After Harriet Harman declared that the BBC is the ‘gold standard’ that other broadcasters and media must look to for inspiration and guidance I thought no more could be said about the glorious Beeb…clearly I was wrong, the last open thread is bulging and Brian Sewell’s (H/T George R & Buggy) own assessment rings very true…‘Bollocks…it could be ten times better’……
Open Thread Monday
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Not for MARDELL:-
“CNN Poll:
Majority Doesn’t Trust Obama, Approval Rating Suffers Severe Drop”
http://www.newsmax.com/newswidget/cnn-poll-obama-approval/2013/06/17/id/510211?promo_code=E700-1&utm_source=Front_Page_Mag&utm_medium=nmwidget&utm_campaign=widgetphase1
For Mardell’s Obamessiah:
“SARAH PALIN ON SYRIA: ‘LET ALLAH SORT IT OUT’”
(inc 30 sec video clip).
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/06/16/sarah-palin-on-syria-let-allah-sort-it-out/
I was appalled by the Andrew Neil interview of Tommy Robinson . Luckily Robinson held his own to quite a degree. Neil was indeed using all the UAF and Mehdi talking points against Robinson,, and shied away from the issues of real substance in favour of trying all the time to smear Robinson.
A few seconds later he was apologising for interrupting the MCB spokesman just once. Robinson received no apologies in spite of endless interruptions by Andrew Neil. Blatant bias – the MCB guy was as slippery as they come but was not being pressed hard for any proper answers.
Why did Andrew Neil run it this way ? Robinson’s core argument is that the culture of this country faces an existential threat from Islamism, and the Muslim community is doing hardly anything effective to stamp out the terrorist-supporters in their midst – for instance by cooperating properly with the police.
It is easy to criticise Robinson, or to try to talk down to him – but he voices opinions that many share,. It is craven political correctness – or fear – that has caused public authorities, politicians of all parties and much of the media – especially the BBC – to fail to focus on the existential threat, and the effect of mass non-integrating immigration by a supremacist cult/ideology on the working class in this country.
Robinaon has seen off several interviewers on the BBC and other channels, including the fabled Jeremy Paxman. Maybe Andrew Neil was trying to be macho, trying to show that he could be the first to dominate Robinson ? Whatever the reason, I hope Andrew Neil takes stock of the criticisms that have been made of his out-of-character performance.
Andrew ‘brillio pad’ Neil doesn’t care about Britain, after all, he’s left the sinking ship, he now lives in France, Grasse near Nice.
Loves muslims and multiculturalism, and does everything he possibly can to live as far away from them.
http://www.independent.co.uk/property/interiors/carefully-edited-andrew-neils-french-retreat-858077.html
http://www.connexionfrance.com/my-life-in-france-andrew-neil-10277-news-article.html
Indeed, in the midst of twitter debate following his ‘ interview’ with Stephen Yaxley Lennon, he blithely quipped ‘ yes and I will laugh all the way to Nice’
How’s that for champagene socialism? Wot no villa in Tuscany?
TV licence fee excuses revealed….”Excuses for non-payment given last year included:”
Followed by a list of deeply unfunny excuses. No comment allowed on the page unfortunately, but we could have fun with this here.
“I didn’t pay my TV license last year because……”
Because, as Andrew Marr has said, the BBC has a cultural liberal bias and I don’t see why I should fund an organisation that actively promotes values that I fundamentally disagree with.
because the bbc is shit
I’m not a socialist.
I have a brain and if I wanted it insulted on a regular basis by a group of morons with loads of poor peoples cash and more creepy middle aged guys then a Bangkok brothel then I would choose a career in politics and claim the £145 on expenses !!
I want to be sure that all my licence money is going to paedophiles so I would rather donate to a regsitered paedophile charity.
“TV Licensing spokesman Stephen Farmer said: “Some of the excuses are simply hilarious whilst others show a great deal of imagination and creativity but being caught without a valid TV licence is a criminal offence and no laughing matter.”
He forgot to add, “We have baseballs bats, we know where you live, pay up or else.”
That’s kind of what it sounded like.
The Telegraph has also covered this
Worst excuses from TV license dodgers exposed in new advert
I notice they seem to be cutting down on the articles where one can leave comments nowadays.
So I was thinking what are the worst excuses by the BBC to collect their licence fee.
If you can think of any I might have missed be sure to add them.
1. We are fair.
2. We are balanced.
3. We are open, transparent, and comprehensive.
4. We are honest and maintain integrity in our reporting.
5. We cover news from the perspective and values of our society.
6. We endeavour to provide value for money.
7. We seek to provide high quality programming for a range of audiences.
Yeah right! 🙄
The BBC hoping that ‘climate experts’ meeting at the Met Office HQ in Exeter to ‘examine’ ‘what’s wrong with Britain’s weather’ later today could discover a link to ‘man-made climate change’ – says such a discovery ‘could have huge policy implications’.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22948138
Anyone willing to guess how many of these ‘experts’ are not fully signed-up CAGW evangelists?
not one mention that theres been no global warming for nearly 20 years
this meeting of so called experts will simply say its all down to climate change, caused by man (not women) and we need more wind turbines and taxes
not one mention that theres been no global warming for nearly 20 years
Well, in climate science you can only determine a trend by looking at least 30 years of data, so “deniers” need to shut up about this, we’re told. But the BBC breathlessly tells me that these climate boffins are examining whether last 5 or 6 years of wetter than normal Summers are tied into AGW. So there you are – some trends are more equal than others.
