END OF 2014 OPEN THREAD

Well, we are almost at the end of this year. Hope you all enjoyed Lenny Henry’s sustained whinge on BBC Today this morning. It seems selecting presenters purely on the basis of their ethnicity is fine by the BBC and Saint Lenny. Open Thread for you …NOW!

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325 Responses to END OF 2014 OPEN THREAD

  1. Alex says:

    Infantile and brainwashed Left-wing robots aplenty in this ludicrous ambush on Tommy Robinson….

    Note how none of these drones can avoid name-calling when confronted by Robinson to explain how he is racist:

       16 likes

  2. Thoughtful says:

    No we’re not biased, what makes you think that?

    Where does Labour stand at the end of 2014?

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-30586539

       14 likes

  3. Bangernofski says:

    I’ve just seen the end of The Boy on the Dress on he BBC, it ticked every diversity, wish fulfillment box and it was written by the appalling David Walliams. Awful on every level and we’ve paid for it. Ban the BBC in 2015.

       32 likes

    • Leo says:

      Try Last Tango in Halifax for size:
      Lesbians – tick
      Pathetic useless cheating men – tick
      Women holding everything together and doing all the traditional ‘male’ work – tick
      Anti UKIP comments – tick
      etc etc
      No climate change messages yet but they’ll appear. BBC ‘drama’ is fast becoming a no go area for me.

         35 likes

  4. Angrymanupnorth says:

    Roger Harribin. Seems like such a nice guy. First offering of the new year in the early hours of BBC 24 Hour Rolling Bollox. Pushing the AGW fear agenda at the cost of countless CO2 emissions of his team’s transport to the other side of the globe. Reporting on the ‘poisonous’ CO2 and its effect of acidifying (30% decrease in sea alkalinity by the end of the century!) the sea. Remember – ‘the science is in’. It must be! Sir Paul Nurse says so and he’s president of the Royal Society and a ……. human biologist. 97% of climate scientists agree too!

    Erm… No.

    If we consider 97% of a minute number (75 out of 77) of government funded sycophants who self identify as ‘climate scientists’ agree, then yes. That leaves just a few hundred thousand scientists whose agreement has not been sought or recorded. [search WUWT for more]

    Erm… No. CO2 is not a poison. But it is an essential food source for plants.

    Erm…. Tell me Roger. How is a micro-ecology at a location where “pure gaseous CO2” is bubbling in the sea, producing localised increases in dissolved CO2 and carbolic acid concentration indicative of how acidic the sea will be due to Anthropogenic CO2 emissions by the end of the century?

    If Harribin was educated to even a basic level in maths, chemistry, physics and biology, he would not produce this obfuscatory misinformation. He would be able to understand the logarithmic nature of the pH scale. He would be able to quantify the concentration of CO2 as a proportion of the atmosphere. He would be able to quantify what the maximum effect an annual 45Billion Tonnes of C02 could possibly have on the average acidity of the sea, as he could quantify the volume of water in the oceans of the earth (approx 1,386,000,000,000,000,000 cubic metres [ a similar number in metric tonne as 1 cubic metre approximates to 1 metric tonne]).

    But Harribin can’t do this. Graduate of English from Cambridge. Shielded from scientific understanding. Quarantined from the meaning and function of the scientific method and the essential scepticism required of all scientists. Paid up establishment ‘epsilon male’ pushing the AGW agenda. This will cost all of our peoples, in wealth and health. Our prosperity is under attack from this globalised governmental scam, of which Harribin is a willing propagandist paid for by an immoral tax.

    BBC. No ethics, no brains, no humanity, no future.

    Scrap the telly tax and vote UKIP before its too late.

