BBC economics editor (and former advisor to Bill Clinton’s Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers) Stephanie Flanders offers an insight into the BBC’s narrative for the rest of the election campaign:
Ryan is risky VP choice for Romney. Republicans now so extreme, his main appeal 4 swing voters was record as a moderate. Ryan anything but.
— Stephanie Flanders (@BBCStephanie) August 11, 2012
BBC business journalist Dominic Laurie:
Now the NHS. so we’ve had the china up yours. Now it’s the US Romney up yours! #socialism
— Dominic Laurie (@dominic_laurie) July 27, 2012
A BBC business reporter bigging up the #socialism hashstag – says so much about BBC newsroom mindset. How long would a BBC business journo last in his job if he punctuated his tweets by promoting #freemarket or #libertarianism hashtags? I’m guessing either not very long, or long enough to realise that promotion is never going to happen.
And here’s BBC Newsnight economics editor Paul Mason:
Hear that America? NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE
Couldn’t resist the mini-lecture directed at America. You’ll search in vain for “Hear that Cuba? FREE SPEECH”, btw. Then again, Newsnight’s Comrade Kite is probably going there for his holidays.
I enjoyed much of the opening ceremony – the bit with Bond and the Queen was particularly good – but jeez, can’t these “impartial” BBC hacks take just one night off from their international class struggle against the clichéd American bogeyman?
US reporter Jenna Fryer is in London to cover the Olympics for the Associated Press. She’s been watching the news output of our national broadcaster:
BBC hates Mitt Romney!
— Jenna Fryer (@JennaFryer) July 27, 2012
Yup.
God save the #Queen – no one else would bother.Photo by @NicolePowers of @SuicideGirls yfrog.com/h09fdyjj
— Greg Palast (@Greg_Palast) June 5, 2012
Judging by the past weekend I think there are a few million people who would take issue with that sentiment. Question is – how many people would be willing to save pissant lefty ego-cock Greg Palast?
The Obama campaign has released an ad attacking Romney as a job killer during his time at the private equity firm Bain Capital. The pro-Obama team at the BBC Washington bureau has already produced two online pieces promoting the ad, which it describe as follows:
The video features former workers of a steel plant that was bought and later shut down by Bain Capital, the private equity firm co-founded by Mr Romney.
Not mentioned by the BBC is the fact that Romney left Bain in 1999. GST, the steel company featured in the ad, did not close until 2001. Also not mentioned by the BBC – the current Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer at Bain, who has been at the company since 1993, is a major bundler for the Obama campaign (Breitbart has the details). The ad has even been attacked as unfair by Obama’s former car czar – again not mentioned by the BBC.
If you want to see uncritical reproduction of Obama campaign material, the BBC is the place for you. If you want to find out what’s really going on in the 2012 election look elsewhere.
Via Bishop Hill (h/t Umbongo), here’s John Bell of the Iona Community on this morning’s Thought For The Day comparing bankers and climate sceptics to paedophile gangs and terrorist regimes.
Because we live in a broadly patriarchal society, we should not be surprised that the culture which brought about the worldwide financial meltdown was overwhelmingly masculine. But consider also that the people who are most vocal in denying human responsibility for the disastrous effects of climate change are mostly male.
The people who control factories of wage slaves in the developing world are almost exclusively men, as are the commanders of terrorist regimes. Leaders who threaten or declare war are mostly men as are those involved in paedophile gangs.
The fact that this was deemed acceptable speaks volumes about the BBC.
BBC Home editor Mark Easton believes Downing Street must be disappointed by the small scale of today’s strikes because, apparently, it shows that the government’s attempts to create an engaged citizenry is failing:
But if there is a surprise at the action today, it is that we haven’t seen more of it. And as I shall explain, I think for some in Downing Street, that is a bit of a worry.
When the budget cuts were announced back in 2010 there was an acceptance that austerity, once it started to bite, would be greeted by widespread public anger. Government unpopularity at this point in the cycle was a given and the big question was how the British population would make their fury felt…
My guess is that they imagined the pain of the cuts would wake people up to their democratic rights. While disagreeing with those who oppose their policies, of course, I suspect they thought this period in our politics might also represent an opportunity to rouse a populace that has come to regard itself as consumer rather than citizen.
Something tells me that if today’s strikes had been much bigger Easton would not have been claiming it as proof that the Big Society is working. Heads he wins, tails they lose. If he wants to see someone who is really disappointed in the level of protest, my “guess” is that he should look in the mirror.
We’ve been banging on about Operation Fast and Furious for quite a while here on Biased BBC but, understandably, some people may still be not up to speed on the topic. It’s a growing scandal in the States and has the potential to become a big issue in the US presidential campaign. The BBC has touched on the story, but only in that unenthusiastic late-to-the-party nothing-to-see-here manner it adopts whenever there’s potential embarrassment for Obama and his administration.
For those wanting a quick rundown about the whole sorry saga here’s Katie Pavlich – author of “Fast and Furious: Barack Obama’s Bloodiest Scandal” – interviewed on today’s Dennis Miller show.
On this morning’s edition of BBC Radio Five Live’s Weekend Breakfast presenter Colin Paterson was stunned to hear that prosecutors in the Guantanamo trial of the chief 9/11 suspects are actually calling for the death penalty. What sort of bubble must one inhabit to find that surprising? (Click through for audio.) Continue reading
David Preiser has received a reply from Stuart Hughes’ boss:
Having looked into this I do think Stuart got this wrong and have told him so.
Read the rest in the comments to the original post here. [Click the title to see the link – the blog’s template doesn’t seem to like links on the main page.]
