189 Responses to OPEN THREAD

Newer Comments →
  1. Beebodal says:
    July 11, 2012 at 2:20 pm

    A couple of weeks ago, the mere announcement that the Howard League for Penal Reform were embarking on a study into sex in prisons caused 5Live to don its leather underpants and dance Alan Partridge-style — ‘Ooh, sexy Reformers. Come and do conjugals in our studio’.

    On Monday, Civitas released an actual study. The BBC know about it because Civitas issued a press release and the study was covered by the BBC’s briefing notes, aka the Guardian. Yet 5Live was silent on it, as was, I think, the wider BBC outside the reluctant Salfordians. They couldn’t even be bothered to mention it and follow it with a soundbite from a sexy Reformer rubbishing it. What was it about
    Longer prison terms really do cut crime, study shows .

    that the BBC didn’t like?

       25 likes

  2. Pah says:
    July 11, 2012 at 2:23 pm

    Why is the story of Cameron leaving his daughter in the pub (old not very interesting story) no3 on the web-site most visted list? Are people still reading about this story – funny as they weren’t yetserday.

    And at no5 Gordon Brown gets apology off NHS for not being on message.

    Well it seems that the most visited is a month behind as all the stories are from 11 June 2012.

    Technical error? How convenient.

    (I have screen shot of this BTW. How do I publish this so that the evidence can be seen?)

       13 likes

  3. David Vance says:
    July 11, 2012 at 2:50 pm

    Pah – send to me

       2 likes

  4. Merlin says:
    July 11, 2012 at 3:06 pm

    A Panorama link is attached below: Austerity Britain with ‘Echoes of the ’70s’ – a BBC debate that, in my humble opinion, yet again avoids an in-depth analysis of the effects of immigration on public services and community cohesion… although the BBC are ever so slightly touching on issues of immigration these days (pussyfooting around in my opinion) this is a point they seem reluctant to discuss at any length; political correctness still prevails it seems. It’s pointless, in my view, to try and talk about austerity without taking a long hard look at the uncontrolled immigration policies of successive governments, especially Liebour.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01kvdh7/Panorama_Britain_on_the_Brink_Back_to_the_70s/

       16 likes

    • Merlin says:
      July 11, 2012 at 3:20 pm

      Again, through the prism of the BBC the blame lies with the bankers, lawyers and entrepreneurs etc., who are pushing up prices and squeezing out the working/middle classes… `dare I say that the BBC is being one dimensional in its evaluation of the shortfall in affordable housing or am I being a paranoid and ‘bigoted conspiracy theorist’ to quote a resident troll on a previous thread?

         15 likes

  5. Doyle says:
    July 11, 2012 at 3:39 pm

    BBC/Newsnight gold last night as Esler interviewed lefty/liberal/beeboid ‘hero’ Tommy Smith who famously made a black power salute (or according to Esler a ‘profound political statement’) at the 1968 Olympics after winning the two hundred metres. A fawning introduction liberally spinkled with words like ‘pariah’, ‘outrage’, ‘ expulsion’, ‘banned’,’death threats’ and el beebs favourite word ‘protest’. Just think, the beebs favourite two subjects rolled into one – white racism and the Olympics. Esler even managed to get references to Syria, Kashmir, the palestinians and Obama into the interview for little purpose (other than propaganda). The only surprise was that he didn’t mention the occupy movement. The interview itself was fairly pointless but interesting in that you get into the beeboid mind -where’s your glove- it’s part of history- you could sell it for thousands etc. Vomit inducing stuff, at one point I thought Esler would lean over, unzip his flies and nosh him off. Dreadful, awful, terrible stuff paid for by you and me.

       25 likes

  6. geyza says:
    July 11, 2012 at 4:33 pm

    I notice the earlier breaking news item about journalists being arrested in the police investigation into corrupt payments to police, somehow failed to mention who the employer of these journalists was.

    It was left to the reader to causally assume it was more of Murdoch’s people…

    In reality it was fellow lefties from the Daily Mirror. I wonder why they left that fact out.

    Nothing to do with the 10 items law, because the BBC are only too happy and delighted to report the News International or News Corporation or Rupert Murdoch relation to any story of one of their employees being arrested. In fact it is usually in the first line.

       23 likes

    • johnnythefish says:
      July 11, 2012 at 4:41 pm

      Lack of BBC balance, pure and simple, and all too common.

         11 likes

    • David Gregory (BBC) says:
      July 12, 2012 at 4:21 pm

      So the key word here is “breaking”. Here’s what the Scotland Yard Press Office put out about the arrests; “Officers from Operation Elveden – the MPS investigation into allegations of inappropriate payments to police and public officials – have arrested two men this morning (11 July).

      A 37-year-old man [Elveden arrest 40] was arrested at his home in Kent and a 34-year-old man [Arrest 41] at his home in south-east London at approximately 06.00hrs this morning, on suspicion of conspiracy to corrupt (contrary to the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906) and of conspiracy to cause misconduct in a public office (Contrary to Common Law).

      The two, both journalists, are being questioned at police stations in Kent and south-east London.

      Op Elveden is being supervised by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) and is being run in conjunction with Operation Weeting, the MPS investigation into the phone-hacking of mailboxes.

      Today’s arrests relate to suspected payments to a public official and are not about seeking journalists to reveal confidential sources in relation to information that has been obtained legitimately.”

      That’s the sum total of the information. That’s what goes into the breaking story. Of course once that news breaks then journalists will be scrambling to get more information and update the story. Which is why the actual report on the BBC website has this as the second par;

      “Sunday Mirror crime reporter Justin Penrose and Tom Savage, deputy news editor of the Daily Star Sunday, were questioned on suspicion of conspiracy to corrupt and conspiracy to cause misconduct in a public office.”

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18796837

      You are quite right it’s nothing to do with the reporting restrictions around a court appearance. The reason the breaking news didn’t include the paper the journalists worked for is that when the story broke no one had that information. Not only did the BBC not leave anything out they worked hard to find out exactly who was involved and which paper they worked for. And all of that is in the report.

         7 likes

  7. jarwill101 says:
    July 11, 2012 at 4:43 pm

    Gav, after your shot of prescribed ethno-masochism/fawning white guilt, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel multiculturally enriched?’
    Well, do you, punk?

       12 likes

  8. +james says:
    July 11, 2012 at 6:08 pm

    When is slavery not slavery? When the BBC says so.

    Servitude trial: Four of Connors traveller family guilty

    Four members of a traveller family have been found guilty of forcing destitute men into servitude.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-18644539

    Next week on the BBC the Atlantic Servitude Trade. They went into servitude looking for a better life.

       15 likes

    • +james says:
      July 11, 2012 at 6:10 pm

      However the Sun is more blunt……

      Gypsies guilty of slavery

      http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4424190/Gypsies-guilty-of-slavery.html

         11 likes

      • +james says:
        July 11, 2012 at 6:13 pm

        BBC got their language from the Guardian……

        Four found guilty of forcing vulnerable men into servitude

        Four members of Traveller family convicted of controlling, exploiting, verbally abusing and beating men for financial gain

        http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jul/11/four-guilty-vulnerable-men-servitude?newsfeed=true

           10 likes

      • Nicked emus says:
        July 11, 2012 at 8:18 pm

        ser·vi·tude noun \ˈsər-və-ˌtüd, -ˌtyüd\
        Definition of SERVITUDE

        1: a condition in which one lacks liberty especially to determine one’s course of action or way of life

           3 likes

        • wallygreeninker says:
          July 11, 2012 at 10:26 pm

          To most people, it does not carry the full force of the word slavery, as you are perfectly aware.It is an airy, uncommon, abstract term not generally in conversational use. To those unaware that servus is the Latin word for slave it might casually give the impression of living like a servant .

             7 likes

          • Nicked emus says:
            July 11, 2012 at 10:58 pm

            So when the BBC and the Guardian were busy emailing each other did they also CC in The Telegraph “Four members of a traveller family were today found guilty of forcing destitute men into servitude.”

            And the Sun “FOUR family members convicted of forcing destitute men into servitude”

            Or maybe, and I am just speculating here, it was because the four were found guilty under Section 71 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 which creates an offence of holding another person in slavery or servitude or requiring them to perform forced or compulsory labour.

            So I am guessing, as I wasn’t in the court, that they were found guilty of forcing men into servitude and not into slavery since the act differentiates between the two.

            Or is this going to be another one of those cases where using the correct and precise term is somehow a demonstration of BBC bias?

               4 likes

  9. zemplar says:
    July 11, 2012 at 6:50 pm

    BBC news says we’re in for twenty years of bad weather because man-made emissions are interfering with the climate.

       7 likes

    • johnnythefish says:
      July 11, 2012 at 7:18 pm

      Even avid warmists like Michael ‘hide the decline’ Mann are cautious on this one.

      As for the more sceptical arm of the climate science community, you will hear a positive ‘no proven link’. But hey, they’re all in the pay of Big Oil aren’t they, so they would say that.

      Notice no mention of flat temperatures for the last 15 years, or the discredited climate models.

      Impartial as ever.

