107 Responses to OPEN THREAD…

  1. Louis Robinson says:

    Once again the BBC misrepresents a story! Read this from the website:
    Two Republican politicians have urged people to eat at a US fast food chain, amid a row over gay marriage.
    Crowds flocked to outlets in several states after ex-presidential candidates Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee urged supporters of “traditional values” to eat at Chick-fil-A.
    Boss Dan Cathy said in July he backed the “biblical definition of a family”.
    Mr. Cathy also told the Baptist Press he thought those who supported gay marriage were “arrogant”.
    Chick-fil-A restaurants in cities across southern states of the US were reported to be bustling with customers who turned out in support of the chain.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19087889
    The BBC narrative implies that the outpouring of support for the fast food chain was some sort of anti-gay protest. It wasn’t.
    For those who only get their news from “Britain’s most trusted broadcaster” let me fill you in. You’ll be interested to learn that the backlash is against the statements by two mayors of two US cities that they would block planning permission for Chick-fil-A branches because of the owner’s views on gay marriage. This is about protesting the bullying actions of an increasingly overreaching government.
    Imagine the reverse. A mayor (anywhere) saying he would not give planning permission to a business because the owner was gay. If that happened I think most of those protesting in favour of Chick-fil-A would have also protested against a municipality targeting a gay business owner singled out for his beliefs.
    http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/07/25/Rahm-Emanuel-latest-to-fight-Chick-Fil-A
    However, the sustained indignation of the gay community is beginning to wear thin on a population which has bent over backwards to accommodate them (the figures vary but gays are around 1.6% of the US population). I suspect that the militant gay movement’s motive is (like most militant movements) to be offensive as they can be. The moderates should start to exert some influence. They are in danger of losing broad public support.
    For the record, the President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama affirms his belief in traditional marriage – oh, sorry! That was last year, this year he is for gay marriage – perhaps his change of position is because one of his major income streams comes from the gay community, especially in Hollywood.

       18 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      It only took the BBC about a week to report this. Thanks for mentioning it, Louis. We just knew the BBC would spin this the way the Left-wing US media has tried to. It’s a statement against the government declaring that businesses can’t operate if they don’t hold an approved thought. The BBC must hate that.

         10 likes

      • Dave s says:

        I have followed this in the US media. Clearly the Chick Fil A chain was the victim of over powerful mayors riding roughshod over the Constitution and the surge in sales is a result of Americans standing up for their rights and the second amendment by supporting the chain.
        Incidentally I see the chain does not open on Sundays and makes no secret of the conservative nature of the business.
        Nothing so angers a liberal as an unexpected reverse on the path to the liberal police state . May it be the first of many many reverses.

           12 likes

        • Louis Robinson says:

          LATEST; The enormity of the yesterday’s protest is becoming clear with a leaked report that Chick-fil-A broke the world record for sales by any fast food chain ever. Remember these were “ordinary folks” fed up with being passive and being given a practical method of protesting and making a stand. I wonder what this bodes for the Presidential election?

             12 likes

          • David Preiser (USA) says:

            I keep reading that most people showing up to support the “buycott” support homosexual marriage and don’t agree with the CEO’s views. They’re just supporting freedom of speech and freedom of religion and freedom of trade.

            No matter how the BBC spins this, there’s no escaping the fact that there are a lot of people who don’t like government telling them what to think.

               8 likes

          • Reed says:

            I don’t agree with the view of this company’s boss…but that’s the point – one ought to be able to disagree and leave it at that. He’s the boss of a private company, not a public representative. The idea that a public official sees fit to create trouble for a private company based solely on a belief of one of it’s owners is really overstepping the line. “Chick-fil-A’s values are not Chicago values” says Mr. Emanuel, demonstrating the real Chicago values of mob style bullying.

            …here’s a bullying footsoldier, making life difficult for those at the bottom…what a c*nt…

            http://www.businessinsider.com/vante-cfo-bullies-chick-fil-a-worker-then-promptly-gets-fired-for-it-2012-8#ixzz22QxOQKTq

               6 likes

            • +james says:

              Here is the video of the said Tolerance Nazi.

                 3 likes

              • David Preiser (USA) says:

                I’m fed up. The second BBC news brief also censors the real reason for the “buycott” and plays it as a homosexual rights issue. I’ve sent in a complaint, and included three links to more honest reports with quotes from real people about why they support the chain.

                I expect a “we got it about right” reply, if I get one at all.

                   4 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Good grief, still not a single word in this report about the actual point of the “buycott”: government intrusion and elected officials declaring that a business cannot operate in their city because of a personal belief.

      This is one of the more blatant examples of BBC bias by omission.

      Defenders of the indefensible are, as always in clear-cut cases, silent.

         1 likes

  2. Pounce_uk says:

    If you want to see how the bBC inserts anti-Semitism into the minds of the young
    Hamas condemns Auschwitz visit
    A spokesman for the Palestinian militant movement Hamas has criticised a visit by a Palestinian official to the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz…..He also called the Holocaust an “alleged tragedy”, media reports say….Hamas spokesmen have previously expressed the view that the Holocaust is a fabrication….Mr Barhoum is quoted in media reports as saying the visit is at “the expense of the true Palestinian tragedy”.

    A comment piece published by the Hamas-run Filastin newspaper also criticised Mr Bandak’s visit.

    “What is the wisdom in such a simple step that supports the Jews and their crimes?… Neither the Jews nor we believe that Hitler killed six millions Jews,” the article read.

    The bBC then end their pro terrorist spot with this:
    The historical truth of the Holocaust is often disputed in countries where it is seen as a tool used by Israel to justify its actions

    The bBC, the traitors in our Midst.

