197 Responses to OPEN THREAD

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  1. DJ says:
    January 10, 2013 at 12:31 pm

    Another BBC classic on the Jeremy Whine Show just now. They were talking about the lawsuit against the police by Stephen Lawrence’s brother. Predictably, it was another coppenheissfest. But what about the disproportionate amount of crime committed by the ‘black community’? Ah yes, it turns out it’s all a myth caused by people making bogus crime reports.

    In other words, the BBC’s position is not only to take at face value a claim of harassment made by a member of Britain’s most notorious family of race hustlers, but also to swallow whole a crazed conspiracy theory that would, for example, require 80% of the reported muggings by black assailants in London to be bogus.

    All of which is by way of saying we now have a new Gold Standard to use to measure any claims that it’s this website which is paranoid.

       4 likes

  2. George R says:
    January 10, 2013 at 12:49 pm

    No to Islamic Turkey in E.U and U.K.

    INBBC sees no link between murders of PKK Kurds in France by Muslim Turks, and how similar atrocities would happen in U.K if Turks get entry into E.U and U.K.

    “Kurdish PKK co-founder Sakine Cansiz shot dead in Paris”
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20968375

       1 likes

  3. AsISeeIt says:
    January 10, 2013 at 1:01 pm

    Midday today and BBC5 Live are somewhat nonplussed as to how to react to the announcement of the closure of prison places. On the one hand we don’t want anyone to be sent to prison & and the other hand we don’t like Government announcements.
    I wonder what the public think?
    Shelagh Fogarty takes exception to ‘the one text we’ve received’. The correspondent suggests that if the Prison Service is to save cash how about cut backs in prisoners’ TVs, sports facilities, Jacuzzis….?
    This evokes a scathing put down from left-winger Fogarty, ‘That old chestnut!’
    To redirect the discussion she requests listeners who are relatives of prisoners contact her to tell how it will affect them when local prisons are closed thereby increasing the amount of travel involved in visiting.
    After all, as Shelagh points out, that’s one of the points that the Prison Officers Union spokesman has made.
    And to think people accuse the BBC of leftist bias and of grievance mongering!

       4 likes

  4. Dave666 says:
    January 10, 2013 at 1:06 pm

    It’s One O’clock and it feels like I’ve just jumped back in time, again. It’s BBC lunchtime news Peston and another negative banking story.
    Oh and we throw all our food away. Funny we don’t. Last time BBC ran this story it resulted in a complaint from me as one of their reporters went to the dump and failed to find the massive piles of binned . Business as usual at the BBc news division, same old same old.

       2 likes

  5. Reed says:
    January 10, 2013 at 2:21 pm

    For those on this blog who are regularly frustrated at the BBC’s unwillingness to apologise or accept wrongdoing when replying to a complaint, might I suggest that in future you pose as a faceless, unelected EU apparatchik (is there any other kind?). A grovelling apology will be immediately forthcoming, whether the BBC was at fault or not. It would appear that our national broadcaster considers officious foreign bureaucrats to be more equal than the citizens who fund it…

    ——————————————

    The following month, Olli Rehn, the vice-president of the European Commission, insisted that the Cassandras “have been proved wrong” over Greece, and the euro area more generally. (I have recently been told that in 2011, the BBC apologised to Mr Rehn’s spokesman, Amadeu Altafaj Tardio, after I called him “that idiot in Brussels”, causing him to flounce out of a Newsnight studio. The BBC did so without asking me. For the record, nothing Mr Altafaj Tardio or Mr Rehn have said or done since has caused me to reconsider my opinion.)

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/9790932/Europes-dogmatic-ruling-class-remains-wedded-to-its-folly.html

    Perhaps they were worried about those EU grants. Got to keep the feeders on side – the important ones that is, not the plebs…

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/9055183/BBC-admits-receiving-millions-in-grants-from-EU-and-councils.html

       3 likes

    • Reed says:
      January 10, 2013 at 2:37 pm

      The Oborne article is well worth a read. He sums up the different mentalities that produce the general British Euro-scepticism versus the continental drive for an EU super-state quite succinctly.