       33 likes

  5. George R says:

    Beeboid political chums, the presss censoring ‘Hacked Off’:-

    “Hacked Off’s ‘Leveson’ advert banned after watchdog rules it was misleading.
    “Advert by Hacked Off has been banned on the grounds it was misleading,
    “Implied proposals were endorsed by judge who led press standards inquiry.
    “Ruling will embarrass lobby group which wants tougher press regulation.
    “Watchdogs found Hacked Off advert was ‘confusing’ and ‘ambiguous.’

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2891988/Hacked-s-Leveson-advert-banned-watchdog-finds-misleading.html#ixzz3NaNugUr6

       14 likes

  6. Angrymanupnorth says:

    Tried to zone out of BBC bias for a while to check out the footy scores. Can’t escape political bias on the BBC though. Subtle?

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/ at 15.45 new years day trailing HIGNFY ‘best of’.

    Nigel Farage – ‘ fruitcake or lunatic?’

    Imagine the BBC asking ‘bigot or paedophile sympathiser?’ with a photo of Harriot Harman. Or ‘imbecile or dumbass?’ with a mugshot of Ed Miliband? Or ‘ Witch or simply heartless’ next to a photo of Maggie. (….actually I can imagine this last one.)

    BBC biased?? Nah.

       32 likes

  7. England says:

    Scott…I don’t know who you are but I think you are a bit of a wanker…..(No offence).

    Please go away and live elsewhere

       21 likes

  8. Up2snuff says:

    In the light of the foregoing, a desire for an amiable start to 2015 and good journalistic discipline [journalists are professionals if paid to write but whether professionals or amateurs they must do their investigation & research before writing 😉 ] I offer a straightforward, easily found internet link:
    http://cioj.co.uk/

       1 likes

    • Angrymanupnorth says:

      Amiability is nice. 🙂

      Footballers have ‘professional associations’. As do driving instructors, poultry breeders, etc etc. I do not wish to suggest that there aren’t many journalists who act professionally and undertake their work with requisite diligence and an ethical approach to disseminating the truth. There are, and we should applaud them. There are also many who don’t ‘act professionally’.

      The clue is on the CIJ home page to which you kindly give a link:

      “…..The Chartered Institute of Journalists is the oldest professional body for Journalists in the world. It was founded – as the National Association of Journalists – in 1884 and six years later was granted its Royal Charter by Queen Victoria, to protect and serve those employed in the field of journalism….”

      It exists to protect and serve those in the ‘field’ of journalism (not the profession of journalism).

      Journalism is not a ‘Profession’. A professional journalist is just a dude, or dudette who is paid to write.

      Whilst we all put up with sh!t journalists, we can have zero tolerence for sh!t engineers and sh!t doctors. As professionals, engineers and doctors try their best to weed out sh!t engineers or sh!t doctors in their early careers and to correct their mistakes, preferably before someone dies.

         6 likes

      • Scott says:

        Bless.

        Someone out there doesn’t use the exact wording that “Angrymanupnorth” dictates should be used at the precise point in a marketing sentence that he believes it should be, even though it’s used elsewhere.

        Still, never mind – that sort of feeble argument is, of course, more than enough for Biased BBC’s usual coterie of whining ninnies. Anything that can prop up their precarious prejudices from crumbling under the weight of anything approaching the real world.

           4 likes

        • John Anderson says:

          Being an obscure and junior IT worker with pretensions to writing hardly define you as belonging to the “real world”.

             10 likes

        • dave s says:

          It is the liberal/BBC refusal to face reality that is the m ain obstacle to dealing with the problems waiting for us in the future.
          Denial, distortion and outright falsification of the past and the misuse of language is the modus operandi of the liberal .
          When the real world comes calling then we will see what the BBc and the liberal fantasy is really worth. .

             8 likes

      • Up2snuff says:

        Well, if Queen Victoria’s Charter and over a hundred years of professional acceptance & practice are not good enough for you, perhaps you would accept that a Chair, recognised in your fondly respected professions of medical doctor and engineer as being a measure of a profession will do? From dim memory I thought there was only one for journalism – at a northern University that I couldn’t specifically remember – but after a search am surprised to find that there are now many and even Oxbridge has succumbed! Is it not possible that you and your dictionary are wrong or, at best, slightly out of date and that Scott (however badly behaved at times) may actually be correct in this instance?

