Author Archives: Andrew

Chief Executive of BBC Broadcast from 1996 to 1999:

Double standards in dealing with Islam

Sir, I applaud the BBC’s news treatment of the Danish cartoons (report, Feb 4). On its website, however, the cultural cringe is evident and double standards obtain. In its history of Islam we read: “One night in 610 he (Muhammad) was meditating in a cave on the mountain when he was visited by the angel Jibreel who ordered him to “recite” . . . words which he came to understand were the words of God.” This is written as fact, no “it is said” or “Muhammad reported”. Whenever Muhammad’s name is mentioned the BBC adds “Peace be upon him”, as if the corporation itself were Muslim.

How different, and how much more accurate, when we turn to Christianity. Here, Jesus’ birth “is believed by Christians to be the fulfilment of prophesies in the Jewish Old Testament”; Jesus “claimed that he spoke with the authority of God”; accounts of his resurrection appearances were “put about by his believers”.

WILL WYATT
Chief Executive, BBC
Broadcast, 1996-99
Middle Barton, Oxon

– take a look at the two following letters as well. As my colleague Laban asks on his blog:

…for how long has it been mandatory in the Met and on the BBC to call Mohammed ‘the Prophet Mohammed’? [note capital ‘P’] I haven’t noticed Jesus being referred to as ‘the Lord Jesus Christ’ lately.

Indeed. I shall now return to my current B-BBC sabbatical. TTFN.

– just as well the BBC are keeping an eye on things for the rest of us!

BBC: UK tables final EU budget offer

The UK has tabled revised proposals for the EU’s 2007-13 budget at a summit in Brussels which is continuing into the night after a day of negotiation.

The Times: Blair surrenders more rebate in search of EU deal

Tony Blair made a further concession tonight on the rebate that Britain receives from the European Union to help break the deadlock at an EU budget summit in Brussels.

No difference there then!

Note also the BBC’s picture of Blair – another good ‘un from the BBC’s ‘special’ pictures department…

(this is getting to be a habit), study this BBC Views Online article from 20:18 last night, ‘Santa’ party girl dies in crash, then complete the following sentence:

The passenger is described by police as ______, 6ft 3ins tall. The driver is also believed to be ______.

Clue: See this Times article, Girl, 5, dies in hit-and-run after Christmas party, which, unlike BBC Views Online, passes on the Police description of the suspects without the BBC’s censorship.

Update: Since I wrote this post last night a subsequent BBC article was published at 05:27, Grief over hit-and-run death girl, that doesn’t censor the police descriptions. The PC cretin that wrote the first article ought to have their backside kicked – but I doubt anyone at the BBC believes in backside-kicking, metaphorical or otherwise, these days.

. Study this BBC Views Online article, Ex-Minister fined for being drunk, then complete the following sentence:

The ex-Minister is a member of the ________ Party.

Clue: See this Times article, Ex-minister in wine frenzy, which does manage to mention Twigg’s political affiliation – yes, it’s the same party that’s just pushed through 24-hour drinking legislation.

For advanced players, The Times also provides many more details than the BBC article, with which you can create further examples of BBC Views Online Blankety-Blanks!

– where once we had BBC defends ‘digital face’ trails we now have, according to The Times, BBC drops ‘horrific’ bouncing head:

The BBC dropped a “bouncing head” trailer for digital television after it was described as horrific by viewers and prompted 1,300 complaints. It featured a dismembered animated head, made up of hundreds of tiny heads, bouncing over hills. The head transformed into the face of well-known BBC presenters. One viewer said: “As a registered psychotherapist, I wish to protest that this image is disturbingly psychotic.” The BBC said that it had not been its intention to offend.

It seems the BBC’s version of this story was snuck out ever so briefly in the BBC Views Online Entertainment section, with the usual shilly-shallying equivocation much in evidence:

In a statement, the BBC said: “The digital faces trail was one of a very long series designed to capture the attention of viewers and stimulate interest in the BBC’s digital services.

“The latest, which was first transmitted on 5 November, has been very successful in this respect and early indications are that it has achieved its goal.”

“We have been very conscious that some viewers disliked the nature of the trail, although clearly it was not our intention to offend.

The trouble is, even though the BBC doesn’t set out generally to offend people, they seem to manage it time and again. I’m sure you, like me, can think of a few other BBC horrors that ought to be dropped.

was devoted mostly to the topic of Christianity in London. The presenter, Emily Maitlis, noted that 70% of Londoners (in common with ~70% of the nation at the last census) describe themselves as Christians, although the media devote more time to other much less statistically significant faiths (although by far the next biggest group in the UK are those of no faith).

Whilst this makes a welcome change, the coverage seemed somewhat over-focused on the divisions within the Anglican movement over the acceptability of homosexual clergy.

I look forward, in due course, to coverage of other faiths focusing similarly on the acceptability or otherwise of homosexuality within those faiths.

(see clip): Study this BBC Views Online article, Jail for ‘honour killing’ family, then complete the following sentence:

The so-called ‘honour’ killers are ________.

Clue: See this Times article, Family jailed for ‘honour killing’, for more details than BBC Views Online’s curiously abridged coverage.

Matt Frei visits the home town of the American held hostage in Iraq. Amidst much tired hackish blather, he informs us that over 200 westerners have been kidnapped in Iraq, and that:

“…one in three have been executed by their captors.”

What a putz. Have the berks at the BBC no decency? To any reasonable human being these people were murdered – there is no other word for it. Simple as that.

Lead item today was, of course (for seasoned BBC monitors), the UN climate change conference in Canada. Much general blather about how the Americans have refused, so far, to agree on draft plans for a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, though strangely, no clear explanation as to what the American’s objections actually are.

That said, the reporter, David Shukman, did refer to China as being similarly unencumbered by the Kyoto Protocol – voiced over film of a Chinese coal mine with, we are informed, a methane capture system – so they’re obviously doing their high-tech bit.

Unfortunately, doubtless for reasons of space, David was unable to explore the Chinese aspect of this story, to inform us, for instance, that China has, er, 24,000 coal mines (all kitted out with methane recovery systems?) or that China has “plans for 544 new coal-fired power stations to meet an insatiable demand for energy”. Must try harder David – if you’re not going to tell us the whole story you might as well not bother!

starting with the One O’Clock News with Anna Ford – who informed us about the outcome of a government investigation into the crash of an RAF Hercules “Jet” in Iraq (killing ten service people). How many decades has the Hercules (the C130 to our US cousins) been in service? What kind of plane did the Iranians crash just this week? Was it a jet? No. It has four large twirly things called propellors – always has had.

Why is it, that with all of the resources of BBC News, these clowns, all of them, can make and broadcast such a basic error in a major news programme? Don’t they watch the news themselves? Don’t they instinctively know what a Hercules looks like? It wouldn’t surprise me if these people couldn’t recognise a London bus (why yes, it’s small, black and bulbous, paid for on the BBC account, isn’t it? 🙂

Later, on News Twenty-Bore (Sky News having been contemptuously cast aside today – too much Emma Vacuous and Ginny Gormless these days), we have, among other things, Nick Higham, on the subject of hostage-taking in Iraq, informing us that 41 hostages have been “executed” so far. Nick, have some decency old chap – whatever your PC BBC guidelines say, these people were not executed (implying some kind of judicially sanctioned killing), nor even simply ‘killed’ – they were murdered, barbarically so. Please try to remember that.

And then we got to Caroline Haw-Hawley. Oh dear. More to follow…