         10 likes

    • Colonel Blimp says:
      July 11, 2012 at 7:44 pm

      although heliologists have been arguing for decades that we’re in for a period of cooling due to an expected solar minimum; in fact I won a tenner off a former boss of mine after a ten-year prediction came good

         3 likes

    • johnnythefish says:
      July 11, 2012 at 7:57 pm

      Here’s a link to give just one climate scientist’s view of it, and there are plenty more:

      http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/07/10/extreme-weather-is-an-integral-part-of-the-earths-climate/

      Similar ones all over the internet, presumably hidden in some mysterious fashion from BBC searches.

         4 likes

    • TigerOC says:
      July 12, 2012 at 9:50 am

      Well the latest piece of research has just put all Phil Jones’ work in the bin and rubbished the “hockey stick” theory.
      According to the latest work on the the tree ring research, so beloved by Jones, shows that in fact that there has been a cooling phase (0.31C per 1,000 years, ±0.03C) since Roman times and CO2 emissions have had no real effect on climate.

      http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/10/global_warming_undermined_by_study_of_climate_change/

      Lets see if the Beeb pays due attention or just lets this slip by and continue their alarmist strategy.

         5 likes

      • johnnythefish says:
        July 12, 2012 at 12:14 pm

        They will continue to ignore it and press on with their WWF-driven AGW agenda because, as we know, it’s got sod all to do with climate.

           7 likes

        • John Anderson says:
          July 12, 2012 at 1:12 pm

          From his earlier reply today it is clear that Mr Gregory will not comment on this peer-reviewed report. Like other reports and analyses, it shoots a torpedo through the whole damn scam.

          Anyone who still supports the Hockey Stick nonsense – including denial of the Medieval Warming Period – is out of touch with the literature – is a “climate science/statistics denier”

             5 likes

          • johnnythefish says:
            July 12, 2012 at 4:31 pm

            At the time Mann came up with it the Hockey Schtick flew in the face of the prevailing view, particularly a temperature record compiled by geologists over a good many years – which was what prompted Steve McIntyre to delve deeper. The rest, as they say, is history…….

            Would be interesting, though, to see if the BBC’s ‘environmental correspondents’ still support Mann’s erasure of the Medieval Warm Period and The Little Ice Age.

               2 likes

      • David Gregory (BBC) says:
        July 12, 2012 at 4:24 pm

        Well it’s very interesting, but it’s also a small region rather than a global temperature reconstruction. As the saying goes, that’s weather not climate.

           1 likes

        • johnnythefish says:
          July 12, 2012 at 5:03 pm

          Would that be the ‘global temperature reconstruction’ Michael Mann used for his Hockey Stick or the one he suggested needed adjusting to ‘hide the decline’?

             2 likes

        • johnnythefish says:
          July 12, 2012 at 5:17 pm

          And by the way, from this:

          ‘Needless to say, prominent alarmist scientists and the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have not taken this view, arguing instead that the well-documented Roman and medieval warm periods may have taken place but either weren’t very warm or only happened in limited regions (though this latter idea has lately been seriously undermined by research in Antarctica)’.

          You’ve chosen to conclude this:

          ‘Well it’s very interesting, but it’s also a small region rather than a global temperature reconstruction’.

          Which demonstrates you are slavishly following the BBC/IPCC/warmist line.

             2 likes

          • David Gregory (BBC) says:
            July 12, 2012 at 6:57 pm

            Or as we call it “reporting the science”

               3 likes

            • johnnythefish says:
              July 13, 2012 at 9:16 am

              Reporting some scientific opinion but ignoring a shedload more because it doesn’t suit your agenda.

              Any thoughts yet on this question I asked you:

              ‘Would that be the ‘global temperature reconstruction’ Michael Mann used for his Hockey Stick or the one he suggested needed adjusting to ‘hide the decline’?’

                 2 likes

              • David Gregory (BBC) says:
                July 13, 2012 at 1:02 pm

                Dunning Kruger

                   1 likes

                • johnnythefish says:
                  July 13, 2012 at 3:23 pm

                  Freddie’s brother?

                  I think from your (non- or at best cryptic) replies we can see your position on global warming is ‘settled’ and nothing to do with an impartial evaluation of the science – but then the BBC wouldn’t employ you if it was.

                     2 likes

        • TigerOC says:
          July 13, 2012 at 2:53 pm

          I don’t think you have gone into the detail of this document.
          From the header summary;
          “Here, we present new evidence based on maximum latewood density data from northern Scandinavia, indicating that this cooling trend was stronger (−0.31 °C per 1,000 years, ±0.03 °C) than previously reported, and demonstrate that this signature is missing in published tree-ring proxy records. The long-term trend now revealed in maximum latewood density data is in line with coupled general circulation models7, 8 indicating albedo-driven feedback mechanisms and substantial summer cooling over the past two millennia in northern boreal and Arctic latitudes. “
          Jones et al used tree ring data as a fundamental base for their theory. In doing so they came in for some serious criticism for selectively ignoring data supplied. Eminent scientists were maligned for this and were accused of being “warmists” on the basis of association. The leaked emails demonstrated that Jones et al got pretty nasty with anyone who failed to tow the line within the climate research community.
          The above research indicates that there are factors other than atmospheric CO2 at work here.
          The use of this region for research is deliberate for the reason that its latitude makes for stable climatic conditions away from areas around the equator which are far more prone vast climatic events that are unpredictable in nature.
          The authors are clear that the events in this zone ARE reflective of global events since air streams moving into this area are affected by global mechanisms.
          To write this work off as mere report on weather smacks of the same attitude that Jones and his team have. Most of the predictions made by Jones et al have failed to materialise. If the Jones et al are so sure of their work then we have yet to hear why their predictions are so off target.
          Clearly this research demonstrates that there are solar effects that have not be factored into the previous research by Jones et al that points to a weakness in their theory.
          Jones et al cannot merely press on with this theory that is having serious impacts on the cost of energy supply when there are clearly glaring mistakes in the theory that this piece of research demonstrates. This research demonstrates that there is no consensus. Jones et al have failed to accommodate factors like orbital forcing that clearly do have an affect on our climate;
          “However, limitations related to the necessary removal of biological noise and the questioned ability of TRW records to reliably track recent (and past) warm episodes18 may not make this proxy suitable to investigate the role of orbital forcing on climate. Indeed an evaluation of long-term temperature reconstructions, even over the past 7,000 years from across northern Eurasia, demonstrates that TRW-based records fail to show orbital signatures found in low-resolution proxy archives and climate model simulations (Supplementary Fig. S1). These discrepancies not only reveal that dendrochronological records are limited in preserving millennial scale variance, but also suggest that hemispheric reconstructions, integrating these data, might underestimate natural climate variability.”

             2 likes

    • Richard Pinder says:
      July 12, 2012 at 10:22 pm

      Twenty years is almost the length of a Hale cycle, Yes, George Hale was a man, but I do not think he was personally responsible for changing the Weather or Climate by farting.

         2 likes

    • JaneTracy says:
      July 13, 2012 at 8:41 pm

      Is that the same BBC whose reports are often inaccurate on the UK’s weather for the next day?

         2 likes

  10. Restoring Britain says:
    July 11, 2012 at 6:53 pm

    Many years ago, The Guardian ironically ran a clever TV ad in which an doc martined skinhead is seen charging towards an old lady. I can’t recall what the exact starpline was but it was something about seeing the whole picture as the camera panned out to see the skinhead actually rushing to save the granny from the falling debris from the building she was walking next to.

    Speaking of seeing the whole picture we have more of the same from the BBC in Israel:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18788628

    That’s as told by the BBC. What’s missing? Well first there’s the question why Islamic Jihad show up to greet someone who denies being a member of their organisation.

    Then there’s the rest of the missing story about his release. This is the strange bit because so often you read an Israel story and it’s almost word for word the content of a press release from either Reuters or AFP. Not this time though. That might have something to do with the fact that in both of their press releases they point to the members of Islamic Jihad, not simply welcoming him home but doing so with gunfire. Yep. What’s a homecoming without some Brapp Brapp from the local militia.

    You can see both releases here (the first one via the ESPN site):

    http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/story/_/id/8147042/israel-frees-hunger-striking-palestinian-player-mahmoud-sarsak

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/10/us-palestinians-israel-prisoner-idUSBRE8690R120120710

    Oh and what’s that from the AFP release:

    However, senior Islamic Jihad officials were present during a welcoming ceremony for him in Gaza City on Tuesday, and one of the group’s leaders, Nafez Azzam, praised the soccer player as “one of our noble members.”

    Oh so Islamic Jihad think he’s a member it would seem. In fact they’re really happy he’s out. So happy they’ve plastered him all over the Al Quds website:

    http://saraya.ps/

    http://saraya.ps/index.php?act=ImageSec&id=2

       11 likes

    • All Seeing Eye says:
      July 11, 2012 at 7:01 pm

      For everyone’s information, this message went in to the Spam trap because it had 5 web links in it. That’s a classic sign of a bot generated comment.

      Five links or more trigger the trap and I get an email to free the comment – but obviously with a delay as I’m probably safe down the pub.

