Author Archives: David Vance

Week-end BBC-related comment thread!

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Please use this thread for comments about the BBC’s current programming and activities. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog – scroll down for new topic-specific posts. N.B. this is not an invitation for general off-topic comments, rants or chit-chat. Thoughtful comments are encouraged. Comments may also be moderated. Any suggestions for stories that you might like covered would be appreciated! It’s your space, use it wisely.

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NOT EVEN A HINT OF BIAS

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We all know that BBC journalists are the very model of professional impartiality, right? So, have a look at the attached image. Dozens of Palestinian journalists demonstrated on Wednesday morning at Bethlehem’s Church of Nativity in protest of the Israeli arrest of journalist Hassan Abdel Jawad. They called not only for the release of the journalist, but for “political prisoners”. (Terrorists to you and me!) Head of the Palestinian Journalists Union, Naim Toubassi, said that the arrest of Abdel Jawad is the latest proof of the Israeli “policy of repression and harassment, not only against political activists, but also against journalists who transmit the truth and exercise their right to freedom of opinion and expression.” Can you guess which State broadcaster was part of the fun? Mmmm..maybe they just provided the taxi service, what do you think? The bias is endemic folks, and only the voluntarily blind can’t see it.

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QUESTION TIME WATCH.

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Yes, the weekly farce that is the BBC flagship political debating programme “Question Time” graced our screens last evening and true to form it had the usual massive weighted majority to prop up the political left. There was smug SNP leader Alex Salmond who increasingly resembles a fat toad; then we had Charlie “Hic” Kennedy, the former Liberal leader; then there was John Denham the Labour MP who “courageously” resigned from his ministerial position when the UK government voted to remove Saddam, (And instantly became a BBC hero) ; there was business-woman Nicola Horlicks who looked completely out of her depth and was wishy-washy on all subjects and then..yes, the token conservative in the shape of wee Georgie Osbourne, the wetter than a wet lettuce Shadow Chancellor. It was banality incarnate, but the bit that gets me that there is ALWAYS someone in every QT audience who suddenly launches into an onslaught on the whole “Iraq was an illegal immoral war” mantra, to a resounding cheer. Where DO the BBC get these loons from?

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THE IRANIAN MAKE-OVER.

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When one considers the Islamofascist character of the Iranian government, backed up by deranged Mullahs and their puppet president Ahmadinejad who has an imaginary 13th Imam as a dining pal, only the BBC would conclude that this is a conservative regime and yet that is exactly how it is what repeatedly described on an item on the “Today” programme just after the 6.30am news. Discussing elections taking place in Iran today, the BBC reporter stated that “moderates” might struggle to produce a breakthrough because of the essentially conservative nature of the regime. So just to reprise – hanging gays, enforcing shar’ia, backing terrorism, profound anti-semitism – these are all the hallmarks of a conservative administration, if one listens to the BBC. Is it any wonder that the BBC’s leftwing bias is a target for many of us when we witness this kind of tripe served up as impartial news reporting? Curiously enough, 25 minutes later, the BBC followed up with a story suggesting that the British Conservative party was not showing enough a lead over Labour to win at the next election. Conservatives = bad in BBC worldview, and they sure know how to subtly poison the well, don’t they?

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General BBC-related comment thread:

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Please use this thread for comments about the BBC’s current programming and activities. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog – scroll down for new topic-specific posts. N.B. this is not an invitation for general off-topic comments, rants or chit-chat. Thoughtful comments are encouraged. Comments may also be moderated. Any suggestions for stories that you might like covered would be appreciated! It’s your space, use it wisely!

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MOVE OVER DARLING.

