Tell me something new once again!!

 

H/T to Craig at Is the BBC biased? for linking to the BBC report.

 

The BBC’s Quentin Sommerville tells us in excited tones about…..

Raqqa’s dirty secret

The BBC has uncovered details of a secret deal that let hundreds of IS fighters and their families escape from Raqqa, under the gaze of the US and British-led coalition and Kurdish-led forces who control the city.

A convoy included some of IS’s most notorious members and – despite reassurances – dozens of foreign fighters. Some of those have spread out across Syria, even making it as far as Turkey.

The story is dated….

Publication date
13 November 2017

 

Now if you follow the news you might have thought that you have heard this before…that convoys of ISIS fighters have been allowed to leave Raqqa…..that’s because you have…way back in October….not quite so ‘secret’ then…and not exactly a BBC exclusive……

From the Guardian….October 14….

Last Isis fighters in Raqqa broker deal to leave Syrian city – local official

Islamic State fighters remaining in Raqqa, once the group’s de facto capital, have brokered a deal that would allow them to leave the city with a number of human shields, according to agencies in Syria.

Omar Alloush, a senior official of the Raqqa Civil Council, told Agence France-Presse a deal had been reached to allow fighters out of the city, which is on the verge of being captured by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.

The Times…

Final assault on Raqqa after SDF deal allows Isis rebel convoy to flee

Western-backed forces in Syria have launched the final assault to oust Islamic State from Raqqa after hundreds of militants fled the city, leaving only a few fighters behind.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led coalition, and local Arab tribes struck a deal to allow a convoy of Syrian Isis fighters to leave the self-declared capital of the caliphate at the weekend.

The Telegraph….

Evacuation deal for Isil fighters in Syria’s Raqqa as city’s capture nears

A convoy will leave Syria’s Raqqa on Saturday under an evacuation deal agreed as a US-backed force battles to seize Isil’s last positions in the city.

The US-led coalition said the deal for the evacuation would exclude foreign Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) fighters, but left unclear whether Syrian jihadists would be able to quit their one-time stronghold.

Not sure what Quentin Sommerville has been smoking…must be some good shit though…he certainly writes it…..

 

Tell me something new!

 

The BBC has a short memory as it reports this today….parliament to get a vote on Brexit…and if rejects it there will be ‘no deal’…..apparently this is a big concession and surprise…..Kuenssberg spinning away madly for the EU?

Parliament to get binding vote on final Brexit deal

Parliament is to be given a take-it-or leave-it vote on the final Brexit deal before the UK leaves the EU.

Brexit Secretary David Davis said the terms of the UK’s exit, such as money, citizen rights and any transition must become law via a new Act of Parliament.

While any deal would “only hold” if MPs approved it, he said it would not alter the fact the UK was leaving the EU.

Labour welcomed a “climbdown” but some MPs warned of a “sham” if ministers could not be asked to renegotiate.

The BBC’s political editor Laura Kuenssberg said the announcement was significant because it represented a big concession to potential Tory rebels and Labour MPs at a highly important moment in the Brexit process.

 

Hmmmmm…thought I remembered this…..from February this year….

British parliament will get vote on final Brexit deal

LONDON — Both houses of the British parliament will get a vote on the Brexit deal that Theresa May strikes with the European Union, the government said Tuesday.

Brexit minister David Jones told the House of Commons he expects this to happen “before the European Parliament debates and votes on the final agreement.”

Asked to clarify what happens if MPs and members of the House of Lords decide they don’t like the deal, Jones said “the vote will be either to accept the deal. Or there will be no deal.”

Former Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said: “It is not good enough for the government to offer parliament a hard Brexit or an even harder Brexit.”

The Remain Hate that the BBC always ignores

 

 

Here’s a ‘Neo European’ wishing old white men would just curl up and die in a cold winter…their grandchildren can then spit on their graves……maybe the police should arrest this guy?  If that’s not hate speech what is?  Silly Hind.