       25 likes

    • Edna says:

      Wrong, wrong, wrong BBC.
      The historical truth of the Holocaust is often disputed BY ANTI-SEMITES!!!!!
      But the BBC cannot bring itself to say it.

      And I pay for this!!!!

         9 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        I just realized how wide open that “where it is seen as….” qualifier is. People in Britain and France and Germany and the US say the Jews and Israel exploit the Holocaust as leverage to justify Israel’s perceived evils. That BBC line could apply to much more than a few Muslim countries. Of course we’re supposed to assume that the BBC editor meant Muslims and not Western Europe and a certain newly built-up part of Salford, but he or she didn’t have the journalistic integrity to spell lit out.

        Okay, Nicked emus, you’re the news pro who dismissed me earlier as being ignorant, so let’s have an explanation.

           7 likes

    • Chris says:

      Pounce – disgusting though it is that the truth of the holocaust is disputed, the statement you highlighted in bold is fact. I don’t see how that makes it ‘pro-terrorist’; surely most people would come away from reading that article feeling horror that these countries hold such anti-semitic attitudes.

         2 likes

      • Andrew Johnson says:

        The BBC could have added, “but in some countries, e.g. Austria and Germany, holocaust denial is a criminal offence. Those two countries know a thing or two about the authenticity or otherwise of the Holocaust. In many other countries, Holocaust denial is seen as anti semitic.” The BBC – we think we got it about right- bringing you factual, impartial and informed journalism – if only.

           4 likes

        • Jim Dandy says:

          Yes, the end statement is fact. The real issue with the article is it puts a hole in the idea that the BBC is sympathetic to Hamas. If they were, they would not have run the story as any reasonable person would be disgusted by Hamas’ Holocaust denial.

             1 likes

          • RCE says:

            I for one cannot praise too highly the BBC’s conversion to the idea of presenting the ‘facts’ and allowing the audience to draw their own conclusions.

            I look forward to this principle being applied across all news, and especially in the fields of ‘climate change’, mass immigration, the US presidential election, Gordon Brown’s role in creating the current financial crisis, phone ‘hacking’ and criminal activity within certain communities.

            To name but a few.

               4 likes

          • David Preiser (USA) says:

            Perhaps, Jim, but that line which pounce put in bold – and which has since been stealth-edited out, which tells us something – still betrayed antagonism towards Jews. It’s a very vaguely-put “fact”, leaving open all kinds of interpretations, as I pointed out in my reply to Edna above. Someone at the BBC is sympathetic towards the notion that Jews and Israel exploit the Holocaust as a shield behind which to hide their atrocities. Someone else realized that and removed it.

            The BBC doesn’t so much support Hamas as it does demonize Israel, which in turn aids Hamas. The enemy of my enemy may not be my friend, but he’ll get a little help from my reporting….

               4 likes

    • Biodegradable says:

      Something else missing from that report is the boilerplate “Hamas is seen as a terrorist group by Israel and the US” (always failing to mention the EU and the UK too), instead Hamas is described as a “militant movement”.

      That line always used to appear in pieces on Hamas, just as anything about settlements always included “the settlements are illegal but Israel disputes this.”

         3 likes

    • Span Ows says:

      Pounce, you should have screen-grabbed, has been re-written now.

         1 likes

      • Edna says:

        That’s so interesting. Someone must have made a complaint……or else they are reading this forum.

           5 likes

        • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

          Of course they read this forum: where do you think the cherry picking vultures work?

             6 likes

          • David Preiser (USA) says:

            There are still too many BBC employees who are so viscerally anti-Israel that it informs their journalism, although the BBC disputes this.

               6 likes

  3. Henry Wood says:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19063605

    Is there a single subject under the sun where the BBC will not find a way to disparage Israel? Read the article in the link, it is all about National Anthems and guess which country appears right at the end of the article? Yes, it claims there are calls to change the Hatikvah so it includes Arabs as well as Jews.
    I am sure the BBC have an (anti) Israel bureau hunting out anything which shows Israel in a bad light.

       16 likes

    • David Gregory (BBC) says:

      But a quick google shows it’s true. http://forward.com/articles/154014/israelis-divided-over-changing-anthem/?p=all
      So in an article about national anthems by the man who literally wrote the book it’s something that’s worth talking about surely?

         0 likes

      • Henry Wood says:

        Mr. Gregory, my point was that of all the National Anthems in all the World, the BBC decided to single out the Israeli Anthem. If you do a very cursory search (and use Google for it!) you will find *MANY* “disputed” anthems. Why did the BBC choose Israel? I will tell you why: Because it is Israel! Dispute that fact all you wish, but it is an outstanding fact.

           4 likes

  4. alan says:

    It seems the ‘asian’ man jailed for raping white girls thinks that race is relevant to the case unlike the BBC:

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9446948/Rochdale-sex-gang-leader-jailed-for-22-years.html

    ‘The ringleader, who called the judge a ‘racist b——‘, was one of nine men jailed at Liverpool Crown Court for a total of 77 years for passing round the youngsters and plying them with drugs and drink.’

    Ahmed told the court he was a standard-bearer for “targeted and weakened British Muslims”, and claimed the police were anti-Muslim

    He said of the Rochdale grooming trial: “We were all innocent. My only crime was to be Muslim. Not of the majority race.

    ‘The girl said when she was first raped she was so young she needed to stand on a chair to reach a sink.

    She said: “I remember reading about the time the Roald Dahl book ‘The BFG’, and it described a person screaming and no sound came out – it was like that.” ‘

    Hope he enjoys his time in solitary….suspect his time in prison might be cut short otherwise.