      Either keep the number of links down or post multiple links over two or three comments to avoid any delay with your comment being published 🙂

         9 likes

    • johnnythefish says:
      July 11, 2012 at 7:23 pm

      Lack of BBC balance, pure and simple, and all too common.

      Hang on, I’ve already posted that. Is this deja vu?

         3 likes

    • Doyle says:
      July 11, 2012 at 8:16 pm

      Sarsak – no, you’ve never heard of him. I can’t believe you’ve never heard of Sarsak, got posters all over my room, United are looking at him, no 7, crafty little midfield dynamo, searing pace, lovely left peg, explosive shot etc etc. Alternatively, he could be a footballer, like me, who plays five-a-side one a week (and then spends the rest of the week thinking up ways to kill people). They’ll be telling be Abu Hanza is a teacher next – oh … they have.

         3 likes

  11. Pounce says:
    July 11, 2012 at 7:47 pm

    So I am reading the news headlines and I read this:

    Father ‘did not kill Shafilea’

    on clicking on the link you come to the main article which reads:
    Shafilea Ahmed death: Father ‘did not kill daughter’

    So what impression do you get from those headlines, that the father of the young woman who didn’t report the fact she had gone missing to the police. is an innocent man.

    And then the bbC comes out with:
    The father of Shafilea Ahmed has told a court he was not responsible for her death. Iftikhar Ahmed, 52, broke down at Chester Crown Court as he denied killing his daughter, or having anything to do with her murder.

    So actually the headlines should actually be:
    ‘Father of murdered schoolgirl pleads innocence.
    As normal the bBC just can’t ever get round to calling a spade a spade.

    The bBC, the traitors in our midst.

       26 likes

    • noggin says:
      July 11, 2012 at 10:21 pm

      yes simply gaulling, after, such an apolidrone of an article, the last couple of lines
      “The prosecution claims she was killed by her parents because she brought shame on the family by her desire to lead a westernised lifestyle”
      Its a wonder they didn t add boo-hiss! after “the prosecution”, they ve tried everything else … literally beneath contempt.
      “

         8 likes

    • Dave666 says:
      July 12, 2012 at 7:35 pm

      Ah yes but if you were to complained over the wording you will probably told that the headline is correct and if you read down the full(ish) story will be revealed (or not). I know this as I’ve complained about this sort of presention in the past.

         2 likes

  12. The Highland Rebel says:
    July 11, 2012 at 8:05 pm

    The IBC are telling us that over 3000 extra troops will be needed to police the Olympic games.

    What they didn’t tell us is that if Islam was taken out of the equation the games could be policed by a handful of village bobbies.

       20 likes

  13. George R says:
    July 11, 2012 at 8:11 pm

    Is INBBC different to ‘The Guardian’ on this?-

    “Guardian publishes ‘a see-through attempt to demonise certain political ideas by branding them racist'”

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/07/guardian-publishes-a-see-through-attempt-to-demonise-certain-political-ideas-by-branding-them-racist.html

       4 likes

    • Earls Court says:
      July 11, 2012 at 8:21 pm

      The Guardianista’s are all mentally ill if you ask me. They are all self-loathing and want to destroy society. When society does collapse the Guardianista’s will go the way of the dinosaurs.

         7 likes

      • Barry says:
        July 12, 2012 at 8:27 am

        “The Guardianista’s are all mentally ill if you ask me.”

        Possibly, but although the rag is losing money, they have been very successful in promoting their views.

        The latest war on “trolling” is another example of their attempts to control speech by labelling and vilification.

           8 likes

  14. Restoring Britain says:
    July 11, 2012 at 8:20 pm

    Someone should capture this article and preserve it

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18769028

    I think this article lays bare the truth to so many narratives that the BBC have peddled in their reporting of Israel. I suspect that once they realise what they have done it will disappear (a bit like the Balen report).

    We hear in some detail for the BBC the relationship between Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

    Do you recall the reporting on the recent rocket attacks in which the truce with Hamas was broken by Israel when they retaliated to the rocket attacks? – Hamas don’t deny their involvement in this article. Nor does Donnison for that matter:

    In the days after Mr Mursi was elected, Hamas militants fired scores of rockets and mortars into Israel as the Israeli military carried out air strikes on Gaza.

    Hamas & The MB as benign when it comes to Israel – not really when the article quotes:

    Another reason for his upbeat mood, Mr Hamed says is what is good for Hamas, is bad for Israel – tells you pretty much everything on their standpoint doesn’t it.

    The ‘moderate’ MB?:

    “Because Palestinians are under Israel’s occupation maybe Hamas became a militant organisation dedicated to fighting that occupation. But at the end of the day both Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt subscribe to the same principles.”

    Gaza the impoverished place stuck in the stone ages? –

    Currently hundreds of thousands of tonnes of goods, mostly construction materials, pass into Gaza through smuggling tunnels from Egypt every month.

    The illegal trade, which has greatly increased since the fall of Mr Mubarak, has helped fuel something of a construction boom in Gaza with new buildings being put up on just about every street corner.

    “We have had a building revolution in Gaza over the past year,” says Rafik Hassuna, in front of a new classroom block that his company is building at Gaza’s Islamic University.

    Finally – the two state solution if only Israel would behave? – “Gaza is part of Palestine. Gaza, the West Bank, Jerusalem and the whole of Palestine are part of one political and geographical unity. Gaza is part of the Palestinian homeland – it is not part of Egypt.”

    So once you’ve got out of Gaza and the West Bank where exactly is the whole of the Palestine they mention. They wouldn’t the bit that everyone else calls Israel would they?

       14 likes

  15. George R says:
    July 11, 2012 at 8:40 pm

    FRANCE.

    -Another political reason why BBC-NUJ supports mass immigration policies of socialist Hollande, and of E.U?

    ‘France 24’ TV:

    (inc video clip) –
    “French police lose power to detain illegal immigrants.”

    http://www.france24.com/en/20120706-police-lose-automatic-power-detain-illegal-immigrants-france-court

       4 likes

    • LondonCalling says:
      July 12, 2012 at 10:00 pm

      The Muslim vote put Hollande in power, complete racist line 95% of 5m Musims voted Socialist. In the same way 95% of blacks in America voted Obama.
      Whilst the media-tarts say whites are racist, it turns out that ethnics are the racists.

         7 likes

  16. Fred Bloggs says:
    July 11, 2012 at 8:58 pm

    Out on the road, happen to hear Richard Bacon about 3.30pm. he read the item about the Travellers and slave labour jury decision. He did seem shocked and he read it again. The revelation seemed to be like being told your sainted aunt had been a hooker in her younger days.

    He had difficultly taking in; that his lovely misunderstood, minority Irish Travellers, were going to prison for being slavers. The real world may dawn on him some day, I don’t expect it to be soon.

       23 likes

    • noggin says:
      July 12, 2012 at 7:40 am

      difficulty taking it in 😀
      nothing new there then.

         11 likes

    • NotaSheep says:
      July 13, 2012 at 8:26 am

      I don’t think Richard Bacon will be altering his world view any time soon. His angry interview with James Delingpole and his refusal to admit afterwards that James Delingpole was correct with his rebuttal of the 97% figure spoke volumes about Richard Bacon’s standpoint.

         5 likes

    • JaneTracy says:
      July 13, 2012 at 8:57 pm

      You may enjoy this effort from Richard Bacon a couple of years ago.

      RB: “This must be the best Wimbledon ever!”

      Michael Stich: How many have you been too?

      RB: One…..

         3 likes

  17. George R says:
    July 11, 2012 at 9:47 pm

    “Britain Ruled by Political Correctness””

    by Soeren Kern

    http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3141/britain-political-correctness

       4 likes

  18. George R says:
    July 11, 2012 at 10:00 pm

    The importance of RADIO 1: to Beeboids.

    BBC News TV channel manages to devote several minutes per hour today to discuss the vital issue of the future of BBC Radio 1, avoiding the argument for closing it down or selling it off.

       3 likes

  19. johnnythefish says:
    July 11, 2012 at 10:34 pm

    More Labour political broadcasting on the Radio 4 6 o’ clock news. And again, it was on social care for the elderly. And again, the Beeboid opinionating the government are prevaricating – this time ‘kicking into the long grass’ a decision over the financial details. And again, Andy ‘we did nothing on this for 13 years but our comrades at the BBC have agreed to keep schtum about it’ Burnham, gets his soundbite accusing the government of dragging its feet.

    Pure, shameless, irresponsible bias. It’s like a communist East German version of Groundhog Day.

       7 likes

  20. Richard D says:
    July 12, 2012 at 9:53 am

    I noticed an article in this morning’s ‘Today’ programme where John Vine, the UK’s Chief Inspector of Borders basically said in a follow-up review that there had been huge improvements (especially the abandonment of the suicidal situation where immigration controls could be all but abandoned if things were getting a bit busy). Even the BBC website is obliged to point out Mr Vine’s statement that “…his report was largely ‘very positive’. ” Mr Vine went on to say “There was a good, consistent level of border security… and the only area that concerned me slightly was that when customs officers were being used for immigration purposes I found that they were dealing with customers less quickly and less confidently.” Understandable, since that’s not their mormal job. But note the words…”the only area that concerned me slightly….”