Clearly he doesn’t read his own propaganda rag…it’s not old white men who are to blame for Brexit, it’s old black and Asian folk….bet the BBC would ramp up the outrage if Mr Hind suggested old Black and Asian men should die and people spit on their graves…..

BAME to blame: How minorities got it so wrong

Research by the British Election Study suggests the ethnic minority vote was crucial in the EU referendum.

Only a third voted Leave, but those voters could well have clinched it for Brexit.  Too many South Asians and Caribbean people I met were taken in by false Brexit promises.

We BAME people must take some of the blame as we suffer the consequences.

 

Mike HindVerified account

@MikeH_PR

Franco-British-based investigative journalist. Contributor to .

 

 

Washington Post Truth

 

The Washington Post, along with the New York Times, was a staunch anti-Trump ally of the BBC, all three spreading unfounded rumours about Trump being a compromised Russian agent as truth.

They like to present themselves as the only trustworthy guardians of The Truth that can be relied upon and to that end work assiduously to smear and discredit as many other news and social media outlets as possible with charges of peddling fake news…..news and comment providers that is that are right-leaning and may support Donald Trump.

Here’s a classic Washington Post attempt to link the Drudge Report to Russia.…it is entirely spurious and total nonsense [the WaPo pretty much admits as much in the article!] but the WAPO doesn’t care because the article is intended to just spread the idea, instil doubt in readers and make them think maybe Drudge cannot be trusted…maybe he is pushing Russian fake news.

Look at the links it gives….it admits they are actually way down at the bottom of the Drudge Report amongst a multitude of other links.  It also notes that the Washington Post itself is linked to by Drudge far more than to these other ‘dubious’ sites [RT, Sputnik and Infowars] and yet it ploughs on to try and suggest Drudge is suspiciously linking to far too many dodgy sites.

Just how many times has Drudge linked to these sites in a decade?

DrudgeReportArchives captures an image of the Drudge Report every two minutes, as it has for 16 years. We ran a script that checked the first update to Drudge Report after 9 a.m. on every day of the past decade, counting the number of times Drudge linked to Infowars, RT or Sputnik. Over that period, excluding the two standing links to Infowars, we tallied more than 1,000 links to those sites.

What!!!! So many times…..three sites linked to over 1000 times in 10 years….ye gods man…call the FBI!!!  That’s one link every three or four days…holy smokes!!…..mobilise the army…the Reds are coming…oh wait…that’s a good thing isn’t it?

Look at the graph above and you can see that the WaPO has been linked to far, far more times.

The WaPo’s tag line is ‘Democracy Dies in Darkness’…and yet the WaPo is doing its utmost to close and and smear sites and news providers which provide opposing views, and news, to its own world view….as of course is the BBC.

The BBC and its ilk are the real danger to democracy not the likes of Drudge who link to all and sundry and provide a valuable service in bringing as many different points of view to the debate as possible.

 

 

 

Welfare? Well gud bruv innit

Do welfare states boost economic growth, or stunt it?

I’ll let you decide what the answer to that is, but I think we all know what the BBC comrades generally believe.

When you are trying to inform (i.e. brainwash) people on economic matters, there are two techniques you can use: One is to blind them with science and an overwhelming amount of statistical information that they can’t get their heads around to challenge your view. What this article uses is the other strategy – no data, no charts, no facts at all – just some mind-numbing metaphors and anecdotes.

YAWN

Compound Error

 

 

Laura Kuenssberg told us that the issue of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s detention was highly sensitive and political which is why the BBC has been stomping around in its size 12’s adding to the kicking Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is getting.

The BBC led the chorus against Boris and his comment [briefed to him by who? and why?] and are now targeting Gove for his innocuous comments.

Sarah Montague this morning [08:10] told us that Gove had ‘waded into this’ with his comments and yet it was Marr that raised the subject asking what Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was doing in Iran….shouldn’t Marr just have said ‘Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was on holiday so why do you think the Iranians are holding her and what can we do to get her released?’  Of course he wouldn’t like to ask that because the answer leads directly to the BBC’s door.  Peter Allen yesterday also asked what she was doing in Iran…so again raising doubts about her activities.

