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 be moderated.
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 be moderated.
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 be moderated.
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 be moderated.
to report some shockingly biased BBC reporting concerning some comments of his.
Hannan blogged on Thursday, ‘Cast-iron guarantee’ must not rust, about how the Conservatives should handle the EU Treaty. In it he called on his party to make sure they play no games on the issue, saying:
My party calls Gordon Brown a liar because of his sophistry over Europe, and we are right to do so. Let us play no games of our own.
There was no criticism of David Cameron, and in fact nothing but praise for him. But the BBC reported this as Pressure on Cameron over EU poll:
Daniel Hannan MEP told Mr Cameron to “stop playing games” on the issue.
As Hannan writes today, My BBC Barney:
the Beeb made up a false quotation and attributed it to me. This is the sort of thing you get fired for at the Telegraph.
Will anyone at the BBC be fired or at least disciplined for this fabrication?
Whilst it is possible to read Hannan’s original blog post as very oblique criticism of Cameron that’s very much a matter of interpretation and a big stretch at that. But that is beside the point. The BBC quotes Hannan saying that Cameron should “stop playing games” – something Hannan did not say.
The BBC’s fabrication has been online, unamended according to Newssniffer, since 6pm on Friday. The BBC should at the very least correct this story – and publish their correction with the same prominence as the original story, rather than the usual sleazy BBC stealth edit, and issue a public apology to Hannan.
All in all, a fine example of the BBC’s dreadful propensity for making up the news – the BBC wants to push the BBC line about Pressure on Cameron over EU poll, so the BBC scouts about for material to back the BBC line, and then just makes up a quote to hang their story on anyway. Appaling.
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 be moderated.
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 to find new topic-specific posts. N.B. this is not an invitation for general off-topic comments, rants or use as a chat forum. Space here is competitive – comments may be reactively moderated.
Please use this thread for BBC-related comments and analysis. Please keep comments on other threads to the topic at hand. N.B. this is not (and never has been) an invitation for general off-topic comments, rants or use as a chat forum. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog. Please scroll down to find new topic-specific posts.
Biased BBC reader Matthew sums up the BBC’s latest glorification:
The BBC never miss a chance to glorify Communist terrorists: Che: The icon and the ad.
This follows Tuesday’s propaganda on behalf of the Cuban dictatorship, where they described how wonderful doctors from Cuba provided free to Latin America had cured Guevara’s executioner’s blindness, saying “Four decades after Mario Teran attempted to destroy a dream and an idea, Che returns to win yet another battle”. (No mention of appalling hospitals in Cuba and illegality of dissent in Cuba)
Anyway, today’s ode to Che quotes numerous lefties on what a wonderful hero he was:
“His image will never die, his name will never die”.
“He was good-looking, he was young, but more than that, he died for his ideals, so he automatically becomes an icon”.
“He was an immensely charming man – likeable, roguish, good fun”.
“Combining capitalism and commerce, religion and revolution, the icon remains unchallenged”.
The BBC lefties ask you to:
“Send us your memories of Che Guevara using the form below”.
“You can also send pictures of Che memorabilia, posters and wall-paintings, to yourpics@bbc.co.uk”.
Truly mind-boggling.
The excuse, by the way, for this unbridled propaganda is that an “exhibition is due to open at Barcelona’s Palacio Virreina museum on 25 October 2007”.
NEVER expect to see any balance when eulogising the BBC’s glorious socialist heroes.
For instance, The Times just a month ago described the release of a critical biography (not covered by the BBC) which covers Guevara’s cold, brutal acts of summary murder for ‘treason’ (documented in Guevara’s own diaries), as well as his use of psychological torture techniques. Guevara is clearly a fairly typical terrorist guerilla-figure, more brutal than some, and far from a hero.
Yahoo also covers Guevera today, because of this exhibition. Their article? Fair and balanced. The headline is Che Guevara’s legacy fading with the years. It includes a section called “COLD KILLER?”, as well as a proper description of his status an icon.
Don’t expect any thing like this from the BBC, they really are determined to canonize the murderous terrorist.
Thank you Matthew.
an article defending the BBC in today’s Guardian.
A commentator in the Guardian’s comments section sums it up well:
Partnership… standards… interaction… percentages… engage… conversation… culture… value… colleagues…
Now, back to the studio.
Most of the comments, from Guardian readers remember, have been hostile. For example:
What a load of guff. It’s not your stupid phone-ins and naff prizes which are the problem – it’s your political bias and the increasing vacuousness of your news coverage. It offends me, and I’m a bloody liberal! No wonder the Tories and assorted “nationalists” are apoplectic.
And PLEASE put a kindly bolt in the head of that awful NEWS 24. “All the same news all the effin’ time”.
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I deeply resent being forced to pay the licence fee for a luxury item that I do not need and would not currently choose to have. I don’t watch BBC news or documentaries anymore because the news is simplistic, sensationalistic and condescending and the documentaries are ‘docudramas’. I don’t much care about the quiz line rip-offs – I always assumed they were rip-offs anyway – but the issue of selective editing is far more dangerous. You create the view you want to and everyone is taken in by something, no matter how smart we think we are. I do realise that neutrality is virtually impossible to achieve but you might take a stab at it occasionally. Meanwhile, the licence fee has to go. I want to have a television, primarily to watch dvds on, but occasionally to watch television programmes too. I am quite happy to not receive BBC. I’d like to be given that choice.
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I’m fed up paying the BBC license tax I rarely watch it. I don’t watch SKY either but then I don’t pay for it, I believe only 25% of the public watch it. If I watch TV on the PC do I have to pay the license???
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As someone that leans towards soft centre-left liberalism (i.e. a Guardian reader) I find the BBC news reasonably balanced and have little to complain about.
Erm..hang on a sec though, that’s the problem here isn’t it?
I doubt I’d agree with bigjake on many things but the treatment of Redwood by bbc editors was truly appalling, it played right into the hands of everyone that accuses the beeb of bias.
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Impoverished local theatres with a budget of tuppence ha’penny a year put on fantastic new and revived stuff week in, week out. But the Beeb, with its corridors awash with OUR MONEY, gives us Casualty and, if we’re children, DR BLEEDIN WHO.
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The political coverage is so soft on Labour as to be a joke. Remember Little Ant and Dec interviewing Blair?
Brown refused to go on Question Time. John Humphrys says there’s no point having him on the Today programme because he just reads from a script irrespective of the question.
He is almost NEVER interviewed full stop. The BBC needs to get mediaeval on his ass for being so undemocratic.
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Well you could start by realising the report on the BBC’s coverage of the Lebanon war instead of hiding behind data protection act in the courts , that may help. Or even get your middle east reports to actual read Hamas charter before they report on it, they are there to report the events for the wider world in balanced way not to be ‘friends of the Palestinians’.
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Thank you to Biased BBC reader Ayayay for the link.
