Author Archives: Sue

Not Shy

By | | ,
15 Comments

John Humphrys’s reticence about his pay packet wasn’t down to personal shyness after all. They’re restrained by a BBC gagging order.
Harriet Harman’s equality bill has its uses, says Andrew Gimson of the Telegraph. It seems that will un-gag them.
“How brilliant of Miss Harman to turn this modish argument against the BBC, that home of modish causes.”

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

Impartial BBC Reflects Changed World.

By | |
24 Comments

I am so acclimatised to the air-brushing from the original I/P peace plan of any requirements from the Arabs that I can’t tell if one report is any more biased than another.

Reports and analyses of Obama’s speech conclude that this ‘reaching out to the Muslim World’ malarky that everyone is so delighted with, must mean Israeli settlements are now officially the only obstacle to peace.

Although President Obama didn’t exactly say that, his speech was sufficiently imprecise for the press to take away whatever interpretation they wanted.

I don’t know if the BBC has been any more biased on this subject than any other organ of news, but no-one can accuse President Obama of not honouring one of his pre-election pledges. From a starting point of evasiveness over his Muslim origins, to full-blown ‘call me Hussein’ identification with them, he’s certainly found a neat way to fulfill his promise of ‘Change.’

Now Obama is officially a Muslim, and The World is known as The Mussslim World.
(In other words it has simply caught up with the BBC. They knew that all along.) Relax BBC. You’re not biased any longer. Salaam alaikum !

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

Vote Against.

By | |
43 Comments

Nick Robinson, the Guardian, and even the BBC have given up. Despite their best efforts – even James Naughtie reluctantly agrees – labour is history.
No-one will vote FOR anyone, all votes will all be AGAINST.
Half of us still think the Tories are toffs, the other half say they’re indistinguishable from labour. No self respecting MP would send their children to the schools they’ve downgraded till they’re only good enough for ours. For some reason all MPs need massive flat screen tellies.

Do Ukip, the BNP, the Greens, Vince Cable or Esther Rantzen look any better?
No, not really. Not even on a giant T.V. screen.

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

Inside Story

By | |
10 Comments

In last Saturday’s Telegraph, buried amongst the troughgate, was: “Lebanese accuse Britain and US of appeasing Hizbollah “ by Damien McElroy in Beirut.

“Leaders of Lebanon’s pro-Western government have accused Britain and America of “appeasement” of Hizbollah as the radical Muslim movement prepares to seize power.”[….]“ A British diplomat said that the decision to talk to Hizbollah was taken even though the Secret Intelligence service reported it was implicated in terrorist incidents in the past year.”

We are talking to Hizbollah, and by so doing we risk making things worse for the pro-Western government that we supposedly aim to support.

The BBC has joined in this ever increasing chorus of admiration for Iran’s proxy whose aim is to destroy Israel, their contribution being the latest episode of ‘We are all Hizbollah Now.”

Particularly telling is the word the writer, Natalia Antelava, uses to describe an attack on the US military barracks, and bombings of Israeli and Jewish targets. Not, this time, the popular and somewhat revealing “audacious.”

Natalia wears her heart on her sleeve and comes out with “famous.”
“Notorious” or “infamous” did not quite express her true emotion?

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

Linguistic Limitations

By | | , ,
40 Comments

Apart from Jeremy Bowen’s pro Palestinian position, his grievance against Israelis, his reliance on Palestinian stringers because of his inability to speak either Hebrew or Arabic, and his lisp, one thing that annoys me about the BBC’s M.E. editor is the difficulty he has with his own language. This morning he chats with Sarah Montague about Obama’s forthcoming speech aimed at embracing the Muslim world. Struggling for a while with “ much looked-forward-to” he eventually found the word that had eluded him – “anticipated.” His vocabulary-light rhetoric is always peppered with “quite franklys” and “if you see what I means,” although I’m not sure he’s ever ventured a “to be Honest”
Anyway, he says that Netanyahu has his hands tied by the religious right, who have got it into their silly little heads that the land belongs to the chosen ones. Obama has the difficult task of convincing these religiously fanatical Jews to accede to Arab demands while overlooking entirely the intransigence, violence and genocidal intentions of his religiously fanatical Islamic brethren.
With next week’s ME visit by the One, ‘going forward’, Jeremy Bowen’s reports on the BBC are being eagerly – “much looked forward to.”

I’ll leave Justin Webb to everyone out there. Over to you.
(Too early for the Today link. Please, someone add it later)

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

Passive Killing

By | | , ,
12 Comments

Thanks to Pounce for drawing my attention to this example of BBC bias.

Six killed in gun battle! Home-owner killed! Politically motivated arrests!
Police raid! Allegations of torture! Zionist Agents!

All of this and more, but wait – Who has done these evil things?

Israel is not in the headline. Why not? Because this time Israel is not the culprit.

There doesn’t seem to be culprit at all.
In fact no-one in particular seems to have murdered anyone. Just Fighting. Fighting is what has killed six Palestinians.

That explains why the headline is not:
“Palestinians murder Palestinians in West Bank Gun Battle.”

BBC headline writers have a habit of taking all responsibility away from Palestinians, who just die from ‘fighting’ whereas Israelis “kill militants” and “strike children,” and if any Israelis should die, it’s from Fighting, Rockets, or Explosions. You know, the ones that just happen.

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

Caving In. Part 2.

By | | , ,
6 Comments

On the subject of caving in to pro-Palestinian pressure, something unusual appeared in the Independent yesterday. A letter from film director Gary Sinyor, recipient of the award for Best British Film from the EIFF 1992 for his film “Leon the Pig Farmer” (Do read it all)

He explains eloquently why Ken Loach was wrong to threaten the Edinburgh International Film Festival, forcing them to hand back the £300 sponsorship money from Israel…… or else.

“To repress the freedom of a film festival, to blackmail it, because it has accepted £300 from a government body to fly over a film-maker is petty and outrageous.[…..] “to acquiesce to this blackmail is more outrageous still. [……..] “To be seen to give in to extremists is simply not an option.”

Amen to that.
Meanwhile, back at the BBC, they’re still promoting Loach’s latest film.

Caving in to this sort of pressure seems to be the order of the day, and sad to say, the BBC’s twin habits of doing that and vilifying Israel epitomise the downward spiral we’re in.

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.