Category Archives: BBC bias

Curious how the BBC frames the debate about the agreement with Iran over nuclear weapons on its Frontpage…..

Obama foes condemn Iran nuclear deal

They don’t oppose the deal because of genuine, considered reasons but because they hate the black guy in the White House?

Jeremy Bowen is claiming that the agreement is a major achievement as it removes Iran’s nuclear capability….

The agreement in Vienna removes Iran’s nuclear programme from the danger list. Two years ago, as Israel threatened to bomb Iran, it looked likely to lead to a major Middle East war. That in itself is a major diplomatic achievement.

Curious then that Israel is making threats to flatten Tehran as the World paves the way for a new nuclear terrorist super power…peace?  A major diplomatic achievement?…thanks to G.W.F..

The Telegraph says..

Iran nuclear deal: Peace in our time? Not with this shoddy agreement

If Mr Obama really believes his “historic” deal is going to bring peace to the region, then he needs to think again.

Then again Bowen did claim that the Muslim Brotherhood were moderates.

Deja Vu in the comments links to this reminder of past successes in controlling rogue states and their nuclear ambitions……

The BBC reminds us also how that went…

Has North Korea got the bomb?

Technically yes, but not yet the means to deliver it via a missile.

In 2006, 2009 and again in 2013, North Korea announced that it had conducted successful nuclear tests – they all came after the North was sanctioned by the UN for launching rockets.

Analysts believe the first two tests used plutonium as the fissile material. The North is believed to possess enough weapons-grade plutonium for at least six bombs. Whether it used plutonium or uranium for the 2013 test is unclear.

However don’t be afraid…..those nasty

Conservative Media Ignore The Differences Between Iran And North Korea Nuclear Agreements

What’s the difference?

The Iran Nuclear Deal Is Much More Detailed Than The North Korean Agreement, And The Countries’ Circumstances Are Different

So there!

The key lesson that the US learnt was that they must have more protocols in place to ensure that Iran doesn’t break its promises…which is all they are….

‘After the Agreed Framework, they [Korea] agreed to more intrusive inspections; but in 2002, when they finally broke its commitments, its violations were detected by the IAEA. We’ve also said very publicly that one of the reasons we have the Additional Protocol now, which is a key part of what we’re negotiating with Iran, is in fact because of the lessons we learned from the North Korea situation.

Its violations were detected by the IAEA…and then what?  Didn’t stop them breaking the agreement in the first place…and then couldn’t force them to bin their nukes.  Nothing to fear then!

Sleep in peace.

The BBC will live on for ever, or that seems to be the hope.

The Luvvies are out in force demanding the Public largesse that props up their lifestyle remains fully on tap…

Leave the BBC alone, Hollywood stars and TV presenters tell David Cameron

Daniel Craig, Dame Judi Dench and Sir David Attenborough are among the star names today warning David Cameron that his plans to reform the BBC will damage Britain’s global standing.

In an open letter to Downing Street, more than two dozen figures from the world of arts and entertainment claim that “a diminished BBC would simply mean a diminished Britain”.

Joining forces to defend “a very precious institution”, the celebrities express fears that the government will turn the BBC into “a narrowly-focused market-failure broadcaster”.

The letter states that…

“The Government and the BBC are now entering the Charter Review. We are writing to place on record at the very start of the process our concern that nothing should be done to diminish the BBC or turn it into a narrowly focused market-failure broadcaster.

“In our view, a diminished BBC would simply mean a diminished Britain,” the letter reads.

We already know that the alternate and more credible view is that the BBC in fact does enormous damage to Britain, a Britain that many in the BBC seem to hate, to its identity, to its social cohesion, to democracy, to free speech, to economics and national and international politics, by its attempts to manufacture a society in its own image, a society framed by the values and beliefs of the small group of self-selected liberal elite who control the BBC and much of the Media, government, academia and the various and powerful NGO’s and campaign groups….the other delusion that the BBC holds is that it is the voice of the People and that it listens and responds to their concerns…..all of the above makes this from Tony Hall laughable..

I believe in a BBC for everyone. The BBC is a profoundly democratic force. Universal usage of BBC programmes that inform, educate and entertain is central to our democracy and our shared culture. It is part of what makes Britain, Britain.

Tony Hall has again made the claim that the BBC is all about the British People….and he’s only looking out for them and their interests….

The people who will lose are not the commercial interests and people with particular vested interests – it’s the people who pay for us, the people who love us.

“The debate is too often in terms of this interest or that interest, not in terms of the people who are, in the end, our shareholders.”

He added: “The BBC does not belong to its staff. The BBC does not belong to the government. The BBC belongs to the country.”