The BBC have so far failed to apologise for telling us for years that global warming will mean hotter, drier Summers for us here in Britain. This trend is definitely set to continue.
the conclusion will no doubt be another excuse to screw poor old Joe Public out of more of his money.
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/londoners-diary/if-andrew-marr-scales-back-who-will-replace-him-8661861.html?origin=internalSearch
‘It remains an open question for how much longer the Corporation will pay Marr’s £580,000-a-year salary.’
I wish Andrew Marr well and a speedy recovery.
He is overpaid.
I thought he was a Lefty?
I guess I would love the BBC for a cool half-a-mill
Gosh, I wonder what put Mair on the top of the list of potential replacements?
A little snapshot of the cosy chattering class consensus that surrounds the BBC – Radio 1’s Head of Programmes Rhys Hughes (the radical chic “anarchist”) recounts meeting David Dimbleby recently:
Why stop there? Why not lobby to have every person whose politically incorrect views you dislike excluded from Question Time?
[I find it quite amusing that Radical Rhys is so taken with Dimbleby (Charterhouse, Bullingdon Club) and the views of his wife Belinda (daughter of Lady Katharine Pamela Sackville).]
The bBBC trailer for Thursday’s QT has Dimbleby saying that guests include the ‘comedian’ Russell Brand and ‘the controversial Daily Mail columnist Melanie Phillips’.
DB, what’s with the fascist avatar? Didn’t Hughes learn his lesson from last time? I think somebody needs a refresher course.
Everyone from anarchists to Leeds United (Radical Rhys’s team) use the clenched fist symbol. Just the sort of thing a “with it” middle-aged media executive would go for.
Will BBC-NUJ accuse ‘The Guardian’ of being anti-British?
That would be a first.
“Shock horror! Britain spies on other nations: The Guardian rightly attacks the hacking of private phones – but glories in betraying Britain by revealing our State secrets. ”
By Stephen Glover.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2343416/STEPHEN-GLOVER-Shock-horror-Britain-spies-nations-The-Guardian-rightly-attacks-hacking-private-phones–glories-betraying-Britain-revealing-State-secrets.html
Barry Obama Lyndon is a 2013 British Broadcasting Corporation period production starring Mark Mardell and a huge cast of nearly 50 other BBC journalists. It was written, produced, and directed by the BBC. The movie is based on the fictional novel The Luck of Barry Obama Lyndon by Makepeace Drone Guantanamo Thackeray which recounts the exploits of a fictional 21st century Black-Irish-American-Kenyan-Hawaiian adventurer from Chicago.
Most of the exteriors were shot on location in Ireland. Most of the GIs were shot on location in the Middle East.
At the 2013 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards Barry Obama Lyndon will win four Oscars in production categories.
The film, which enjoyed only modest commercial success and a mixed critical reception on initial release, is now regarded as one of BBC’s finest creations. However, in numerous polls, such as Village Voice, The Voice, The Guardian, and Gay Times, it has been rated one of the greatest films ever made. Hopeful Ed Miliband has cited Barry Obama Lyndon as his favourite BBC film.
IMDb summary : A Black-Irish rogue wins the heart of a rich widowed auntie and assumes her dead husband’s [Lord Reith] position in 21st Century aristocracy.
Source Material
In a book Mardell would have used Barry to tell his own story in a deliberately distorted way because it made it more interesting. Instead of the unbiased reporter, the BBC prefers the imperfect observer, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say the dishonest observer, thus not allowing the viewer to judge for himself the probable truth in Barry’s view of his life. This technique worked extremely well in the novel but, of course, in a film you have objective reality in front of you all of the time, so the effect of Mardell’s first-person story-teller could not be repeated on the screen. It might have worked as comedy by the juxtaposition of Barry’s version of the truth with the reality on the screen, but it was decided to be politically incorrect that Barry Obama Lyndon should been done as a comedy.
Reception
The movie was not the commercial success the BBC had been hoping for within the United States although it fared better in Europe. This mixed reaction saw the film (in the words of one retrospective review) “greeted, on its release, with dutiful admiration – but not love. Critics… rail[ed] against the perceived coldness of Barry’s style, the film’s self-conscious artistry and slow pace. Audiences, on the whole, rather agreed…” This air of disappointment factored into BBC’s decision to next produce Iran: The New Moderate and Ed Miliband The New Statesman – two projects that would not only please them artistically, but also be more likely to succeed financially.
In recent years, Barry Obama Lyndon has gained a more positive reaction. It holds a 94% “Certified Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 49 reviews. There are however suggestions that up to 48 of 49 of those reviews originated from the office computer of British Labour frontbencher Chuka Umunna. Mark Mardell added the film to his ‘Great Movies’ list writing, “It defies us to care, it asks us to remain only observers of its stately elegance”, and it “must be one of the most beautiful stories [I’ve] ever made.”
Now I get the Barry Lyndon gag. I actually saw the Stanley Kubrick movie several years ago, and while it was very pretty to look at, Ryan O’Neal was so totally out of place, out of his depth, it was distracting. A very shallow presence. And it seemed like he knew it, too. I got the impression of his being embarrassed to be there every time he was on camera.
It fits right in with The Obamessiah, being completely out of His depth, out of place.