Then Montague, trying to attack Gove in a somewhat poisonous piece, went down a similar avenue as she quoted Gove’s reply to Marr...

Asked on Sunday by Mr Marr what she had been doing in Iran, Mr Gove replied: “I don’t know” adding there was “no reason Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe should be in prison in Iran so far as any of us know”.

She went on to ask the husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe ‘He says ‘So far as any of us know’….Do you think he doubts it?’  That is, what Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe says she was doing…ie on holiday.

As said that was supposed to be an attack on Gove but that extraordinary piece of interpretation of a normal turn of phrase in fact merely gives added ammunition to the Iranians who can now say ‘The BBC thinks a second British government minister has doubts about the truth of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s claims to be merely on holiday.’

The BBC can’t have it both ways….attacking Boris and Gove [Gove having been asked to comment by the BBC] for jeopardising Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s position and then at least three times themselves casting doubt on her story and broadcasting it to the world.

I guess deposing two big Brexit supporting ministers is more important to the BBC than the life of one dual-national woman who got caught up in international politics.

 

Media Meddling

 

The Iranian government has opened a criminal investigation into 152 current and former BBC Persian journalists on charges of “conspiracy against national security”.

October 25 2017

Where is the total outrage from the BBC, from Labour, from all those ‘inside the Tory party against Boris’ [Sarah Montague not mentioning they are pro-EU Tories] about these 152 BBC employees?  There came  none.  Only one ex-BBC employee gets their interest…one whom they think can be exploited to topple Boris…and now Gove.  Funny that.

The BBC tells us that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was merely a small, insignificant admin cog in its Media Action machine…..who can doubt that?

But Iran says it has arrested her for her employment by the BBC’s Media Action and its role in trying to subvert and topple the Iranian regime and links to the BBC’s Persian Service.

The BBC makes no mention of these charges in any of its news bulletins or programmes.

“IT’S THE PICTURES, STUPID.”
Iran’s Reign of Terror can seem a long way away. And sometimes not. There are plenty of Iranians here. They’ll all talk. But nobody wants to go on the record. The fear is manifest. BBC Persian TV and Voice of America carry regular reports of rape, torture and murder against opponents of the regime. Neda was just the start.
So, what happened to change everything?
“It’s the pictures, stupid. The impact of TV news lies in the pictures. Doesn’t matter if it’s Iran, or wherever. Same story.”

Here’s what Media Action tells you about its role in a recruitment advert, here for an accountant….

Job Introduction

BBC Media Action is the BBC’s international development charity, which uses media and communications to help reduce poverty and support people to understand their rights. We do this through partnering with civil society, media and others to produce creative programmes and other outputs which inform and engage audiences on key development issues. We also strengthen the media sector through building professional capacity and infrastructure. We focus on health, governance and rights, and resilience and humanitarian response. 

Sounds rather innocuous but those fine sounding words conceal a somewhat more dangerous objective….to subvert and undermine regimes that don’t match the liberal, democratic standards that the BBC and others want them to by broadcasting into countries such as Iran information the regimes don’t want the population to have…and of course doing this by using Iranian exile journalists.

Here’s an ex-BBC senior journalist telling you how effective the BBC was at encouraging revolt and uprising especially in 2009….the time when Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was supposedly involved with BBC Media Action…

The Power of TV News: An Insider’s Perspective on the Launch of BBC Persian TV in the Year of the Iranian Uprising

We were in Tehran to help prepare the launch of a new BBC Persian TV channel. Naturally enough Mr. Kallur said “no,” without actually ever saying “no” to our newsgathering presence in Tehran. All very Iranian.

“Well, of course you’re from MI6. You’re a spy.” … “Pass the pomegranate juice, please.”

