Author Archives: DB

JENNI MURRAY – VICTIM OF THE VRWC

By | | , ,
20 Comments

Woman’s Hour presenter Jenni Murray was on Radio 4’s Feedback today (approx 7 mins in) defending herself against feminist anger over a recent stand-up routine she did as part of Comic Relief. It seems Murray used the word “bitches” and had committed the unforgivable crime (in feminist circles) of calling herself a “girl”. She pointed out that she was trying to be funny (the use of “bitches”, for example, was part of a mock urban slang bit of the sort heard with tiresome regularity from “real” Radio 4 comedians such as Mark Steel, her mentor for the Comic Relief exercise).

Before explaining the “ironic” nature of her comedy routine, Murray treated us to a brief history of the phrase “political correctness”. Referring to herself in the third person, she reminded right-on listeners everywhere about the real enemy:

“Who would’ve thought that Jenni Murray, queen of all things politically correct, would’ve landed herself in trouble accused of using unacceptable language? Well let’s deal first of all with those words “politically correct”, the ubiquitous “PC”. I never use them. It was an expression promoted by advisers to George Bush Sr during his presidency and was a plot by the extreme right wing in America to put down people like me.”

A pillar of the BBC possessing a deranged antipathy towards an imagined “extreme right wing in America”. Who’d have guessed, eh?

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

WISCONSIN

By | | , ,
13 Comments

This is an update to earlier blogposts by David Preiser about BBC coverage of the troubled passage of deficit reduction legislation in Wisconsin (see here, here, here).

Media double-standards over Wisconsin have become so blatant that even a left-leaning blogger on Huffington Post, Lee Stranahan, has expressed his distaste:

Why isn’t the mainstream media talking about the death threats against Republican politicians in Wisconsin?

…Ignoring the story of these threats is deeply, fundamentally wrong. It’s bad, biased journalism that will lead to no possible good outcome and progressives should be leading the charge against it.

Just before writing this article, I did a Google search and it’s stunning to find out that the right wing media really isn’t exaggerating — proven death threats against politicians are being ignored by the supposedly honest media. If you’ve never agreed with a single thing that Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly et al have said about anything, you can’t in any good conscience say that they don’t have a point here. Death threats are wrong and if a story like Wisconsin is national news for days, then so are death threats.

Quite so. If Tea Party followers had made death threats against Democrat politicians, and had gone to their homes to terrify their children, we can be sure that the BBC would’ve been all over it, ramping up the coverage with every fresh act of intimidation. I know this, readers of this blog know it, and BBC journalists, if they’re honest with themselves, must know it too. And we’re talking actual death threats here, not some vague perceived potential for violence of the sort imagined by BBC correspondents when reporting on the Tea Party movement.

The reason for this is simple enough. “It’s bad, biased journalism”, as Stranahan says. The BBC’s highly partisan coverage of American politics reflects the political leanings of its staff. As such, negative stories about Democrats and their supporters are either ignored or downplayed. This is in sharp contrast to the eager reporting of similar or less significant events which are used to bash the American right.

If any BBC journos disagree with my conclusion I’d be happy to read an alternative explanation for their news blackout over the Wisconsin death threats. Comment, email, blog, tweet. Anything.

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

USEFUL IDIOTS

By | | , , , ,
17 Comments

I’ve been away for a few days and am busy catching up on recent blogposts and comments (and excellent stuff it is too).

I see that the BBC has devoted some attention to links between the Gaddafi family and various British institutions and politicians. However, I can’t seem to find any mention of the useful idiots who, in the name of climate change, supported this particular PR exercise/vanity project back in 2007:

The Libyan government has announced the creation of what it claims is “the world’s first sustainable region”. It’s backed by architects Foster and Partners, enthusiastically endorsed by Sir Nicholas Stern – and directed by the Colonel’s son, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi.

The Green Mountain Conservation and Development Authority (GMCDA) will cover the northeastern region of Jabal al Akhdar (literally, ‘Green Mountain’). This encompasses several of the country’s major cities, including Benghazi, and stretches from the coast inland to a plateau featuring junipers, cypresses and wild olives. According to Norman Foster, it’s “one of the most beautiful and little known landscapes on earth”…

Sir Nicholas Stern… has given his blessing: “If we are to avoid the catastrophic effects of climate change… we need urgently to build new economic and social models of development on a substantial scale. The GMCDA will show how environmental and cultural objectives can help to build a thriving and sustainable local economy in a crucial part of the world.” Among other organisations involved are UNESCO, WWF and the Prince of Wales School of Traditional Arts.

The locals didn’t seem to share the enthusiasm of Lords Stern and Foster and the Prince of Wales for Saif Gaddafi’s vision. Green Mountain and Benghazi were among the first areas to revolt.