Here he is in a statement made yesterday…

Statement from Tony Hall, BBC Director-General, regarding the BBC’s Annual Report and Accounts 2014/15.

The case for the BBC doesn’t rest on ideological arguments – it rests on this – what we do day in and day out. Great programmes and great services. That’s why people like the BBC. That’s why they enjoy the BBC. That’s why they trust the BBC. That’s why they value it. That’s what they pay us to do.

This argument is powerful because it is so simple. We enhance the lives of everyone in the UK, in more ways than ever before, and more often than ever before.

Liked this….not as if we can choose to pay for the BBC or not…

When people have so much to choose from, it’s testament to the quality of what we produce that 46 million people in the UK choose to use the BBC every day.

This is laughable as Hall makes a defence of the BBC based upon its ability to boost business and British influence abroad….entirely against the ethos that the BBC and its employees express everyday as they rant against nationalism, the imposition and control of borders, British power, British history, commercial companies and big business, success of any kind…Apparently the BBC is….

…. vital if the UK is to continue to punch above its weight as one of the most creative nations in the world. And grow Britain’s commercial success, and its global influence. 

Again he hypes the BBC’s commercial side…

To fund great programmes in an era of global competition for talent and ideas, we must work even harder at the partnership between the licence fee and our commercial arm, BBC Worldwide. Seventy-one per cent of the funding of BBC One’s Life Story was commercial funding. The licence fee paid for less than half the budget of some of our biggest dramas last year.

Worldwide makes its money by taking BBC programmes and exploiting them commercially. It’s an integral part of the BBC and gives licence fee payers better content for less investment. So, any proposal to remove it from the BBC simply doesn’t make economic sense.

So he admits the BBC is a massive competitor to other commercial Media companies and yet it has an enormous advantage in its public funding model.  No wonder Sky et al are pissed.

Then he’s playing the same old tune again…just how much the BBC loves the Public…in fact it is the ‘Public’…

The fundamental question remains. What does the British public want from the BBC?

Our audiences are not asking for a significantly smaller BBC. Properly tested, the public shows no appetite for that. Top of mind, the great majority are happy to pay the current licence fee, or more.

The BBC does not belong to its staff. The BBC does not belong to the Government. The BBC belongs to the country. The public are our shareholders. They pay for us. So it is their voice that will matter most in this debate.

You have to ask would the world really collapse if we had a smaller BBC or even no BBC?  Probably not….the commercial companies produce a vast array of highly entertaining and successful programming and much of the BBC’s output is in fact produced by those very same companies.

Would we be in a worse place if the BBC’s news service was silenced?  Again probably not.  The BBC mocks and scorns Fox but the BBC is in fact just as partisan, and perhaps is more damaging as it hides its extreme partiality under a cloak of claimed impartiality…Auntie is just Big Brother in drag.

The BBC relies upon its entertainment programming to capture its audience and their hearts and minds…it knows that audience will then be less inclined to examine their news output, and be less inclined to care too much whether it is biased or not as long as it keeps putting out lovely old friendly faced presenters like David Attenborough to front their programmes and create that familiar friendly atmosphere.

That’s why the BBC fights so hard against any suggestion that its entertainment programming be curtailed in any way….the BBC needs its sugar coating to help the medicine of its Newspeak go down more easily.

Read 1984, a book essentially about brainwashing and thought control, and you may recognise much that is reflected in how the BBC acts today…..consider a couple of famous lines from the book…..

War is Peace

Ignorance is Strength

Freedom is Slavery

 

‘Who controls the past controls the future, who controls the present controls the past.’

 

‘Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache.  O cruel, needless misunderstanding!  O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose.  But it was alright, everything was alright, the struggle was finished.  He had won the victory over himself.  He loved Big Brother.’

The end.

Love the BBC and all will be well.  Believe.

The end.

Always interesting how the BBC presents the ‘Right’ in America…from the Tea Party to Sarah Palin and George Bush.

But it doesn’t stop with the three usual suspects…here’s one on Trump...Trump card – or is he a joker?…a report by Jon Sopel which declares that Trump ‘expressed openly racist views?‘ for his concerns about mass uncontrolled immigration…a familiar tactic by the BBC used in this country to try and silence anyone who dares to suggest immigration is brought under control.  He finishes with this…

The smart money says that Trump will eventually crash and burn.

In the meantime, somewhere in New York , a 67-year-old lady will be sitting in front of the TV, a bowl of popcorn by her side, watching Fox TV, almost splitting the seams of her pant-suit laughing.

Hillary just cannot get enough of this reality show.

Is that reporting or something dressed up as ‘news’ but is in fact just a mocking and judgemental opinion piece?  And ‘Fox’…the ‘BBC’ of America?  Perhaps Cameron should hurry up with that ‘Fox’ hunting bill.