    By 9 am, on the BBC News Channel, this positive news was completely obliterated by the BBC, being replaced by a litany of negative comments (obviously NOT from Mr Vine’s report), mostly unattributed, and mostly preceded by the phrase(s) “…there are concerns/fears/doubts…etc., etc., etc.

    The BBC never misses a chance to spin anything positive for the current government into a report as negative as it can get away with.

       11 likes

  21. Deborah says:
    July 12, 2012 at 11:18 am

    At the end of the Radio 4 interview with Louise Mensch re House of Lords reform Humphries asked her if she had free tickets for the 100m race at the Olympics by virtue of being an MP on some committee – the inference being why should she get free tickets for anything. She said she was offered them but had had turned them down Humphries then sneered that was wrong too – she should have been interested. She had to explain she had tickets bought for the events she was interested in. Wrong if she did and wrong if she didn’t.

       18 likes

    • Fred Bloggs says:
      July 12, 2012 at 1:03 pm

      Did not hear the interview, but seems true to form. I hope Humphreys gets life tenure at the bBC. The older he gets the more obnoxious he will become.

         7 likes

  22. uncle bup says:
    July 12, 2012 at 11:54 am

    Radio Worth the License Fee Alone (4 to you and me) had a dull but worthy/ worthy but dull documentary called Reclaiming The Sceptic, it’s thrust (ooh er) being that

    ‘self doubt runs through science like a stick of rock (sic)’

    ‘scepticism is embedded in the culture of science’

    ‘science is always provisional never done and dusted’

    The discussion ranged through particle physics, badger culling, nanotechnology, GM crops, and how wicked drug companies might run a dozen trials and only publish the one that gave the ‘right’ answer, putting the rest ‘in the drawer’.

    I dunno, can anyone think of a major branch of in vogue science, usually drooled over by the BBC, where the science is never ‘provisional’ and always ‘done and dusted.

    Certainly never got a mention on this programme.

    Maybe the production company made a dozen programmes eleven of which covered glo**l w*****g but unfortunately the eleven came up with the wrong answer and ended up in said drawer.

       12 likes

    • uncle bup says:
      July 12, 2012 at 11:57 am

      …and as for the Worth The License Fee Alone brigade. I’d love for the BBC to be sold off, channels packaged up, and Radio 4 to be offered at £145.50 a year.

      Be interesting, no, to see whether they got so much as one subscriber.

         8 likes

      • Earls Court says:
        July 12, 2012 at 12:11 pm

        I’d outsource the whole BBC to Saudi Arabia. Then all the metro trendy leftys could go round Mecca telling all the Muslims how great their ungodly lifestyle is.

           8 likes

    • Richard Pinder says:
      July 12, 2012 at 11:06 pm

      There was an Elephant in the Room all through the program, but the BBC did not see it. At the end they had a US Senator ( presumably a Republican) sprout some waffle, and then the BBC claimed that he was sceptical of Science itself, but they did not question anyone who they claimed was sceptical of Science. It was just another schizophrenic attack by the BBC on what they call the Enemies of Science. Enemies of Science is just another Orwellian term dreamed up by the public relations people, who also came up with Science under Attack. Terms used to justify censoring scientists sceptical of the AGW theory, as well as people accusing senior scientists in political organisations of conspiring in scientific fraud and deception.

         6 likes

  23. jimbola says:
    July 12, 2012 at 1:43 pm

    Just heard Mehdi Hassan on the Jeremy Vine show. Whining, lying, playing the race card, the islamophobia card.

    Jezza tried to look like he was asking some searching questions and proceeded to let Mehdi squirm out of them, asking rhetorical questions of people who were not able to answer.

    Have a listen when you need your blood boiling.

    I’ll leave a full analysis for someone else with more patience.

       11 likes

  24. David Preiser (USA) says:
    July 12, 2012 at 3:05 pm

    Mark Mardell tweets that he’ll be appearing on NPR (National Public Radio for White People who believe they are the intellectual elite) as a guest on the Diane Rehm Show. What a coincidence that this is the exact same program for which BBC Washington correspondent Katty Kay guest hosts regularly, trading on her well-paid position at the BBC to earn even more money and thus contribute to income inequality. It’s a Left-wing, cosmopolitan Liberal show. All very cozy.

       5 likes

    • Louis Robinson says:
      July 12, 2012 at 4:12 pm

      David, when I first became a regular visitor to the US I listened to NPR. A show called “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me”. It was the BBC “comedy” dept. exported to the US. Top heavy with lots of smug Libs making anti-Conservative jokes. Their “news quiz” section was then, and has continued to be, a barrage of anti-Republican stuff.
      So a couple of weeks ago, to piss them off, I sent them a few jokes. Here’s one example:
      “I hear that at a recent fundraiser, President Obama was charging $10,000 to have a photo taken with him. That’s crazy! William Shatner only charged $250 for the same thing at a recent sci-fi convention. Which leads me ask: What’s the difference between Obama and Shatner?
      Well, one is a fictional character and the other is the Captain of the Starship Enterprise.”

      Silence. No response or even acknowledgment. So thanks for letting me air it here.

         13 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:
        July 13, 2012 at 2:45 pm

        I’m familiar with that show, Louis. You describe it perfectly. The only thing I ever liked listening to on NPR was the non-partisan “Car Talk”, which is now ending for good.

           1 likes

  25. David Preiser (USA) says:
    July 12, 2012 at 3:21 pm

    All this BBC coverage of the Libor scandal, yet not a single mention that I can find of a key detail. Apparently the bad apples at Barclays weren’t operating in secret: US regulators knew what they were doing, particularly the New York Fed, which oversees bank transactions involving this stuff in the US, as a liaison between banks (being pressured into) buying government debt and the Fed. Guess who was in charge of the NY Fed when Libor-fixing was peaking: US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.

    I can’t tell you how much federal officials knew about the activities of Barclay’s, JPMorgan, Citigroup and the other big banks at the center of the maelstrom. In coming weeks, both Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner will inevitably discuss the mess when they appear before Congress.

    Bernanke testifies before the Senate Banking Committee next week, but the more important hearing by far will come a week later — when the House Financial Services Committee questions Geithner, who headed the New York Fed when the sleaze was going down.

    Basically the NY Fed under Geithner saw its remit as maintaining the status quo, full stop, regardless of how much debt they piled on to do it. Not fixing the situation: just keeping that unsustainable gravy train going. No wonder the BBC reported on his appointment to the Treasury in 2009 with such glowing terms, saying that the appointment “reassured Wall Street”.

    Prediction: the BBC will give Geithner’s connection to this scandal and pending appearance before Congress even less attention than they’ve given Atty Gen. Eric Holder and Fast & Furious.

       6 likes

    • Umbongo says:
      July 12, 2012 at 5:42 pm

      Your prediction depends on how much mud is slung at Barclays and the City: little – totally ignored: shedload – front and centre on every news/analysis bulletin.

      Actually, the acceptance or otherwise of a dodgy LIBOR made little difference to the underlying reality. The purpose of fiddling LIBOR (well, the sterling one anyway) was to mask the collapse of the interbank market – making some traders look good was marginal in the whole story.
      I think the reasoning was that if LIBOR was publicly “normal” then, by extension, the interbank market was functioning properly. As it happened, the interbank sterling market in London was f*cked. Certainly RBS couldn’t raise a brass farthing and Barclays and Lloyds were in difficulties. I think that, of the major players, only HSBC was viewed as being creditworthy by its fellow-banks. RBS had to go to the Bank of England to be saved from overnight collapse and, all the while, LIBOR looked reasonable. I can see why the NY Fed went along with the pretence: it had enough on its plate without the perception/knowledge that major London banks were effectively bust.
      What I find curious is how widespread the knowledge was that the LIBOR published by the BBA wasn’t exactly kosher and how unconcerned everybody appeared to be. As I’ve commented before, concerns about the accuracy of LIBOR were published in the WSJ in April 2008. I’ve also commented that the BBC – the well-known and world-respected £800m news organisation – either didn’t know or kept quiet about it. In other words, this was posssibly one of the BBC’s most egregious exercises in news manipulation which had the effect of directly protecting the Labour government and its useless regulatory set-up (and, indirectly, the banks). Interestingly, the BBC was quite happy to allow Peston to break the law and tell the world prematurely about the Lloyds takeover of HBOS which thus bigged up Brown for persuading his friend Victor Blank to “rescue” HBOS – and losing Lloyds shareholders’ shirts in the process.
      OTOH, maybe and more likely it was a simple failure of the BBC’s basic news-gathering function. I say “more likely” since I suspect that there were very few at the BBC who knew how finance in the City functions – at a practical and mechanical level – and thus had not the faintest notion what LIBOR was. Accordingly, even if the BBC was conscious that LIBOR was being fiddled, since it was not a matter which had much to do with the then-Narrative, it was ignored.

         6 likes

      • Dave s says:
        July 12, 2012 at 6:18 pm

        excellent summing up. Incompetence rather than conspiracy by all concerned.