       22 likes

  5. George R says:

    A BBC-Democrat speciality on Romney:

    “Manufacturing Gaffes”

    by Daniel Greenfield.

    http://sultanknish.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/manufacturing-gaffes.html

       4 likes

    • Beeboidal says:

      Very good article.

      The only thing remarkable about this sad pathetic narrative is how little content there is. The media’s gaffe stories are about the media, not about Romney. This isn’t “digging up dirt” any more, it’s “mean girls” namecalling dressed up as reporting aimed at readers who won’t bother to read up about the details of Romney’s trip, but will accept it as a failure because that is what the media is reporting.. It’s the journalistic equivalent of the media calling Romney a slut enough times in the hope that the name will stick.

      BBC to the fore in this propaganda exercise.

         3 likes

  6. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Here’s something else Mark Mardell and the BBC won’t be reporting:

    Obama stiffs California city $35,000 while Romney pays his bill

    The bill is already nearly two months overdue. The Democratic National Committee and Secret Service are giving the city the old “Talk to them, No, talk to them” routine that would immediately get any real business operation on the Better Business Bureau’s “Do Not Hire Again” list.

    The Democratic organization, which pulled in more than a million dollars at the February event, told City Manager Dave Kiff to talk to the Secret Service. The Secret Service told Kiff that it only handles security. never extra costs associated with added local police expenses such as motorcycle escorts, road closures, overpass guards and freeway ramp blocks.

    And that’s not the only time the President has avoided paying the bill:

    Anonymous Donor Agrees To Cover Costs For Obama Campaign Stop In NH

    No surprise to anyone who knows that the President’s re-election campaign is a metaphor for the way He’s run the economy: spending more than He’s taking in. No wonder the media has gone into overdrive to support Him, and we haven’t even had the conventions yet.

       12 likes

  7. deegee says:

    Israel is far from the only country in the world to identify potential troublemakers and deny them entry.
    Israeli security ‘read’ tourists’ private emails Given the choice of being blown up or having my emails read I know what I would choose.

    Just for the record Britain is quite forthright about denying entry for the public good. I blogged about it in The troublemaker option

       5 likes

  8. Alex says:

    DISGRACEFUL! The BBC (on their News 24 channel) find it OK to report that the disgusting Muslim groomer from Rochdale raped an ‘Asian’ girl BUT REFUSE to mention the ethnicity (all white) of the other countless victims! Craven and loathsome political correctness!

       26 likes

    • David Gregory (BBC) says:

      You know I’ve had a quick check through the running orders. I can’t find any sign the ethnicity of the victims was mentioned at all.

         2 likes

      • TomR says:

        Well I was at a service station where a BBC channel was on and heard the same thing.

           1 likes

  9. George R says:

    For the very little it’s worth:-

    “BBC News faces independent impartiality review”

    http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/media/news/a397028/bbc-news-faces-independent-impartiality-review.html

       5 likes

  10. Alfie Pacino says:

    Stuart Prebble isn’t entirely an outsider to the BBC, let’s hope his time outside their bubble qualifies him to sniff out their institutionalised bias in so many ways.
    I’m not holding my breath, but they need to be held to account.

       5 likes

  11. George R says:

    EGYPT.

    As a counter to INBBC which continues to spread the lie that there is no systematic persecution of Christian Copts by Muslims:
    “Egypt: Christian Burns Muslim’s Shirt; Muslims Burn Christian Homes”

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/07/egypt-christian-burns-muslims-shirt-muslims-burn-christian-homes.html

    And:-

    “‘Since Morsi became President of Egypt, there is systematic persecution of the Copts’: 120 Christian families flee village following death of a Muslim.”

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/08/since-morsi-became-president-of-egypt-there-is-systematic-persecution-of-the-copts-120-christian-fam.html

       8 likes

  12. Proves the point of that apartheid state:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19079181

    The third in a series of films that includes “Yom Kippur in Theran” and “Hannukah in Cairo”. Ooh no – silly me. What was I thinking?

    This for me is the litmus test on who’s the bad guy. If the shoe were on the other foot as to who ruled the roost here, how long would a synagogue sit on the mount?

       6 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      It is an area sacred to both religions….

      Yes, BBC, but for which religion is it the most sacred, and for which is it only the third-holiest? It’s not equivalent. Rather, it’s an important distinction, and one which the BBC used to make: for Mohammedans, but not for Jews. I’ve complained several times about this. I see now the BBC’s editorial policy has shifted again.

      FFS, BBC, telling the truth, reporting factually, isn’t taking sides. What the hell is wrong with you people? What are you afraid of?

         3 likes

    • deegee says:

      They have gathered at the Al Aqsa mosque, located at a site known as the Temple Mount to Jewish people and as Haram al-Sharif by Muslims.

      I’m not sure this is even technically correct. It is known to the Jews by its Hebrew name as Har Ha Bayit. Literally the mountain of the house. What house? The temple, of course. The Arabic Haram al-Sharif means noble sanctuary.

      Why Arabic for the Muslims and English for the Jews? Wouldn’t it be more accurate to say, known to Christians and BBC presenters as the Temple Mount, the common English translation of the original Hebrew Har Ha Bayit?

         0 likes

  13. George R says:

    “It’s the closing ceremony and here comes Team GBH!”
    By RICHARD LITTLEJOHN

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2182874/London-2012-Its-closing-ceremony-comes-Team-GBH.html#ixzz22QqrTWhY

       5 likes

  14. Guest Who says:

    ‘ “Having spent most of my career outside the BBC I look forward to bringing a fresh perspective to examine how well the commitment to breadth of voice – which is unique to the BBC – is being met.”
    Hmm. ‘Most’ and ‘unique’ in the same breath. Why do I sense a predisposition to genetic rectitude already in the Force?