Then there’s this on another Republican candidate….A monster of their own making?  which was the headline on the BBC Frontpage…..which is about this…Scott Walker: A Republican candidate made by liberal activists?

Whilst reporting that the ‘monster’ was given its head by his Liberal opponents what we get is a long run down of the Liberal’s opinions of him and the ‘evil legacy’ of his ‘conservative achievements’….which apparently, the BBC tells us, Walker ‘spent nearly 40 minutes boasting of those conservative achievements’….

For the past five years Democratic opponents have fought the governor over every inch of political terrain.

Now many are wondering if they are, in part, responsible for his rise as a presidential contender. Is Candidate Walker a monster of their own making?

“I regard Walker as one of the most destructive forces in American politics today,” says Dave Obey, a retired Democratic congressman from Wisconsin.

Another Wisconsin Democratic insider, speaking on condition of anonymity, was more blunt about the recall effort.

The protests, although well-intentioned, were destined for failure thanks to Republican control of the state legislature. And the recall election was a “disaster” because the Wisconsin public wasn’t sold on the legitimacy of the effort.

“At its core was a sort of purity and innocence and stuff that would almost make you believe in American democracy – but it was just so tragically flawed,” he says. “It was not going to work, it was just a children’s crusade.”

So nothing to do with Walker’s Republican politics actually appealing to the voters?….they just like an underdog. he conned them….so how did the Republicans get control of the state legislature?  Must have been some sort of Right wing trickery!  The Public couldn’t be so stupid to actually like the Republicans!?

As well as being a monster Walker is ‘”a “tricky guy” who has been able to convince the Wisconsin public he’s something he’s not…..he governs like an extremist.”…one who has ‘has built a “throne of his enemies’ skulls”, as the Federalist’s Rich Cromwell puts it. ‘

A monster, a tricky guy who fools the Public, an extremist who built his reputation and standing by vicious assaults on Democrats and the Unions?

Only on the BBC.

Seen this?

Pay packets of highest paid stars are up by a fifth and the workforce hits 18,900 – but BBC bosses still insist they’re saving money! The BBC now employs at least 74 bosses who earn more than David Cameron’s salary of £142,500. The total wage bill for presenters on more than £1 million rose a fifth to £5.1 million. Those on more than £1million a year included Graham Norton, Gary Lineker and Jeremy Clarkson – before his recent departure.

Oh the austerity of it all! The BBC can only afford this because of the way it pickpockets £3bn+ per annum from anybody who owns a TV set. It’s time this anachronism went the way of the Dodo. Thoughts?

OK, middle of the week, and time for a new one of these. Detail the bias here please.

I bet Israel was DELIGHTED by this news from our strictly impartial National Broadcaster….Honest Reporting has the details

“With the announcement of the Iranian nuclear deal, there’s plenty of media coverage including Israel’s reaction. BBC Newshour on BBC World Service radio interviewed Israel’s Minister of Science, Technology and Space, Danny Danon. Danon stated that Israel was “keeping all options on the table.”

The presenter asked Danon to explain. Her reaction is both shocking and disturbing (click on the image below to listen):

But you’re not under threat by Iran. Nobody in Iran has threatened you for a very long time. You’re harking back to a time when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threatened Israel directly.

I wonder did Danon manage to miss Iran’s “Death to Israel” joyous celebrations from….er….last week?

I took part in a debate on BBC5 live today regard the future of the BBC. One of my opponents was the rather plummy voiced Sir Christopher Bland. In essence, my argument is that the BBC’s method of funding is an anachronism and that it is grotesque it can extort over £3bn a year via the License Tax. I pointed out that the difference between myself and Sir Christopher was that I believe in choice whereas he believes in denying choice and enforcing this tax on people. Tomorrow evening’s “Moral Maze” will also discuss the future of the BBC and either Alan or myself will be on it.

My argument is that the BBC should admit is has a deep bias – we ALL do – it should stop pretending it is this impartial broadcaster – and unhook itself from the narcotic of the license tax and move to a subscription model of funding. THAT way, those who enjoy the serial bias of the Today programme for example – can PAY for it. Thoughts?

Time for a new one of these for your completion! The floor is yours…

You don’t know whether to laugh or cry when you hear the Beeboids scuttling from the light of a new dawn in the BBC world.

There’s danger ahead for the BBC we were told this morning, by the BBC, on the Today programme (08:43) as they discussed the bleak future of the BBC with Ben Preston from the Radio Times and Tory Jesse Norman, chairman of the culture and media select committee.

Preston told us that the BBC was great value for money….‘one and a half copies of the Guardian newspaper a week…or, dare I say it, 3 Daily Mails….by any reckoning a bargain rate.’