           3 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:
        July 13, 2012 at 2:50 pm

        You think the BBC will give any kind of negative attention to someone so high up in the Obamessiah Administration, even if the scandal itself is front page news? I doubt it very much.

        Masking the collapse (or, initially, the signs of looming collapse, I suppose) was why the NY Fed apparently turned a blind eye. As I said, Geithner and the rest of them saw their job as maintaining the status quo, full stop. I guess it’s incompetence which looks like conspiracy because they all thought the same thing.

        Hang on….that sounds familiar somehow…..

           1 likes

  26. Leha II says:
    July 12, 2012 at 6:45 pm

    Did anyone see the article on the news today by Rory sumthin Jones about the O2 outage? There was this poor wummin “who I only managed to get hold of by Internet”
    Verity Price, was “very very frightened” by the whole thing and felt isolated by it.

    a pair of twats

    and this following news of the coroner’s report into the guy that died from dehydration in some shit London hospital.

       8 likes

    • LondonCalling says:
      July 12, 2012 at 7:01 pm

      That ” shit London hospital” was St Georges Teaching Hospital, South West Londons only, and supposedly at the level of Guys Kings and Tommys.
      As the story emerges, two junior doctors are in the frame for not doing their jobs. One has an arab name Hosseini the other an African name. One was a locum (stand in) . Why is the NHS employing such shit lazy doctors?
      A lot of these third-worlders have a different agenda coming to the UK. Its not to do a good job, its to escape from a shit hole for an easy life.

         8 likes

    • LondonCalling says:
      July 12, 2012 at 7:03 pm

      That ” shit London hospital” was St Georges Teaching Hospital, South West Londons only, and supposedly at the level of Guys Kings and Tommys.
      As the story emerges, two junior doctors are in the frame for not doing their jobs. One has an arab name Hosseini the other an African name. One was a locum (stand in) . Why is the NHS employing such shit lazy doctors?
      A lot of these third-worlders have a different agenda coming to the UK. Its not to do a good job, its to escape from a shit hole for an easy life.
      There is also something called “clinical supervision” These shit lazy third world juniors had a boss. No mention? Journalists think health is all about “human interest”

         5 likes

  27. Dave666 says:
    July 12, 2012 at 7:03 pm

    PC crashed two days asgo just got it back. Another top day at the Beeb first (dubious) newsround with their comedy presenter who despite spending most of her time staring at the auto cue still manages to comically mis-time and read her lines. Then North West tonight. For all those anti bankers out there here is one fact most bankers are on very low wages and work in call centres or branches, and no I’m not a banker not even when it’s spelt with a W. Therefore they managed to get my back up by running a segment on some person who set up his own “bank”. Turns out his customers were getting loans to buy mini buses off him but then these loans just “stopped”. So he decided to set up his own “bank”. So after the BBc sniping about bankers awarding themselves bonus payments. In fact I believe this would form part of their contract of employment but who am I to question such matters, on to the interview. No mention of course over the rates he charges, what action he takes against defaulters or even what other services he povides. One sided limited fact interviewing at it’s best. Complaint on it’s way tomorrow morning.

       5 likes

      • Dave666 says:
        July 14, 2012 at 7:08 am

        Ok I’ve just E-mailed my complaint let’s see how long it takes for a reply and what the response will be. Bets on “we are sorry” “however” “We do not have time to present all sides of the story”. I am unhappy about the way the article on the “bank of dave” was reported. It bagan with your tired old attack on banker’s bonus payments stating the bonus payments they award themselves. I would expect that bonus payments for the majority are actually part of their contract of employment and not self awarded. The fact is the majority of the Banks workforce are on low and medium incomes. A quick search on the internet by myself came up with this https://careers.lloydsbankinggroup.com/Candidate/VacancyInformation.aspx?VacancyId=46989&source=Indeed. Or £14,580 which is in fact a more realistic income guide for a very large percentage of Bank workers in Branches and cdall centres. Perhaps you would like to inform the viewer of the wages paid to your presenters.
        The article itself was flawed in that it gave a one dimensional version of the “bank of dave” to the viewer. For instance telling the viewer exactly what his loan conditions and interest rates are compared to High Street financial organiosations. What action he takes against payment defaulters and what other services his “bank” provides compared to other financial institutions. It even failed to tell us exactly how much Dave was actually paying himself.

           0 likes

  28. George R says:
    July 12, 2012 at 7:15 pm

    “Why the courts will always favour the Left – in Britain and America”

    by Henry Hill.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-politics/9396171/Why-the-courts-will-always-favour-the-Left-in-Britain-and-America.html

       1 likes

  29. George R says:
    July 12, 2012 at 7:31 pm

    Item on OBAMA which will be continually censored by BBC Democrat:-

    “Exclusive: See This Clip About Obama‘s Relationship With Communist Frank Marshall Davis From Dinesh D’Souza‘s ’2016′ Film”

    (Scroll down for video clip, 2 mins 42secs)

    http://www.theblaze.com/stories/blaze-exclusive-see-this-clip-about-obamas-relationship-with-communist-frank-marshall-davis-from-dinesh-dsouzas-new-2016-film/

       2 likes

    • George R says:
      July 12, 2012 at 7:42 pm

      Also on Barack OBAMA.

      (from Glenn Beck, 2010):-

      “Glenn Beck Explains Obama. Part 1”

      (7 min video.)

         2 likes

  30. Pounce_uk says:
    July 12, 2012 at 8:20 pm

    The bBC and how over the years it has increased the death toll from the Israeli/Gaza war of 2009

    Today on reading the bbC news website I came across this article about how the Jews had taken out an Islamic terrorist;
    Israeli strike kills Hamas militant in Gaza Strip
    and at the end of their article this inserted this snippet of information:
    It is more than three years since Israel’s last major offensive against militants in Gaza. Palestinians and rights groups say more than 1,400 Gazans died in the conflict, but Israel puts the figure at 1,166. Thirteen Israelis were killed.
    1400? I’m sure the bBC used to quote 1300. So I checked back to 2011;
    Israeli air strike kills two militants in northern Gaza
    More than 1,300 Palestinians died in the war two years ago. Thirteen Israelis were killed.
    So i did read 1300, but the way the bbC worded it allows them to increase the figures. So I thought I’ll go back another year.

       7 likes

    • Pounce_uk says:
      July 12, 2012 at 8:27 pm

      So I did to Dec 2010:
      New Gaza war ‘only a question of time’
      Two years ago, a 22-day clash between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants in Gaza left an estimated 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead.
      So 4 months back from the last bBC entry and the bbC reports around 1300 people died. not more but around. So I thought what the hell I’ll go back another year to Dec 2009 around 11 months after the war finished.
      Israelis and Gazans reflect on the war, one year on

      Hang on a year after the war had ended and the bBC quotes around 1100 dead, yet 3 years down the line and they are claiming over 1400 dead. So anybody want to tell me where they found those extra 300 dead bodies, which nobody knew about 1 year after the war ended.
      The bBC, the propaganda arm for Islamic terrorism in the Uk

         7 likes

      • Pounce_uk says:
        July 12, 2012 at 8:29 pm

        Silly me forgot to quote the bbC death toll for the gaza war from the last link:
        More than 1,100 Gazans were killed in the offensive.

           2 likes

        • Zemplar says:
          July 12, 2012 at 10:03 pm

          “More than 1,100 Gazans were killed in the offensive.”

          Great news. Music to my ears.

             5 likes

          • Nicked emus says:
            July 13, 2012 at 5:51 pm

            Why is that music to your ears?

            The IDF estimates that 700 of them were Hamas fighters — so that means 400 people were not. That includes 89 of them under the age of 16, and 49 of them women.

            While the death of 700 terrorists is to be welcomed, I don’t understand why anyone would welcome the deaths of the others?

               2 likes

            • wallygreeninker says:
              July 13, 2012 at 9:44 pm

              I suppose the ghost of the Reverend Thomas Malthus might smile to see his theories confirmed: also, to people who use women and children as human shields, their deaths, should they occur, are of inestimable value in their propaganda war.

                 2 likes

      • deegee says:
        July 12, 2012 at 9:25 pm

        One of the first rules of BBC reporting. Always accept Palestinian figure. The 1440 figure was provided by The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. My understanding is that this ‘independent’ body simply took the Hamas Ministry of Health figures and did no investigation of its own.

        For a detailed critique Gaza Casualties: Civilian or Combatant?

        If the BBC ever even mentioned a dispute about the figures it would say something on the lines of 1400 were killed but Israel claims a lower figure.

           9 likes

        • John Anderson says:
          July 13, 2012 at 4:11 am

          After all the stuff I saw, I would say that about 300 were genuine civilians. Many of whom were kept by Hamas in the firing zones, or failed to move away from specific locations in spite of clear IDF warnings.