No I’m not having that Barry Lyndon is an unrecognised classic.
O’Neal’s shallowness is the result of the slightly dislocated style that Kubrick uses in a lot of his films. It makes us feel like unintentional observers of other peoples interactions.
It is not just pretty to look at, it is mesmerising.
On Today this morning even climate “scientist” Brian Hoskins, front man for arch warmist-financier Jeremy Grantham, was equivocal about the extent – even existence – of AGW. Webb’s increasingly desperate attempts to get Hoskins to lay recent bad weather at the feet of MMCC were met with declarations of “we don’t know whats happening” from Hoskins. Oh dear, if this kind of thing keeps occurring, Today will have to drag on more practised charlatans (Hansen or Mann would fit the bill) to join Harrabin to lie for the cause.
Later on Today Humphrys quizzed Osborne on the latest efforts at G8 to combat tax “dodging” (the convenient word which elides the distinction between legal and illegal minimisation of tax payable by private wealth-creating entities to the state – any state). Humphrys gives an “A” to such efforts calling into evidence that charlatan and tax “researcher” Richard Murphy has pronounced his approval ex cathedra.
Notice that no-one outside statist circles was given a look-in here. Osborne was playing his devious best (“best” for Osborne is not looking or sounding a complete idiot) and Humphrys was channelling the TJN line that all wealth/income belongs to the state (again – any state) and asking Osborne why he doesn’t instruct our ex-colonies to hand over the info – and the “missing” tax presumaby – pronto.
In this whole avoidance farce no-one has mentioned (not on the BBC AFAIAA) that there is a real possibility that were there a new international tax dispensation on the lines preferred by the TJN and the BBC, the UK (and UK-based or UK HQed businesses) could lose out big-time: not a certainty but certainly a possibility. But we wouldn’t want to enable a genuine debate on this would we? The punters might get restless and start asking awkward questions.
i ve just heard bbc radio trumpeting another mosque … erm “fire”?
i have a feeling it won t be many minutes before i do again.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/407931/Scots-police-smash-two-large-paedophile-rings
but strangely, i haven t heard this though
ow queer! 😀
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-22948352
in the “singed eyebrow” of bbc reporting
Councillor Said Hansdot, the Muslim sheriff of Gloucester, said: “I’m disappointed at what has happened really”
ooooh brother!
Will there be a State funeral for Lee Rigby?
No doubt BBC-NUJ will keep us informed.
Syria was once a hospitable, friendly place? I’m so puzzled. What is the current war about?
Sorry! Comment in the wrong place. it was meant for the Brian Sewell…Not God But Perhaps Heaven Sent thread.
You’d never see this on the Anti-British Broadcasting Corporation. The picture taking much of the front page of The Times today shows Cameron and Obama with a group of 16 young schoolchildren in Enniskillen, every one of the children being white; indeed, there is only one mixed-race person in the photograph.
Northern Ireland as yet hasn’t been ‘blessed’ by Third World immigration.
Although Southern Ireland, from the YouTube clips I’ve seen are catching up, Gerry Adams ” Brits out, blacks and muslims in.”
Adams appears at 2.05, surrounded by uppity squealing African immigrants.
These third world immigrants are the vanguard of the one world government.
Yes I’m always amused at being lectured by left-wing Irish comics on the BBC about racism ,having told, by paddy, how well the fir gorum fare in the emerald isle
Ireland is an evil oppessive, racist, sexist, homophobic society.
Careful now remember their not English
But they white christians so they fair game.
Comrade
Irish politician ” I wont be representing African immigrants, they’re rude and bad mannered.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhZ8dRHLRpc&list=HL1371559648
Us Lefty’s need an underclass so we can feel good about ourselves.
I liked the little snitch / grass at 2.10
“Mr Obama also visited Enniskillen Integrated Primary School, where he joined UK Prime Minister David Cameron and pupils in some art work. The two leaders talked about Syria and the rest of the G8 agenda as they travelled together to and from the school, Downing Street aides said.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22935680
BBC caution concerning reporters ’embedded’ with the western military
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/blogcollegeofjournalism/posts/Embedded-in-Iraq-a-tool-in-the-military-tool-box-willingly-or-not
‘It… meant that we had chosen a side to report from, albeit as part of a wider BBC team that also had journalists and crews inside Saddam Hussein’s Baghdad, giving a different perspective and the other side to the war.’
No such qualms about being embedded with Oxfam?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/5live/posts/Zaatari-Refugee-Camp-in-Jordan
The blog only hints but the radio report reveals how Oxfam provided a minder/fixer.
He was, he admits, Oxfam’s ‘Press Officer’.
Sky tells the story of evil doers who do not pay the Licence fee, and make up silly excuses.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/tv-licence-dodgers-excuses-video-campaign-081048028.html#OkvDfIq
People who don’t pay the BBC licence fee should feel the full weight of the law.
People who don’t pay the BBC licence fee should use the cash to buy a full English to celebrate!
People who don’t pay the BBC licence fee should buy the Guardian instead.
People who don’t pay the BBC licence fee should buy the Guardian or if flush [no pun ] a better quality toilet paper instead.
The Guardian is excellent value you can read Comrade Toynbee’s words in it.
I do every morning , and as a poor person I appreciate her musings they are very absorbent !
People who don’t pay the licence fee should feel the full force of the BBC.
