Category Archives: BBC bias

Peter Grimes in the comments reminds us that…

Lord Reith revered Hitler, says daughter

LORD REITH, founder of the BBC and a member of Churchill’s wartime cabinet, was a Nazi sympathiser who abhorred Jews, according to a candid biography by his daughter.

Marista Leishman claims her father respected Hitler and Mussolini and adopted some of the principles espoused by the German chancellor in the running of the BBC.

She claims that her father was open in his admiration of the fascist leaders and continued to praise Hitler and his regime, even after the German invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1939.

The Mail reports…

‘Reith had another motive for detesting Churchill: the great man had rejected him for political office because he was ‘difficult to work with’.

There was another reason why Churchill did well to avoid supporting the BBC’s founder. In the run-up to War World II, Reith privately expressed fulsome admiration for the Fuhrer. ‘Hitler continues his magnificent efficiency,’ he wrote in his diaries, when Prague was occupied in 1939.’

And more quotes showing his admiration for the efficient Nazis..

‘On 9 March 1933, he wrote: “I am pretty certain … that the Nazis will clean things up and put Germany on the way to being a real power in Europe again. They are being ruthless and most determined.” After the July 1934 Night of the Long Knives, in which the Nazis ruthlessly exterminated their internal dissidents, Reith wrote: “I really admire the way Hitler has cleaned up what looked like an incipient revolt. I really admire the drastic actions taken, which were obviously badly needed.”  ^‘

So why did the BBC ‘muzzle’ Churchill when he was warning of the Nazi threat?

Interesting what Reith thought about the BBC’s declining standards…

‘The standards I set have been rubbished in favour of pandering to what the people – the people, forsooth! – want,’ he raged one morning at the breakfast table. When a new independent channel arrived, he ranted against this ‘bubonic plague’.

Make a good Tory MP forsooth!  Can’t have the BBC producing populist programmes can we….‘pandering to the people’.

Once the war started he changed his tune and set to with a will to defend Britain…

‘Sir Frederick Ogilvie (Director-General of the BBC, 1938-42) recounts a conversation with Sir John Reith (Director-General of the BBC, 1927-38) and reveals the difference of opinion between them over the BBC’s wartime status. While Reith is prepared to give complete control of the BBC to the government, Ogilvie disagrees, underlining the importance of maintaining its independence, not only to safeguard its own future but also to preserve democracy for the good of the country and the government itself.’

SECRET [typed]
With [printed] Sir John Reith [typed]
On the subject of [printed] B.B.C. and Government [typed]
Date [printed] February 23rd,1940. [typed]

Reith came to see me here yesterday, – the first time he had been in Broadcasting House since he left in 1938. (I gave him a copy of the B.B.C. 1940 Handbook, inscribed with greetings
and best wishes from the Old Firm.)

He had four points:-

1. He said with great emphasis that, in his view, nothing would be better calculated to raise the morale of the Home Front, for which he was told he was responsible, than a daily series of talks at about 9.0 p.m. of a “heartening kind”, – hitting at Haw-Haw, telling cheering stories of bravery in the fighting services or at home, etc. He put it as a personal and urgent request from him to me that this should be done as soon as possible. I said that I would have it considered here and taken up with the Ministry. I naturally did not commit myself to any undertaking.

2. He said that the Enemy Propaganda Unit would shortly be returning to the Ministry, Halifax having agreed.

3. He emphasized the supreme importance of broadcast propaganda to Germany, with which I of course agreed, and suggested that we ought to be broadcasting to Germany almost continuously throughout the day, – not merely news and sonderberichte, but concerts, entertainments, etc. after the manner (he said) of Fecamp or Luxemburg. In his view this was much more important than the services which we were doing to many other countries, e.g. Bulgaria. I said that the allocation of time to Germany was shortly to be increased by three additional periods; and that, in general, the B.B.C. felt – apart from the Empire Service – that the allocation of time in the foreign language services was fundamentally a matter for Govern-

Signature [left blank]
Dept or Section[left blank]

Reith also felt that the government should take over the BBC during war time…

He said he had always felt that it would be simpler for the B.B.C. to be taken over, and that this would make things easier for the B.B.C.

