234 Responses to Open Thread Monday

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  1. David Preiser (USA) says:
    May 21, 2013 at 9:58 pm

    The wagons begin to circle. The President’s media apparatus is coming to the rescue, it seems.

    The JournoList is back, folks. And these are the people the BBC looks to to decide what to report and how to report it. In the Soviet Union and North Korea, so-called journalists didn’t do this voluntarily.

       7 likes

  2. George R says:
    May 21, 2013 at 10:38 pm

    “You should have heard Jeremy Paxman grill Gandhi.
    After his surreally combative interview with astronaut Tim Peake, here are some earlier Paxo grillings you may have missed.”

    By John Crace.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/21/jeremy-paxman-tim-peake-astronaut-grilling?INTCMP=SRCH

       1 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      May 22, 2013 at 12:04 pm

      It was an interesting piece, not least from the surreal conversations prompted in the comments.
      However, Newsnight seems pleased to at least be talked about for stuff other than woeful journalism.
      BBC Newsnight ‏@BBCNewsnight 20h
      “You should have heard Jeremy Paxman grill Gandhi” – #Newsnight moments as imagined by the Guardian’s John Crace http://bit.ly/14Nc7Sg
      Not sure if instead being slated for woeful predictability in one-trick pony ‘interviewing’ is much to be proud of mind, especially when the Graun is the paper to notice and pass comment.
      Paxo must be thrilled by his legacy being associated with Newsnight and such as this.

         0 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:
      May 22, 2013 at 2:32 pm

      I eagerly await Paxman being equally tough on a government figure or activist regarding the billions spent on aid to corrupt kleptocracies in certain parts of the world.

         1 likes

  3. Daphne Anson says:
    May 21, 2013 at 11:51 pm

    Just to say that I put on a long post yesterday re the early years of CAABU (Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding), in the course of which I cite the active involvement in CAABU of certain Beeboids of the day.
    http://daphneanson.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/caabu-in-beginning-spot-bbc-connections.html

       3 likes

    • John Anderson says:
      May 22, 2013 at 4:55 am

      Interesting article. I particularly remember the acid attacks on Israel by Keith Kyle at the BBC.

      You have a very interesting snippet from the 1977 speech by Christopher Mayhew :

      ” “Those who founded CAABU, at a meeting here in the House of Commons ten years ago, took on a formidable task – to challenge the deeply held beliefs about Palestine of the overwhelming majority of the British people.

      An opinion poll just published by the Sunday Times had shown that only 2% of the British people supported the Arabs. It was almost universally agreed that the 1967 war had been planned and started by the Arabs with Russian support; that the Arabs were racialists who aimed to drive the Jews into the sea; that the Palestinian refugees had left Israel in 1948 and should resettle elsewhere in the Arab world; that the refugee camps were kept in being by the Arab Governments as a political weapon against Israel; that Israel, a small country surrounded by numerous enemies, had no designs at all on Arab territory unless, reasonably enough, to secure her own security; and that, in general, after the appalling sufferings of the Jewish people, Israel was entitled, on moral, legal and historical grounds, to the wholehearted support of the civilised world.

      To make things worse, these opinions were shared at that time by almost all newspaper proprietors and editors, almost all the directing staff of the BBC and ITV, almost all MPs, and almost the entire publishing and film industries.”

      It is appalling how far people have strayed from the commonsense truth about the responsibility of the Arabs and the Palestinians for their own mess.

         4 likes

  4. OldBloke says:
    May 22, 2013 at 8:02 am

    Wow! I’m Mr Angry this morning. Switched on Radio 4 (why do I do this?) and I’m met with David Attenborough
    talking about the missing wildlife and he started with his ramble by stating that we hadn’t heard the Cookoo this year!! Well excuse me sir! Where I live we have heard the cookoo for well over a month now and no more than one sitting on my roof on sunday morning at 4.30 am banging out his cookoo!!! Please Mr Attenborough get your facts right before saying such a sweeping statement such as we hadn’t heard the cookoo this year. Agenda? Nah.

       8 likes

    • AsISeeIt says:
      May 22, 2013 at 8:47 am

      I’m a political refugee who fled BBC Radio 4. I claimed asylum among the football and dumbed down news at 5 Live. Lord Helpus His Almightyness David Attenborough KGB BBC came lumbering across the way to seek me out on Nicky Campbell’s Flying Circus.

