Author Archives: Andrew

Going back a couple of weeks, on the day of the BBC’s Annual General Meeting, Michael Grade, Chairman of the BBC’s governors, was interviewed on the Today programme. I believe he was interviewed once, however, looking at the reports of his words on BBC News Online and in the Daily Telegraph, one has to wonder if the Beeboids at News Online were wearing their rose-tinted ear-muffs that day (as usual). Using your skill, judgment and experience of BBC bias, see if you can figure out which of these two introductory excerpts is the BBC version and which is the Daily Telegraph version:

‘Repeat-free zones’ aim for BBC

Prime time viewing hours on BBC One and BBC Two could be “repeat-free zones” within 10 years, the broadcaster’s chairman Michael Grade has said.

It is “not good enough” that one in 10 programmes currently shown at peak times is a re-run, Mr Grade said.

Answering licence fee payers’ questions at its annual general meeting, director general Mark Thompson said plans for 15% spending cuts would improve value.

and:

Licence payers neglected for years, says Grade

Television licence-payers have been “neglected” for years by the BBC’s governors, chairman Michael Grade has said.

Mr Grade said the governors had followed their own opinions and tastes and had failed to ensure the BBC responded to the requirements of viewers.

He also set out an ambition to make BBC1 and BBC2 “repeat-free zones” within the next few years, while attacking “inefficiency” within the corporation

The corporation plans to cut staff by 15 per cent and Mr Grade backed this by saying that over-complex internal management and contract structures needed to be simplified.

Note particularly the contrast in the reporting of the BBC’s restructuring plans – one report describes “15% spending cuts”, whereas the other reports “plans to cut staff by 15 per cent”. Unless the BBC is planning to cut the licence fee (as if!), that ought to nail any lingering doubts for you!

has a good example of BBC think:

Abroad Again in Britain

BBC2 7:00pm – 8:00pm

Salisbury Cathedral

Salisbury Cathedral boasts the highest spire in Britain. Jonathan Meades, who was raised in its shadow, returns to one of the country’s finest medieval buildings. He wonders how an atheist can love a building dedicated to the propagation of medieval superstitions and fears.

Can you imagine that last sentence being used to refer to, say, a mosque or a temple or a synagogue? No, me neither.

for exposing a Guardian journalist, Dilpazier Aslam, as a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, and the Guardian’s failure to either notice or disclose this fact in relation to articles Aslam wrote on, for instance, the case of Shabina Begum (which appears to have been a Hizb ut-Tahrir put up job from the off) and the recent terrorist attacks in London, on which Aslam opined that:

Second- and third-generation Muslims are without the don’t-rock-the boat attitude that restricted our forefathers. We’re much sassier with our opinions, not caring if the boat rocks or not.

and that people should not be shocked by the London terrorist attacks because:

Shocked would be to suggest that the bombings happened through no responsibility of our own

Nice guy! Strangely enough though, even though this story has been running since Wednesday, July 13th (ten days ago), and was covered in The Independent (who doubtless overcame their annoyance with Scott’s digs at them to have a good kick at their Guardian rivals!), ‘Guardian’ man revealed as hardline Islamist six days ago, it has yet to make any appearance at all on BBC News Online or, as far as I am aware, in any BBC broadcast output.

Still, now that The Guardian has finally done the decent thing and sacked Aslam (albeit in a typically leftie mealy-mouthed sort of a way), I expect the BBC will finally get round to reporting it.

To save you some trouble Beeboids, here are links to Scott’s original posts:

• July 13th: ‘Sassy’ Suicide Bombers
• July 15th: ‘Sassy’ Organisation: “Kill Jews Everywhere”
• July 17th: Ablution Hits the MSM
• July 18th: Deafening Silence from the Guardian

And links to The Guardian’s articles on the subject:

• Aslam targeted by bloggers
• Background: the Guardian and Dilpazier Aslam
• Dilpazier Aslam leaves Guardian – surely they mean ‘sacked’!