       7 likes

  15. Demon says:

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2182630/London-Olympics-2012-Topless-Ukrainian-feminists-stage-protest-Londons-Tower-Bridge.html

    Topless fun for the lads, but at least the Ukranian feminists know who their real oppressors are.

       7 likes

    • noggin says:

      wonder if THE Olympic station will cover it?
      … don t think they would do it in Tahir Square do you?

      but lets not belittle the message “stop sharia”.

         4 likes

  16. RCE says:

    First we had ‘men’ now we have ‘people’.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-19107025

    I wonder if they is black?

       4 likes

    • As I See It says:

      A little more detail which the BBC deem hardly worthy of mention….

      http://www.london24.com/news/crime/lewisham_stabbing_murder_update_three_held_after_nathaniel_brown_16_killed_at_party_1_1468127

      Resident Jordan Hughes said the neighbourhood had had problems with violent crime before.

      “There’s always been trouble in this area, a kid got stabbed in the neck around here a couple of months ago. It’s not a nice thing to happen. Everyone is a bit shocked by it,” she said.”

      “Friends paid tribute to the boy nicknamed “Natz”, who turned 16 earlier this week, on Twitter.

      One said: “RIP Nathaniel Brown, your (sic) in a better place.”

      Look forward to BBC tributes to a promising young GCSE student and footballer with lots of concern and empathy from his friends.

      http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/breaking-news/2012/08/02/party-boy-stabbing-three-held-55578-31531121/

      One neighbour who lives close to the scene was woken by screams in the middle of the night.

      “It was around 2.30am and I heard these shouts and screams,” said the woman, who did not want to be named. “It started to get louder and louder and when I got up to look out about 3.15am I saw all these people running away from the house”

         2 likes

    • Zemplar says:

      I’ve been waiting for the BBC to graduate form ‘men’ to ‘people’. It widens the net in a wonderfully PC manner.

      Next up, it will be “three carbon units were charged today…”

      This way, all living creatures can be suspect, and our nasty prejudices won’t be guiding us…

         9 likes

      • TomR says:

        Believe it or not, there is a section of the internet that insist on using such terminology, though they favour ‘beings’.

           1 likes

  17. George R says:

    BBC-NUJ on ‘charity’ in Greece, but not on ‘zakat’ in Islam.

    BBC-NUJ made a big song and dance about a Greek political party which is giving aid to only Greeks:-

    “Golden Dawn nationalists hand out ‘Greeks only’ food”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19084584

    Of course, BBC-NUJ does NOT point out that in Islam, ‘zakat’ is only given to Islamic causes , including jihad.

    “Islamic charity”

    http://www.politicalislam.com/blog/islamic-charity/

       7 likes

  18. Umbongo says:

    Humphrys was in his usual “righteous indignation” mode on Today as he attacked Stephen Hester of RBS for being a senior banker and thus a convenient punchbag for Humphrys. Frankly, IMHO, Hester deserves all he gets and is paid handsomely to suck up this abuse.
    However, Humphrys who is demanding the breakup of the banks etc etc, never summons up the same degree of indignation with those just as culpable of the financial fiasco ie the (Labour) politicians who brought in a crapola regulatory system, then selected crap regulators before and after the melt-down (yes that includes you Lord Turner – the parasite’s parasite) and then took the (grossly mistaken) view that supporting the banking system meant preserving every bank in that system (and/or finding compliant friends to ruin their shareholders by taking on bankrupt outfits without a proper – or even improper – due diligence process.)
    Interestingly, those compliant friends included the 2011 guest editor of Today , Sir Victor Blank. Where is Humphrys’ condemnation of the BBC for selecting this senior banker to edit its flagship news/current affairs programme. Remember, this invitation to Sir Victor was made in December 2011 when everybody knew what Blank and Gordon had achieved. OTOH, since it was only the taxpayer and those with Lloyd’s Bank shares who directly suffered in the rescue of HBOS, the BBC (and Humphrys) seemed quite happy to ignore that and allow this uber-member of the political class to temporarily captain its flagship. Mind you, Sir Victor – as a member of that class – is still in good odour with our rulers and in December 2011 was (and still is for all I know) “UK business ambassador” for the government.
    I’m still waiting to hear Humphrys giving Blank (or Brown for that matter) a good pummelling? Mind you, I’m still waiting for Lloyds shareholders’ day in court when they sue the then board of Lloyds for sacrificing their bank on the altar of Brown’s financial genius.

       5 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      If Lloyds shareholders ever do get their day in court, they better get Messrs. Brown and Peston on the stand as well.

         3 likes

      • Umbongo says:

        According to this US shareholders are taking Blank & Co to court and there is a Lloyds shareholders action group alive and well in the UK. However, since the banking supervisory/regulatory authorities in both the US and the UK all appear to have been closely involved in the “rescue” of HBOS (and thus the destruction of Lloyds) there is very high level protection for the then board of Lloyds. Consequently, getting Blank & Co actually into a civil court (let alone a criminal one) is a long and expensive way away.
        The giveaway of 632 Lloyds branches to the City branch of the Labour Party just adds egregious insult to severe financial injury. [OK the Cooperative Bank is ostensibly HQed in Manchester but as a UK bank it’s a part of the City whether it admits it or not.] I suspect there’s another fascinating establishment stitch-up behind that little event. For instance, why would Osborne (a “Conservative”, he claims) have acquiesced in giving substantial assets to an outfit which is not just owned by part of the Labour “movement” but that part actually coughs up significant financial and other support for Labour?
        Re Peston: he’s also got protection from somewhere. When I worked in the City – and now in theory anyway – tipping financially sensitive information into the public domain was a serious criminal offence. Brown, of course, is treated (by the BBC) as a respected elder statesman who saved the world instead of the manifestly bungling psychopath who bears a large part of the responsibility for getting the UK into this mess.