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Today was Budget Day. Seeing as how government has been leaking the contents of the Budget to the media for the past several weeks, no real big surprises. But I happened to catch the BBC Radio 5 “Drivetime” programme this evening allegedly analysing this latest onslaught on the middle-classes, those cash cows beloved of the Nulabour redistribution of wealth machine. In essence the programme was just one extended sneer with the two presenters believing that surely those who can afford 4×4 cars can afford to pay Darlings’ extra 2k showroom tax. They failed to grasp WHY should they! They also enthusiastically advanced the faux “Green taxes are righteous taxes” argument so beloved of this government, and clapped their little hands in delight at the news that “key-workers” (ie Gordon Brown’s state sector army) would be the beneficiaries of even more largesse care of its masters in power. It is obvious to anyone with half a brain that Labour is in serious financial straits as befalls all good leftist administrations and that its profligacy in growing the State during the Brown era is the core problem, but perhaps expecting the State broadcaster to deal with that is a hope too far?

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TERRORIST GODFATHER KNOWS THE WAY TO SESAME STREET

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One of the areas of BBC activity that causes me most concern is its active role in sanitising terrorism. Take this charming photocall of IRA terrorist godfather Martin McGuinness sitting between Potto and Hilda. Who are Potto and Hilda? Well, they aren’t members of Sinn Fein (Then again..) but they the stars of the new BBC children’s programme, Sesame Tree, This local version of Sesame Street was launched in Belfast yesterday. The new series swaps the original New York street setting for the titular tree, and aims to showcase ..ugh…”diversity and promote respect and understanding”through the characters’ adventures with local schoolchildren. The programme is linked to the revised Northern Ireland statutory curriculum, and will encourage children to explore and appreciate the world around them.

Chuckle Brother McGuinness recently explained how he had wished to kill every British soldier in Londonderry back in 1972, and remains vague as to how many the IRA unit under his command actually DID kill. The way in which the BBC uses something as innocuous as a Sesame Street spin-off to help improve the image of a self-confessed IRA terrorist McGuinness is an absolute disgrace and it is a role that the local BBC here in Northern Ireland have turned into an art form. Our license-fee is funding aPR make-over for monsters such as McGuinnness.

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MISSING WORDS.

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I was listening to an item on the BBC “Today” programme this morning concerning the missing children of Bradford. Essentially this relates to the disappearance of mostly teenage girls who it seems have been forced into marriages with Pakistan featuring heavily in the story as the destination for these unfortunates. However at no point did the BBC see fit to point out that this problem is one that is inextricably linked with British Muslims and instead it postures that “many minorities”could be involved. Yes, they could be, but they are not. The smug Keith Vaz was then interviewed and he was quick to point out that this should not be looked upon as a Muslim problem but a broader societal one. Rubbish. Could the BBC not find anybody who was prepared to come on-air and explain that forced marriages, like “honour” killings, are all part of the rich cultural tapestry that Islam has brought into the UK? Why does it shy away from stating the obvious? It KNOWS that many of these children are sent back to Pakistan and it KNOWS that this is part of Muslim family arrangements. Why can it not just state that?

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EXONERATING JUDAS.

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How interesting to read that the BBC is to screen a new drama about the final week in the life of Jesus Christ which appears to exonerate Judas and Pontius Pilate. Producers of The Passion have portrayed the men in a sympathetic light because they believe they have been “very harshly judged” by history. A BBC spokesman said:”We are not seeking to subvert or rewrite the Gospel narrative – we are just retelling it to bring it alive for a contemporary audience.” Right, so you KNOW that that this is exactly what they are looking to do. However I’m looking forward to these bravehearts in the BBC pitching a drama about the life of Mohammad which implicates him in a paedophile and mass murdering scandal. I mean, it’s not JUST Christianity that the BBC wishes to “take a fresh look at” – is it?

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Week-day BBC-related comment thread!

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210 Comments

Please use this thread for comments about the BBC’s current programming and activities. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog – scroll down for new topic-specific posts. N.B. this is not an invitation for general off-topic comments, rants or chit-chat. Thoughtful comments are encouraged. Comments may also be moderated. Any suggestions for stories that you might like covered would be appreciated! It’s your space, use it wisely.

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.