          All of Hitler’s many tens of thousands of bombs over several years killed only some 30,000 civilians in Britain. A terrible loss – but why so few ? Because they listened to the bomb warnings, they got under cover They had the common sense to get off the streets – not some warped idea of “let’s be martyrs for Hamas and Iran and Allah”

             6 likes

  31. Pounce_uk says:
    July 12, 2012 at 9:09 pm

    Lastly the bBC loves to promote this vision that Israel has a first armed forces which has no problem resorting to force in which to kill people. Yet even using the figure of 1400 people killed during an all out attack on a small densely populated area such as Gaza. In 3 weeks of total war they managed to kill….1400 people. Hell a suicide bomber in Iraq can kill 100 people in one go. The idiots in Nigeria can murder 185 Christians in one day (20th Jan) But for some reason the bbC can’t report that the strongest army in the region when attacking an urban area from 4 sides (The Navy struck from the sea) against an enemy armed with light weapons and they only slotted 1400.

    Something smells and the bbC can’t work out it is coming from themselves.

    The bBC, the traitors in our Midst

       12 likes

    • deegee says:
      July 12, 2012 at 9:33 pm

      The BBC will also never mention the Civilian Casualty Ratio (proportion of combatants to non combatants). Colonel Richard Kemp, former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan, spoke in 2011 about Israeli operations in the Gaza War. He said that a study published by the United Nations showed “that the ratio of civilian to combatant deaths in Gaza was by far the lowest in any asymmetric conflict in the history of warfare.” He stated that this ratio was less than 1:1, and compared it favorably to the estimated ratios in NATO operations in Afghanistan (3:1), western campaigns in Iraq and Kosovo (believed to be 4:1), and the conflicts in Chechnya and Serbia (much higher than 4:1, according to anecdotal evidence). Kemp argued that the low ratio was achieved through unprecedented measures by the IDF to minimize civilian casualties, which included providing warnings to the population via telephone calls, radio broadcasts and leaflets, as well as granting pilots the discretion to abort a strike if they perceived too great a risk of civilian casualties. He also stated that the civilian casualties that did occur could be seen in light of Hamas’ tactical use of Gazan civilians “as human shields, to hide behind, to stand between Israeli forces and their own fighters” and strategic use of them for exploitation of their deaths in the media.

         7 likes

  32. jonsuk says:
    July 12, 2012 at 11:01 pm

    does anyone one know if there are any Conservative supporting employees at the BBC or Republican supporters in Hollywood?

       1 likes

    • deegee says:
      July 13, 2012 at 6:00 am

      I can’t help with the BBC but Hollywood has its beleaguered minority of Republicans.
      Arnold Schwarzenegger, Drew Carey, Don King, Adam Sandler, Ben Stein, Bo Derek, Dean Cain, Gloria Estefan, Heather Locklear, Rick Schroder, James Earl Jones, Nick Lachey, Patricia Heaton, Robert Duvall, Dwayne Johnson (The Rock), Sarah Michelle Gellar, Scott Baio, Jon Voight, Jessica Simpson, Shannen Doherty, Sylvester Stallone, Tom Selleck, Tony Danza, Wayne Newton, Bruce Willis, Chuck Norris, Kelsey Grammer, Gary Sinise …

         6 likes

    • Reed says:
      July 13, 2012 at 7:25 am

      This guy used to appear on Watchdog occasionally…

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bull#Politics

      The few I can think of at the BBC are from previous decades : Kenny Everett, Mike Read…there must be more, but I’ve run out. If there are any currently employed, they are probably keeping very quite about their views.

      As for Hollywood…

      David Zucker (Airplane, Naked Gun), John Malkovich, Dennis Miller, James Woods, Vince Vaughn (possibly), Danny Aiello, Tom Clancy, Dr. Phil (best kept quite), Dennis Franz, Meatloaf, Robert Davi, Andy Garcia…

         3 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:
      July 13, 2012 at 2:11 pm

      I’ll spare defenders of the indefensible the effort: Nick Robinson, Andrew Neil, allegedly Andrew Lansley, Lord Patton, and possibly Tim Willcox. They certainly balance out the other thousands of Left-wing ideologues and outright Marxists who of course are totally impartial at all times whilst Robinson and Neil and Lansley are blatantly partisan. Patton, of course, is a Conservative and as head of the Trust, is the ultimate proof that the BBC is not biased to the Left, because he somehow magically has an influence on reporting and inserting partisan ideology and social engineering memes into dramas and sitcoms, and on the jokes in those edgy humor shows.

         1 likes

      • Louis Robinson says:
        July 13, 2012 at 4:36 pm

        Sorry, David. “Patton, of course, is a Conservative” – Nope. Think John McCain and then triangulate. He is the wettest of wets. Don’t count on him.

           2 likes

        • David Preiser (USA) says:
          July 13, 2012 at 4:55 pm

          I’m giving the standard defender of the indefensible line here. I personally wouldn’t claim for a second that Patton is anything like a proper Conservative.

             0 likes

  33. Jeff Waters says:
    July 12, 2012 at 11:29 pm

    Ed Miliband exudes confidence as he faces press pack – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18823657

    Why is ‘politician tells a few gags to reporters’ a news story?!?

    And let’s face it, hell will freeze over before the BBC write an article entitled ‘David Cameron exudes confidence as he faces press pack’. Or ‘Mitt Romney exudes confidence as he faces press pack’, for that matter…

    Jeff

       11 likes

    • Alfie Pacino says:
      July 13, 2012 at 12:03 am

      There’s his Labour hypocrisy right there in the first paragraph:
      ‘There are no hard feelings between me and News International. They want me to lose, I want them in jail.’
      I didn’t hear them complaining when NI supported Labour… and Labour’s connections with the media haven’t even scratched the surface. Googling Ed Balls and Conrad Black can make interesting reading.
      Utter crapology, and when a Labour joke is a headline, lets be honest Labour are a joke.

         11 likes

    • Reed says:
      July 13, 2012 at 7:34 am

      Whenever David Cameron makes jokes, the “Smug, out-of-touch, Old Etonian, Bullingdon Bully, Flashman” narrative makes a quick return to BBC articles.

      …but Ed Miliband exudes confidence. Puke.

         12 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      July 13, 2012 at 9:58 am

      Have to say, that bit of gushing guff exceeds their usual North Korean levels.
      Reminds me of Laura K’s tweets… ‘As PM-in-waiting Ed Miliband strides, Adonis-like, through door somehow barely capable of containing his manly form, he is followed by the slinking form of Cameron’.
      (Currently in Singapore. Where state media greaseballing has been elevated to a lo-art form. Only difference being it is reserved for the actual government in power, if an aptly-named PAP party.)

         6 likes

    • Andy S. says:
      July 13, 2012 at 1:33 pm

      I’m no cheerleader for Mitt Romney but I do believe that news reporting should be honest.The other night both the BBC and Sky reported on Romney being booed when he gave a speech before the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People.

      He was indeed booed when he announced his intention to repeal Obamacare if elected, and both TV news stations duly broadcast the clip.

      However, what wasn’t broadcast was Romney then going off his prepared speech and talking about his father fighting for the civil rights of Black Americans before it became fashionable with the Democrats. This was at the time when Kennedy had the FBI tapping Martin Luther King’s phone,etc.

      By the end of his speech the audience gave Romney a standing ovation. Whatever you may think of Romney, you have to give him credit for going into what, for a Republican politician, could be called the Lion’s Den.

      The clip showing Romney initially being booed made it appear that he failed with his audience when in fact the opposite was true.

      This sort of propaganda must be worth millions of dollars to Obama’s campaign.

         8 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:
        July 13, 2012 at 2:01 pm

        Well said. Once again we see that the BBC merely takes their lead from the Left-wing US mainstream media, who censored that bit out as well.

        The entire BBC staff in the US could easily be replaced by a news aggregator.

           9 likes

      • Louis Robinson says:
        July 13, 2012 at 3:30 pm

        Remember, the narrative of “racist” right-wing all-white Republican candidate was written by the BBC long before events (however small) were cherry picked to make their point. The proof is in the YOUTUBE clip of the BBC “Academy” discussing the forthcoming US election with Mardell and co, and posted on this blog by David Preiser earlier this year. If you missed it, here it is again. Watch, listen and check the boxes to see how the BBC coverage is going…

           3 likes

        • David Preiser (USA) says:
          July 13, 2012 at 5:00 pm

          We should also note Mardell early on lamenting about his view of the US, “What happened to the 60s?” As if all the radical ideals were a good thing, and the US is the poorer for not adopting all of it everywhere.

             3 likes

  34. Reed says:
    July 13, 2012 at 1:36 am

    Jeremy Bowen – news reporter or travel writer?…

    ———————————
    BBC to review role of Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen after official report criticises Arab Spring coverage

    The BBC is to review the role of its Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen after an official report into the broadcaster’s coverage of the Arab Spring suggested he was spending too much time in the region and not enough helping with major strategic decisions on how the BBC covers the sensitive story.

    In his contribution to the report, Bowen expressed regrets about elements of the BBC coverage of the Arab Spring. He said that the BBC had put “too many eggs in the Libya basket” while devoting insufficient resources elsewhere.
    ———————————-

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/bbc-to-review-role-of-middle-east-editor-jeremy-bowen-after-official-report-criticises-arab-spring-coverage-7881082.html

    Really?! Too many resources dedicated to Libyan coverage?? In that case they seem to be guilty of doing too little with rather a lot, as they were accused of being out of touch with events and very much behind the curve. Sky New, on the other hand, did rather a lot with much less, and were commended for the depth and breadth of their coverage in Libya.