      —————————
      Anglo-Saxon empiricism and the idealism found on the Continent therefore prescribe directly opposite courses of political conduct. Empiricists are trained in scepticism and caution: if you put your hand in the fire once, you will not do so again. Idealists, by contrast, are much less likely to renounce a course of conduct or set of beliefs because reality gets in the way.
      Empiricists, alert to the lessons of history and conscious of man’s tragic imperfection, are wary. So they concentrate on specific rules – honesty, decency, accuracy, compassion to friends or care for a particular community. Idealists tend to embrace grand plans for social reconstruction or for general human salvation. They are much less worried by rule-breaking, especially if they believe that it serves the greater good.

      I never really know quite what to make of Mr. Oborne. He’s quite an unpredictable sort – sometimes full of common sense, other times bizarrely left-field.

         0 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      January 10, 2013 at 2:55 pm

      ‘The BBC did so without asking me’
      For what it is worth Obo-wan, that happens… a lot.

         1 likes

  6. Teddy Bear says:
    January 10, 2013 at 3:40 pm

    BBC Watch has highlighted an omission by the BBC to report the following story picked up by Associated Press:

    Egypt says it seizes US-made missiles near Gaza

    Despite revealing the obvious that Hamas continues to smuggle in weapons with the intention to strike Israel, the newspaper report highlights a few other facets:
    1. The Sinai Bedouins are not sympathetic to the Hamas cause.
    2. Despite justified concerns about the present Egyptian government intentions to abide by previous agreements with Israel, it is still trying to limit the smuggling of weapons by Hamas.
    3. Libya is a prime supplier of weapons to Hamas.

    Does each of these facts contribute to the public understanding of reality in this region, and what might contribute to future events? Of course it does!

    So what does it say about the BBC, which likes to believe it is a respected media outlet, that omits reporting it?

       1 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      January 10, 2013 at 4:02 pm

      ‘Hamas continues to smuggle in weapons’

      Maybe get Piers down a tunnel on film telling them they are being facile.
      I’d pay to watch that.
      Doubt the BBC would screen it, or indeed admit the aftermath.

         0 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:
      January 10, 2013 at 4:38 pm

      As far as I can tell, the BBC has censored all news of The Obamessiah secretly sending arms to Libya, arms which have already ended up elsewhere.

      They can’t start reporting this now. Of course, if the President decided to openly start arming Hamas for a war against Israel defending innocent babies against Israeli aggression and genocide, then the BBC would be all over it.

         1 likes

  7. David Preiser (USA) says:
    January 10, 2013 at 3:56 pm

    Stop the presses! Katty Kay has finally tweeted a criticism of her beloved Obamessiah!!! I think it’s the first tweet by any Beeboid so critical of Him.

    I’ve added it to my list as the exception which proves the rule. She’s still using her official BBC account to advocate for a political cause, a violation of BBC policy, but this daughter of the elite operates above the rules.

    As groundbreaking as this is, it’s nothing compared to what they should be doing: an actual report about just how poorly women other than Valerie Jarrett (who has some hold over Him I can’t fathom) are treated in His Administration. I wonder why Katty hasn’t been encouraging one of the legion of Beeboids in the US to put together one of those “bespoke” video magazine pieces on the topic?

       1 likes

    • Reed says:
      January 10, 2013 at 4:07 pm

      So her first criticism of ‘The One’ has nothing to do with policy, but is no more than yet another identity/gender politics whine. Perhaps Obama should get in some Brown style ‘window dressing’, so that Mrs. Kay could allow herself the convenience of looking the other way rather than having to break from the script.

         0 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:
        January 10, 2013 at 4:28 pm

        Women in the workplace stuff is an issue Katty exploits her high-profile position at the BBC to advocate. She’s even used her official BBC Twitter account to push her personal side business, “Womenomics”.

        and here, for example.

           1 likes

    • Reed says:
      January 10, 2013 at 4:12 pm

      Of course, if this were a new Romney administration, there would be endless pieces all over the MSM hinting at a misogynist or old-school chauvinist undercurrent within the White House, suggesting that the so-called ‘war on women’ did indeed have some basis.