As Andrew Neil explained to Tommy Robinson: ‘Force’ is a threat of violence in any language…’they’ knew you were talking about violence’.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-22934155
Look it isn’t a terrorist attack, it’s just the exploding pavement !
Watch for this as a possible excuse for the next time there’s a terrorist incident in the capital.
the latest England news ala the bbc? … any guesses
in fact on bbc live as we speak … or is that type 😀
Stephen Lawrence gig
Plan B, Jamie Cullum, Jessie J, Tinie Tempah (pictured) and Ed Sheeran are among the stars who will perform at a concert in memory of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, 20 years after he was stabbed to death in Eltham.
…20 years after…. the BBC have flogged his murder to death…. at every conceivable opportunity
*groan
But there won’t be a concert for the student who has been decapitated in Sheffield. I wonder if there is a cultural connection here.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-22959089
Another golden opportunity missed by Robinson and the EDL.
The initial report on the website named the unfortunate victim, but not the name of the man accused of her murder. Not until an update at 18:44 was the name of the “culturally connected” accused revealed. A curious delay.
Benefit of the doubt time: maybe they didn’t get the name until later? But I love the language choices to describe how the poor girl “had suffered a severe knife attack, including the severing of her head”.
How about “had been stabbed multiple times and then beheaded”, BBC? A little too close to a certain recent head-severing for comfort, darlings? Time for a new style guide.
Again, though, since Tommy Robinson claims to be standing for the rights of people like this poor girl as well, the EDL ought to show a little support here. It would do wonders for the message and make Beeboid heads explode. They won’t, of course, because that’s all BS.
The Stephen Lawrence gig, with a host of gangster type rappers celebrating the short life of the black Jesus.
You’d think he was only person in the whole of Britain that has been murdered in the last 1000 years.
What they never mention (and avoid like the plague) is the black power salute he’s making in the favourite photo.
We only have the witness testimony of one person, Lawrence’s friend. We will never know if his testimony is accurate or not, however given the black supremacist nature of the black power salute, it is quite conceivable that words were exchanged on both sides prior to the fatal attack.
It seems very odd that there were no other similar kinds of unprovoked attacks leading up to this which might have been expected.
And as if by magic, before http://www.pc.rhul.ac.uk/sites/rheg/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Stephen-Lawrence_28_436402a.jpeg and after http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Qm2i8mXTjhs/S7B4dQmhldI/AAAAAAAACfg/ggtg8soC-bQ/s1600/stephen-lawrence-pic-pa-943423128.jpg
Funny how the newspaper editors crop the photograph. Puts a whole new spin on it.
Ah, no wonder the President was telling Northern Ireland school children that their government was a shining example of peace for the rest of the world to follow:
US to open direct Taliban talks
The BBC will be pleased, as this is the exact agenda they’ve been pushing for years. Terrorism and violence works, kids.
Yet another betrayal by politicians of our courageous and long suffering armed forces.
All this goes to show that only a punitive type raid works when the West is threatened. Any longer term involvement is suicidal and ends up like this. A betrayal of our forces
Alternatively, it shows that dicking around in a war zone with both hands and one leg tied behind their backs isn’t the best way to let the military do what needs to be done, and only puts far more of our troops in harms way for a much longer period of time.
The Arab Spring in Egypt just moves from strength to strength:
Morsi gives Egypt governorships to Islamist allies
The most significant appointment is for the tourist hotspot of Luxor, where the new governor comes from a party set up by an extremist group that carried out deadly attacks on foreigners in the 1990s.
Adel al-Khayat is a member of the political wing of Gamaa Islamiya, which claimed responsibility for the 1997 Luxor massacre in which around 60 tourists were killed.
The group subsequently renounced violence.
Whew, good thing they’re cool now. Or are they?
But its partisans hold ultraconservative views on matters like sunbathing, women wearing shorts, the consumption of alcohol and other things that many tourists consider necessary components of vacations to see the country’s Pharaonic sites.
Don’t worry, boys and girls. According to the BBC’s award-winning Middle East editor, Jeremy Bowen (until he got caught), the Muslim Brotherhood is conservative, moderate and non-violent.
Zahi Hawass better hurry up and do something before the place is destroyed.
The BBC appear to have left out the halal butchers name, wonder why?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-22959089
I blame inequality and racism in Sheffield.
What of Sheffield’s foreign policy?
“Foreign policy” in Yorkshire means having to acknowledge Lancashire.
So the 18:00 hour news is on. “Scientists are meeting to discuss the weather” and a concert for St. Stephen of Lawrence. Iv
‘e had enough the off button has been pressed.
Climate: Beeboids think it’s getting warm, but hasn’t much of a clue.
Beeboids’ propaganda misguidedly suggests in its headline that U.K. weather trend is to be mainly seen in ‘warmist’ terms, not in historically cyclical trends:
[Some]”Scientists say UK wet summers” [may be] “down to Atlantic” [cyclical] “warming”
By BBC’s Matt McGrath.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22959578
This is not a comment about any great issue of politics; public affairs, social issues, scientific debate or religion. It is an observation about the raw commercial greed of the BBC. For all the vaunted liberal/leftist anti – capitalist claims of this publicly funded organisation, when it comes to making money it is as rapacious as any capitalist multinational corporation.