    Has guaranteed funding resulted in institutional complacency?

       6 likes

    • dez says:
      July 13, 2012 at 3:39 am

      Reed,
       
      “Has guaranteed funding resulted in institutional complacency?”
       
      Huh? How can you accuse the BBC of complacency after highlighting an internal BBC review criticising it’s own coverage?

         1 likes

      • John Anderson says:
        July 13, 2012 at 3:58 am

        Of course the BBC is not complacent. Heaven forfend !!!

        The BBC as we all know is attentive to every criticism it receives. It makes sure that any critic gets the stock answer – “impartiality is in our genes, we got it pretty well right”

        That is – if it ever gets round to answering at all.

        Some critics keep battling though the impenetrable BBC complaints system. Most give up. Quite right too – Auntie knows best !

        BALEN – I think that report probably gave the BBC the benefit of the doubt. But the BBC does not have the guts to publish it.

        Meanwhile the BBC continues with the anodyne Ray Snoddy weekly whitewash against complaints, all part of the pretence of listening to its enforced subscribers.

        But we here are uniquely fortunate. We, and few others, have the blessing of the erudition of Dez,, Scotty (ain’t he a looker !) – and now put-another-Nickleodeon troll.
        .
        Not to mention Crapman

           10 likes

      • Reed says:
        July 13, 2012 at 4:23 am

        “Huh? How can you accuse the BBC of complacency after highlighting an internal BBC review criticising it’s own coverage? ”

        Perhaps that ‘review’ was criticising the complacency of it’s coverage of Middle East issues?

           4 likes

    • Umbongo says:
      July 13, 2012 at 10:27 am

      Don’t forget that Edward Mortimer willingly took on the well-rewarded position of mouthpiece in chief for Kofi Annan when he was Secretary General of the UN. That is as good an indication as any as to how qualified Mortimer was for his role in examining the BBC’s reporting on the Middle East. Sure enough, to quote the Independent “In his report, Mortimer concluded that, in its reporting of the Arab Spring, “the BBC covered a challenging, complex and geographically disparate set of stories in an engaging way.” In other, more familiar words, the BBC “got it about right”.
      As to Bowen – again, going on the Independent’s report – “Mr Mortimer said: “Perhaps BBC executives should encourage him to travel a little less, so that he would have more time to share his insight and provide them with overall strategic guidance.”“. This is “criticsm”? IMHO, this is praise of Bowen doing well in a difficult role and merely suggests that Bowen should be more an “editor” and less a “news gatherer”. Manifestly, the tone of Mortimer’s report – as expected – is that Bowen “got it about right”.
      Mortimer was as “independent” an assessor of the BBC’s Middle East coverage as was Steve Jones in respect of the BBC’s science coverage. As I have commented to this effect elsewhere on this site, the BBC knew before the event in both Jones’s and Mortimer’s case what their opinions were on the subject under examination. Accordingly, Mortimer’s (and Jones’s) ruminations came as little surprise to the BBC: they both arrived at the expected and desired conclusions. OTOH, it appears that Malcolm Balen was a source of unwelcome surprise to the BBC and the Balen Report must be dynamite if the BBC is willing to expend £200,000+ to prevent its publication.

         7 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:
      July 13, 2012 at 1:57 pm

      This report is idiotic, and shows just how blind they are to biased reporting. I’d say the less time Bowen spends influencing BBC reporting on the Middle East and Arab World, the better.

         4 likes

  35. As I See It says:
    July 13, 2012 at 8:21 am

    Goodness gracious me!

    ’30 words English took from India’

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

    ‘The words English owes to India’

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18796493

    Seems the BBC are implying that England should give back these ‘taken’ or ‘owed’ words – you know, Elgin Marbles style.

    Now why couldn’t the Beeb have phrased their headlines to refer to words ‘shared’ by the English and Indians? I can safely assume that India has likewise ‘borrowed’ a word or two from English.

    The way that the BBC present this interchange makes me feel a little guilty. Ah! I think I just stumbled on the BBC attitude! English guilt.

       7 likes

  36. Betty Swollocks says:
    July 13, 2012 at 9:33 am

    Millipede exudes confidence, more like exudes shite.

       4 likes

  37. Biodegradable says:
    July 13, 2012 at 10:22 am

    The BBC should read this then change their boilerplate that says “illegal settlements… but Israel denies this”, but of course they won’t!

    English translation of the legal arguments in the Levy Report

       2 likes

  38. uncle bup says:
    July 13, 2012 at 12:41 pm

    Because it’s so utterly crap, my exposure to the BBC generally consists of thirty seconds of something as I pass through a room where it’s on.

    Yesterday’s 30 seconds was I think entitled

    How The Big Nasty Supermarkets Slottered Your First Born.

    Anyhoo, there has been a debate on labeling of food products where a quango and some supermarkets wanted red/amber/green on food packaging and Tesco and others, quite sensibly, preferred to put a whole load of information based on absolute amounts and % of recommended daily allowances.

    Because Tesco was on one side the droids naturally took the other side and intoned mysteriously about ‘powerful voices’ being against the traffic light system.

    Conveniently ignoring of course, the other ‘powerful voices’ being pro the traffic light system.

    Younger, shoutier, more pretrendy leftier.

    Aye me, the Owenization of the BBC continues apace.

       8 likes

    • As I See It says:
      July 13, 2012 at 1:25 pm

      On a related theme – I happened to catch a few odd moments of BBC’s Turn Back Time – The Family.
      You know how these things go – you take a modern family and plonk them down in another decade.
      Apart form the fact that it was very very interested in class and gender issues, I noticed how our wartime ration book family were tempted to take some blackmarket goods. The Beeb approved historian (not that lispy posh minx Lucy Worseley but a real leftie battleaxe) then descended on them with absolute relish to deliver a lecture on how evil they had been and how unfair it was that they took more than their fair share.
      Gosh but the Beeb do seem rather nostalgic for that wartime taste of complete state control over our lives!

         6 likes

  39. David Preiser (USA) says:
    July 13, 2012 at 2:42 pm

    Why am I getting the impression from the News Channel that the verdict on John Terry was the wrong one?

       6 likes

    • DJ says:
      July 13, 2012 at 3:12 pm

      What, you mean the fact every photograph of John Terry makes him look like a weasel implies a certain bias?

      Perish the thought.

      And then there’s the sidebar here:

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-18827915

      Yes, indeed, the left spent months sliming an innocent man but now they’ve been utterly exposed it turns out the trial was ‘not just about what one player said to another’ after all. In fact, football faces a ‘major challenge to recover from one of the most troubling years’.

      So, for those of you keeping score at home. When a ”Bearded Man’ blows up the No 57, that proves absolutely nothing about the vast majority of peace-loving bearded people, but when a liberal cause celebre is exposed as an utter fraud, that just means we need to redouble our efforts to track down those pesky witches.

         13 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:
        July 13, 2012 at 5:06 pm

        I was speaking mostly about how the Beeboid reporting from outside the courthouse. The condemnation and hand-wringing was blatant.

           4 likes

      • noggin says:
        July 13, 2012 at 5:19 pm

        why do get, an uncomfortable feeling a 5live elongated drone in from dame nikki & co is forthcoming :-D.

        with lots of input from that ahem …
        “intellectual colossus” 😀 ,from kick it out, (i hope he won t have to put right to the actual meaning of racism this time)

           3 likes

    • Reed says:
      July 13, 2012 at 3:30 pm

      …because he hasn’t been shamed, humiliated, publicly villified and banished into total obscurity never to be seen or heard again…for saying naughty words. That’s what they’re really after.

      There’s generally more media outrage over people using naughty words than there is when racist pedophile rape gangs abuse scores of young children. This is how morally bankrupt much of the MSM has become, and they really think they’re highlighting the most serious and socially important issues when giving blanket coverage to this type of non-story. Of course, all the politicians will push their way forward to utter all the required pieties for the cameras.

         12 likes

  40. Doyle says:
    July 13, 2012 at 6:23 pm

    Next week on BBC3 ‘Is Football Racist?’ (Lord, give me strength) with ex-footballer and Question Time dunce Clarke Carlisle. I’m assuming the programme was set to coincide with the (not) guilty verdict at Terry’s trial. Is there an ugly side to the beautiful game? Zzzzzzzzzzzzz. Why bother with the question, we all know that you’ve reached the conclusion ‘Football is Racist’. Just call it that and have done with it.

       9 likes

    • Zemplar says:
      July 13, 2012 at 8:01 pm

      The BBC says that “Terry has walked free from court”.

      Really? “walked free”? As if there was any possibility he would be jailed in the first place. The most that would have happened had he been found guilty is a £2500 fine. That’s it.

      What they really mean is “John Terry is a Privileged, Evil, Racist, White Male who should have gone to prison for something he might have said.”

         12 likes

      • johnnythefish says:
        July 14, 2012 at 9:53 am

        And this morning on the Today sports desk we heard an interview with the sports editor of ‘The Voice’ (Britain’s favourite on-line black newspaper, apparently).

        Tiresome, shamelessly biased, agenda-driven broadcasting which, like it or not, you have to pay for.