           1 likes

  19. George R says:

    “BBC Trust appoints ‘friend of corporation’ to review its impartiality.
    “The BBC Trust has opened itself up to criticism after appointing a long term supporter of the corporation to conduct a review of its impartiality.”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/9448646/BBC-Trust-appoints-friend-of-corporation-to-review-its-impartiality.html

       4 likes

    • George R says:

      Just as BBC-NUJ gets only Muslims to comment on Islam,
      so too it gets only ‘frends of BBC’ to comment on BBC.

         6 likes

  20. #88 says:

    I see that the BBC’s Olympic schizophrenia continues. Whilst the BBC’s sports reporters are at least getting into the spirit of the thing, the hard line lefties continue to carp*, whether it be the cynical Newsnight team, or this morning, on Today, the horrible Sarah Montague suggesting skullduggery, having a couple of attempts to devalue or even see Chris Hoy and his team mates stripped of their gold medals. But this time, not even her invited friend from the Guardian agreed with her (which must be a first).

    *BTW the BBC’s Olympic sized carping squad must have faced a real dilema earlier in the week. Do they give the Government and G4S yet another good kicking having learned that one of the poorly selected security staff abused and spat at a soldier (see earlier thread)? Or do they resist the temptation knowing full well that they would need to disclose the uncomfortable facts of the story, if they did. As they chose not to cover it, perhaps that tells us something about the weighting of their agendas.

       6 likes

  21. Umbongo says:

    I notice that Adrian Warner (BBC London Olympic Correspondent) is taking it easy now the games have arrived. Last night he gave the same report (more or less word for word) as he had the night before concerning the “anger” of the punters concerning empty seats at many Olympic events. He then undermined this by showing (apparently) contented spectators outside the velodrome watching the proceedings (free!) on the massive TV screen.
    Much as I deplore the money thrown down the gullets of the Olympic “family” – which is a source of real anger – in my (admittedly anecdotal) experience, people are indeed mildly irritated about the empty seats but describing such irritation as “anger” is to grossly distort the situation. The BBC’s voicing – and misdescription – of the concerns of the “little people” is hypocritical at best and is, as usual and IMHO, just another way of kicking (albeit indirectly) Boris at worst (although this is LOCOG’s problem, not Boris’s).
    Before any BBC apologist gets on, yes I know the paper press and our rulers express the same populist nonsense but I hold the BBC to a higher standard: it is, after all, supposed to be impartial and unbiased and there are other things happening in London besides the games. I’ve yet to view/hear (although I may have missed it) an in-depth analysis of the financial ruin being faced by retailers (especially small ones) in London as the usual crowds of high-spending summer tourists disappear in favour of the lower-spending games’ tourists: those tickets ain’t free Adrian. One “legacy” of this sportsfest will be the bankruptcy of a swathe of small retailers (and one or two big ones).

       3 likes

  22. George R says:

    Are BBC-NUJ and political left angling for this?:-

    OLYMPICS – ban the private school educated from entry?

    Or at least get the public sector schools to take over the private schools’ facilities.

    But the Olympics seems an ideal area for the political left to enforce discrimination against the private sector.

    “Olympics ‘dominated by privately educated'”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-19109724

       2 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      This almost matches the equivalent article in the Telegraph with the notable exception that towards the end we get the BBC’s own view:

      ‘Private schools can usually afford to devote more time to sport, and have better facilities and often top-class coaches’.

      So not only do they find time to produce superior academic results, they also find the odd hour or two to produce better Olympics sportsmen/women.

      Rather than keep carping at the private education sector the Left would be better occupied asking what is wrong in the state education system. Perhaps something to do with the leftie educational estbalishment and teachers quietly getting rid of ‘elite’ sports, eliminating the concept of competition because ‘everyone must be a winner’, lack of interest or sporting ability amongst teachers because they’ve come through the same system, spending tens of thousands on computer equipment which is peripheral to educational needs e.g. i-Mac ‘design suites’ rather than sports equipment, and of course Labour selling off school sports fields.

      In other words, it’s the same old story of leftist dogma – if the state sector is failing let’s throw loads of money at it in the wrong areas and if it’s still failing (as world educational league tables clearly show) drag everything else down with it.

      How refreshing it would be if they looked at what made privately-funded schools successful and tried to emulate that culture. No politician would dare suggest it, and on the Left it would leave them staring at the reality of 40 years of Socialist policies – in a social as well as educational context – gone horribly wrong (or maybe in their twisted view of egalitarianism, it’s ‘mission accomplished’) .

         1 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        Problem is, the answer to your question about what is wrong with the state education system is always going to be simply “throw more money at it.”

           1 likes

      • Umbongo says:

        Odd isn’t it: 50+ years ago I went to a state grammar school. To my intense personal misery we had about an hour’s PT every day and sports afternoons twice a week. We played and beat – and were beaten by – the local public schools at cricket although in winter we played soccer while they played rugby. At the same time we received a better (or, at least equivalent) academic education.
        Crosland – who went to one of those local public schools we played cricket against – obviously couldn’t bear the erks (as I’m sure he and Shirley Williams called us) showing his class what was what at university (and everywhere else). Hence he set out to abolish the grammar schools and, in the process, knowingly and with malice aforethought, ruin state education. Significantly he left the private system, from which he and Shirl and their mates benefited, in place. Well, it worked and has been one of the few Labour policies which was successful: not beneficial I might add but “successful” in that it achieved the aims of its progenitor.