      Aw, der poor diddle kweechers!

      Seems the worst of the bad guys are imported mink that were first brought here for the fur trade. (Shudder). Vicious relentless predators who kill everything in their path. Naughty naughty kweechers these mink!

      The ultimate good is to preserve our idigenous wildlife. So it would seem diversity and vibrancy ain’t good for the British wildlife.

         5 likes

      • Andrew says:
        May 30, 2013 at 10:31 am

        “… diversity and vibrancy ain’t good for the British wildlife.” We really never would have guessed that, would we!

           0 likes

    • Roland Deschain says:
      May 22, 2013 at 8:54 am

      Plenty cuckoos on Radio 4.

         5 likes

  5. OldBloke says:
    May 22, 2013 at 8:04 am

    The BBC, news reporting you can trust. Yeah, right!

       1 likes

  6. George R says:
    May 22, 2013 at 9:42 am

    LABOUR PARTY SPLITS.

    BBC-NUJ is quick to identify and propagandise ‘Tory splits’, but what’s this:-

    Isn’t this a Labour Party split, BBC-NUJ (although you don’t name it as such)?

    [Opening excerpt]:-

    “Len McCluskey, leader of the Unite trade union, has hit back at Lord Mandelson for accusing him of rigging parliamentary candidate selections.

    “The peer claims Unite have hijacked the process as part of an attempt to seize greater control of the party.

    “But Mr McCluskey said the last Labour government dished out seats ‘on the basis of personal connections’.”
    From:-
    “Unite leader Len McCluskey hits back over Mandelson Labour candidate claims.”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22607777

       2 likes

  7. Old Goat says:
    May 22, 2013 at 9:54 am

    Attenborough on Today this morning, bemoaning the apparent demise of various species of wildlife, including the cuckoo, and wildflowers in fields and along roads (plenty here in France profund, incidentally – in fact, the wildflowers this year have gone berserk, and there are currently three cuckoos singing – reminiscent of days of my youth in the UK).

    Any road up, I thought we were going to get to the end of the piece without climate change rearing its ugly head, but no, there it was, with the great greenie-idol warning us that because it was getting warmer (??), species normally found on the continent were moving north. Getting warmer? Is it? I think not, Mr.A.

    On the contrary, I think the next Little Ice Age is slowly but surely approaching – which may account for the apparent vanishing of certain species, others returning to the continent, and yet even more (like the cuckoo, perhaps?) not bothering to go further north than France. And who can blame them for not wishing to visit the Former UK?

    Of course, the spread of urbanisation doesn’t help, nor does the unexpected and unwanted influx of non-ethical Brits which has boosted the population, of of course Mr. A. is a self-confessed misanthropist, and hates the human race anyway. If he had his way, we would have ceased to exist long ago, and we wouldn’t be alive today to witness the comings and goings of species – they’d be doing it alone, for their own benefit.

       8 likes

    • will says:
      May 22, 2013 at 10:28 am

      My comment below being drafted as you posted Old Goat.

         1 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      May 22, 2013 at 12:18 pm

      It has of course cropped up on the enviro pages of the print world too, and this is where it gets more interesting as folk do at least have some chance of commenting.
      At least there appear caveats aplenty to make this more another ‘report suggests’ punt than anything too definitive, but some were interested in what factors were highlighted… and what not.
      Quite a few noticed that while human impacts are acknowledged, some were perhaps less analysed than others.
      Take my little rural idyll. Seems that the authorities feel what does currently make it a nice place to stroll around can only be improved by the introduction of several hundred ‘affordable houses’ with, one presumes, consequent calls on land, resources, and significant waste impositions too.
      None of this seems likely to reduce the burden on the local wildlife any more than the existing rate/taxpayers, as ‘affordable’ seems to be a euphemism for ‘other people paying for incoming voters who know who has their best interests at heart’.

         2 likes

      • Roland Deschain says:
        May 22, 2013 at 12:29 pm

        What exactly is an unaffordable house? Evidently people can afford them, or they would remain unsold.

           1 likes

        • Guest Who says:
          May 22, 2013 at 2:05 pm

          ‘What exactly is an unaffordable house?’
          Possibly, in certain cases, one where the ability to sustain an extra, empty bedroom in even an initially affordable house is not possible without further state subsidy?

