Category Archives: BBC bias

David V has already blogged about the BBC report (and upcoming Panorama programme) on Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev reading “right-wing extremist literature… espousing white supremacy and government conspiracy theories”, but I thought this was worth a further post.

In the video report for the story the BBC’s Hilary Andersson is shown looking at publications Tsarnaev is said to have read. The narration is as follows:

Andersson: “When these ethnic Chechen brothers Tarmerlan and Dzhokhar were caught on camera near the bomb site it was soon put down to the work of jihadists. They had been reading militant Islamic websites and had links to the troubled Islamic republic of Dagestan.

But now the BBC has found out that Tamerlan, the older brother was also reading right-wing American literature months before the bombings.Articles about government conspiracies, gun rights, white supremacy, and about the minds of mass killers.”

For some reason the BBC has blurred the footage of the literature that Andersson is reading so that only a couple of headlines can be made out. Here’s a screengrab:

The video, and the online article, go on to quote – unchallenged – the view of a member of Tamerlan’s local mosque that he was merely “a Muslim of convenience”. Andersson is clearly trying to play up the white supremacist angle (the type of people the BBC pointed fingers at in the first place) and downplay the Muslim angle.

Why, then, is the BBC be so reluctant to identify the publications that Andersson is seen reading? The clue could be in the top-right corner of the above picture where the blurry words “Close Gitmo” can be seen in part of a headline.

“Close Gitmo Now” is the headline for an article in the American Free Press (AFP) published on April 10, 2013 (five days before the bombing). I’ll be amazed if it’s not copies of this publication that Andersson is seen perusing in her report.

The AFP is a vehemently anti-Semitic weekly paper which peddles all manner of conspiracy theory, usually linked in some way to the neocon New World Order that’s run by the Jews. The recent IRS scandal? The Jews were behind it, of course. And the above “Close Gitmo Now” article describes the 9/11 attacks as “false flag”. It’s that level of nuttiness.

What doesn’t quite fit Andersson’s narrative, and perhaps explains the reluctance to identify the publication, is that while the AFP is very anti-Jewish, it is also sympathetic to Muslim grievances. In one article which blames pro-Israeli propaganda for inciting Anders Breivik’s horrific murderous spree, the writer says Europeans should fear Jews, not Muslims:

“These Europeans ignore the fact that the Muslims they proclaim to be enemies of Christianity actually revere Jesus Christ as a beloved prophet, as did Mohammad himself. At the same time, they ignore the ugly hostility toward Christianity that is an article of faith in Israel…”

I’m sure the Christians whose churches have been bombed across the Muslim world feel very reassured by that.

AFP contributors such as Mark Dankof are regulars on Iran’s Press TV. Wikepedia offers this take:

In a May 2011 article Dankof protested the British government attempting to shut down Press TV, blaming it on “media outlets and correspondents with provable connections to the American Jewish lobby; Israeli intelligence; and Neo-Conservatives thirsting for a War of Civilizations with Iran specifically, and the Islamic world generally.” In a May 2011 article, Dankof also quoted from and wrote that the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion accurately reflect the state of the world. He lauded PressTV as one of the few exceptions to the Jewish control of the media.

As I said in the comments under the earlier blogpost, I imagine quite a few young Muslims read the American Free Press. It spouts the same bullshit that Islamists do, and that is what will have appealed to Tamerlan.

Just for good measure, the AFP even says that the Tsarnaevs were probably framed for the Boston bombing.

It’ll be interesting to see if the full Panorama programme highlights any of the above information, because the teaser items certainly haven’t.

And so the new week starts and I see the BBC are on the attack using “zero hours” as a means to try and undermine growth in the employment figures. Another whole week for them to suggest that Ed Balls calls it right!! Anyway, here you go, a new open thread to help balance their bias!

Whenever there is a terrorist attack, the BBC default mode is to assume it is “far right” – obviously years of Islamic terrorism has caused them a few problems in this regard but they keep on trying. This morning, on Today, we were breathlessly informed that one of the Boston bombers, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, “had right wing extremist literature” in his possession.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev subscribed to publications espousing white supremacy and government conspiracy theories. He also had reading material on mass killings. Until now the Tsarnaev brothers were widely perceived as just self-styled radical jihadists.

Bingo! BBC doing its best to undo the simple fact that both these two men were driven by a hatred of America and a love of Islam.

Daha Mohammed….you know…you must have heard about him…he cut the throat of a wheel chair bound man.

I’d never heard of this….thanks to Oldbloke for raising this in the comments…though Reed mentioned it way back when on another Open Thread.

On May 22nd Lee Rigby was hacked to death.

