If You’re Happy And You Know It…..

 

 

Poor but happy, that’s the BBC’s ideal world.

Low carbon footprints, sustainable consumption and sing songs and hugs for Christmas.  BBC bliss.

 

The BBC has long been banging away  that ‘consumerism’ is the root of all evil…despite also banging the drum that tells us the Poor must have more to be happy….just where do all those jobs, and the wealth,  that gives the Poor more come from?  From making widgets that people then buy…or ‘consume’.

But you may have noticed over the Christmas period the BBC’s inner Scrooge has been ever more present.

Today is no exception with You and Yours is with Peter White, talking about what makes us happy. Do those Christmas presents bring us happiness or do we need something deeper?

 

Apparently studies show that consumerism and materialism are harmful….a ‘curse’ on us all.

You don’t need that new car to make you happy, just a smile from your neighbour, you don’t need that gucci little handbag for that inner glow of satisfaction…all you need is a happy family gathering, you don’t need the latest kick-ass X-Box game….just your Mom reading a bedtime story to you.

Happiness is knowing someone loves you.

 

The BBC really is the new priesthood.

 

 

 

BBC Plays The Race Card On Immigration

 

 

The BBC’s Phil Mackie brings us some blatant propaganda, lies if you prefer, all the way from Bucharest in Romania. (08:12)

He manages to combine two of the BBC’s favourite Bête Noires, immigration control and one of Murdoch’s papers, The Sun, in a ‘report’ that was more a ‘Dan Brown-like’ invention of the truth than reality.

His report is from one angle only as his Tweets demonstrate:

 

 

And any reason why Mackie should retweet this?:

 

 

Mackie’s intention is purely to try and rubbish the Sun’s story. He has decided that the bus the Sun reports as heading UK wards is not going anywhere near the UK, Romanians do not want to go to the UK and any way, the tickets in the photos are fakes.

He claims….’It’s not an international bus is it?’ and states…’There are no buses coming to the UK this week‘….and goes onto to say that ‘No one will come unless they have a job in the UK already.’….all based on the evidence of a Romanian car mechanic Mackie has roped in to interview.

However the Sun makes clear the bus, and others like it are a special charter….it also quotes quite clearly from the travellers what they intend to do and how they intend to make money.

Mackie and his ‘witness’ dismiss this….but even the presenter in the studio, Chris Warburton, doesn’t hold with Mackie’s stance…..stating that the Sun has quoted the people directly.

Where is the bus going?  Not a clue really…but it does say ‘Inter….’ on the door behind the man with the camouflage jacket…‘International’ perhaps? Maybe ‘Internal’?  Still…unlikely the Sun staged the whole thing as the BBC are suggesting.

 

 

 

Mackie is happy to go along with the ‘racist’ label being applied to reports like the Sun’s…despite the fact that there is plenty of evidence that it is based upon the truth…a truth that the BBC doesn’t seek out……it ignores the bad and promotes the idea that immigration is beneficial……but just how much crime is imported?

28 per cent of the 300,000 suspects the Metropolitan Police arrests each year were foreign nationals, with Poles and Romanians at the top of the list.

More than 27,000 Romanian citizens have been held for serious offences in London in the past five years, including ten for murder, 142 for rape and 666 for other sex offences.

 

If these reports are so wrong why is it that British police have travelled to Romania and Romanian police come here?

Romanian police to go on patrol in Britain to help Scotland Yard tackle Eastern European crime wave by swapping intelligence data

UK cops visit Romania to warn migrants ‘don’t come to Britain if you cannot work’

You might also ask just how old are these migrants?  Judging by the photo, and your own eyes around the streets of the UK, many of them are well past being the spring chickens that Labour and Co promised would pay everyone’s pension…it looks more like we’ll be paying theirs very shortly.
You might also ask about pressure on schools, housing, the NHS,welfare and benefits budget, wages being undercut and natives put out of work never mind the less obvious like concreting over the UK, traffic congestion, water and power consumption….the BBC isn’t overly interested in that…just in ‘reporting’ very loudly when someone shouts ‘racist’ at anyone who suggests controlling immigration.

Once again the BBC is playing the race card in the immigration debate….trying to shut down that very debate in fact.

 

For a very short moment in time there was a grown up narrative about immigration…..the BBC even had David Goodhart from Demos in to discuss his book which revealed the perils of mass immigration.