‘Discussing the Nazi threat and “Churchill complained that he had been very badly treated… and that he was always muzzled by the BBC”

The Queen aged 6 was a fanatical Nazi supporter….who knew?

Then again  Pope Benedict was in the Hitler Youth as was that lefty hero Gunter Grass who also served in the SS.... ‘German Nobel Laureate Günter Grass admits that, between 1944-45, he was a member of Hitler’s Waffen SS. The author says the shame of his youthful naïveté has long haunted him.’

The Sun states that..

It is an important and interesting issue, the extent to which the British aristocracy – notably Edward VIII, in this case – in the 1930s, were sympathetic towards fascism. “That must be a matter of national and public interest to discuss. And I think this video and this footage animates that very clearly.”

Fair enough but it is smearing the Queen, then 6 years old, by association in a tabloid ‘sensation’…and the BBC itself isn’t beyond trying to cast aspersions on her mother….

From the Palace perspective this is a six-year-old princess who didn’t attach any meaning to the gesture. Such an explanation doesn’t, of course, explain the thinking of her mother.

Those around the royals are also keen to focus on the war record of the then King, Queen and their two daughters.

What they’re less keen to focus on – and what the Queen would like not to be reminded of – is the behaviour of her uncle.

A man, who was briefly King, and whose fascination with Nazi Germany is well documented.

The video shows a momentary raising of the salute…there’s no sound and no other context, no idea of what was being said….are they making fun of Hitler…most likely…what else went on in the video…are they racing around uttering Hail Mary’s and mocking the Pope?  Not as if the use of the salute in other contexts is unknown…may the force be with you…..

As for the BBC’s little comment about the Queen Mother….just what was she thinking?  Would they say the same if she’d given a Communist raised fist salute so beloved of many of those in the BBC?

Apart from the probable answer being the salute was ‘larking about’ it was from a time when Hitler and his regime were undoubtedly making headlines all the time…and many were sucked into the regimes propaganda about its economic and social resurrection of Germany….here’s the British Legion meeting Hitler in 1935, two years after the Sun’s video…‘a six-man delegation from the British Legion made to Nazi Germany in July 1935, during which they met not only Hitler but also the head of the Luftwaffe, Hermann Goering – and Major Fetherston-Godley is pictured shaking hands with the Fuhrer’s deputy, Rudolf Hess.’…

The article in the Mail goes on to say...’Professor Griffiths explained that before the Second World War there was a strong feeling in Britain that we should extend the hand of friendship towards Germany to avoid further conflict.’

Perhaps that’s the reason the BBC refused to let Churchill onto the airwaves in case he upset Herr Hitler…..’discussing the Nazi threat and “Churchill complained that he had been very badly treated… and that he was always muzzled by the BBC”

What were they thinking?

More importantly you might ask about the connections that today’s Royalty, Aristos, politicians and Media types have with the Gulf States…..what about this photograph?…

Those fundamentalist Islamic states that are funding terror around the world and are in many respects at war with us…

Consider this….

So, on the battlefields of Syria and Yemen, the Arab states are not only opposing American attacks on al-Qa’eda but actively offering support to its leader, al-Zawahiri. So two quite separate super-wars are now being fought. The first is the war waged by the US and its western allies in an attempt to defeat al-Qa’eda and Isis in Syria and Yemen. Significantly the Arab states are taking no part in this war and providing the Americans with no intelligence.

The second war is being fought by all the regional Arab states and Turkey — against Assad and other Iranian-backed forces in the region, as well as Isis. In this war, the Arab states openly avoid bombing or attacking al-Qa’eda in Syria and AQAP — and, indeed, provide both with logistical support. This is because both al-Qa’eda offshoots have now declared aims which are shared by the Arab states: they want to topple the Assad regime and oppose Iran.

From Stop the War…

David Cameron is the world’s most loyal supporter of the most brutal Arab despots

Sitting ‘at odds with Britain’s democratic ideals’ as the BBC’s Frank Gardner suggests.