           6 likes

  23. George R says:

    Guardianista getting more politically desperate:

    -urges boycott, not hate of ‘Daily Mail’.

    Although there’s no analysis, what seems to annoy this Guardianista particularly is the reasoned critique of Boyle’s leftist propaganda.

    Many Guardianistas (and many Beeboids) are keen on the political boycott whether it be of Israel, or of ‘Daily Mail’.

    It must have occurred to them that there are millions of people who actively avoid the ‘Guardian’ (note its declining sales), and who would like to avoid the licence fee.

    “The best way to get angry with the Daily Mail? Don’t buy it”

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/03/best-way-angry-daily-mail?newsfeed=true

       9 likes

  24. George R says:

    “Parents who suffocated their ‘Westernised’ teenage daughter in honour killing are found guilty of murder”

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2183160/Parents-suffocated-Westernised-teenager-daughter-honour-killing-guilty-murder.html#ixzz22UBpJXmM

    So ‘politically correct’ is MSM (inc INBBC) in reporting this murder that nowhere is there a reference to Islam, however relevant it may be as a possible source of motivation.

       5 likes

    • Sir Arthur Strebe-Grebling says:

      Another triumph for multiculturalism.
      A ‘British’ family where the mother can’t speak English and they send their daughter to a foreign country to marry a foreigner. When she objects, they murder her because that is the tradition of their foreign upbringing.
      Doubtless this is the ‘diverse society’ that the BBC is so proud of endlessly promoting.

         11 likes

      • wallygreeninker says:

        Don’t worry, the Beeb are running an article looking at honour killings: it’s first two lines:
        “She has been on the run from her family for seven years, but Maziera’s only sin is being a Sikh who married a Muslim.

        In the eyes of her family she has brought shame and dishonour.”

        Phew, and there was me beginning to worry that it was an overwhelmingly Muslim-related issue.

        http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-19016484

           4 likes

        • Sir Arthur Strebe-Grebling says:

          From that link.
          Saima Afzal, an independent member of Lancashire Police Authority, said there were plenty of anecdotes about the scope of the problem, but no statistics to back it up.

          “In the UK we talk about a yearly figure of 10,000 honour crimes but that is just a guess-timate – I think it is far deeper than that,” she said.

          “We don’t know how many women disappear either.”

          Ms Afzal is convinced that although police action has a role to play in curbing honour crime, ultimately a culture change is needed in communities.


          When it’s a culture, how many people do you arrest?”

          Yes, it’s a culture. Our British culture. If they choose to live here, and we let them become ‘British’, they should live by our culture. If they want to live by a foreign culture, they should live in a foreign country.
          According to Ms Afzal’s figures, there are at least 10,000 criminals every year in that ‘community’. She asks “When it’s a culture, how many people do you arrest?” Sounds to me like it should be more than 10,000 people being arrested.

             5 likes

          • Lloyd Reith says:

            You ask any teacher working in certain area’s about young girls not returning after the school holidays. Anecdotes my arse.

               4 likes

            • johnnythefish says:

              And you bet your life the parents don’t get chased by the truanting officers.

                 4 likes

        • wallygreeninker says:

          The Beeb are happy enough to dish out feelgood photo essays on Ramadan in the old quarter of Gaza bu I doubt if they would be similarly enthusiastic about informing the public on this story:
          “Honor Killings Remain Fashionable in Gaza
          Gaza’s laws continue to impose a maximum sentence of 24 months for honor killings – making them popular in the Hamas-run enclave.”

          http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/154185#.UBvcV6Aljs0

             4 likes

          • wallygreeninker says:

            Just listened to a discussion between a Muslim woman, one named Pregna (?) Patel of indeterminate religion and Sarah Montague. Montague pointed out at the outset that religion was not to blame as they all taught that this sort of thing was wrong. The two guests agreed and after that the discussion was worse than a total and utter waste of time – it was a more or less conscious exercise in deliberately misleading the British public. To be fair the women talked about it being about the control of women by violence and patriarchal attitudes but in the end a colossal lie by omission took place ( and ‘Asians, or ‘south Asians” received their usual blanket smearing.)

               2 likes

            • wallygreeninker says:

              Forgot to mention it was on radio 4’s Today just before or after the 8.30 news.

                 2 likes

      • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

        Oh the benefits that our multi-culti diverse society endows us with!
        Aint it just bloody wonderful.

           3 likes

  25. GotItAboutRight says:

    There was one of those glimpses into the BBC’s mindset at the end of The World at One, during a hand-wringing discussion about why female footballers aren’t paid the same as men. They had two guests, one who was a guilt-ridden humourless man and the other was Steve Claridge. Claridge pointed out that arguing for equal pay for women footballers was just not living in the real world, and that the pay for men was consumer-driven. To which Shaun Ley without any embarrassment asked the rather sinister question,”So how can we change what consumers want?”

    The BBC – never afraid to have a go at controlling your mindset if they think it needs it.

       12 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Good catch. Very revealing.

         4 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      Evil capitalism – supply and demand, and all that. Totally foreign concept to the taxpayer-funded, fixed budget, bloated, biased BBC.