           3 likes

        • GCooper says:

          See the link to the NUJ paper I posted elsewhere

          The status of journalism has been in debate for decades. The existence of a few academics is neither here nor there. Unless, of course, you are arguing that Beckhamology or Gold Course Maintenance should be now be recognised as learned professions as well?

             3 likes

  9. johnnythefish says:

    Lazy New Year’s Day so doing some catch-up on the old Sky box and, in particular, a BBC documentary on still-life art.

    Going back to the early influences of Rome and the Ancient Greeks, up pops a classic historian for a soundbite. ‘Hmmm, she looks familiar’, I thought.

    And she was.

    She’s the BBC mouthpiece for informing us how the Roman Empire was cosmopolitan, welcoming and tolerant. Not wanting to disappoint, she told me again, then disappeared.

    Job done.

       13 likes

  10. johnnythefish says:

    Anyone noticed how the BBC slip shots of wind turbines into their documentaries – any documentary?

    They managed it again in a programme about still-life art and also in Portillo’s Continental Railway Journeys, both of which I watched on catch-up today.

    If you weren’t aware of 28 Gate, you’d call it bizarre coincidence.

       19 likes

  11. John Anderson says:

    All day long Radio 4 has had as its main news headline the case of the Al Jazeera journalists in Egypt.

    How can this possibly be regarded as the top news item of the day ? But it gives the Beeb It’s just another chance to wheel out that rasping crone Lyse Doucet, inferring that the Egyptians are being terribly unfair on the Muslim Brotherhood.

       18 likes

  12. George R says:

    Merkel, and INBBC, attempt to denigrate political opposition to their campaign

    to Islamise Europe-

    “Merkel boner:

    German Chancellor tells Germans not to attend anti-Islamization rallies”

    By Robert Spencer.

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/01/merkel-boner-german-chancellor-tells-germans-not-to-attend-anti-islamization-rallies

       13 likes

  13. thoughtful says:

    http://romancatholicimperialist.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/muslim-immigrant-was-bin-lorry-driver.html?m=1

    Photographs I’ve seen which I’ll try to post here show that the driver was not slumped over the wheel at all, although it’s only possible to see the Hi Vis arm of his jacket.

       4 likes

    • Albaman says:

      Stunningly reliable source!!!
      Don’t suppose that your next source will be the equally reliable EDL page that claims they can see an ISIS flag in the photograph!!
      You really need to change your name “thoughtfull” – perhaps Alan would be a suitable alternative!!

         4 likes

    • +james says:

      The bloke is a council worker so the council is covering it’s arse. Anyway wait for the inquest all will be out, unless it is held in private.

         8 likes

    • Albaman says:

      Taken from “thoughful’s” source:
      “There was no heart attack you lying piece of crap. No official statement. And the pic shows the driver sitting upright confidently driving seconds before impact after the whole 300 metres stunt. Since when do heart attack victims drive lorries at 50-100 mph in a straight line for 300 metres whilst sitting upright and without intervention from two passengers. And why is there a black flag pinned inside his damn windscreen. If it’s not the official flag of Glasgow City Council then it shouldn’t be there. ”

      Yep – a corporation lorry doing 100mph!!!

         6 likes

      • thoughtful says:

        Obviously not but witnesses did say they thought it was doing 50MPH
        If the only issue you can take issue with the piece is the speed witnesses are claiming then it says a lot.
        Many of us no longer trust the establishment when it comes to Muslim issues especially as we know just how much money they are taking money to promote the interests of Muslims in the West.
        This isn’t about an authenticated piece of citizen journalism it’s about rumours being started because of an out of control public sector which works against the interests of the very people it is supposed to work for.
        They needn’t have released very much information , the fact they have chosen to release nothing causes people to fill in the gaps themselves.

