Monthly Archives: May 2012

On this morning’s edition of BBC Radio Five Live’s Weekend Breakfast presenter Colin Paterson was stunned to hear that prosecutors in the Guantanamo trial of the chief 9/11 suspects are actually calling for the death penalty. What sort of bubble must one inhabit to find that surprising? (Click through for audio.) Continue reading →

Biased BBC’s Alan notes that out of the mouths of babes and Guardian journalists comes this:

‘….the Mail, improbably, goes on to claim that if Labour succeeds in driving Murdoch out of business, “the public would be left with a barren media world dominated by the state-subsidised BBC and the Guardian.” I’m tempted to say: “I wish.” But I wouldn’t want that to happen either.’

No…Of course not.

The Guardian’s Michael White oozing praise for Tom Watson and revealing his deepest, innermost wish….a world in which only the Guardian and the BBC provide us with the News.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2012/may/02/phone-hacking-report-tom-watson?tw_p=twt

“When Gordon Brown announced his war against Murdoch he could never have dreamed he would be so successful…but when you have the world’s most powerful news organisation on your side along with a craven Tory PM ready to hand them the head of Rupert Murdoch to save his own I guess it might have always been a forgone conclusion.”

A reader send me this…

“THE Australian Financial Review and British broadcaster the BBC selected a handful of emails from a cache of almost 15,000 to paint a blatantly incorrect conspiracy theory of a global piracy scam orchestrated by News Corporation.

Forensic analysis of thousands of those emails, which the AFR describes as the “great bulk of our supporting material”, shows the 45 stories they sparked were based on incorrect assumptions, false interpretations and highly selective reporting. AFR journalist Neil Chenoweth, known for his highly critical reporting on News Corporation – the ultimate owner of The Weekend Australian – and its chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch, joined forces with the BBC’s investigative program Panorama to air the claims.”

Why does the BBC insist on politicising every programme…is there the slightest possibility that I could watch something without being lectured or sold some dodgy political line or social metaphor? Biased BBC’s Alan ponders…

“Their series on ‘Ancient Apocalypses’ continues with every disaster being the result of catastrophic climate change, their election broadcasts flood the airwaves with ‘overwhelming’ Labour victories….whilst leaving for the small print the fact that yes Labour got 39% but it was 39% of a voter turn out of 32%….hardly a ringing endorsement. And now we can’t even watch ‘Traffic Cops’ without some gratuitous political messaging…

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01h95wg/Traffic_Cops_Worse_for_Wear/

Allegedly ‘All across the country the Thin Blue Line is stretched to the limit…because…..of the big cuts in the police budget that are looming.’

Not only that but, shockingly, Romanian immigrants have been forced to steal by the cruel Coalition cuts….’It’s sign of the times that people are turning to scavenging to make a living.’

Not only that but ‘It’s a sign of the times that traffic cops have to help out their colleagues cope with drunken violence in towns.’

I guess the times they are a changing as Tom Watson would quote Bob Dylan saying.

But not at the BBC…they’re still stuck in the 1960’s puffing the weed and praising Karl Marx and Yasser Arafat.

You’d laugh at the BBC’s desperate little ploys but the constant drip drip drip of anti-coalition doom and gloom probably has an effect….and as seen in Bradford a handful of votes can win a seat….combined of course with a bit of electoral chicanery in places.”

I enjoyed this from Today’s very own Evan Davies;

Evan Davis ‏ @EvanHD

I wonder if aspirin can help protect people against the effects of the Chancellor?

Thought I would put this up for you. Labour have managed to win 39% of the 31% who bothered to vote and the champagne is flowing in Broadcasting House. My observation of BBC coverage relates to the Conservatives. It has been busy all morning setting up the poor saps that follow Cameron into declaring they will definitely not swing to the right, but rather stick to those essential Tory values of….gay marriage, lords reform, punitive taxation. I heard Hague on Today, he was pretty appalling but jumped through the hoops placed there for him.

Had to laugh at this;

“Always suspected Stephanie Flanders doesn’t know what day it is…and here’s the proof from Guido on a Wednesday:

http://order-order.com/2012/05/03/flandering-about/?tw_p=twt

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.