         0 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:
        January 10, 2013 at 4:29 pm

        Exactly. And then it would be newsworthy enough for the BBC to follow the crowd and report.

           1 likes

  8. George R says:
    January 10, 2013 at 4:48 pm

    BBC-NUJ: Move along, nothing to see here:-

    ‘Daily Mail’-
    “White Britons are now a minority in Leicester, Luton and Slough and Birmingham is set to follow by end of decade.
    All three communities have a white British population of less than 50%, 2011 UK census shows, and Birmingham will be the same by 2020.
    Slough has the lowest proportion of white Britons in the UK outside London – 35 per cent.
    Immigration from Eastern Europe since 2004 a major cause, say academics.”
    By MARTIN ROBINSON.

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2260067/White-Britons-minority-Leicester-Luton-Slough-Birmingham-set-follow-end-decade.html#ixzz2Hak3QEoe
    Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

       2 likes

    • Mark says:
      January 10, 2013 at 5:31 pm

      Those academics are barking up the wrong tree, by choosing not to mention immigration from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Somalia as a major issue. These academics are brave enough to talk about immigation from Eastern Europe, but are still silent about immigration from Islamic countries.

         2 likes

  9. JaneTracy says:
    January 10, 2013 at 5:01 pm

    As ever Stephanie “floundering” Flanders is dreadfully confused. From her blog.

    “I served briefly on the Consumer Prices Advisory Committee, set up a few years ago to advise on such changes, along with other outsiders like the FT Economics Editor and representatives of the Bank of England and the CBI.”

    Only an insider like Stephanie could possibly consider the FT and the Bank of England to be outsiders….

       3 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:
      January 10, 2013 at 5:13 pm

      So she served as a policy advocate, and now is supposed to impartial on the issue. Uh-huh.

         1 likes

      • Guest Who says:
        January 10, 2013 at 5:16 pm

        Larks, next you’ll be telling us she has some form in what lay behind the preferred leaning of her gleaming spire social set.

           0 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      January 10, 2013 at 5:13 pm

      Like many things BBC, probably it’s more the relative positions of observation, end of telescope used, and degree of lens tint that influence perceived vs. actual locations.

         0 likes

  10. George R says:
    January 10, 2013 at 5:20 pm

    Britain and Islamic jihad in Syria.

    BBC-NUJ: ‘ we prefer to put out vague reports on anything which might have to do with Islam and violence’, so we don’t do 1.) and 2.) below, but we do 3.)’:-

    1.)

    “#MyJihad in the UK: Four Muslims arrested over Syrian jihad plot”
    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/01/myjihad-in-the-uk-four-muslims-arrested-over-syrian-jihad-plot.html#comments

    2.)

    “Dewsbury to Damascus: The danger of young British Muslims learning to wage Jihad in Syria”
    By MICHAEL BURLEIGH (Aug 2012).

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2189192/How-British-jihadists-causing-mayhem-Syria.html#ixzz2Hat0CIFF
    Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

    3.)

    “Four men arrested in London in Syria terror inquiry”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20976211

       0 likes

  11. Guest Who says:
    January 10, 2013 at 5:22 pm

    Questions to which the answers… may be two-worded…
    http://tradingaswdr.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/news-product.html?
    Do you want to share your personality with BBC News ?
    3. Trust and context – trust is essential when building connections with consumers. Users are more at ease getting personalized experiences from a brand they trust.
    Especially one given access to their online rummaging.
    I wonder what Alan’s answer may be?

       2 likes

  12. Alex Feltham says:
    January 10, 2013 at 5:37 pm

    Our Stef (Stephanie Flanders, BBC economics guru must be tickled pink to have Barroso agreeing with her prediction of euro recovery in 2013.

    For a humorous take on this tragi-drama see:”Butch and the Sundance”at:

    http://john-moloney.blogspot.com/

       0 likes

  13. Dave666 says:
    January 10, 2013 at 5:50 pm

    One of my friends complained to the BBc for the first time ever just before Xmas. I told him their first course of action would be to ignore him. I spoke to him on Monday-suprise he had no reply from the BBc . They don’t care if you complain I know that from my own experience.

       1 likes

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