I have enjoyed watched The Fall, a crime drama set in Northern Ireland/Ulster. I currently have no means of recording directly from my TV, have just moved and not continued my SKY subscription. I assumed that I would be able to, as I had done with first 5 episodes, view the finale on BBC iplayer. But no. The final episode was never posted on iplayer. Why? For sound commercial reasons. The BBC decided to put the series out on DVD almost immediately after the showing of the final episode. So if I want to watch the final episode I have to purchase the DVD for £13.72 from Amazon. As a license fee payer I feel well shafted.
Don’t run away with the idea that for £145 you own any part of the BBC. You ain’t even a stakeholder. You see the way the BBC understands things is that they are funded by tax. The BBC loves taxes. The higher the taxes the better. Oh, I know that forcing you to buy the DVD seems like naked commercialism but actually they are maximising the tax take. The more tax the happier the nation and the richer the BBC.
BBC4 Cardiff Singer of the World
A Croatian baritone comes to the stage to perform a choral piece by Handel
‘He’s going to sing in English – which may be a brave choice in this land of song’
‘He’s recovered well after the Handel which was a cultural misunderstanding’
I’m afraid I hadn’t realised that the world should know we are engaged in all out cultural war against all things English.
Thank you for telling me BBC
How ironic that a young man from the former Jugoslavia should have wandered unwittingly into such Balkan-esque maze of anti-English squabbling.
If you want a vision of the future imagine the BBC ramming a leek into an English face, forever.
I see there are plans to talk to the Taliban in their shiny new offices in Qatar.
I can imagine the talks:
US: So you promise not to keep detonating bombs ?
Taliban: Yes, of course we will require 72 virgins delivered to our door once a month.
US: Fine, if it keeps the peace.
What’s Pashto for “Sinn Fein”?
It seems that the British establishment has been supplying many more than 72 virgins to the muslim paedophile grooming gangs for 2 decades now.
The price of getting their votes?
The new middle class revolution: Facts and figures…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22951558
One day, everyone will be a lazy idiot who thinks they are better than others less fortunate.
The BBC better not be assuming that the couple hundred million people whose rural communities are being razed and then forced to move into the giant concrete urban centers (shiny new awesome cities to the BBC) where they won’t be able to find jobs or fend for themselves will be part of this new “middle class”.
Mark Mardell was opining just last week when the President met with the Chinese boss that His smart diplomacy was going to boost the economy of California on the newly-fattened wallets of those hundreds of millions of Chinese middle class consumers.
Alaa Jarban: One of Yemen’s first openly gay men
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22893341
One day, everyone will be employed by the BBC so long as you are middle-class, muslim and gay.
Normal is what the BBC says it is.
War-war, not jaw-jaw.
Is anyone else beginning to see the pointlessness of this website?
The only thing the middle-class understand is strength.
The winner is the one who shouts, bullies and coerces the better. islam is full of shouting bullies who use force to get their way. The only thing the BBC understands is violence. Let the violence begin.
Be careful what you wish for. It will start (possibly has)
without any help from us – and in no little part due to the obfuscation and censorship of the BBC-when it starts you may rue those words, better we should hope that the BBCs iron grip on the truth is loosened and some less violent change made possible
No calls for violence, JayBee. Please desist. If that’s the kind of “free speech” you crave, go elsewhere for it.
Interesting report of the BBC censoring an interview with Nick Griffin MEP in Damascus.
http://www.simondarby.net/2013/06/the-nick-griffin-interview-from-syria.html
Doesn’t fit the BBC- NUJ narrative.
BBC 5 Live dumbos are getting excited about the release of the Premier League fixtures later this morning.
What exciting stories will transpire?
I’m guessing all clubs will play one another twice this season – home and away.
Football used to give way to summer sports after the FA Cup. Now we’re treated to tittle tattle about these overpaid, snarling, spoilt morons all year round.
Believe it not BBC (and others), there are other things going on. Give us a break!
Please start a dedicated thread on BBC reporting of the Syrian conflict.
It seems the BBC and Jeremy Bowen have finally caught on to the sectarian nature of the Syrian fighting (no link to JB yet saying it didn’t start that way!) but still manage to mislead the public.
Yes, it is sectarian but to define it as Shiite vs. Sunni is totally misleading. Syria is a mosaic of groups, Syrian population, 74% were Sunnis (including Sufis), whereas 13% were Shias, either Alawites (11.0%), Twelvers (1.0%), Ismailis (0.5%), or Zaydis (0.5%). 3% were Druze, while the remaining 10-12% were Christians. Not all the Sunnis are Arabs. Most of the Kurds, who make up 10% of the population are officially Sunni, as are the Turkmens who encompass 3-5%. Thus Syria is at most 59-61% Sunni Arab.
To put it another way. The rebels are almost exclusively Sunni Arab while the other groups (about 40% of total) have allied themselves with Assad, largely out of realistic fear for what will happen to them if the rebels win.
The second mistake is to accept at face value the claim that the Alawites are Shiites. It was politically expedient for Iran to declare them as such and some Sunnis to accept that in the name of Arab nationalism. Should the rebels, reportedly dominated by al Qaeda, succeed the Alawites won’t be massacred as Shiites but as heretics. Those who survive will be treated not as an ‘unacceptable’ sect of Islam but similar to heretical spin-offs from Islam as Baha’is, Babis, Bektashis, Ahmadis. Not pleasant.
In practice, BBC-NUJ goes along with Obama’s global pro-Muslim Brotherhood political line.
This is apparent is how BBC-NUJ reports Middles East, including Egypt, Syria and Israel.