Indeed….so let’s have more on current affairs from the BBC and less on 80 year old film of 6 year olds being cajoled to give a Nazi salute.

Kind of awkward for the BBC though as the money from the Saudis funds so many mosques, Islamic and academic institutions around the UK….attacking that funding would of course be seen as an attack on the ‘Muslim community’ large parts of which adhere to the same practices, values and beliefs the money goes towards promoting….and the BBC has spent years avoiding serious discussion on what that means to Western Society in the interests of that elusive ‘community cohesion’…just as it ‘muzzled Churchill’ in the interest of ‘friendly relations’ with the Nazis.

Qatar and Saudi Arabia ‘have ignited time bomb by funding global spread of radical Islam’

Does conservative Islam sit at odds with Britain’s ‘democratic ideals? as Frank Gardner suggests? What will the consequences be of remaining silent?

Hezbollah

Hamas

If you have ever wondered what the sound of somebody being publicly nonplussed sounds like check out Mishal Husain’s interview with David Attenborough (08:55), asked on to comment about butterflies only to find himself being interrogated on that ‘celebrity letter’ defending the BBC.

Now fair do’s to Mishal Husain for asking the questions…did he sign the document and did someone at the BBC ‘encourage’ him to do so?

Attenborough at first gave the disengenuous answer that he didn’t know who wrote the letter…but then admitted that, yes, the BBC asked him to sign it.

Husain then went on to point out that many of his programmes, those very popular, high quality ‘BBC’ programmes, were in fact made by independent companies….therefore would they not still be made if the BBC didn’t exist was the suggestion?

Mishal Husain also suggested that it was natural that questions are raised about the size and scope of the BBC….therefore presumably not an anti-BBC witch-hunt driven by vested interests out to destroy the BBC as Tony Hall and Friends like to portray the Charter Review?

Any possibility that Husain is now off Tony Hall’s Christmas card list?….or Ramadan card list…whatever.

I am sure that you, like me, will have been deeply moved by BBC “star” Lenny Henry’s moving words in defence of the Corporation in its print arm, The Guardian!

“Without its support, my career would have come to an early halt, I wouldn’t have set up my own production company … and it made me brave on diversity”

I think what Lenny is really saying is that he believes you MUST cough up the £145 a year in order to keep him in and his cronies in the style to which they have become accustomed. I find it amusing that the BBC cannot see that the glowing endorsements of all these left wing luvvies only makes our point that it is a profoundly left wing biased broadcaster!

Quite remarkable really. Another fanatical Islamist called Mohammad murders four US marines and it does not merit a a slot on the BBC Main news page. To get the details you have to jump to the World page and there you will enjoy the BBC doing everything possible to disconnect Mohammad from Islam. The default “Lone Wolf” theory is instantly applied just in case it becomes impossible to keep Islamic fanaticism as the motive of the killer. You will recall the BBC also deployed the “lone wolf” theory to the recent Tunisian killers – until it became apparent that it was a gang. Not so much a lone wolf more a pack.

It is also interesting to contrast the BBC’s seeming disinterest in these murders (apart from telling us how it has saddened Obama, possibly even curtailing his golf) with the obsession on the Dylann Roof murders. In the latter case, his “link” with the Confederate Flag was maximised and it has become demonised ever since. When Mohammad’s link to Islam are established you can be sure the BBC will insist they are of no relevance and if anything “real” Islam is the victim here.

Well, the weekend beckons. Here is a new Open Thread for you to detail the bias! Just think, each instance of bias causes Lenny Henry to shed a tear.

Four US Marines in America have been killed by a ‘Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez’ who has his supporters in ISIS apparently …via Pamela Geller..not sure the time stamp is correct…possibly tweeted after the shooting…

However the account(Now suspended) does make some threats for similar action in London, Berlin and Amsterdam.

Wonder if the coppers will still be passing by as people wonder around with ISIS flags wrapped around them.