           4 likes

      • johnnythefish says:
        July 14, 2012 at 9:58 am

        But to add an (unintentionally) humorous touch, they quoted their publishing arm, The Grauniad, which shockingly found a culture of foul language and abuse is rife in the Premiership.

        You can just imagine a team of Guardianistas turning out for their first Sunday League match…….

           3 likes

    • DJ says:
      July 13, 2012 at 8:19 pm

      Yes, indeed, and so was crushed the myth that the BBC is agenda-driven.

      The case fell apart faster than their Jubilee coverage, but the Show Trial must go on.

      Meanwhile, don’t expect Gareth, Diane or any of the rest of the race-hustling scum to be asked about this bunch of charmers:

      As paramedics fought to save her, one even asked a policeman why they were bothering as the victim was ‘just a Paki’

      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2120557/Thusha-Kamaleswaran-shooting-Why-gunmen-bars.html

      Are race-hustlers racist?

         4 likes

  41. Nick says:
    July 13, 2012 at 8:02 pm

    Others have already touched on this subject, apologies if I repeat the issues. The 6 o’clock news this evening was laughable, why does the BBC persist in thinking that we all care about the exploits of footballers and their foetid lives? I couldn’t care less what some ignorant moron said to another ignorant moron; do they imagine that this is the most important thing in Britain at the moment? This was followed by a story about Rangers FC and then football was mentioned again with regards to the Olympic games. All hail the God of Football. Why not just rename it Match Of The Day?

       7 likes

  42. wallygreeninker says:
    July 13, 2012 at 9:38 pm

    Syria’s bloody troubles are more complex than the media’s dreamy-eyed coverage would have you believe

    .http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/petermullen/100170912/syrias-bloody-troubles-are-more-complex-than-the-medias-dreamy-eyed-coverage-would-have-you-believe/#disqus_thread

    -CoE priest Peer Mullen attacks the simplistic attitude much of he British media is adopting towards the conflict,, with he BBC coming in for a passing mention: there are several attacks on the Beeb’s reporting in the comments

       6 likes

    • wallygreeninker says:
      July 13, 2012 at 9:48 pm

      sorry, that should have been ‘Peter Mullen’ – must do something about the T-key on this keyboard.

         2 likes

    • Dave s says:
      July 14, 2012 at 12:35 am

      The liberal media and the rest of the political idiots are already starting on about Syrian WMDS . Next step will be a demand for Nato led invasion or bombing. What is it with liberals and neo cons? They just can’t seem to get enough of war. Have they learn’t nothing from Iraq ?.

         4 likes

  43. Doyle says:
    July 13, 2012 at 10:32 pm

    Thursday night Newsnight and Austin Allegro Stratton is talking to a black-African woman who wants a ‘living wage’ as opposed to the minimum wage. The distinction for those who don’t know is that a ‘living wage’ (more than the minimum wage obviously) is what is needed in London, an expensive city to live in. A cleaner, she worked at some ministry or other and those like her were demanding a wage increase ( wouldn’t we all like one). Some do-gooders were helping them out naturally. Of the two people interviewed neither were from the UK, the other was Portuguese/Angolan but it didn’t stop them bleating about the country that puts a roof over their heads and food in their belly. One didn’t like the fact that 50p of their hourly wage was dependent on them turning up for work on time which sounds fair enough to me (but to the beeb is probably some form of torture). No mention was made of any tax credits, child benefit (the woman had five children) or housing benefit. Only half the story if you ask me but typical of el beeb.

       14 likes

    • Pah says:
      July 14, 2012 at 7:32 pm

      This was such a obvious BBC set-up that it was almost a comedy sketch. They were actually creating the news story themselves and then reporting on it without even bothering to hide the fact.

      Muppets. Is anyone really fooled by such stupidity?

         6 likes

  44. Guest Who says:
    July 14, 2012 at 12:39 pm

    Well, you can always complain…
    http://liberalconspiracy.org/2012/07/13/bbc-implies-there-wasnt-interest-in-nhs-bill/
    However, though this could be viewed (in that odd way some have) as balance, being it has miffed those from the home team this time, the ever-inspiring ‘we want your views’ attitude seems alive and well no matter what.
    Ever get the feeling this unique-funding lark may be having just the teeniest bit of a retrograde influence on the way the BBC conducts itself?

       2 likes

  45. Louis Robinson says:
    July 14, 2012 at 2:06 pm

    I’m listening to the Saturday repeat of “Any Questions?” Funny how Dimbleby shuts Starkey down when he says something worth hearing – like an attack on the Guardian and the Independent. I wonder why?

       9 likes

    • Earls Court says:
      July 14, 2012 at 4:00 pm

      The way things are going the guardian will go bust in the near future and the independant will follow it as well. The only lefty papers left will be the mirror, morning star and socialist worker. The snobs at BBC would not want anything to do with a red top like the mirror. The morning star and the socialist worker have less readers that alot of local newspapers and they are not fans of the BBC. What will the BBC do then?

         5 likes

      • jonsuk says:
        July 14, 2012 at 9:34 pm

        i always refer The Socialist Worker as The Socialist Wanker

           3 likes

        • Earls Court says:
          July 14, 2012 at 9:53 pm

          UAF=Unite against freedom
          Hope not Hate=Hate not hope
          NUT=National union of Trots
          Morning Star=Lucifer in Latin

             4 likes

      • johnnythefish says:
        July 14, 2012 at 11:20 pm

        It won’t worry. How many of the younger generations bother with a newspaper anyway? b-BBC has cornered the market where it counts – TV, radio and the internet, not to mention its brainwashing – sorry, educational – arm.

           3 likes

  46. Selohesra says:
    July 14, 2012 at 7:41 pm

    There is discussion on at Left Foot Forward – where I go for a chuckle sometimes . BBC being accused of being pro govt and pro is real by some. Would be good if a few here could pop over to LFF and add some comment to the Fox thread

       3 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:
      July 14, 2012 at 11:44 pm

      It’d be a waste of time. With that crowd – as we’ve seen with defenders of the indefensible here – a simple lack of utter condemnation of Israel or Cameron’s Government is considered to be full-on support.

         2 likes

  47. jonsuk says:
    July 14, 2012 at 11:00 pm

    the BBC should do a poll….Anal sex? Who has the biggest cock/dick? BBC ‘actors’ or ‘Hollywood’ ‘actors’ ?

       0 likes

  48. Reed says:
    July 15, 2012 at 3:03 am

    Something to arouse Mardell and all Beeboids…Hollywood’s campaign for Obama comes to a cinema near you soon…

       1 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:
      July 15, 2012 at 3:52 pm

      No amount of money from the Koch Bros. can counter this. But that won’t stop the BBC from pushing the Narrative that the President is the underdog because Romney has more evil cash.

         2 likes

  49. As I See It says:
    July 15, 2012 at 9:42 am

    BBC take a second bite at the John Terry.

    You might have thought that the full blown criminal prosecution (care of CPS Keir Starmer and PC Plod) of now acquitted racist John Terry would have satisfied even the most ardent racists-under-the-bed squad.

    Not our Auntie. The Beeb are perched like a hungry Shite-Hawk up there in Salford; always on the lookout for the merest glimpse of white-on-black rascism.

    BBC 5 Live is their nexus of sport and left-wing opinion – so, true to form and BBC-PC remit, on comes Herman, Baron Ouseley of Kick-It-Out to assure us that this case goes on….despite the recent miscarriage of justice….sorry I mean wrongful acquittal….sorry….let’s just say dubious verdict.

    Oh yes, Lord Ouseley now expects the Football Association to recognise what a Judge and 12 good men and true have missed. To take appropriate action and no doubt (most important point this) – confirm institutional racism in football. And if the FA fail to see things that way? Well that will simply confirm that there is institutional racism. We’re on to a winner here!

    And just in case you thought the BBC were simply a neutral reporter of events in this….BBC’s Double Take sisters, Kermit and Miss Piggy, sorry I mean Anita Anand and Sam Walker are on the case.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012hdxq

    It always amuses me the way these two trail their Sunday show as being ‘A second look at the big stories of the week’ – because they invariably hack away from exactly the same tired old left-wing perspective.

    So this morning the girls say ‘Terry is not guilty – but is it just banter?’

    Licence payer calling Salford…..guys, girls, muppets, give it a rest!

       1 likes

    • Pah says:
      July 15, 2012 at 6:20 pm

      Wasn’t Terry tried by a Magistrate rather than 12 ‘Good Men and True’?

         1 likes

  50. As I See It says:
    July 15, 2012 at 9:57 am

    BBC radio late last night and the ever avuncular face and physique for radio Stephen Nolan tackles the on going ‘troubles’.

    For Pete’s sake, I though Tony Blair had solved that one!

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-18840839

    ‘Four men from Belfast have been remanded in custody after appearing in court in connection with riots in north Belfast on the 12 July. ‘

    So in the time honoured BBC balanced and neutral way (sic) Nolan takes a leaf from the Gordon Brown play book and runs archive tape of a bigoted woman – who ‘just dislikes Catholics’.

       1 likes

Newer Comments →