“Obama Doctrine:
Alliance with Muslim Brotherhood to Promote Middle East ‘Stability'”
By Barry Rubin.
http://rubinreports.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/obama-doctrine-america-allies-with.html
Newsnight’s Tim Whewell’s Meeting Lebanese families drawn into Syrian conflict is a case in point for simplifying this to Sunni vs Shiite but the BBC tin-ear to reality leaves enough extra things to criticise.
Following the BBC script Whewell describes Alawites as Shiites and the dispute a Shiite/Sunni split. He fails to inform us that at the end of the Lebanese Civil War only Hezbullah of all the militias refused to surrender their arms. Consequently only Hezbullah is in a real position to actively intervene in the fighting.
Watch the video:
00:36 long been a channel for smuggling arms into Syria Not exactly, it has long been a channel for smuggling arms through Syria into Lebanon.
2:09 Perhaps a military expert like Pounce could chime in here? Does this look set-up to you? Firing a medium machine gun from the hip seems totally ineffective at any distance longer than a few metres and the group behind seem totally unconcerned.
2:16 Hizbullah refers to the rebels as Takfiris-religious extremists. So why does the BBC translator adopt the Hizbullah term at 2:29 & 4:47 and Whewell, himself at 3:47, 3:55 & 4:31? Are they trying to introduce the term into BBC discourse?
3:36 a fight with fellow Arabs See my post. Much of Syria allied with Assad are not necessarily Arab or even Muslim.
the Arab world revered Hizbullah I’d need proof of that. Much of the Arab world always saw Hizbullah as thugs for Iran and Syria who have effectively taken government in Lebanon by violent intimidation.
5:56 there’s plenty more who will fight if they get a direct call Very inspiring but as noted previously the one group in Syria with an arms is Hizbullah.
6:03 Iman Jamil el-Biza would be described as a British man from his accent, wouldn’t he?
6:36 Zayyad al Shahhal What can I say about a regime that kills women, children and other defenseless people? Yet 6:53 Whewell doesn’t find anything incongruous about We caught many people and killed them after interogating them Aren’t Prisoners of War defenceless and protected under war crimes provisions?
6:07 Now the Lebanese army has stopped the fighting Would that be those units heavily infiltrated by Hizbullah?
9:47 Just for the record Husayn and approximately 72 of his family and followers were killed in the Battle of Karbala.
10:47 and outside powers are doing little to dampen their fears How, exactly, does Whewell expect them to do that?
machine guns aren’t designed to hit individual targets but are rather area weapons and are used by the British Army as support for infantry riflemen. generally speaking, the gunner fires, mainly to keep the heads of the enemy down while the infantry move forward
at very close range, its unlikely you will hit an individual target you are aiming at, but hit everything around it. not that i’d like to stand there and try it
that footage is old, ive seen it several times before, maybe he was shooting at a building or something. probably staged for the camera
As long as they continue standing up to evil Israel, Jeremy Bowen won’t much care how many heretics get massacred.
What could be a more deliberate act of terror than lining up & killing school children? But the activities in Nigeria are described thus
Suspected Islamist militants in north-east Nigeria have killed at least nine school children, the second targeted attack on students in recent days.
Whilst news reports even lead one to the conclusion that the residents have brought it on themselves by seeking to protect themselves from the animals.
Oh and that’s “suspected” as in an admission of responsibility by the organisation behind the killing
Boko Haram said the attack was to punish youngsters for helping the army.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-22963515
no mention that the poor kids were from a christian area
It really is about time the BBC define terrorism and then use it in their reports. If they won’t use ‘terrorist’ why not ‘murderers’?
The disgustingly biased Radio 4 Woman’s Hour talking in holier than thou terms about ‘sex workers’ without an ounce of ‘judgementalism’ (another construct of the loony left) so no mention of prostitution which is what they’re really talking about and the issues of drug use & addiction which is the driver for it is also dealt with in a very ‘non challenging’ manner.
We then move on to women in prison and a general tone that women shouldn’t be sent to prison especially for short sentence, but there’s obviously no mention that there are more women in prison for non payment of the Television tax than any other crime !
Total left wing hypocritical crap.
there’s obviously no mention that there are more women in prison for non payment of the Television tax than any other crime !
“Data on receptions by offence type showed that the largest single offence group for women was theft and handling stolen goods (34%).”
Click to access statistics-women-cjs-2010.pdf.pdf
“Moreover, it is thought that, for some police force areas, the reporting of court proceedings (and in particular those relating to motoring offences and to TV Licence evasion), may also be less than complete. The extent of under-reporting may vary from year to year and this could be responsible in part for the annual variations in the published statistics.”
And how about this one?
Prosecutions for television licence evasion grew to such an extent over the 1980s and 1990s, that by 1994, these offences formed the largest single instance of all female crime. Figure 2 shows that between 1980 and 1994 the proportion of female convictions for television licence evasion offences grew from 17 per cent to 57 per cent
& what your figures failed to take account of was the number of people imprisoned because they couldn’t afford the fines imposed by courts for not paying the licence.
I wrote a long reply but for some reason it didn’t appear. This is it in brief:
The data to which you refer is about convictions, not imprisonment.
The claim that there are more women in prison for non-payment of the TV licence is not backed by the evidence.
You probably had too many links. There’s a limit, although I can’t recall what it is – three, maybe?