Guardian always first port of call for Beeboid types of course but love that guilty little mention of the Mail…we know they all read it behind the cover of a well thumbed Guardian.

We were told that essentially the licence should be here to stay…no other option to keep the stability of the BBC…and the commercial companies would all hate a subscription funding model as it would compete with them…hmmm…not really…advertising would but not subscription….we already ‘subscribe’…whilst in an armlock….choice might be better for say Sky….I may choose not to buy the BBC and spend what I save on more from Sky.

Norman thinks the BBC does too much entertainment….getting ‘out of whack’ apparently.  That however is a large part of the BBC’s remit….and so it should be for it provides ‘entertainment’ to all those who can’t afford commercial providers and would therefore have no ‘entertainment’ if the BBC were to limit that service.

The problem isn’t the structure of the BBC, or rather the concept and the level of ‘education, informing and entertainment’ we get…the problem of course is the content….all too often the popular programmes are used to push a political or social message….ones that are at odds with what the majority of people think.

If the BBC wants to entertain, educate and inform us do so, just don’t peddle ideology as news or entertainment treating the viewer as an idiot, probably racist or otherwise unenlightened, who needs to be educated to think the right thoughts.

Here’s some random entertainment…no charge…

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: This house also represents a complicated history of the United States. We just visited downstairs, where we know that slaves helped to build this magnificent structure, and the complex relations that Jefferson, the drafter of the Declaration of Independence, had to slavery. And it’s a reminder for both of us that we are going to continue this fight on behalf of the rights of all peoples, something that I know France has always been committed to and we are committed to, as well.

Untold History: More Than a Quarter of U.S. Presidents Were Involved in Slavery, Human Trafficking

As the country marks Presidents’ Day, we turn to an aspect of U.S. history that is often missed: the complicity of American presidents with slavery. “More than one-in-four U.S. presidents were involved in human trafficking and slavery. These presidents bought, sold and bred enslaved people for profit. Of the 12 presidents who were enslavers, more than half kept people in bondage at the White House,” writes historian Clarence Lusane in his most recent article, “Missing from Presidents’ Day: The People They Enslaved.”

Once again we take a look at the BBC’s policy of rewriting history to suit their narrative, in this case that of slavery and the wicked Southern Confederacy and the enlightened Union.  But as always it’s more complicated than the simplistic, one-sided narrative that the BBC serves up….they seem pretty shy about revealing who supported what back in them thar days.

The BBC has been gloating over the success of the campaign to pour scorn and opprobrium upon the Confederacy in the US.  For the BBC it’s a big, big story.  On the Today programme today (08:40) they enthusiastically reported that there is a move to remove statues of those associated with the Confederacy from Congress…..’In the United States a group of Democrats has discussed removing and relocating several statues from the rather grand halls of power in Congress. For among the tributes there to former presidents and civil rights leaders are those celebrating former leaders of Confederate states – who fought in the civil war to keep African Americans enslaved.’  What the BBC doesn’t tell us is that that would probably require most of the statues to be removed in truth….was it just ‘former leaders of the Confederate States’ who supported slavery or kept slaves?  And of course it’s the heroic Democrats leading the way…big cheer from the BBC….wouild they have shown as much interest if it had been Republicans making this ‘Populist’ move?

The Huffington Post is a bit more honest with us…

Let Us Honor Slave-Owning Presidents?

Here it is again, the intersection of Presidents Day and Black History Month. Eight of our early presidents, beginning with George Washington, owned slaves during their tenure in the nation’s highest office.

Jefferson and Madison thought that people of color should enjoy the same individual rights as white citizens. But not here. They averred that black and white could never live harmoniously in America together.

 

“I Ulysses S. Grant…do hereby manumit, emancipate and set free from Slavery my Negro man William, sometimes called William Jones…forever.”

 

What of the Republican Party?  Those nasty right wingers……

In the 1860 presidential election, the Republican Party, led by Abraham Lincoln, opposed the expansion of slavery into U.S. territories. The party, dominant in the North, secured a majority of the electoral votes, and Lincoln was elected the first Republican president, but before his inauguration on March 4, 1861, seven slave states with cotton-based economies formed the Confederacy.

What of the Democratic Party?  Those lovely cuddly lefties……they created the Klu Klux Klan….

The first African Americans to serve in the United States Congress were Republicans elected during the Reconstruction Era. After slaves were emancipated and granted citizenship rights, freedmen gained political representation in the Southern United States for the first time. White Democrats regained political power in state legislatures across the South and worked to restore white supremacy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95aQshvaAII

You couldn’t make it up but the BBC does.

Half the story all the time.