           15 likes

        • Albaman says:

          “They needn’t have released very much information , the fact they have chosen to release nothing causes people to fill in the gaps themselves. ”

          And par for the course the regular commentators on this site fill in the blank with “Muslim”.

          This site under the “leadership” of Vance and Alan has lost its way. It is no longer about wanting an “unbiased BBC”, it is all about wanting a BBC that is biased towards their own beliefs and prejudices.

          Let us take Vance’s oft mentioned and oft tweeted belief that the BBC were pro the YES vote during the referendum. Now, when over 3000 people took positive action to protest outside the BBC that they thought the BBC was biased during the build up to the referendum you would expect “our David” to be all over it like a rash. Thousands of people agreeing with him and actually getting up of their backsides and doing something other than pontificating on the internet.

          No, then why not?

          Well, unfortunately for the pro Union Mr Vance it was the YES side protesting. So, whilst all those people perceived a bias in the reporting it was not the bias perceived by Mr Vance.

          Now, lets have a look at the very active George R and his multitude of links to the Daily Mail and the unbiased Jihadwatch etc. Again an example of someone who claims BBC bias based on the fact that it does not report on matters in exactly the same way as a right wing newspaper and a biased website that mirrors GeorgeR’s beliefs.

          As Alan pointed out yesterday, “when you resort to insults you have lost the argument”. Based on the number of insults contained in posts on this site (either aimed at the BBC, individuals working for the BBC, politicians or anyone else the “regulars” do not like) then you can only conclude that this site has lost its argument.

             4 likes

          • Guest Who says:

            This ‘you’ being… you?

            Such a volume of presumptive off topic diatribe that you have deployed these last few days would last about 10 minutes on a BBC HYS, and ‘you’ can’t argue that point.

            Though clearly this simply represents a chance to keep consuming space and time doing so.

            From addressing occasional inaccuracy and having some value, now to pure petulant partisan shilling, any service to improving BBC content or reputation by association is rendered nil.

               4 likes

            • Guest Who says:

              Luckily, a professional media outlet has shown the correct way to actually report beyond speculation:

              Daily Mirror
              AirAsia Flight QZ8501: Plane’s behaviour ‘bordered on the edge of logic’ before crash http://t.co/kQPPg2PIi7 http://t.co/9iQmmc5J12

              The driver’s name was, if I recall, public domain within hours.

                 5 likes

              • Thoughtful says:

                Just to put the other side of this, the plane pilot is dead and therefore it is no infringement to name him, secondly it’s a foreign country which does not have the same laws, so it’s difficult to use as a direct comparator.

                There have however been plenty of occasions when people involved in accidents have been names, such as car drivers who have run people over and killed them. They have even named wholly innocent individuals who have killed scroats who they found in their home and businesses who have attacked them. In one such occasion the useless brigade even said that the man they named would have to sell his home and name for fear of reprisals from the scroats family & friends.

                There is plenty of precedent of those who have killed in all innocence being named, and there’s no good reason why they can’t name this driver, if their account of the accident is all it has been presented to be.

                The suggestion that people had filled in the blank (and that is an admission of the authorities creating a blank in the first place!) with Muslim is naïve in the extreme, or disingenuous. There have been several attacks of this nature of late in various countries, and there has been a call by ISIS to carry them out using exactly this method.
                People therefore are putting two & two together and making a number which fits the facts best. If we had a decent unbiased broadcaster then they would be raising a stink about this unless the government issues a DA notice.

                   8 likes

                • Guest Who says:

                  Thank you for the clarification on domestic legality vs. International ethics in reporting.

                  I was actually unaware the pilot was known to be dead. I wonder how many took the Mirror twitter headline before reading on to discover speculation he had heroically overcome a massive updraft to effect a possible crash landing vs. Crash?

                  But your point on local reporting is well taken, and again goes to BBC variabilities as the mood takes them and circumstances dictate.