         3 likes

  26. George R says:

    BBC-Argentina CENSORS this:

    “British ships banned from docking in Buenos Aires.
    Ships flying the British ensign have been banned from docking in Argentina’s largest province under a new law passed yesterday.”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/falklandislands/9448360/British-ships-banned-from-docking-in-Buenos-Aires.html

    -But BBC-Argentina reports this:

    “Olympic handball: GB men lose out to Argentina”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/18912462

       3 likes

  27. Louis Robinson says:

    The BBC has great news for the US. “The US economy adds 163,000 new jobs”
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19109249
    But read next sentence: “However, the unemployment rate rose from 8.2% to 8.3% last month, as more people re-entered the workforce but failed to find a job.”
    Behold – the BBC spin machine in full throttle. The real story is this: US unemployment stands at 8.3%
    However, next Thursday (as every Thursday) that figure of 8.3% unemployed will be “revised” upward. It always is, stealthily on the following Thursday after figures are released.
    Why is the BBC spinning this story?

       3 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Somebody woke up. The current headline on the main US & Canada page now says:

      “Mixed jobs report for US economy”

      Baby steps!

         2 likes

      • Louis Robinson says:

        David, perhaps the BBC is reassessing their story because their main source – the Huffington Post – has this on its front page.
        http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
        From CNBC comes this:
        “The US government releases a separate number called the “U-6,” which provides a more complete tally of how many people really are out of work: Nevada – 22.1% percent up from just 7.6% percent in 2007; California 20.3%; and Rhode Island 18.3% more than double its 8.3 percent rate in 2007. Those numbers compare especially unfavorably to the national rate, high in itself at 14.9% though off its record peak of 17.2% in October 2009. Only three states — Nebraska (9.1 percent), South Dakota (8.6 percent) and North Dakota (6.1 percent) — have U-6 rates under 10 percent, according to research from RBC Capital Markets.
        http://www.cnbc.com/id/48468748
        Bad news for your favorite President. I’m looking forward to Mardell’s reaction…lol

           2 likes

        • David Preiser (USA) says:

          Steve Kingstone says the figures are a good sign that the President can use to show the country is back on track. Michelle Fleury explains why what are really positive figures don’t appear to be.

          They’ve got their story and they’re sticking to it.

             2 likes

        • David Preiser (USA) says:

          Louis, the BBC has replaced Kingstone’s biased analysis with even more biased commentary from Mardell. Key section:

          The president claims what is needed is more Obama. Notably “an extension of middle-class tax cuts” and a Congress that will pass his American Jobs Act, to help public sector hiring. Even if he is absolutely right, as a campaigning position it is pretty lame. “It could have been worse” is not a great rallying cry.

          While blaming Congress may be popular, it is peculiar as an argument for re-election. If Obama wins he is likely to face an even more intransigent bunch on Capitol Hill. But even though America may feel let down by Mr Obama, it has yet to be convinced by Mr Romney.

          We know Mardell thinks the President’s tax/borrow/spend plan is “absolutely right”, because he told the BBC College of Journalism so. And he gives it away here. Plus, it’s biased to a possible Republican-led Congress “even more intransigent”, because that comes from the perspective that they should roll over and go with the President’s plans. “Intransigent” has pejorative connotations. Back when the Democrat super-majority was ramming through ObamaCare and His Stimulus, Mardell certainly wasn’t calling them lapdogs or anything of the sort. That was all just fine then, and the Republicans weren’t needed. Now that someone has the temerity to oppose Him, Mardell sees it only as a negative.

          The veteran politics junkie in him knows that the President doesn’t have much of good campaign theme going at the moment, and it’s killing him.

             0 likes

  28. tonyel says:

    Caught this gem on Chilldren’s TV whilst watching with my grandson this morning.
    2 “comic”actors purpoting to be in the First World War. Quote “If you can avoid the the ticks AND THE STUCK UP OFFICERS then you have a chance of avoiding the cemetery.” Nothing like putting out the propoganda to the young minds is there.

       7 likes

    • uncle bup says:

      …produced by people whose knowledge of WW1 has been gleaned from Blackadder and nowhere else.

         6 likes

  29. David Preiser (USA) says:

    I can’t tell if the following Mardell tweet shows his own fatuousness or that of David Cameron:

    Cameron says he will work with who ever the US elects but admires Obama “a huge amount” http://on-msn.com/Ro2ocC

       2 likes

  30. fitzfitz says:

    This evening : BBC 4 at 6pm gives eight ( why eight ? ) minutes to the guilty verdict in the so-called-honour killing case … yet fails to identify the killer parents as muslim.

       2 likes

  31. Pounce_uk says:

    The bBC does damage limitation for Islam over the Shafilea Ahmed verdict.
    Shafilea Ahmed: Investigating honour crime
    She has been on the run from her family for seven years, but Maziera’s only sin is being a Sikh who married a Muslim.In the eyes of her family she has brought shame and dishonour.

    See how the bBC works its magic ref Honour killings. Its not Muslims, no its those nasty Sikhs.

    The bBC, the apologist for intolerant Islam and the traitor in our Midst

       3 likes

    • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

      Classic smokescreen tactic!
      obscure the mesage, hide the elephant in the room.
      It will fool enough of the people enough of the time.

      Smoke and mirrors: Bastards! treacherous bastards.

         3 likes

    • George R says:

      “When Muslim parents kill a beautiful 17-year-old out of religious conviction, I feel intolerant”

      by Cristina Odone.

      http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/cristinaodone/100174718/when-muslim-parents-kill-a-beautiful-17-year-old-out-of-religious-conviction-i-feel-intolerant/

         2 likes

      • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

        It’s beyond me just why Odone should feel intolerant because of others behaving like barbaric savages. And before anyone tries to stick a “phobic” label on me, just tell me what was it about that case that wasn’t barbaric.