Don’t worry though, no-one reads those threads anyway once they’ve dropped down the page. 🙂
True – and frankly the shorter version is a lot better than the original.
Very tragic news in the reports about baby deaths in Furness General Hospital in 2008. Interesting the story today is all about a cover up by the Care Quality Commission which is rightly reported.
However checking the BBC website no reports on the baby death’s until 7 June 2011. Was there cover up in the reporting by the BBC as well?
Your average BBC liberal is…
Pro abortion AND Anti death penalty.
Pro homosexuality AND pro islam.
Anti Christianity AND pro any other religion.
Anti racist AND anti Semitic
I sometimes wonder if liberals have opposable thumbs.
They are one mass of contradictions, like any other religious fundamentalist
Atheist yet defensive of Islam, espouse scientific reason but practice relativism, argue free speech but engage in censorship, encourage liberal democracy abroad but corrupt it at home, deify Darwin but demonise eugenics (in fairness they have, unlike C4, de-canonised dullard Dawkins dimly realising ,I guess, the scientific validation of racism implicit in his juvenile version of Neo-Darwinism ) Celebrate diversity but promote racial engineering the list of their contradictions Is almost endless yet ,like all zealots, the are completely blind to their own hypocrisy and always will be
It’s something of a sweeping generalisation JayBee
Pro abortion AND Anti death penalty.
Well they probably are, but that’s the position of all political parties in the UK and Europe, and it’s not just limited to liberals, I hold the same views.
Pro homosexuality AND pro islam.
This is perhaps too but too general a comment, they are only pro homo so long as it doesn’t upset Muslims. Don’t forget that the Muslims are top trumps in the hierarchy of isms.
Anti Christianity AND pro any other religion.
Certainly anti Christian, but that comes as a part of anti white Britishness. As for all other religions they’re pretty ambivalent to them unless they come into contact with Islam when they’re anti, or Christianity when they’re pro.
Anti racist AND anti Semitic
The BBC are fully racist so long as they are discriminating against white people.
In support of this statement the BBC was forced to admit that it had failed to give adequate coverage to the murder of Kriss Donald murdered by a racist gang of 5 Pakistanis.
Or Ross Parker where the BBC was again forced to admit insufficient coverage on the basis that crimes against white people are not racist!
Many people believe that the whitewashing of Muslims from the murder of Lee Rigby amounts to a racist stance by the BBC.
Yes the BBC is fully supportive of racism so long as the victims are white.
I’m approaching tonight’s Horizon (9pm, BBC2) with some trepidation. Entitled ‘Fracking: The New Energy Rush’ I somehow fear the worst…
From the Radio Times entry:
‘Geologist Iain Stewart investigates a new and controversial method of extracting natural gas from deep underground that involves hydraulic fracturing – or fracking, as it has become known. He travels to America to find out what the process is and what can be learned from the US experience, meeting people who have become rich from it, as well as those worried about the risks to their communities.’
Anyone have any idea on which side of the fence the famously ‘impartial’ BBC are going to come down on..?
He’s an earthquake specialist, so I think we can guess…..
I’m sure i read somewhere that ‘Fracking’ isn’t a new process and actually has been going on for something like 60 years. Apparently in all that time there has been no incidence of water supplies poisoned. I stand to be corrected though as I can’t remember where I came by this info.
I should have added that the earthquake worry is also a red herring.
As reported by the BBC!!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22077230
So, Albaman, do you expect that Dr. Stewart will be correcting the environmentals on that score this evening?
And will that stop Hampstead Harriman from talking about earthquakes and shale gas?
And will it stop his greenie chums from taking undemocratic action to occupy shale gas sites?
Hampstead Harribin: anti-Lancashire shale gas still.
Third time unlucky: Harrabin.
This research says little new: Cuadrilla (the exploration firm, now joined forces with Centrica, British Gas) has been using similar evidence for years.
“MINIMAL
SEISMIC ACTIVITY”
http://www.cuadrillaresources.com/about-us/communication-claims-support/minimal-seismic-activity/
David, unlike may here I tend to wait until a programme has been broadcast prior to “reviewing ” its content. After all, you would hardly review a film you had not seen or a piece of music you have not listened to.
That said perhaps this will give a flavour of his likely views:
http://www.strath.ac.uk/civeng/news/annuallecture2013/
Predicting isn’t the same as reviewing, Albaman. I didn’t ask you to declare a result before viewing. But I’ve read that link, and it’s interesting. In other words, yes, you do expect him to be correcting them. Reading this, I think I might have the same hopeful expectation.
I say that because the blurb says he challenged the audience’s views on fracking, and yes, I’m assuming that it’s a Leftoid audience, which means he’s telling them it’s not as dangerous as they’ve been lead to believe by the clergy.
Of course David, because in your eyes only “leftoids” would have the view that fracking is dangerous or otherwise.
I am sure that it is a pretty safe “prediction” that you have not met many (if any) of those in the UK who oppose fracking and as such you have no idea what their individual political beliefs are.
To say that the “capacity audience of more than 400 people (which) included students and staff from seven Scottish Universities, representatives of the energy, engineering and water industries, local government, media and NGOs” were all “leftoids” is a sweepeing generalisation based on your own prejudices and no actual evidence.
Some sweeping generalisations are true and prejudices’ often the result of experience.
I wouldn’t mind betting that the majority of those in that audience would characterise themselves as being of the left.