That’s all over.

The BBC has reverted to type and is out to counter the myths, lies and xenophobic prejudice that is really driving the calls to limit immigration…..as they see it.

The BBC must have jumped for joy when Vince Cable, the most treacherous and untrustworthy politician this side of Nick Clegg, made outrageous references to Enoch Powell and the Jews when talking about Cameron and immigration.

 

 

The Observer/Guardian of course is on board…it instigated an interview with the President of Bulgaria   in which he denounced Cameron’s policy:

Bulgaria issues fierce rebuke to David Cameron over migrants

UK faces isolation, president warns, as prime minister is accused of ‘pandering to nationalists’

The BBC naturally tag teamed with the Guardian and gave this interview plenty of  coverage.

The BBC has now gone one better and engineered its own interview with Romanian diplomats:

The Romanian foreign ministry has dismissed talk in the British media of an “invasion” when work restrictions are lifted on Wednesday.

“The UK for now is not even the preferred destination for Romanians,” said spokeswoman Brandusa Predescu.

Ms Predescu told the BBC some of the media coverage had bordered on racist and there had been an “outright campaign” against Romanians and Bulgarians.

“There isn’t going to be an invasion of Romanians as of two days’ time. Not all Romanians, young and old, are going to get on a plane.

“We don’t have estimates, you don’t have estimates. The UK will [not be] and is not the preferred destination of Romanians.”

 

No discussion from the BBC as to whether it is ‘racist’ to want to limit immigration…it seems to be just taken as a given here….and as for ‘no estimates’…..well migration watch suggests 50,000 per year….and as the BBC admitted in a previous article…migration watch were pretty accurate in estimating migration from Eastern Europe.

The BBC here admits….’Campaigners for tighter laws have said 50,000 Romanians and Bulgarians a year for the first five years could come to the UK.’

Note how that is worded…’Campaigners for tighter laws‘…on immigration….different to the usual ‘pressure group’ they normally label Migration Watch….clearly intended though to mean the figures are untrustworthy as from a group with a vested interest, supposedly.

 

Of course there is no mention from the BBC of just how self serving these comments are from the Bulgarians and the Romanians…just how beneficial it must be for their countries and their exchequers to offload their unemployed, their workshy and their criminals upon Britain and other European countries.

 

Here is an example of the BBC massaging the truth in this article dated 16th December 2013:

The Romanian Ambassador, Dr Ion Jinga, has said: “A very tiny minority of Romanians have chosen Britain as their work destination.”

According to the Office for National Statistics, in July 2012 there were 94,000 people who were born in Romania and 47,000 people who were born in Bulgaria resident in the UK.

 

Why did the BBC  choose a figure from 2012 and not these up to date figures from 2013?:

Romanian and Bulgarian workers in UK increase by 26%

The number of Romanians and Bulgarians working in the UK has risen by more than a quarter in three months, official figures show.

The Office for National Statistics said 141,000 were employed during the period from April to June, an increase of almost 26% on the 112,000 in the previous three months, and up 35% on the same time last year.

 

Not as if the BBC didn’t know the figures as it reported them in August.

Could it be that they are inconveniently large and give the lie to the claim that few Romanians and Bulgarians want to come here?

 

 

The BBC has kicked over the traces and is back on its hobby horse defending immigration and presenting immigrants as the poor, huddled masses seeking sanctuary from a cruel world…..all to be paid for by you….whilst the BBC employees live it up in their rarified bubble unaffected by mass immigration, their jobs safe, their homes in leafy suburbs, their kids looked after by cheap East European nannies who can watch over the cheap East European plumber who has taken the job of the local man.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THANK YOU ALL….

Well folks, 2013 is drawing to a close and I wanted to take a moment and thank you all for your continued patronage of this site. It works because of your passion and continued excoriation of BBC bias. Wishing you and your loved ones all the very best for 2014 and see you in the New Year… and a BIG thank you to all my fellow writers – Alan in particular – for their fantastic contributions.

