    But do make sure you read this, which the BBC has chosen to omit:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cremisan#Conflict_with_Israel

    Recently, the monastery has been in conflict with the Israeli authorities concerning confiscation of land. It is said locally that Cremisan eventually received some of their land back, but at the expense of several extra houses being demolished. Their inhabitants are now said to be suing the church because of this. [1]

    Allegedly, the monastery has been silent on account of its “bottom line” interests and its requiring access to the Israeli market.

    The BBC: half the story all the time!

       9 likes

    • noggin says:
      May 3, 2012 at 1:08 pm

      yup! strangely el beeb seems to be ahem! shall we say lite 😀 … on the “good ole” (pally) boys news …
      good thing Obama is giving them that $192 million, olive branch eh?
      “PA Media Glorifies Master Terrorist On Anniversary of His Death,”
      Elad Benari Palestinian Media Watch, May 2:
      and on jihadwatch

         4 likes

    • TPO says:
      May 3, 2012 at 5:04 pm

      Hi BioD, I’m sure I told you this years ago but it’s worth repeating. The wife and I were in Jerusalem back in 2001 when there was a mass brawl at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Apparently one group, I think it was the Greek Orthodox Church moved a chair, which was on the roof of the church, two whole feet into the shade. This enraged the Roman Catholic group, I think they were Fransciscans. This resulted in twenty or thirty monks kicking and gouging each other. Apparently Christian groups knocking seven bales out of each other around the Holy Sepulchre is a regular occurrence there.

         4 likes

  50. Harry says:
    May 3, 2012 at 10:45 am

    BBC news report on Le Pen:

    “Most of them are white, and drawn in by the simpler, populist rhetoric of Le Pen[…] they long for the old certainties[…] nostalgia is important ”

    Now they are talking about the “deep” south in France, and how some regions will “forever be stained by the far-right vote”

    Not one mention of why France may actually be voting for Le Pen. No attempt to give a balanced report.

       17 likes

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