The BBC’s Michael Hirst was at the press conference at which Saif’s eco-utopia was unveiled. It’s a shame he didn’t remind his colleagues on Newsnight about it before their recent report; I can’t be alone in wondering how much money Foster and Partners received for their work on young Gaddafi’s project, or what financial return Lord Stern and others got for their endorsement. (Yes, I know – the BBC avoids asking the blessed Lord Stern awkward questions, especially concerning his lucrative career as one of the world’s foremost climate change alarmists.)

One final point relating to people who have in the past sucked up to the Gaddafis – who else remembers the edition of Have Your Say from the Oxford Union in which the BBC’s David Eades made a total tart of himself?
UPDATE. Thanks to John Horne Tooke for pointing out that David Eades continues to make a tart of himself, most recently at a “Sustainability Day” sponsored by Italian energy giant Enel last month – see here and here.

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

"MONOCHROME BAND OF PEOPLE"

By | |
15 Comments

James Naughtie, discussing internships and work experience on this morning’s Today programme:

“You’ve raised the point about companies getting people to work for them for nothing. That’s one side of it. The other side is you get an army of people who are given an opening, an entrée, into the, y’know, professions or quite well paid jobs by being able to work for nothing because their families can afford it and perhaps if the family has got a connection whether it’s a business connection or a friendship, what you end up with is an absolutely almost monochrome band of people who are gonna end up in the best jobs because they’ve got the experience and they all come from sort of middle class professional backgrounds.”

And where did James Naughtie’s son do his work experience? Newsnight.

(Naughtie JR’s twitter account – Sarah Palin appears to be a favourite topic. Almost monochrome band of people – politically, yes.)

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

KHALID YASIN UPDATE

By | | , ,
7 Comments

“Shaykh Khalid Yasin is an American Muslim teacher, extremely popular among young European Muslims. He has embarked on a mission to de-radicalise them.”

That’s what the BBC/RedRebel film on Geert Wilders told us (see yesterday’s post).

Just Journalism points out that Yasin was one of the preachers of hate exposed in the 2007 Dispatches documentary Undercover Mosque in which film is shown of him saying the following:

“We don’t need to go to the Christians or the Jews debating with them about the filth which they believe. We Muslims have been ordered to do brainwashing because the kuffaar they are doing brain defiling. You are watching the kaffir TV and your wife is watching it right now and your children are watching it and they are being polluted and they are being penetrated and they are being infected, so that you come out of the house and your children come out of the house as Muslims and come back as kaffirs.”

“This whole delusion of the equality of women is a bunch of foolishness…There’s no such thing.”

His claim that missionaries infected Africans with the AIDS virus, which I quoted yesterday, also appears in the Dispatches film. (A pdf transcript of Undercover Mosque can be read here.)

Channel 4 showed Yasin as he really is – a divisive conspiracy-believing radical who describes the beliefs of other religions as filth and refers to non-Muslims as kaffirs. On the other hand the BBC, in its eagerness to attack Wilders, broadcasts a film describing Yasin as a popular teacher on a mission to de-radicalise young Muslims. It almost beggars belief, but quite frankly nothing surprises me about the BBC any more.

UPDATE.There’s more on the Wilders film at Gates of Vienna, including a copy of a comprehensive letter of complaint.

Here’s a transcript of a 2005 programme about Yasin that was broadcast on Australia’s Channel 9. He’s a 9/11 truther, says homosexuality is “punishable by death”, and lies about his qualifications.
And some more background on Yasin here and here.

(Thanks to all in the comments)

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

"I rarely fly, for environmental reasons"

By | |
60 Comments

Hat tip to Bupendra Bhakta in the comments for this gem.

My Life in Travel: Marcus Brigstocke, comedian

Best holiday?
I went to the Maldives the year before last… I’ve also had some of my happiest holidays in Mallorca with family and friends. It’s a very beautiful island. We stay in great place called Camp de Mar near Andratx. So it’s a toss-up between the opulent, unforgettable paradise of the Maldives and calamari by the beach, waterskiing and nightclubbing in Mallorca

What have you learnt from your travels?
I have learnt that I am incapable of packing the right amount of clothing, probably because I start 10 minutes before I’m supposed to leave; and that I truly hate airports. I rarely fly, for environmental reasons more than anything else.

Where has seduced you?
I went to China for a brief working visit and I thought that Shanghai was interesting, but Beijing totally grabbed me

Worst travel experience?
My son, sister, niece and I were sea kayaking in Mexico and got caught in a rip tide

Worst hotel?
A resort hotel in Varadero, Cuba.

Dream trip?
I have never been to India.

Favourite city?
New York. It has great restaurants and is a part of the US that you can enjoy as a liberal Brit.

Marcus Brigstocke will be performing at Altitude at Volvo Snowbombing from 4-9 April in Mayrhofen, Austria

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

BBC Geert Wilders Hit-Job

By | |
Comments Off on BBC Geert Wilders Hit-Job

The Geert Wilders documentary on BBC 2 last night, the latest in the recent profusion of inept one-sided films attacking those who disagree with prevailing BBC leftist orthodoxies, has justifiably attracted a lot of criticism in the comments. However, it’s gone down well in some quarters:


You can see the film via the BBC iPlayer here, or on YouTube here.