Unknown

ROMANIAN DREAMS…

The BBC does not seem unduly concerned that tomorrow, 1st January, may well see TENS OF THOUSANDS of Romanians and Bulgarians swarm into the UK. Indeed it runs an item today suggesting “Romania dismisses UK ‘invasion’ fears”. Nice to get the Romanian perspective from Auntie. Now I don’t know what January will bring us in regard to new Eastern European peasantry BUT I do know that the uber multiculturalists that rule at the BBC will do all they can to dismiss legitimate concerns as “racism”.

BBC COVERING THE BIG ISSUES…

I tuned in to the Today programme this morning before 7am to hear the BBC bring us the BIG issue of the day – yes, transgender rights in 2013.  Then, by way of amusement, I listened to Evan Davis at 7.09am express his all to evident disappointment that  some Northern Ireland politicians had not been corralled into a deal by US Mr Fix It, Richard Haas. He TRIED to allow Alliance Leader David Ford to agree with him that “progress had been made” and I did laugh when Ford, who is himself an imbecile, refused to take the bait and said no progress had been made whatsoever! The sound of a deflated Davis was great to hear. The BBC has always been to the fore in cheerleading for what it sees as “progress’ here in Northern Ireland rather than simply reporting the facts, a bias that is both offensive and shameful.

BBC SUDDENLY LIKES UKIP….

Biased BBC writer Daniel Pycock notes…

“The BBC reluctantly gives good coverage on UKIP, but cannot help itself…

I recently spotted a few things in a recent article about Nigel Farage saying the UK should take in refugees from the Syrian Civil War (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-25539843).

The first is that the BBC’s ‘political apparatchik’ correspondent said “Mr. Farage’s call was likely to surprise many”. If you look at UKIPs manifesto, or website, they say “UKIP would allow genuine asylum applications in accordance with our international obligations”. So not a surprise to anyone who had read UKIP’s policy in this area…

If one had only read about UKIP from the BBC, however, one might think that UKIP: are the equivalent to the Fascistic Golden Dawn in Greece*, did not field a candidate in the Norwich North By-Election** or the London Mayoral Elections*** and – especially in party conference season**** – are essentially “a weird party led by a joke figure, a party that a lot of people think is racist and sexist”, as implied by 60% of John Humphrys’ interview with Nigel Farage on Radio 4’s today programme. This is not to mention the stacked audiences with whom Mr. Farage or PPCs such as Diane James have to debate on Question Time.

If UKIP sticking with a policy is a “surprise” as Arif Ansari (the BBC political correspondent) suggests, I wonder why that would be the case. cough BBC cough.

*See: http://biasedbbc.tv/blog/2013/03/02/ukip-nazis/

** See: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/100004661/anti-ukip-and-pro-green-the-bbc-at-its-most-blatantly-biased/

*** See: http://www.thecommentator.com/article/1125/bbc_green_with_envy_over_ukip_s_rise

**** See: http://singletonblog.dailymail.co.uk/2011/09/the-bbc-does-the-dirty-on-ukip.html

—————————————

P.S. Notice how the BBC slides the Labour Party’s policy of accepting 400-500 refugees in, despite the piece being about a UKIP policy? They must really know Labour policy inside-out since I can only find reference to it in The Independent*.

 * See: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/no-room-at-the-inn-britain-says-no-to-syrias-refugees-9025265.html

BBC Science Journalism…Knowing enough is no longer important?

There’s Fiona Fox’s outrageous claim that the way the BBC could really improve its science coverage is to have fewer sceptics. She says:
“To have a sceptic or contrarian in every interview is really misleading the public.”
Luckily, she enthuses, the BBC is doing a fine job of correcting this grotesque imbalance.
“With Climate Science there’s been a real change with people like Richard Black and Roger Harrabin fighting internally to say ‘We don’t have to have a sceptic every time we have a climate scientist.'”

 

The routine challenging of claims, an essential part of science, is largely absent from the BBC’s science reporting.

On ‘false balance’….. balanced reporting is ‘extremely rare’ in routine science reporting by the BBC….there is little evidence of the use of balance in BBC science reports.

 

 

 

The BBC has long shut out climate sceptics from the debate about climate change…such a policy becoming ‘official’ after its review into its science reporting by Professor Steve Jones….the ‘false balance’ of having allegedly inexpert, unqualified, ‘marginal’ speakers to be guarded against…as the science is of course settled.

The choice of the fanatical pro-climate change Jones as the reviewer showed that the BBC had no intention of an honest debate about its science coverage.

