It doesn’t take long for things to start to unravel.

The BBC’s impartiality review, conducted by Cardiff University, has some major flaws.

Even without reading it you can already pick holes in it.

Its terms of reference were obviously far too narrow..ironic for a review that was concerned with ‘breadth of opinion’.

Two major topics of concern are missing…climate change and Israel.

Strangely Israel was also missing in any meaningful way from the Seesaw to Wagon Wheel report as well.

But another question might be asked….why Cardiff University?  Or indeed any university.

Academics are notoriously left wing…and ‘extreme’…. ‘Academics have deeper knowledge but some also hold extreme views’….hardly a good starting point.

If this was conducted by students you have to ask do they have the experience and depth of knowledge needed to judge ‘bias’ in the BBC’s output….they would need a wide ranging and deep knowledge of world affairs to be able to do the job properly….did they?

And look at Cardiff….and the BBC’s relationship with it….the BBC has close ties to Cardiff which seems to be the ‘go to’ place when the BBC wants some research done.

Cardiff research recognised for reshaping the BBC’s post-devolution news agenda

22 May 2013

A Cardiff University research project that helped change the way the BBC reports on political issues has been recognised for its impact at the University’s prestigious Innovation and Impact Awards.

and how about this:

Professor Richard Sambrook – BA (Reading), MSc (Birkbeck, London)

Position: Director – Centre for Journalism Email: SambrookRJ@cardiff.ac.uk
Blog: JOMEC @ Cardiff University
Twitter: @Sambrook

Richard Sambrook is Professor of Journalism and Director of the Centre for Journalism which undertakes postgraduate vocational training. He is a former Director of Global News at the BBC where he worked as a journalist for 30 years as a producer, editor and manager.

Oh…and look..who was a previous director of journalism at Cardiff:

Professor Richard Tait CBE, was Director of the Centre for Journalism Studies at Cardiff University^[1] and a member of the BBC Trust, the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation.

and it looks like he is still there as a ‘professor of journalism’

Professor Richard Tait – M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon)

 

Position: Professor of Journalism

All of which probably means nothing at all…but it hardly inspires confidence in the independence of Cardiff.

The BBC Trust has just published its ‘Breadth of Opinion’ review into impartiality.

Not had time to look at it but you can see it here.

A taster from the press release:

As part of the study, the BBC’s coverage of immigration, religion and the EU was analysed through content analysis by Cardiff University.  While the findings of this were largely positive and indicated that the breadth of opinion on all three subjects is comprehensive, the research also found that information and opinions provided in stories tended to focus on the specific case, with the larger story of how immigration may affect British society for better or worse covered much less often.

That’s classic BBC tactic…the ‘personal’ story of an immigrant…designed to make the viewer ‘connect’ and ignore that ‘big picture’.

The big picture is still being ignored….Miliband talked of the crisis in primary school  places today…..the BBC made absolutely no mention of the real cause of that…immigration and the surge in births that resulted.

And another couple of lines from the press release that might make you laugh:

BBC Trustee David Liddiment said:

“Ensuring that a wide range of views are seen and heard on the BBC is at the heart of the BBC’s enviable reputation for impartial journalism.”

Presumably climate change coverage wasn’t so ‘impartial‘ then due to the lack of a wide range of voices?

Just searched the PDF for ‘climate’…result….’0’…how can you have a report into BBC impartiality when one of the most controversial, and important, subjects hasn’t been covered?

The BBC science review by Steve Jones can be completely discounted as he is a BBC stooge who is rabidly pro-man made climate change.

“We deliberately chose some complex and controversial subject areas for the review in immigration, religion, and the EU, and our generally positive findings are testament to programme-makers across the corporation.”

‘Positive findings’ on immigration, religion and the EU?

I’ve got to read that.

Over at Telegraph blogs Sean Thomas recalls how the BBC nicked one his ideas, and how this ties in with the ludicrous pay-offs, the unadvertised job appointments, and the overall sense of impunity within the Corporation:

…I was tempted to write a blog post on the Telegraph mentioning all this, explaining why the BBC is, for all its wonders, actually an outrageous, malign, monopolistic force in British broadcasting, like a kind of vast, retarded toad, squashing the life out of the little guys in the media, especially with the BBC’s 70 per cent dominance of UK TV news consumption, but then I remembered that I am journalist, in a struggling industry. I’m a writer with kids to feed, in a media world destabilised by the internet, where, all-too-often, the only secure employer is the BBC.

So then, like many others before me, I thought better. Because the truth is, one day soon I might need the BBC to give me a job…

(h/t George R)

Roger Harrabin tweeting from Glastonbury last week:

Escape #Glastonbury drizzle. Join me in @greenpeaceuk tent for 25 years of reporting the #environment for #bbcnews

— roger harrabin (@RHarrabin) June 28, 2013

The Independent has run a story on the close links between the Left and Islamist extremists…but just how far up the political Left’s chain of command does the UAF/Islamist influence reach?  Just how entangled is the Labour Party with Unite Against Fascism?

