Monthly Archives: July 2012

The upbeat BBC is coming in for a storm of criticism today over its coverage of the Olympics which has centred on the G4S farce and according to listeners and viewers has been entirely too negative and is leaching the joy out of the Olympics, spoiling the expectations of many.

The complaints have been building over several days but switching on to different programmes I have heard the presenters all admitting they are receiving many complaints.

Victoria Derbyshire had so many complaints that she had to stop her show to deal with them and alter the subject from G4S to defending the BBC and its coverage.

Admittedly the G4S story is a big one but it does seem to be the only story in the world just now…one programme finishes and another carries on where the last left off. Did we really need to hear the live inquisition by grandstanding MPs of G4S bosses? Not exactly riveting nor informative…especially if you’ve switched off.

It doesn’t help that you may have the suspicion that it is just another chance to bash the government…the Police have certainly not wasted any time in taking the opportunity to put the boot into G4S….especially as G4S are going to be part of the ‘privatised’ police force taking jobs from the boys in blue…ie the real coppers.

I have to admit I can’t help thinking the responsibility ultimately rests with Theresa May…who should have been keeping an exacting eye on the big picture…something she failed to do with border control as well…she doesn’t seem to have gripped her brief….I think she should go…and police should not be privatised…but all that is for after the Olympics.

People are right…yes, acknowledge the huge mistakes that have happened, report them, but don’t dwell relentlessly on them to the exclusion of the big event itself.

A final word about the effect of lazy journalism….Derbyshire ‘broke the news’ to us that out of 300 expected G4S employees only 20 turned up for work.

Now if I heard that figure I would immediately query it….the obvious thing would be that maybe the figures were the wrong way round…but they weren’t.

Those figures were released into the world by the BBC without any corroboration…as Derbyshire herself admitted..they came from the completely neutral Surrey Police Federation (ie Union) but she said she didn’t know who at the Federation told her those figures….they were ‘unattributed’.

A tabloid newspaper would of course leap for joy at headlines like that but a serious, trusted and respectable news organisation like the BBC should be expected to make some effort to check those figures before  announcing them to the world.

It seems they may have been too eager to damage G4S’ reputation….which they did….despite later correcting the figures, around 42 out of only an expected 70 workers turned up, the 300/20 figures have now attained the state of urban legend…at least twice in her show callers stated the 300/20 figures as fact even after the new figures were mentioned.

The BBC’s eagerness to be first with a story has meant that what essentially may just have been some black propaganda released by a Police Federation has now become truth and G4S’s reputation is dragged even deeper into the mud by lazy or wilfully blind reporting in the search for a headline.

The rain in Spain may stay mainly on the plain but here in Britain it means we don’t have a BBQ summer and inflation drops as people don’t buy a new summer wardrobe….as the BBC’s Stephanie Flanders informs us….

Wet weather helps Bank’s inflation forecast

The Bank of England’s inflation forecast is looking better than it has for a long time – it may partly have the weather to thank.

So good news  on inflation is nothing to do with the government…how different it was when the government said that the massive snowfall we had last year lead to a drop in GDP as people couldn’t get to work or to the shops.

That claim was roundly denounced and mocked throughout the BBC…Victoria Derbyshire even went so far as to put together a montage of clips of George Osborne talking about the weather just to mock him…because of course he was talking complete and utter nonsense and just making excuses for his failed economic policies….wasn’t he.

I’d put that BBC attitude down to blatant political bias…much the same as they treated Bush…but it could just be complete ignorance on Derbyshire’s part.

Cultural cringe at work….

BBC shows no sign of shock, horror or outrage when a black man suggests that it is necessary to have ‘ethnic loyalty’.

Sounds not too dissimilar to something the BNP might print on a leaflet.

‘Somebody called Ashley Cole a “choc ice” on Twitter over the weekend after the footballer testified in defence of John Terry.

Ekow Eshun, a former director of the ICA who now writes about culture, believes it is a “slightly odd and archaic term” as it dates back to a time when black people “worried much more about their place in society” as there were fewer black people in prominent positions.

“It’s sad to see words like this still in usage,” he told the Today programme.

Novelist Diran Adebayo says the term doesn’t bother him and he believes it is still fair for some black people “to feel there has to be a word for people to feel somebody else… has less ethnic loyalty”.

I see the BBC was covering the issue of a German Court banning circumcision on Today this morning. It seems Angela Merkel is unhappy with this decision and the entire item was slated in terms of how Jewish people feel about it and the relationship between the German State and Jews. Towards the end of the item, the BBC added that Muslims were also opposed to the idea and were “united” with Jews in seeking to overturn this decision. It strikes me that perhaps the BBC could have added that Germany has some 4 MILLION Muslims and 120,000 Jews. I suspect the concerns Merkel holds are more driven by the views of the 4 million than the 120,000. A little context always helps.

You could not have turned on the BBC yesterday morning without hearing Elton John pushing his new book on Aids. I like Elton John, I enjoy his music and he has led an interesting life. However the BBC fawned over his every word on one of their favourite themes – the homosexual lifestyle. No challenges were issued. Instead we heard Elton talk about his wish to become a father again. We also heard him talk about the intolerance people show towards Aids victims and if you tuned into Thought for the Day today Ann Atkins was on trying to draw ananlogies between Elton and Christ. Only on the BBC.