             0 likes

  8. will says:
    May 22, 2013 at 10:26 am

    The BBC News Channel’s reports of UK wildlife decline are keen to portray us all as very naughty boys. Odd that the BBC’s enthusiastic support for an open door immigration “policy”, that has resulted in several million unnecessary additional people in the country is not seen as a contributory factor in the loss of habitat.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/22609000

       9 likes

  9. AsISeeIt says:
    May 22, 2013 at 2:07 pm

    BBC News 24 is keen to tell us that ‘higher temperatures’ have caused a decline in native species.

    Gosh. Meanwhile the human population is up 10 million on 1961 (not counting those not owning up to the Census) so we know this is heffalump in the playroom time at Nanny’s.

    Empty out your pockets plebs because it is time for ‘investment in conservation’.

    Have you noticed how all public spending is termed ‘investment’?

    Tourists are about to flock here just to catch a glimpse of the Lesser Spotted Lowland Squidgeon!

    Then it is over to the weather forcast and Mother Nature just won’t play ball – the UK has ‘below average temperatures’.

    Bugger Blasted Contradictions

       3 likes

  10. David Preiser (USA) says:
    May 22, 2013 at 2:16 pm

    So much for the BBC’s “Lone Wolf” Narrative about the Boston Bomber(s):

    Orlando man killed by FBI had ties to Boston Marathon bombing suspect, NBC News confirms

    An FBI agent shot and killed a man overnight in Orlando who had ties to one of the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings, NBC News has confirmed.

    According to NBC News, a special agent was interviewing the suspect regarding his connections to bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev and other extremists. The suspect, identified by the FBI as Ibragim Todashev, was originally cooperative, but he was shot after attacking the agent, NBC News reported.

    ……….

    “(The FBI) took me and my friend, (Ibragim Todashev). They were talking to us, both of us, right? And they said they need him for a little more, for a couple more hours, and I left, and they told me they’re going to bring him back. They never brought him back,” Taramiv said.

    Now, why would the guy be afraid the FBI agents were going to kill him? Actually, it turns out he had something of a short fuse, so maybe he was just stupid rather than guilty.

    Todashev was arrested May 4 on charges of aggravated battery after a fight at the Premium Outlets.

    According to that arrest affidavit, Todashev told police that a father and son pushed him and “got in his face” during an argument about a parking spot.

    Police said they found the father in the parking lot with a “considerable amount of blood,” and the son had a split upper lip, head injury and several teeth knocked out.

    But still, the FBI and who knows else has been investigating all these connections to the Boston bomber(s), which means they don’t agree with the BBC’s “Lone Wolf” Narrative. So, either the BBC made a wrong call based on no evidence whatsoever, or The Obamessiah they all love has for no real reason ordered the FBI to go around killing Mohammedans without due process of law. Your choice, Beeboids.

    PS: I know the problem here is the drifting definition of “Lone Wolf”. The BBC meant that Tsarnaev decided to commit mass murder on his own, sought out radicalization on his own, and wasn’t part of an official cell of any group or whatever. But clearly he didn’t act alone, as we know about what he got up to in Dagestan. And it seems that he certainly didn’t keep his intentions a secret from a select group of associates. So the BBC needs to reconsider their use of the term, as it’s beginning to deny reality.

       2 likes

  11. Guest Who says:
    May 22, 2013 at 2:17 pm

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22621525
    Maybe Mr. Mardell is introducing them to ‘Truthiness in context’ ((c) Abbott. D, Scott M. et al) in ‘analysing’ what the Administration’s best and finest are trotting out with, as we speak?

       0 likes

  12. David Preiser (USA) says:
    May 22, 2013 at 2:21 pm

    As soon as I posted the above comment, I went back to the BBC website and saw that they’ve put up a quickie from the wire services about this.

    Florida FBI kill man ‘linked to Boston suspect Tsarnaev’

    No real information, compared to the local news report I cited above, other than a couple of quick quotes from the FBI mouthpiece. As usual, you’d be more informed by a properly-run news aggregator, and the BBC could spend the millions of pounds they saved on hiring more journalists so Newsnight doesn’t have to keep producing error-ridden crap from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, and they can add a couple more microwaves in the staff canteen.

       2 likes

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    May 30, 2013 at 10:17 am

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       0 likes

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