        ” I see this as a very strong argument in favour of more Muslim faith schools: only when they feel their daughters are in a safe Muslim school will parents allow them to continue their education past puberty.”
        Odone appears to be saying that the answer is more of their chosen religious/educational methods to counter something that is inherent in their systems. I don’t understand how that can work, but will only make it worse.
        ” When Muslim parents hate their host culture so much that they will kill a child who seems to embrace it, then they are guilty of intolerance”
        Well, that sentence kind of nails to intolerant ones properly doesn’t it. But if they hate the culture so much why come here in the first place?

           2 likes

        • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

          Nails to intolerant ones should read “nails the intolerant ones”
          oops

             1 likes

        • Doyle says:

          Odone is Swedish/Italian so there’s a mix of cowardice and liberal stupidity.

             3 likes

  32. George R says:

    A non-BBC ANC report on ANTI-WHITE discrimination in South Africa

    (‘Russian TV’, 3 min video):-

    “Falling Through Cracks: Anti-white discrimination on rise in South Africa”

       2 likes

  33. George R says:

    SYRIA.

    ‘RT’ (Russia TV), of which we are duly cautious, exposes BBC-‘Guardian’ political line and disinformation on SYRIA.

    (2 min video)

    “Syria Spin Machine: UK mainstream lies exposed”

       3 likes

  34. wallygreeninker says:

    Radio 3 have been running a propaganda pieces on behalf of the gay rights movement for 45 mins every night at 10pm this week, presented by Richard Coles. Apparently in the future a new generation will be unable to understand how anyone could think it was not natural for two people of the same sex to be married. It’s interesting that the Muslim world is regarded slightly less of a problem to these people than sub-Saharan Africa.

       4 likes

  35. Guest Who says:

    Hmn, remind you of anyone?
    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/nbcfail-backlash-as-twitter-locks-out-reporter-guy-adams-7987906.html
    ‘three tendencies of hegemonic power; 1) hates criticism, 2) takes itself seriously 3) no sense of fun,”
    Interestingly, over at the BBC Newsnight FaceBook page which, with twitter, is what they have closed interactive blogs even via their own site in favour of, there seems little appetite to pursue my suggestion this is a story of note given the BBC seems to feel handing over news and debate to US corporates is just fine when it suits.
    The new system is ‘better’, apparently.
    For now I simply note they are however currently entirely happy to retain this contribution [sample]:
    ‘MOST IS FUNNY WEATHER LIKE THAT?OR PREFERE “FUNNY GAMES”? THEN NOTHING ARE YOU GOING TO FUCKING SHOUT THIS SHIT OR WAITING TO DRAWN OR DRINK YOUR OWN PISS?)SYSTEM WILL COLLAPSE SOONER THAN THOUGHT ‘
    I have of course, seen posts of mine disappeared without advice or explanation.
    I guess what I was writing often crossed lines drawn more internally than common practice often sets out.

       2 likes

  36. Guest Who says:

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9451341/Nearly-half-of-those-held-over-riots-arrested-again-in-past-year-figures-show.html
    Where’s Newsnight’s ‘Anger & Protest’ Editor and his muse when you need ’em?
    Have to say, it may be worth a smidge of news ‘reporting’ on a few areas, which I’ll kick off by asking simply what gets you banged up for more than a few months if not the apparently slap-wrist offence of… rioting?
    One presumes all so far done for the horror of twitter beastliness are still safely locked up to protect society.
    With such as the BBC on the case, one can rest easy that proportionality is being well policed for society’s ‘safety’.

       1 likes

  37. As I See It says:

    Yasmin Alibhai-Brown can be an insufferable Guadianista. Amongst other things she is a shrill feminist. Of course her views get her a regular seat on BBC News Channel’s newspaper review.

    Last night she went skiing way off piste with comments about the restrictions placed on Isamic women competing at the Olympics.

    The very bland beeboid, Tim Wilcox(?), had the party line – ‘well it’s a breakthrough that they (Islamic countries) are including women in their teams’.

    Yasmin was was having none of it – more power to her elbow. She effectively burst the moral relativist bubble the BBC have been inflating over their Muslim Olympics.

    I was impressed and wondered whether the Shafilea Ahmed murder case would come up.

    10 out of 10 Yasmin. She gave it both barrels with this deserved ‘an exemplary sentence’ and ‘I don’t know why these people come to this country, if they don’t want their daughters to benefit from a British lifestyle’.

    The Beeboid looked more than a little discomforted.

    ‘It’s the men…the Imans who are to blame, you know’.

    Sometimes it takes a lefty going off message to show up how PC and craven the BBC really are.

       4 likes

  38. Derek Buxton says:

    There is now a programme on BBC2 television which is outright propaganda, the “Hairy Bikers” are fat so decide to do something. We all know that too much food and too little exercise leads to this but they go to that world famous NHS to make sure. But not for them the long wait, oh no straight in to see the top man. They should have been at the hospital Where I was earlier this week. 9.00am appointment, at 8.45 we are told the Consultant is on annual leave and his Registrar is on ward rounds so will be late. I eventually saw her briefly at 10.10 after one patient on his fourth try just went home. The others were not too happy either but were stuck with it. Not the Hairy ones, they saw a consultant, several “experts” who measured and scanned them then on to dieticians all on NHS time. So we now know, the BBC is just a government propaganda machine to exert even more control over us who pay their bills. Goerbels was a novice.

       3 likes

  39. +james says:

    Pat rips into the Guardian and the BBC too…

       1 likes

  40. noggin says:

    what bbc show is DV on today, interested in listening in

       0 likes