207 Responses to OPEN THREAD

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  1. Teddy Bear says:
    December 3, 2012 at 9:06 pm

    The following excellent definition used in the article below from BBC Watch encapsulates precisely how to judge whether you are being given news, or agenda.
    “In contrast to the ideal of an educator, who aims to foster independent judgement and thinking, the practitioner of propaganda does not aim to encourage deliberation by presenting a variety of viewpoints and leaving it up to the audience to determine which perspective is correct. The propagandist transmits only information geared to strengthen his or her case, and consciously omits detrimental information.”

    Although we are well used to the type of BBC output on any given subject, and have documented enough to show it is not a one off error of judgement, but a continuous theme, and usually one can see directly in the headline the emotion it is trying to create.

    From today’s offerings the headline showing on the BBC’s Mid-East page we see:
    Palestinian killed in West Bank
    For most people not that concerned or interested in the goings on in the region, it is enough to further the notion that ‘evil Israel has just killed another one of the poor Palestinians’.

    You’d have to open the article to read the actual headline, giving a bit more context –
    Palestinian ‘with axe’ killed by Israeli forces in West Bank So the BBC knew it was doing a naughty with the abridged version.

    An axe-wielding Palestinian man has been shot dead by Israeli security forces in the West Bank, Israeli officials say.

    Not just that he was ‘with axe’, as though it’s a crime to carry an axe, but one has to read further into the article to see that he was wielding it while approaching security personnel.

    Other examples include these articles:
    US warns Israel on settler homes
    and
    UK warns Israel over settlements

    This is piled on top of Israel defiant over settlements

    So what picture do you see the BBC painting with these?

    As for the US and UK ‘WARNING’ Israel, when the real expression would be ‘criticised’, but the BBC prefer this narrative, with Israel ‘defiant’ against them and the ‘civilised world’. Never mind that the reality is that these nations only want to be seen to appease Islam, regardless of the real merits of the situation.

    Now consider that the Palestinians have sidelined peace talks with Israel, preferring instead to pursue UN statehood to gain an edge. When there was a previous 10 month halt on building by Israel, they still avoided any attempt to broach the subject of peace, yet as soon as Israel began building again they blamed this on their failure to reach an agreement. So if you were Israel would you stop expanding so long as you see nothing but sly tactics from the ‘other side’ to reach a permanent border?

    BBC Watch shows the continuing agenda of Donnison on behalf of the BBC.

    Undiluted propaganda from the BBC’s Jon Donnison

       3 likes

  2. George R says:
    December 4, 2012 at 12:14 am

    HARRABIN: ‘Greenpeace’s Beeboid propaganda outlet.

    High-cost greenie Beeboid HARRABIN continues his daily propaganda job against gas-fired power stations and against shale gas development in Britain.

    This is what BBC licence payers have to pay Harrabin for:-

    His very first sentence:-

    “The government is to unveil its contentious gas strategy this week.”

    And Harrabin cannot analyse shale gas development in Britain without putting it in the Harrabin-‘Greenpeace’ politically biased context.

    For Harrabin’s information, the Cuardilla company is drilling for shale gas 24 hours a day in Lancashire.

    And Harrabin, writes as though he is a spokesperson for some undemocratic group such as ‘Greenpeace’,which gets numerous positive mentions, with the politically myopic Harrabin even referring to that group’s ‘research’ without question!

    He can hardly disguise his bias against the development of coal, gas (including shale gas) and nuclear power; he seems to see himself as a semi-secret eco-warrior who is paid a lavish BBC salary (by us) to campaign for policies which will not keep the lights on. Time for him to go.

    Even ‘The Guardian’ has a fairer report:

    “Gas strategy could provide up to 30 new power stations
    Tax incentives and a new body to encourage shale gas development to be unveiled”

    By Nicholas Watt

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/dec/04/gas-strategy-30-new-power-stations?