The accusation was made to the director of the BBC’s World Service, Nigel Chapman. He and I and the BBC’s senior Persian analyst, Sadegh Saba, were sitting in the headquarters of the Iranian President, Mahmud Ahmadinejad. His head of communications and senior advisor, Mehdi Kallur, didn’t beat about the bush.

“The West has meddled for decades. We just don’t trust what you’re up to.”

And yet, there were signs of hope. A sea of satellite TV dishes dotted the rooftops. And in nearly every home I went into family and friends were watching the U.S. Voice of America TV, avidly. The chest‐beating chanting of “Death to America,” I also discovered, was nonsense — a carefully choreographed clique drummed up for special occasions. Virtually every Iranian I spoke to really liked America — even loved it. They might not trust it, but they love the culture: California, coast and cars, and what they see in the movies.

On the face of it, though, as Brits, and therefore junior players in this saga, the BBC was seemingly up the Persian Gulf without a paddle. It was the end of 2007. No staff, no reporters in Tehran, and seemingly no audience.

Roll forward 18 months to the uprising of June 2009. “I went to bed in one country, and woke up in another.” The memorable words of (UK) Channel 4 News reporter, Lindsey Hillsum. Hundreds of thousands were out on the streets in Tehran and cities across Iran, disputing the “stolen election.” Joe Klein, reporting the Iranian election in Tehran for Time magazine and CNN, describes it like this: “Anarchy, total chaos, and everyone watching the BBC.”

“The shooting of Neda Soltan and the killings and beatings that followed changed everything” according to Karim Sadjadpour at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace.  “Those picutres were seen by everyone in Iran, mostly on the BBC,, but also on Voice of America or CNN. And make no mistake, the very existence of BBC TV was a critical factor.”

Read the full article here.

You can judge the BBC’s interest in Iran from this site…even though the BBC is banned in Iran it still seeks to influence events there with its broadcasting….you can see the various strategies used by the media to influence politics in Iran and other countries…..and how effective it is….

The Role of New Media in the 2009 Iranian Elections

Robert Faris told participants that new media played a significant role, and international broadcasting services played a more important role. New media tools offer faster information access, but lack accuracy and credibility of traditional forms of media. Censorship is a challenge to use of social media tools, but due to the decentralised nature of tools such as Twitter and mobile phone short message service (SMS), they present challenges to government controls and they can reduce costs and increase efficiency for social movements. In Iran, they united a movement and disseminated information both inside and outside the country.

The Role of the Media as Watch-dogs, Agenda-setters and Gatekeepers in Arab States

“Before the advent of Arab satellite television, the idea that media might drive public opinion in a direction other than that dictated by government was essentially unthinkable, much less that media would have an agenda-setting effect independent from that of those in power.” The author describes a “seminal moment for the media” when a cellphone video of police abuse of power drew intense media interest and brought about the conviction of policemen. With the advent of satellite television and the broadcast of the channel Al-Jazeera, governments temporarily lost control of the broadcast media. Electronic media then took a role in opinion formation.”

Inspiring Political Participation

Iran’s Twitter Revolution

Poetic Engagement with Afghanistan, Caucasus and Iran: An Unexplored Strategic Opportunity?

Against All Odds: The Building of a Women’s Movement in the Islamic Republic of Iran

 

In 2011 the BBC World Service received a grant from the government…why?

International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell called the media “one of our most powerful tools”: “We want to give people knowledge and a voice.”

 

BBC Media Action may have laudable chairtable aims by ensuring important information on issues such as health are disseminated to those who need it to improve their lives but there is a more political side to Media Action’s work….the BBC is not admitting this in its attacks on Boris and Gove, the BBC is at the centre of this political drama but erases its own presence at every turn not admitting it has a large role in it, blaming Boris and Gove when it should be taking the blame itself.

 

 

Careful what you wish for

 

The BBC wants hate speech legislation in order to silence those who criticise Islam…it had better be careful what it wishes for as the legislation will make the BBC itself fair game one day…..