Now, where do you think it should go?
UK?
Politics?
Technology?
Ah, Entertainment, that’s the ticket!

P.S. Be careful about repeating that bit about Scott allegedly spending “his time indoors posting repeated attacks on the Guardian for its stance on the environment, its columnists such as Polly Toynbee, and its recent intervention in the US presidential election campaign” – it smacks of sour grapes.

Update: From today’s Sunday Times, re. the case of Shabina Begum: Lords to rule on Muslim clothes. Let us hope that justice will prevail this time, in particular to protect vulnerable Muslim girls from being pressurised by male relatives about what they wear. Let us also hope that the BBC will remember to mention Cherie Booth’s role (or otherwise) this time.

The third story on BBC News Online’s home page just now (immediately below the story about today’s terrorist, sorry BBC, insurgent attacks in London) is headlined UK boy wrongly labelled bomber, complete with a picture and paragraph reading:

Evidence that London bomber Hasib Hussain visited Pakistan is called into question by a teenager sharing his name.

The story itself begins:

Evidence showing that all three of the London bombers of Pakistani descent visited Pakistan last year has been thrown into doubt.

A photograph of a passport purporting to show bomber Hasib Hussain was in fact that of a 16-year-old British boy with the same name.

The photo, together with documentation showing two other bombers visited Pakistan, was published on Monday.

This may well be true, with the clear implication from the BBC’s story and headline presentation that Hasib Hussain (the terrorist) hasn’t been to Pakistan. But (and there’s so often a ‘but’ with the BBC these days), if we look elsewhere, including at the BBC’s own recent coverage (obviously long forgotten about in the BBC Viewsroom), we find in, for instance, Suicide bombers’ ‘ordinary’ lives that:

Teenager Hasib Hussain had been known as a tearaway during his early teens.

Newspapers reported how he would start fights with fellow pupils at the Matthew Murray Secondary school in Leeds.

He left school in July 2003 with seven GCSEs.

Around this time, he was sent to Pakistan to visit relatives. He also went on the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, grew a beard and began to wear robes.

Despite becoming devoutly religious, he was arrested for shoplifting during 2004.

According to Pakistani officials, Hasib Hussain also visited Karachi last July, but when he left and his port of exit have not been established.

So, whilst the Hasib Hussain that visited Pakistan 12 months ago may well not have been Hasib Hussain the terrorist, it seems quite clear that Hasib Hussain the terrorist did visit Pakistan at least as recently as 18 to 24 months ago, when, according to the BBC, he “grew a beard and began to wear robes”.

These facts about the travels of Hasib Hussain the terrorist are very pertinent to today’s BBC story about the possible identity mix-up with Hasib Hussain the non-terrorist, yet today’s BBC story omits these facts entirely and infers that Hasib Hussain the terrorist hadn’t visited Pakistan at all, even though they don’t actually say that. Once more we are left to wonder if this sort of inaccuracy is down to ignorance and incompetence or if it’s a straightforward attempt to manufacture one story out of another.

Public split over new hate laws reports a BBC survey purporting to show public support for the government’s proposed ‘incitement to religious hatred’ laws. Rottweiler Puppy has given the story, and the underlying survey, a thorough mauling in his post Religious Hate Bill Stalls: BBC Get Out And Push.

Given the BBC’s enthusiasm for helping the democratic process along with such polls I look forward to BBC News Online carrying out and publishing more polls to gauge public opinion on, for instance:

• Capital punishment: yes or no?
• Yobs: time for the birch again?
• Judges: time to elect them?
• EU membership: good value?
• Immigration: more or less?
• Paedophiles: throw away the key?
• Burglars: was Tony Martin right?
• Dangerous aliens: send ’em home?
• Road tax: spend more on roads?
• Railway subsidies: good value?
• Sunday shopping: 6hrs or 24hrs?
• Telly-tax, adverts or subscriptions?
• NHS: should entitlement be verified?
• Schools: ditto;
• 0870 customer service: a rip-off?
• Mugabe: time for regime change?

and so on and so forth! I’m sure between us and BBC News Online we can think of lots of issues where UK government and public policy is deficient or lagging behind or plain doesn’t match the will of the British people – ideal topics for BBC News Online to survey and document for the benefit of the people who are forced to pay for it!

has seen Biased BBC readership up considerably, quoted on and linked to from many sites, including Glenn Reynold’s Instapundit and the Week on the Web in The Times. Welcome all!