    Here’s Harrabin’s hysteria:-
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20577302

       3 likes

  3. Daniel Smith says:
    December 4, 2012 at 3:56 am

    BBC reporter Rupert Winfield Hayes (nice street cred name) is mortified by the Japanese electorates’ potential ‘slide to the right’:
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20589143
    Two other candidates are routinely mentioned before we have ‘rightwing firebrand’ Shintaro Ishihara “Sometimes called Japan’s Jean Marie Le Pen” according to Winfield. I did wonder who exactly called Ishihara such, and it seems to have originated on Australia’s ABC network, that other bastion of impartial broadcasting.
    Winfield’s hit piece describes Ishihara’s message as ‘populist’ and ‘simple’ (as opposed to the BBC’s highly complex ‘bash the bankers’ message) Winfield is not alone in his concern, he enlists an academic who echoes his views, then groans that Japan may be tempted to vote for the right ‘even if they don’t like it.’
    I must confess my ignorance about Ishihara, who may well not be a very nice man, but the piece was so partisan that I felt obliged to look up some background. The BBC mentions nothing, for instance, that he has been the governor of Tokyo for 13 years!

       4 likes

  4. As I See It says:
    December 4, 2012 at 7:48 am

    Bee Bee Cee….Dib dib dib……

    The Scout Movement are to bow to ‘diversity’ and cut God from the Scout Promise. We are not talking other religions here. This is to open the way for little Johnny Atheist to join the Scouts. Bless.

    Dame Nicky Campbell is overjoyed. He can barely contain his excitement.

    A talking head from the Secular Society is also pleased. Campbell introduces him describing the current situation as an….

    ‘…..amazing anomaly….’

    [Oh Nicky. What is that written on the coloured rubber wristband of yours….What would Brian Leveson Say? Surely a leading question m’lud?]

    And so for balance we say welcome to the bod from the Scouts who is ‘leading a consultation on this’. I spy Common Purpose training.

    Nicky proceeds to give him a quick lecture on theology and comparative religion. What about that terrible case of the atheist kid who was turned away from the Scouts! That was terrible publicity for you, wasn’t it? Was it? says the guy. (I’m afraid I also missed that Rosa Parks moment at the Scout Hut)

    Don’t worry I’m sure I can guess which way the consultation will go.

    We’re putting the world to rights but time is always against us. Now Nicky quickly moves on to a travel report. Bet it’s all one way traffic!

       2 likes

    • pah says:
      December 4, 2012 at 10:19 am

      I, too, was not allowed to join the Scouts because I wouldn’t swear an alliegence to a god I didn’t believe in. They were nice enough about it and patiently explained that the Scouts was a religeous movement. Fair do’s really – if I’d known that from the start I wouldn’t have tried to join. After all why would you want to be part of a group whose beliefs you didn’t share?

      Why don’t the left start their own youth movement? They could call it the Milliband Youth perhaps?

         1 likes

  5. Guest Who says:
    December 4, 2012 at 9:07 am

    At risk of ±200 posts oblivion, this one is quite important to any who share my concerns with BBC CECUTT ‘behaviours’, especially in light of Lords Patten and Hall Hall’s avowed intention to ensure they never, ever get held to account… ever.
    http://bbcwatch.org/2012/12/04/the-strange-story-of-a-complaint-to-the-bbc/
    No, it is not strange, it’s policy.
    ‘One cannot but wonder how many other complaints are being registered by the BBC as the exact opposite of what they actually are and how that influences the reliability of the BBC’s complaints statistics and the resulting appraisals of its own performance. ‘
    Because I, and others, have experienced exactly the same thing.
    And now, having ‘gone public’, as this risible excuse for a reply will have had the ‘just between ourselves, or else’ small print at the end, the complainant will likely get subjected to ‘expedited complaints’ (ie: a banning) for showing the BBC up as the devious bunch of crooks they are.
    As 28gate showed, the Uk establishment courts are of no use here, but a post-Leveson free (while it lasts) press and the court of public opinion may yet see them in the full glare of their own words and deeds… and found wanting at every level, up to and including Trust appeals.