 

The BBC Trust tells us that ‘Professor Jones makes clear it that, overall, BBC science content is of a very high calibre, has improved over the past decade and outstrips that of other broadcasters both in the UK and internationally.

Just how true is that and just how much ‘false balance’ did the BBC indulge in anyway before the Jones review?

It would seem that Jones’ conclusions were based upon his own prejudices and not the research upon which his report was supposedly based.

 

Here, via Bishop Hill, we can hear Felicity Mellor from Imperial College London, who did the legwork in analysing the BBC’s science reporting, telling a different story about the BBC’s balance, the quality of its science coverage and the damage such reporting does to the public interest and even ‘democracy’.

 

These are some selected points about the BBC from the 40 minute speech:

Two main points:

1.  Too much science journalism…produces ‘media noise’ not enlightenment.

2.  Science journalism underuses balance

 

The journalistic norm of balance is underused.

The media noise masks significant silences.

She says she is looking mainly at routine science journalism rather than controversial areas such as the badger cull or climate change.

 [I would actually disagree with that…..when you listen to what she says you can apply it all to the BBC’s reporting on climate change]

But she does qualify that….. looking at how routine science journalism works informs us as to how the more controversial areas are covered….it establishes the norms and standard practices that then become problematic in the reporting of controversies.

 

There is too much dependence on press releases..the BBC’s broadcast news depends on press releases for 50% of its coverage, rising to 75% when covering scientific research.

 

Nigel Hawkes from the Times said that ‘knowing enough is no longer important‘ for science reporters as much material is handed to them on a plate by scientists themselves.

Toby Murcott from the BBC’s World Service said that ‘we reported without significant analysis, depth or critical comment…we just translated what scientists said.’

 David Whitehouse talking about the embargo system when reporters hold back news and then broadcast the press release….‘it encourages lazy journalism and poor correspondents.’

 

Such journalism fails to address the Public interestthere is a lack of democratic accountability…serving instead those who wish to promote the science and the institutions that hand out the press releases.

The ‘media noise’ from these institutions makes other voices inaudible through intensive PR campaigns, which have the effect of cocooning the power adventure, shielding it from rigorous public scrutiny by fabricating positive stories of its performance within media saturated settings.

The absence of counter voices means science journalism does not serve the public interest.

On ‘false balance’ she states that balanced reporting is ‘extremely rare’ in routine science reporting….there is little evidence of the use of balance in BBC science reports.

There were only 6% of reports that had independent critical voices in them making comments demonstrating the limitations of the research or uncertainties.

The BBC’s science correspondents were the least likely to include ‘uncertainty’ about anything they were reporting upon as ‘fact’.

The lack of balance was encouraged by the sources of the press releases and the BBC’s failure to move beyond these.

Far from ‘false balance’ being the norm as suggested by the likes of Steve Jones and those who wish to silence all climate change critics for instance,  any balance is rarely seen in BBC science journalism.

 

The routine challenging of claims, an essential part of science, is largely absent from the BBC’s science reporting.

Who finances the research is an important issue…research shows that who funds research often affects the outcome.

Only 3% of BBC news broadcasts mentioned who funded research….Steve Jones ‘shrugged off’ such suggestions when challenged on this claiming that much research was publicly funded.

 

[However…publicly funded organisations are often just as biased as any commercial one…look at the BBC…or the University of East Anglia..the government’s Climate Change Committee…or charities and other NGO’s….commercial interests are not the only ones that have to be guarded against.   Harrabin, and Black when at the BBC, often targeted sceptics and tried to examine their sources of finance…..without a similar attempt to do the same for the pro AGW lobby]

 

The way Felicity Mellor tells it you might have a completely different view of the BBC’s science reporting than that of the BBC Trust:

The Trust welcomes the clear finding that BBC science coverage is generally of a very high quality. Given the Trust’s duty to ensure that the interests of licence fee payers are served, together with the public expectation of the highest of standards from the BBC and the organisation’s role in informing the public about science, this is an important conclusion.

 

 

 

 

Cherché Le Muslim

 

Spot what’s missing from this report about Nicolas Anelka making what is reported to be a re-invention of the Nazi salute:

Nicolas Anelka: West Brom striker ‘surprised by celebration criticism’

 

Anelka converted to Islam in 2004. It’s not in the BBC report.