Would you bet against that?
If you mean they are to the “left” of the regular contributors to this site then I would agree. Then again many of those to the “right” in politics are way to the “left” of those who post here.
Albaman, you have no idea whom I’ve met and whom I know. Predictions are not based exclusively on evidence. Your own “prediction” is as much based on your own prejudices as you accuse mine of being, so you’ve kind of lost the high moral ground there. Other than any oil/gas drilling people present, do you honestly believe that a significant percentage of that audience is pro-fracking? But stay angry anyway so you can scold me tomorrow after watching the show.
What does it matter? The government has decided that none of the gas extracted by fracking will reach the domestic market, all of will be sold at full market price to prop up so called low carbon gas electricity generation.
To the average person in the street, fracking will not benefit them one jot.
I will be interested to see if it tries the set-light-to-the-taps trick.
Perhaps if (untidy?) MARDELL has a word about the only policy on Shale Gas?:-
“Obama opens up American shale gas to the world”
http://www.cityam.com/article/obama-opens-american-shale-gas-world
Spot the missing crowd numbers from this BBC report about the President’s triumphant return to Berlin for a new big speech:
Obama in Berlin calls for US-Russia nuclear weapons cuts
His address to students and government officials at the Brandenburg Gate comes almost 50 years after President John F Kennedy’s celebrated “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech.
As he began his speech, Mr Obama took off his jacket, telling the crowds who had been waiting in the 33C heat for several hours: “We can be a little more informal among friends.”
Standing in the heat for hours, eh? What dedication. They must really love Him, right? Er….
The last time President Obama paid a visit here, as a candidate in 2008, he was cheered on by 200,000 Germans eager to see the back of George W. Bush and, as one member of that crowd recalled Tuesday, “full of wholly unrealistic expectations of what kind of miracles Obama could work.”
The stage for the president’s speech is set up on the East side of the Brandenburg Gate, in the old East Berlin. The sun is pounding down and there are around 6,000 invited guests according to German authorities. There are bleachers set up either side of the square, with a big two storey riser facing the stage which has a row of bullet proof glass and 12 US, German and EU flags and the grand backdrop of the Gate. There is a large standing crowd between the bleachers.
Invitation only? Why doesn’t He expect another multitude like last time? No wonder the He said “among friends.” More from the NY Times:
The last time President Obama paid a visit here, as a candidate in 2008, he was cheered on by 200,000 Germans eager to see the back of George W. Bush and, as one member of that crowd recalled Tuesday, “full of wholly unrealistic expectations of what kind of miracles Obama could work.”
When he arrived here on Tuesday evening ahead of a full day of talks — capped by a speech at the Brandenburg Gate — the reception was far more restrained.
Almost five years later, Germans have undergone “a brutal sobering up” with regard to Mr. Obama, said Ralf Fücks, who heads the board of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, a nonprofit political organization in Berlin. It is, he said, as overdone as the euphoria of 2008, but also a bit alarming.
Contrast that to how the BBC portrays things. As usual, you’re left in the dark about anything that might make Him look bad. Sure, the point of the piece is about the international relations stuff, but the BBC News Online editor made it a point to tell you that the adoring crowd had been braving the heat for hours just to see Him, so this is a deliberate omission. And not a word about the overall disappointment in Him, of course. That would be heresy.
dont forget obama was wearing a bullet proof vest under his shirt in addition to bullet proof glass in front and behind him.if the germans love him so much, where was the threat coming from. he was wide open to snipers though. allah akbar maybe
i also saw security guards stopping some sort of protest in the audience, but the camera only briefly showed it
You know how it is: those white supremacist teabaggers are everywhere. Can’t be too careful these days when racist assassins lurk around ever corner.
Oh BBC !
Talking about the licence fee on radio 4
It is remarkably good value for money at just 45p per day whereas the average Sky customer is charged £500 pa (not the use of smallest & largest figures?)
What he didn’t say was that for that amount Sky provides a phone line and broadband internet, and they still have to pay for the TV tax !
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/hunt-vat-fraudster-who-swindled-4570312
Pakistani Muslim defrauds UK of nearly a millions pounds and disappears after conviction, but before sentence, begging the question why he wasn’t asked to surrender his passport nor held in custody immediately.
So successful has his disappearance been that he has completely disappeared from BBC news too! It makes you wonder just how much one needs to steal from the taxpayer before the BBC sits up and takes notice, and whether different amounts apply for those with different ethnic backgrounds!
So he enriched himself as well as enriching British society (culturally speaking) … ?
The Muslims began this violence, i noted this back at its inception, not noted by the bbc on radio or on tv as i recall.
“Muslim man accused of sparking Burma unrest jailed for 26 years,” Associated Press …
this story has grown into the usual al bbc victim industry drone, you do have to read between the lines here too
The Graindian eh!
… “Court verdict follows pattern of convictions for Muslims, who have been the main victims of Buddhist-led violence”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/13/burma-asia-pacific
Supplementary.
‘Jihadwatch’:-
“The Buddhists, unlike most Infidels nowadays, fought back — occasioning a new round of victimhood-mongering from the mainstream media and Islamic supremacists in the West, who portrayed the violence as gratuitous acts of ‘Islamophobia’ from the Buddhists. That the Muslims began the violence was seldom noted.”
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/06/burma-muslim-who-sparked-jihad-rioting-jailed-for-26-years.html