       0 likes

  6. Span Ows says:
    December 4, 2012 at 9:46 am

    this thread seems stuck on italics? check the html someone…

       0 likes

    • Span Ows says:
      December 4, 2012 at 9:48 am

      OK, obviously my comment is referring to the bottom of the 1st page of Open Thread comments where the bottom 11 messages are all in italics.

         0 likes

  7. George R says:
    December 4, 2012 at 10:31 am

    INBBC’s ‘Disability history month’-
    a political excuse to emphasise Muslim TAMERLANE’s disability and not his Islamic jihad massacres.

    In the following piece, INBBC relegates Tamerlane’s brutal Islamic jihad conquests, and highlights instead, his disability.

    “Disability history month: Was Tamerlane disabled?”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20538810

    For the Islamic jihad context to Tamerlane’s massacres (not provided by INBBC):

    “According to the Zafer Nameh, our main source of information for Tamerlane’s campaigns, written at the beginning of the 15th century, Tamerlane set forth to conquer India solely to make war on the enemies of the Muslim faith. He considered the Muslim rulers of north India far too lenient towards pagans, that is to say, the Hindus. The Zafer Nameh tells us that, ‘The Koran emphasizes that the highest dignity to which man may attain is to wage war in person upon the enemies of the Faith. This is why the great Tamerlane was always concerned to exterminate the infidels, as much to acquire merit as from love of glory.’

    “At Delhi under the pretext that the hundred thousand Hindu prisoners presented a grave risk to his army, Tamerlane ordered their execution in cold blood. He killed thousands, and had victory pillars built of the severed heads. On his way out of India, he sacked Miraj, pulled down the monuments and flayed the Hindu inhabitants alive, ‘an act by which he fulfilled his vow to wage the Holy War. ‘This strange champion of Islam, as Grousset calls him, plundered and massacred ‘through blindness or close-mindedness to a certain set of cultural values.’

    “Tamerlane systematically destroyed the Christians, and as a result the Nestorians and Jacobites of Mesopotamia have never recovered. At Sivas, 4000 Christians were buried alive; at Tus there were 10000 victims. Historians estimate the number of dead at Saray to be 100000; at Baghdad 90000; at Isfahan 70000.”

    -Excerpt from:-

    “Jihad, the Arab Conquests and the Position of Non-Muslim Subjects Part II”
    http://www.centerforinquiry.net/isis/islamic_viewpoints/jihad_the_arab_conquests_and_the_position_of_non_muslim_subjects_part_ii/

       1 likes

  8. As I See It says:
    December 4, 2012 at 10:33 am

    We hear that there has been a barney in Belfast over the flying of the Union Jack.

    Our Dame Nicky doesn’t want to talk about that. He rapidly muses ‘Has the Pope started Tweeting yet?’

    The sports reporter at BBC 5 Live tells us that His Holiness has indeed opened his Twitter account but has yet to start Tweeting.

    Nicky can’t wait. Well, it will be grist to his comedic mill. Can’t you just imagine the gag potential for our Nicky? He is a funny man. Well he thinks so. He thinks he’s up there with Markus Brigstock and Jeremy Hardy. Think PC-Jimmy Boyle, that’s our Nicky.

       1 likes

  9. As I See It says:
    December 4, 2012 at 10:37 am

    ‘BBC snaps up JK’s new book: Casual Vacancy set to become multi-million pound series broadcast in 2014’

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2242545/JK-Rowling-BBC-snaps-new-book-The-Casual-Vacancy-TV-series.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

    The Guardian said it was “unadventurous” with a “righteous social message”

    Daily Mail writer Jan Moir described it as: ‘500 pages of relentless socialist manifesto, masquerading as literature, crammed down your throat.’

    BBC/JK Rowling: A marriage made in heaven

       0 likes

  10. George R says:
    December 4, 2012 at 10:42 am

    BBc-NUJ Radio 5’s small story this morning:

    the welfare of mice.

       0 likes

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