Why would the BBC not report that?

What was it that Mehdi Hasan said?  The Muslim community’s dirty little secret…… Anti-Semitism.

Can’t imagine the BBC being so coy if it was a ‘Rightwing’ footballer….will the BBC get around to asking Anelka if he has, er, ‘Fascist’ beliefs?

Paolo Di Canio, Sunderland and Italian fascism

How about….Anelka, West Brom and Muslim Anti-Semitism?  No?

 

The BBC reports that French comedian Dieudonne, who invented the ‘salute’,  has threatened to sue the groups for calling it a Nazi salute. He calls it “la quenelle” – a word for a fish dumpling – and says it stands for his anti-Zionist and anti-establishment views, rather than anti-Semitism.

 

 

What the BBC doesn’t bother with is examining those claims of ‘innocent’ anti-Zionism……

Controversial French comedian Dieudonné M’bala M’bala is facing a ban by French authorities, who say he has gone “too far” in promoting anti-Semitism and holocaust denial.

Dieudonné has a long history of anti-Semitic comments and performances – from branding “the Jews” as “a sect, a fraud”, and referring to Holocaust commemorations as “memorial pornography”; to appearing on stage dressed as a hareidi Jew making a Nazi salute. He has also popularized the “quenelle” gesture – sometimes referred to as a “reverse Nazi salute” – which consists of a lowered straight arm salute with the other arm folded across the shoulder.

Although his supporters say it is merely “anti-establishment”, it is frequently used by French anti-Semites, many of whom photograph themselves making the “modified” Nazi salute in front of Jewish establishments, holocaust memorial sites and even with unsuspecting Jewish passersby.

 

Dieudonné of course falls into a category the BBC has itself long exploited to pass off political comment and propaganda as mere ‘comedy’ or satire and therefore does not have the same restrictions or standards of taste applied as would be for news or current affairs programmes.

By coincidence, and perhaps ironically as Labour is the main beneficiary of BBC ‘satire’, Labour’s David Blunkett, in the Times, has commented on this very subject recently:

Via ‘Is the BBC biased?’:

Blunkett calls for new rules on TV satire of politicians (The Times)

David Blunkett has suggested that comedy shows such as Mock The Week and Have I Got News For You should be reclassified as current affairs programmes in order to face tougher scrutiny from libel lawyers.The former Home Secretary said that the line between what is considered comedy and what is targeted abuse towards politicians has become blurred and may now require tougher regulation.Mr Blunkett said: “The protection that broadcasters in particular have is ‘Well, everybody knows this is comedy don’t they?’ So it’s not libellous, it’s not dangerous in the sense that it’s targeted and therefore vicious towards an individual. And I think we need to watch that.”The Labour MP for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough told the Radio 4 documentary, When Comedy and Politics Collide:

“Sometimes actually it isn’t comedy, it’s comment and current affairs in the middle of what is supposed to be a comedy programme. There’s a bit more of that going on at the moment.”

 

 

BBC ON CEBR..

Biased BBC contributor Daniel Pycock writes…

“Just because the BBC has to report the CEBR; doesn’t mean they like it… http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25519110

You can almost sense the desperation and despair dripping from this BBC News page – as the BBC had to report that a respected think-tank is of the opinion that the UK, scheduled to become Europe’s ‘Largest’ Economy on current politico-economic trajectories, would be better off out of the European Union.

Or at least that’s what one would assume. Even in reporting this, however, the BBC cannot help emphasising some things over others. The first sentences in the article – and clauses in summarising sentences – regard the “UK’s population growth”. The CEBR report (which I urge everyone to read: http://www.cebr.com/reports/cebr-world-economic-league-table/), however, cites population growth as one of many factors, and not even as the most important. (The most important factor cited are supply-side policies that support long-term growth, such as low taxes and the freedom to trade outside of Europe).

The over-emphasis on demographic dynamics aside (which of course means calling for a more relaxed immigration policy); the BBC cannot bring itself to admit what the results of a paper such as this mean. It means that the UK should consider leaving the European Union, and that the UK should lower tax-rates across the board – things that the BBC would never publish articles in favour of.

(See, for instance, this embarrassing piece in favour of the Euro from 2012: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18672568)

It would take a heart of stone not to laugh at the intellectual knots the BBC willingly ties itself in to.”