It was made by Joost van der Valk and former Newsnight journalist Mags Gavan of RedRebel Films (bit of a clue in the name there, I think). The executive producer for the BBC end of things was Lucy Hetherington, partner of Newsnight’s Michael Crick and daughter of former Guardian editor Alastair Hetherington. In the comments Pounce points out that this timeslot on BBC 2 is usually occupied by a Top Gear repeat or Escape to the Country, raising suspicions that the film was dropped into the schedule to counter last night’s Dispatches about Muslim schools on Channel 4.

There was so much wrong with “Geert Wilders: Europe’s Most Dangerous Man?” it’s difficult to know where to begin, but here are few highlights for starters.
[Read More]

The title – not exactly subtle, but I suppose it is at least in keeping with the ham-fisted approach of the film itself.

We were introduced to Shaykh Khalid Yasin, described by the narrator as “an American Muslim teacher, extremely popular among young European Muslims. He has embarked on a mission to de-radicalise them. He is also very critical of Geert Wilders.”

Here are some quotes from Yasin that the filmmakers didn’t want you to know about:

“There’s no such thing as a Muslim having a non-Muslim friend, so a non-Muslim could be your associate but they can’t be a friend. They’re not your friend because they don’t understand your religious principles and they cannot because they don’t understand your faith.”

“An AIDS virus, that is a classic disease that was created in Fort McKinley, United States. Fort McKinley, the AIDS virus,, 63,000 gallons. Missionaries from the World Health Organisation and Christian groups went into Africa and inoculated people for diphtheria, malaria, yellow fever and they put in the medicine the AIDS virus… I don’t say [that AIDS was created] by the US Government. I say there were at least five governments that acted in complicity.”

And here’s a video of Yasin talking about some unspecified policy paper relating to Muslims. Does this sound like someone who wants to de-radicalise young Muslims, as the BBC would have you believe?

Later in the Wilders documentary there is a sequence on Pim Fortuyn. The narrator tells us:

“His political ambitions came to a sudden halt on the eve of the 2002 national elections.”

Yes, getting murdered tends to do that to your political ambitions. The film does go on to say he was assassinated, but what a bizarre way to begin describing his death.

We are told, by way of introducing some of Wilders’ supporters in the States, that “America is the land of the conspiracy theory”. Oh really? How about Egypt where 43% think Israel was behind 9/11, or Saudi Arabia where a tagged migrating bird is viewed as an Israeli spy? The narrator describes America in this way because it serves to delegitimise the film’s targets.

Later, portentous music plays over footage of the Israeli flag as the voice-over intones: “Looking up ‘Geert Wilders’ and ‘Israel’ on the internet, van der Valk finds over half a million references.” Yes, and looking up Mags Gavan blows a monkey returns more than 80,000 references, but it doesn’t prove a thing. This piece of lazy innuendo is followed by wild unfounded speculation over Wilders’ funds and motives. Is he in the pay of those evil Zionists, or could he in fact be an actual Israeli spy?

At one point the narrator informs us that the Wilders film Fitna is propaganda. Talk about pots and kettles. I’ve barely touched on just how bad this documentary is (and please feel free to add further observations of your own), but one thing seems clear: if you’re a filmmaker with a leftist worldview and have friends at the BBC, our licence-funded state broadcaster is only too happy to find money and airtime for any old rubbish you produce.

UPDATE. A further thought – the film had very little to say about Wilders’ trial and the chilling effect a guilty verdict could have on the freedom to criticise Islam.

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

MICHAEL BUERK AGAIN

By | | ,
35 Comments

From Michael Buerk’s intro to the Moral Maze this week (via Bishop Hill):

“not long ago, to question multiculturalism… risked being branded racist and pushed into the loathesome corner with paedophiles and climate change deniers”

Is Buerk really comparing climate change “deniers” with paedophiles, or is this observation from Saul Jacka in the comments at Bishop Hill closer to the mark?

With respect, isn’t Michael Buerk something of a controversialist?
In other words, isn’t he quite capable of implying what he doesn’t mean to have a dig at some of his bien-pensant BBC colleagues?
On past form, he is certainly capable of taking such a line

UPDATE: Cranmer:

Michael Buerk is not himself equating anthropogenic climate change deniers and those who question the doctrine and policy of state multiculturalism with paedophiles: he is lampooning those of his BBC colleagues who do so habitually.

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD "LARGELY SECULAR"

By | | , ,
49 Comments

Obama’s Director of National Intelligence James Clapper today told the House Intelligence Committee that the Muslim Brotherhood is “largely secular“. I don’t think even the Brotherhood’s cheerleaders at the BBC have gone so far as to say anything that stupid. It’s causing waves in the American media and blogosphere, and yet the BBC’s account of proceedings fails to mention it.

UPDATE FEB 11. The administration has “clarified” Clapper’s remarks. Nothing from the BBC.

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.