On June 15th Colin Greenway had his throat cut.

Most of us have probably never heard this news.  It doesn’t seem to have been reported in the national, mainstream media.

Why?  Because the ‘Establishment’ fears an adverse reaction from the general population…fuelling further unrest?

The BBC also failed to report this in any meaningful way.  It seems that any Muslim violence in the aftermath of Lee Rigby’s death may have been ‘magicked’ away.   Just what else is out there that we don’t know about?

The BBC reported the initial crime in  a full report:

Murder probe in Thamesmead after man has throat slashed

The BBC then slipped in a mention of the man caught and charged with the murder  but only in its local London ‘Live’ news feed…there doesn’t seem to be a proper article:

Paul Weston in the comments on a previous post claims that ‘The idea that Britain could erupt into tribal/religious bloodshed and carnage is simply not accepted by these ignorant children within the BBC who know nothing of history.’

Some readers might be thinking that is over the top, there is absolutely no danger of that happening here.

Very recent history says different…just think of the Balkans….or Northern Ireland…if it hadn’t been for 30,000 security personnel keeping a lid on things just how bad would that have got?

But the BBC itself has broadcast a ‘warning from history’…..

David Kilcullen: Feral Cities

In this programme Kilcullen describes what happened to Somalia…why it collapsed into a war torn ‘Mad Max’ country.

Immigration happened to Somalia…massive, uncontrolled immigration from the rural areas into Mogadishu which led to infrastructure and system collapse…warlords and power brokers built competing fiefdoms that tore the city apart and ultimately brought down the whole State.

The city went feral..and this is happening now to cities across the world…and what happened in one place in our interconnected world affects us here….as we know when ”foreign’ battles are imported and  erupt on the streets of Britain.

Urban overstretch as he called it leads to frightening consequences.

In this programme he limits himself to coastal cities in the developing world but there is absolutely no reason why such a scenario isn’t credible for any city in the World.

London must be a prime example with that potential as it turns into a foreign land with a population that owes its loyalty more often to the countries they have fled from, perhaps ironically…bringing with them the same religions, the same cultural baggage and the same social problems that they were apparently trying to escape. 

 Crazy?  Mad and improbable? 

In 2009 Labour MP David Lammy didn’t think so:

LARGE parts of London are controlled by armed gangsters and not the police, a Government minister said yesterday.

Education minister David Lammy claimed a drug war had led to Turkish and Kurdish thugs grabbing control in some areas.

He said: “The system of justice that governs the rest of our city has been replaced by one overseen by gang bosses, enforced by the gun and knife.”

The Tottenham MP warned the situation would get worse without urgent police action.

He added: “If we turn away now, abandoning communities to be torn apart by a lawless minority, we will all come to regret it.”

His controversial remarks were last night backed by one of the capital’s top cops who described violence in parts of North London as shocking.

Kilcullen tells us that Somalia is now stable….but that stability was achieved by a newly formed Somalian Army (with the help of Ethiopia and the African Union troops) which pushed out the Islamists and warlords.

But in his summing up he claims that the only way to solve things is not helicopter gunships blazing away but civilian negotiators…..the usual wilful blindness of commentators when it comes to the necessity for military action to deal with a situation…..the BBC et al will always tell us that war never achieves anything and ‘insurgencies’ cannot be beaten by force of arms….it’s good to talk.

History unfortunately for them, proves again and again different….as indeed does this programme about Somalia…despite the strange conclusion.

The BBC supports mass immigration and repeatedly tells us that it is beneficial for the country.

It refuses to acknowledge the serious and possibly fatal consequences of this uncontrolled immigration and the subsequent harsh measures that would be needed to bring the situation back under control should things eventually go ‘feral’.

The multi cultural hotch potch of competing ethnic/religious groups that the BBC and fellow travellers believe is the best way forward is merely setting the scene for large scale conflict and a break down in central control and the ending of a national identity.

Either that is sorted now…by limiting immigration and integrating those here already or the effort later will be of a different and deeply unpleasant nature.

There are consequences to the BBC’s failure to cover events impartially where they seek to prevent certain truths from becoming well known….and by seeking to hide the problem they of course allow politicians to duck the issue and avoid setting in motion solutions that they don’t wish to be associated with on ‘their watch’ when history calls to account….but that is a very short term strategy….history will eventually catch up with them and point out their ‘appeasement’.

Those consequences may well include Paul Weston’s very uncivil civil war with all its ‘bloodshed and carnage’.

