Author Archives: DB

Meet the Propagandists

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As some of you have already pointed out in the comments, the BBC is broadcasting another documentary about climate sceptics on Monday. This film (once again made by a true believer and funded by the licence fee) will be broadcast under the banner of BBC 4’s Storyville. I’ve found a promo, presumably for its theatrical release (a couple of right-on documentary film festivals and a green conference would be my guess). Try not to laugh during the opening narration:

“This is a story about the world of climate scepticism and my journey as I put aside my environmental beliefs, rid myself of any bias, and try to really understand why some people think that our carbon dioxide emissions are not a problem.”

It looks like a cross between Michael Moore’s style of carefully spliced hit-piece propaganda (complete with gun-toting rednecks) and some sub-Louis Theroux faux empathy (“Was I becoming one of them?” Oh come on now, you’re not kidding anybody with that bullshit.)

Can you imagine the BBC funding a film by a climate sceptic in which the likes of George Monbiot and various BBC environment journalists are challenged about all the contradictory nonsense they’ve produced over the years?

If “Meet the Climate Sceptics” is as tendentious as last week’s Horizon effort on the same subject (and the evidence of this promo suggests it could be) it may be fair to assume that our state broadcaster has now decided that its role is not merely to uphold climate alarmist orthodoxy but to use whatever means possible to attack those who dare oppose “the consensus”.

I’m sure I’m not alone in finding that somewhat sinister.

(Then again, perhaps film-maker Rupert Murray really does end up on the sceptical side. I’m willing to bet 500,000 Czech carbon allowances that’s not the case, though.)

UPDATE 9pm. Interesting, isn’t it, that film-makers like Ann McIlhenny and Phelim McAleer never get Storyville editor Nick Fraser’s seal of approval (and therefore BBC cash)?

UPDATE 9.20pm. BBC4 Storyville editor Nick Fraser writes in today’s Observer:

No single organisation in Britain outside the BBC can set out to challenge the drift of culture, and appear to do so successfully. The Sundance Institute survives by means of donations from sponsors and donors such as the Ford Foundation and George Soros’s Open Institute, with a budget of $25m a year. Within the next 10 years it aims to extend its reach globally. Isn’t it time for our own Sundance?

I guess we won’t be seeing an expanded version of this film on the BBC, then:

Quite apart from offering an unwelcome challenge – in BBC terms – to “the drift of culture” it would upset Mr Redford, and that would never do if Nick Fraser wants to continue visiting Park City, Utah, every year.

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New White House Press Secretary

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The BBC reports:

The US vice president’s communications director Jay Carney has been named as the next White House press secretary, to replace Robert Gibbs.

With unusual modesty the BBC doesn’t report that Jay Carney is married to ABC correspondent Claire Shipman, co-author of a blog and book with BBC US correspondent Katty Kay.

How many negative stories have you seen or heard about Joe Biden on the BBC while Carney has been his director of communications for the past two years?

Not many, I bet.

Just sayin’, is all.

Update 10.30pm: Mention of Shipman now added to BBC report, the Kay link not so much.

Update January 28, 3.50pm: Katie Connolly has added a glowing profile of Jay Carney, and Katty gets a mention in the penultimate paragraph (h/t Craig):

Mr Carney’s wife is also a celebrated journalist, ABC correspondent Claire Shipman. Ms Shipman is the co-author of Womenomics, an examination of the economic contributions of working women, with the BBC’s Katty Kay.

The Connolly article includes this insight:

Journalists who once sniggered over gaffes made by the garrulous Mr Biden have, at Mr Carney’s encouragement, focused more on his contributions to the Obama administration.

And the BBC has been more obedient than most.

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"The unbelieving… shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone"

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Further to Robin’s post about Richard Black’s “nothing much to see here, move along now” article about the Climategate inquiries – I was amused to see that the BBC chose to highlight the significance of CRU data on climate models with a ludicrous alarmist image which appears to show bubbling oceans of lava.

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Gavin Esler – Comedy Genius

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Sorry, did I say “comedy genius”?

What I meant was “intellectually insecure BBC tosser fishing for anti-Palin sentiment from like-minded unfunny condescending arseholes on Twitter”:


Bovril! Brilliant, eh?

Orwell wrote a couple of classic books highlighting the dangers of overbearing government, he despised the snobbishness and anti-patriotism of the intellectual left, and he spoke out against the incessant lies of the press. Not much there to appeal to Sarah Palin, eh?

The fact that Esler even mentions Palin in his plug for the Dubai literary festival shows just how deeply embedded she is within the media luvvie psyche. Her very existence is screwing with their heads, God bless her.

More of Esler’s smug disdain for Palin can be heard on this week’s London Dateline (15 mins in, available on iPlayer for 5 more days). A senior BBC journalist laughing along to childish insults – it’s all part of the superior political discourse we in the UK get thanks to our impartiality rules.

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LATEST PALIN OUTRAGEOUS OUTRAGE

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She said “blood libel”. BBC hacks begin the pile on:

Instapundit’s Glenn Reynolds used the same phrase earlier this week and has explained why to Politico’s Ben Smith. However, I’m not expecting nuance from the BBC on this one.

UPDATE 17.30. BBC Twitter Tutor Sue Llewellyn retweets Guardian.co.uk editor Janine Gibson. There’s a PDS epidemic in the leftie echo chamber.

UPDATE 18.50. The National Review lists previous uses of the term “blood libel” in American political discourse.

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OLBERMANN ON THE BBC

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This is another post about the Tuscon shootings, but I’m not apologising because the BBC seems to be getting even more partisan about the affair, difficult as that may be to believe. Tuesday’s Up All Night on Radio Five Live gave Keith Olbermann the best part of twenty minutes to slag off the American right while presenter Rhod Sharp tossed up softball questions and agreed with every pompous sanctimonious comment from the MSNBC blowhard. Sharp’s evident political bias was matched only by Olbermann’s stunning self-righteous hypocrisy. Once you’ve listened (if you can bear it, that is) compare the butter-wouldn’t-melt moral posturing from Olbermann with this little collection of anti-Bush rage:

Incidentally, I know many of you have commented on the contrast in the BBC’s coverage of the Tuscon massacre with Jon Leyne’s report about the murder of a Christian man by an off-duty Muslim policeman in Egypt. No Pasaran has a blogpost about that very subject (and it’s attracted the attention of Instapundit).

UPDATE 17.20: More evidence emerges to undermine the BBC/MSNBC narrative:

“He did not watch TV. He disliked the news. He didn’t listen to political radio. He didn’t take sides. He wasn’t on the left. He wasn’t on the right.”

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