Splashed on the front page of The Independent yesterday, was the figure 24,865. “Revealed: Iraq’s Civilian Death Toll”, read the headline.

It was not alone. The BBC’s bulletins ran with the same figure, as did the Daily Mirror and The Guardian — derived, said the latter, from “a detailed study of the human cost of the conflict”.

There is only one problem with the figure — not that you would know it from the credulous reporting. It is an entirely arbitrary figure published by political agitators.

The figure was released yesterday by two organisations, Iraq Body Count and the Oxford Research Group. According to the BBC, the former “is one of the most widely-quoted sources of information on the civilian death toll in Iraq”. Indeed it is — because the BBC itself reports its propaganda as fact.

Do read the rest!

UK multi-culturism under spotlight, by Roger Hardy, BBC “Islamic Affairs Analyst”, but didn’t have the energy to get stuck into it at the time. Thankfully, Dumbjon has been on the case, and has done a remarkably good demolition job, Beeb Bandwagon Hits Clue Tree, Reverses, Steers Round It, in his own inimitable style. The post below it is rather funny as well.

Spot the difference between yesterday’s reports:

BBC News: “Sir Edward, who took us into the Common Market…”;

Sky News: “Sir Edward, who took us into the then Common Market…”;

A hint, for those too young to remember the Common Market: it was another name for the EEC, the European Economic Community, which Britain voted to join in 1973. It ceased to exist when, without any further referendum, the EEC became the EC (European Community), and then later became the EU, that we all know and love to this day, so much so that there has been no need for another referendum.

in which he is quoted – Stop castrating the language, by Nick Cohen, continuing the theme that:

A misguided obsession with objective reporting is undermining the BBC’s credibility as a news organisation.

Cohen makes a number of excellent points, for example: “the relativist wisdom that ‘one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter’ is not as secure as the saloon-bar sages and BBC managers maintain” and “At the BBC and elsewhere, the pressure of events has pushed neutrality into euphemism and euphemism to the edge of outright falsehood. And nowhere more so than in the case of that pretty circumlocution – ‘insurgent'”.

Speaking about Iraq and the reporting thereof, Cohen says:

In theory, it would be clear to everyone that a struggle between fascism and democracy is underway, not a fight against ‘insurgents’. But in practice, this is Iraq which was invaded by the woefully unprepared George W Bush. Solidarity with the victims of fascism was suspended as preparations for war began, which was understandable. But, with the honourable exception of the trade union movement, the indifference has continued, which is scandalous.

In these murky circumstances, filled with self-deceit and double standards, the corruption of language is inevitable. The statement that: ‘Insurgents killed 24 children in Baghdad yesterday’ is entirely different from the statement that: ‘Al-Qaeda and the Baathists killed 24 children in Baghdad yesterday.’ The latter at least allows those members of the audience who want ‘to make their own assessment about who is doing what to whom’ to find out what al-Qaeda and the Baath party believe in and whether decent people should be on the side of the victims or the perpetrators.

The former is castrated language which has been emptied of precise meaning. It gives the vague impression that what we’re up against is the armed wing of Liberal Democrats: a regrettably violent force which, none the less, has understandable demands that may be met.

Cohen’s point about the use of language that discourages viewers from finding out more for themselves, ‘about who is doing what to whom’, is an especially valid criticism of a wide range of BBC News output. Pertinent details and relevant background information are so often ignored or fudged in news reports, at best, to keep things simple for the ‘dumb’ viewers – who are more sensible and intelligent than they are given credit for – or, at worst, to present a particular world view in such a way that viewers may not even realise there is more to the story than meets the eye.