If any thing should happen in the UK what casual excuse will the BBC make for the attackers, whilst naturally expressing sympathy and outrage at any casualties any doubt that there will be one of those big ‘but’s…….the attackers were unemployed/low paid/disenfranchised/discriminated against, angry about Israel/the West’s foreign policy/angry about not being able to live completely and totally as a Muslim in the UK?  Amazing how the BBC can, and does, excuse mass murder on the basis that someone is in a low paid job….‘on the margins of society’ is the phrase.

Let’s have a look at one of the BBC’s latest recruits who peddles the same line…the person they thought it was a good idea to send to Srebrenica to give us a ‘warning from history’ that was supposed to alert us to a coming Muslim holocaust…Muslims being under siege….Myriam Francois-Cerrah….a fanatical Muslim convert.

Just what is she saying about these young fellows out to kill the Kufaar?.…..

These kids are our kids – they are products of Western culture, and we owe it to ourselves to ask what it is about our current culture which makes the appeal of joining a nihilistic anti-Western guerilla group a more attractive prospect than remaining in the UK

“The reality about the guerrilla group that arrogates the term “Islamic State” is, if you take away the word “Islamic”, what you have are young, disillusioned Europeans entranced by the concept of an idealised state, a utopia to rival the hollow claims of a system that has failed them.”

For many young people who may have good reason to feel disillusioned with the current state of affairs, the oppressive mantra that liberal democracy somehow represents “the end of history” – something even Francis Fukuyama, author of the book of that title, has mitigated – engenders of a sense of a helplessness and apathy.

If this is as good as it gets, and we are not permitted to think beyond, then why bother? Or, as some clearly conclude, perhaps the system itself is the problem. 

It’s all our fault and yep, you can see all those disenchanted young Brits streaming towards Syria…..or can you?  One thing she misses out of course…all the recruits are Muslim.   Kind of a crucial element in the radicalisation and recruitment process.  Amazing how she can explain away mass murder, extremely brutal beheadings, rape and ethnic cleansing because ‘our kids’ feel a touch disillusioned with life.

On a lighter note……Nice to see that a contemporary, modern ISIS is keeping up with the latest trending hashtags on Twitter…as is the BBC…

What’s it like to grow up black, white, Mexican, Nigerian, Bengali….

How about #GrowingUpFrench?…….

• ابو محمد الخراساني ‏@K_H_O7777777777 10 hrs10 hours agoJe ne sais pas pourquoi je l’aime cette image ?? #Paris #GrowingUpFrench #OTRASeattle #DansMaVieJaimerais

Presumably this is a relative of his…..

• S&A; -29 /hbd luke ‏@90sflowerstyles Jul 15

  #GrowingUpFrench “mdr”: you’re amused. “mdr”: you’re happy. “mdr”: you’re sad. “mdr”: you’re angry. “mdr”: you wanna kill someone.

Busy day. I have been afforded the opportunity to comment on the future of the BBC itself on BBC Scotland, BBC 5Live and BBC London today. In essence, my argument is that the BBC is an anachronism, built on a financial model from a previous century that is TOTALLY unsuitable to digital 2015. The tide of history is going out and the BBC is being left high and dry on the foreshore.

I pointed out that the BBC is like a junkie, hooked on a £3.5bn license tax, and it needs to get off this. It needs to stop hiding behind the apron-strings of Government  and compete in the free market. It needs to have the confidence to BELIEVE the things it says. IF it has great output, people will choose to subscribe. If they don’t want it, why should they be forced to fund it?

I also went on to point out that the BBC has a left wing bias that many people take exception to. I see no issue with the BBC being BIASED so long as it stops pretending it is UNBIASED and pocketing £145 from everyone who owns a TV license.

I have to say I found the presenters perfectly reasonable in how they treated my heretical views and it would be ungracious not to acknowledge this.

Remember that letter from the luvvies lavishing praise on the BBC?

The Telegraph reports that the Times has discovered that ‘BBC Radio 1’s longest-serving presenter Annie Nightingale, who is one of the letter’s 29 signatories, said she had been invited to be a signatory by Ben Cooper, the controller of Radio 1.