                  A while ago on these pages I recall a post linking not just to the names but addresses of those involved in a case.

                  Clearly the BBC felt here public interest demanded it. Not sure if those spotlighted were innocent or guilty or in what context, say, gang assault whilst drunk when not used to the effects of alcohol.

                  As you say, the BBC switches precedent on and off rather too often.

                     2 likes

            • Ref:456 says:

              I’m not sure I could hang around on any website that would happily declare my kids were the wrong colour to be English or British.

                 2 likes

  14. Ian Rushlow says:

    The modest BBC… one of the techniques favoured by the BBC is not to name its sources and/or not to state its links with them. Here’s an example today. It seems that a high-ranking US Republican (boo! hiss!) may have spoken in 2002 at a meeting organised by a group that may have had White Supremacist views (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-echochambers-30638811). The BBC tells us that “On Sunday a Louisiana blogger reported…”. Why so coy, BBC? The blogger is question was Lamar White, which can be ascertained by following a link in the article. Would that be the same Lamar White – a well-known activist – who was “interviewed on BBC’s World News Tonight, where he discussed the enduring legacy of Solomon Northup, the protagonist of the Oscar award winning film, ’12 Years a Slave’.” (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamar_White)? Is he on speed-dial? Of course, the BBC has numerous sources in the USA, many of which are linked back to the Southern Poverty Law Center – it just seems a little odd it chooses not to emphasise them sometimes.

    And of course if a Democrat (or member of the Labour Party here) had met with, say, a Trotskyist or Communist organisation 13 years ago (much less been a member of such an organisation, which some of them were)… well, that wouldn’t even merit a report at all, would it?

       18 likes

  15. D1004 says:

    Whilst flicking channels looking for ‘match of the day ‘ came across a Belgian electric multiple unit ( passenger train to the general public) running down a line somewhere. So far so boring, it was only the next shots of Julie Walters from about 30 years ago and the voice over talking about her acting that the penny dropped. Something like ” it was whilst on the train back to Liverpool…….” So the programme was about her career and the voice over was talking about her life etc, the small point was that the bloody useless bbc had used stock footage of a Belgian train instead of doing the slightest bit of research and finding a BR one.
    Now you might say ” so what ?” I would say if they can not even get film of a train ( any bloody train would do, even Thomas the Tank Engine) from this country whilst talking about a journey in this country then what else have they got wrong ? For years I have noticed slap dash standards in using stock footage across all uk media. They don’t care what they make, it’s just pictures innit ? Who cares if they are right or wrong, tells the truth or tells a lie? Obviously not the bbc, pathetic professional standards as usual.

       20 likes

    • Steve Jones says:

      The BBC does the same with military hardware. Shame it can’t get that right when reporting on UK military deaths in particular. Still, it doesn’t matter to them.

         5 likes

    • Old Goat says:

      I take it from your “name” that you are a “Western” (Crusader) fan….

         1 likes

  16. Scotty says:

    The BBC is institutionally Homophobic.

       0 likes

  17. George R says:

    For Beeboids, propagandising for Islam, mass immigration and ‘diversity’-

    “Muslim faith schools are causing serious divisions in society because of their lack of diversity warns top equality campaigner.
    “Matthew Taylor says faith schools causing social and racial segregation.
    “Equality campaigner says Muslim faith schools have the least diversity.
    “Government policy promotes segregation and anti-integration, he says.
    “21 Birmingham schools were investigated over alleged Trojan Horse plot.”
    By MARTIN ROBINSON
    FOR MAILONLINE

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2893366/Muslim-faith-schools-causing-divisions-society-lack-diversity-warns-equality-campaigner.html#ixzz3NcKoGC8T

       13 likes

  18. outsider says:

    “Equality campaigner says Muslim faith schools have the least diversity”

    This is effectively the wheels coming off the progressive’s agenda.

       11 likes