The BBC has decided it should take lobbying of politicians seriously…not in this country where Unite can rig elections and ‘swamp’ the Labour candidate list for MEPs….and all with Miliband’s approval (ignored by the BBC)……and not in the case of conflicts of interest such as when the BBC ignored completely the revelations about Tim Yeo and his massive green industry financial interests whilst at the same time being chairman of the Energy and Climate Change Committee.

 So where does the BBC cast its investigative eye when it feels the onset of a particular bad bout of indignation?

How Buck McKeon created a global drone enterprise

To America…onto a politician, a politician no one here has ever heard of…a Republican…a Republican who supports the drone industry…you know those drones which the nasty Americans use to kill lovable Al Qaeda chappies….roguish mis-interpreters of the Koran that they are.

We are told that Obama has massively increased the use of these drones..but its OK because…..

The increase in the use of drones came partly because technology improved over the years, making the strikes more efficient, and also because Obama adopted a more focused campaign against al-Qaeda commanders and other militants in Pakistan.

Efficiency and focus….sounds very Republican and right wing to me.

An enormous, very lengthy article……all very well and good (I’ll leave it for David P to analyse the truth of the article)….but why no such diligence and journalistic endeavour at home in regard to Labour Party affairs or Green politics?

Here we have two of the BBC’s  bete noires…a Republican and Drones…..what’s not to like from a lefty perspective….I can see this filling the pages of the Guardian quite happily.

That’s the problem…when it comes to subjects the BBC favours it hides the ‘evil’ parts…what you don’t see can’t hurt you…or the Labour Party etc…and can’t effect the way you might vote.

Cynical?  No less than the BBC’s blatantly cynical manipulation of our political views.

Is the BBC biased? looks at a suggestion in the Telegraph:

Of course people at the BBC are biased: why not make a virtue of it?

We need the BBC to be more like the newspapers – open about the unavoidably political beliefs of its staff

Not sure it would work. 

The point of the BBC is to try, I say try, to provide a gold standard of impartiality and accuracy that people can rely on….they may enjoy the one sided, unchallenging reading of a newspaper that reflects their own views but in the  end they need that fall back of a neutral, outside view of the world that the BBC is supposed to provide.

Clearly the BBC fails on that front, hence the proliferation of blogs and other comment from the MSM about the BBC’s ‘impartiality’…not counting the BBC’s own internal reviews on bias which it studiously ignores  or interprets in a way that is patently biased in its own favour…ironically.

If the BBC were allowed to ‘take sides’, or at least its journalists allowed to shape stories using their own personal views there woud have to be a balance of journalists….of all political, religious or other ideological persuasions….clearly impossible.

The BBC is already, to coin a phrase ‘left leaning’, imagine if allowed free rein to let rip and indulge in propagating their own world vision untrammelled by even idealistic notions of impartiality imposed upon them as now.

The BBC as it is, isn’t perfect, but it at least holds in check the worst excesses of its clearly idealistic and politically committed journalists.

The bias it does portray is bad enough and has serious consequences for society, for the World even, if you value democracy, free speech and thought…..the BBC being a supporter of oppressive ideologies and not embarrassed to practice its own suppression of free speech when it feels the need.

The problem with the BBC is that whomever it recruits they are eventually, if they want to succeed and get promotion or the best jobs, absorbed into the ‘left leaning’ culture, the group think.

That means they think twice before reporting or writing something in a way that doesn’t reflect the corporate world view…and the BBC is ‘Institutionally biased’.  If you are the wrong political persuasion, race or religion you will find yourself out in the cold if you don’t realign your thinking and toe the line.

A solution?  Difficult…other than breaking the BBC up into smaller units and moving people around more so that they don’t get set in their ways and are not allowed to develop a culture that becomes ingrained and is then passed on to any new recruit.

It would be politically beneficial for the BBC to be seen to be actually doing something proactive to combat bias other than staging these ever more farcial reviews that are no more than clear attempts at damage limitation (at least from the people who commission them), diverting attention from the real problems at the BBC.

As I said more effort to recruit a different class of journalist and presenter and determined efforts to prevent the onset of institutional bias and groupthink would at least give an impression of some recognition that there is a problem.

The problem is they don’t think there is a problem.

Don’t hold your breath.

BBC breathlessly informs us that  Labour has become the second-largest party on Norfolk County Council after winning the Thetford West by-election. BBC not so quick to discuss the fact that ALL but one of Labour’s prospective MEP candidates for next year are linked to UNITE. 

Bit of a struggle to find this on the BBC world class website….? Brought to my attention earlier so maybe they gave finally covered it?

Gang chanted ‘Lee Rigby’ as they kicked soldier in Exeter underpass

And yet another story about “men” who prey on young white girls. Care to wager that should the conviction come the BBC will label them as “asian men” and ignore the matter of their muslim background.