She the paper: “I bumped into Ben a couple of days ago. He said Danny Cohen [the director of BBC television] was putting this letter together and said, ‘Would you like to be included?’ I said, ‘Yeah’. I understood vaguely what it would say. I didn’t read the letter before it went out.” ‘

So that spontaneous celebrity protest letter in support of the BBC was a BBC dirty trick?

Questions in the House?  I’d have thought so.  No such questions raised about this on the Today programme as they discussed the BBC…..listening to 5Live right now and the BBC is again the subject….can’t help thinking a couple of the last callers were BBC employees…suspicion raised when they kept saying ‘we’ when they should have said ‘the BBC’…also, not unexpected, when one caller said the BBC had an element of bias…guess what….a flurry of denials from those other callers…they’d never ever seen or heard bias…no really!  Any possibility Danny Cohen has been ‘suggesting’ his young employees ring in to 5Live and plug the BBC?

Not sure why anyone would be surprised about BBC dirty tricks, Hall has clearly been using the BBC’s resources, ie the licence payers money, not to merely to advise what he thinks the BBC can do but to demand its structure and capabilities be shaped to his vision.   The BBC did try to get Murdoch closed down so what can we expect…so much for helping to create a diverse plurality in the Media…only if you speak ‘BBC’, if you don’t they attack you and try to close you down.

As we noted in the last post Jeremy Corbyn has edged ahead in the Labour leadership polls at present.  He’s a lucky man having just got the endorsement of the Unite Union and Len McCluskey…and we know just how good they are at picking winners…the last one sank like a stone, an Ed stone….this time McCluskey backs Corbyn because he’s not boring..the ‘interesting’ Jeremy Corbyn….that’ll get ’em voting.

Unite has announced that it will also be ripping up the rule book and backing illegal strike action which the BBC seems in ignorance of as its political editor, Norman Smith, tells us that there is no excuse for the government’s anti-strike laws…

What is notable is that when Margaret Thatcher introduced her reforms, it was on back of a wave of industrial discontent. Today, unions are much diminished and tamed beasts which has promoted accusations from the unions and the Labour Party that this is all partisan politics designed to nobble them.

So despite already having several strikes and the prospect of many more illegal ones Norman Smith thinks there is no industrial discontent swilling around…the Unions being tamed and diminished?

We can’t say we weren’t warned as way back in 2013 McCluskey, in the Ralph Miliband Lecture, suitably, told us he would be using non-democratic means to smash democracy…

Let me start on my subject, working-class politics in the contemporary world, with a quote from Ralph Miliband:

“All concepts of politics, of whatever kind, are about conflict──how to contain it, or abolish it.”

Let’s not pretend that we are “one nation”, or that we will become one without the conflict that Ralph Miliband placed at the heart of politics.

So if we are on a march towards “one nation” and ultimately “one world”, it is a road that leads through struggle and conflict.

We are taught to believe that democracy is the cornerstone of a modern civilised society; but our Lords and Masters want to define democracy, limiting us to an ‘X’ on a Ballot Paper every 5 years.

This is not my definition of democracy.

They tell us strike action, civil disobedience, direct action and protest are all somehow unpatriotic.

Our history tells us they are not.

That is because our rulers are deeply afraid of Ralph Miliband’s assertion that politics is about conflict.

 There will be those here tonight waiting to hear my message to the Labour Party.

Well I won’t disappoint. Here it is:

Put simply, workers need a voice, and they should not be taken for granted.

Whatever the upshot of electoral politics, working-class politics must grow and develop, based on the socialist education Ralph Miliband called for.

So we can expect a campaign of ‘strike action, civil disobedience, direct action and protest’  in order to impose the utopia envisioned by the man who hated Britain and all it stood for…Ralph Miliband.

Oddly during the election the BBC interviewed McCluskey but never once mentioned this speech or later remarks in which he stated that if the Tories won the election he would be launching a politically violent campaign of intimidation and bullying to force his wishes upon the electorate…his vision of what democracy means….do what Len McCluskey tells you to do.

Fascinating to see this from 1992 after Labour’s election defeat…..check out the reasons they think they lost….sound familiar?  Never learn….of course nor does the BBC…Poll wise in 1992….