And does the BBC show any interest in the close ties between the Labour Party leader and the UAF?

The BBC has no excuse not to be all over this…a Labour leader in hock to a union which is trying to rig elections and which has close ties to an extremist, violent ‘anti-Fascist’ group in league with extremist Islamists.

What’s not to like for any journalist worth his salt?

 Why is the left so blinkered to Islamic extremism?

The article is based upon a report which calls out the left for embracing fundamentalists……

Siding With The Oppressor….The Pro-Islamist Left

The BBC are not interested in such stories important thought they are, just how important you may only realise once you start looking a bit more deeply.

But what if it was the ‘Right’, the Tories, who were joining forces with some extremist ideologues? The BBC would make that front page news….Panorama, Newsnight and Today would be all over that story.

What if….

What if Cameron had become Tory leader only because of the financial and strategic backing of a powerful political lobby group?

What if that lobby group then tried to take over the Tory party by packing the constituency party groups with its own people in order to ensure the selection of candidates to become MPs who would do the bidding of the lobby group?

What if that lobby group’s political director was also chairman of the EDL and he had close ties to Cameron?

What if a Tory MP was also one of the ‘elected officers’ of the EDL?

What if the Tory Mayor of London was an ‘honorary president’ of the EDL?　

What if the EDL then joined forces with an extremist far right group that advocated killing Gays, Jews, beating wives and imposing a strict, oppressive, backward legal regime upon anyone under its influence?

What if the Mayor of London invites a leading ‘scholar’ from that extremist group to the UK and defended his views as ‘moderate’, as the view of a highly respected scholar who is a leading figure in his community?

You might think that is all a bit far fetched….but as with the best stories it is all based on fact…just the names have been changed to protect the guilty.

Instead of Cameron how about ‘Ed Miliband’? The lobby group? The Unite union.

Unite’s, until recently, political director, Steve Hart, is chairman of the violent activist group Unite Against Fascism…the UAF.

Steve Hart has been replaced by Jennie Formby as political director at Unite but she is of the same mindset:

Jennie Formby ‏@JennieUnite 22 Jun Join us in telling the Home Secretary that #PeddlersOfHate Geller and Spencer are not welcome in the UK http://action.hopenothate.org.uk/refuse-them-a-visa …

Hart still works for Unite in their newly created think tank ‘CLASS’….which has as its media and policy expert one Owen Jones.

Steve Hart has been replaced as Political Director by Jenny Formby. Steve will deal with CLASS and our anti-fascist work.

Dan Hodges in the Telegraph tells us that Jones is Miliband’s blue eyed boy at the moment, untouchable for some reason:

I’ve just taken a call from a shadow cabinet adviser who asked me whether I’d seen the Daily Politics, with Owen Jones and Labour MP Simon Danczuk crossing swords over welfare. I said I had. (Owen got a proper shoeing from the Honourable Member for Rochdale, by the way.)

“Well, Simon’s going to find he’s in trouble for that. Ed’s office have told people we’re not allowed to criticise Owen Jones,” they said. So I checked with another shadow cabinet source, and it’s true. Apparently, Owen Jones is the Labour Party equivalent of a “Made Man”.

It’s been an open secret in Labour circles for some time that Miliband’s office have been courting the 29-year-old Independent journalist, with one insider saying Miliband’s senior adviser Stewart Wood has been acting as his “handler”.

So you can see how Hart, still chair of UAF, has contacts all the way to the top of the Labour party…and not just through Jones:

Steve Hart has been at the heart of London Labour politics for over a decade, having forged close relations with Ken Livingstone’s mayoral administration. When Livingstone’s former chief of staff, Simon Fletcher moved in to a senior position at the London Labour party before the last election, Hart’s influence increased.

When the continuity Kennites took control of key positions in the London Labour party after the general election, Steve Hart’s role in London Labour grew.

And when Simon Fletcher joined Ed Miliband’s office with responsibility for union liaison, earlier this year, Hart’s personal connections extended right to the top of the party.

CLASS is a Unite ‘front’ organisation:

The Centre for Labour and Social Studies (Class) is a new think tank established in 2012 to act as a centre for left debate and discussion. Originating in the labour movement, Class works with a broad coalition of supporters, academics and experts to develop and advance alternative policies for today.

It works from the same address as Unite: 

128 Theobalds Road,
London WC1X 8TN　

Unite, Unite House,
128 Theobald’s Road,
Holborn, London, WC1X 8TN

Labour MP Peter Hain is an elected officer of the UAF.

Ken Livingstone is honorary president of the UAF. 

The UAF has close ties to Islamist groups. One of its vice chairmen being Islamist Azad Ali.

Unite has been caught trying to rig elections in its favour by packing the membership of Labour constituencies with Unite members:

Revealed: The document that explains how Unite intends to take over the Labour party

It’s a major decision to accuse Labour’s biggest donor of packing a constituency with ringers and trying to subvert a parliamentary selection, but one that was inescapable given the facts.

Uncut understands that in the last three months of 2012, the membership of Falkirk West CLP increased by over half – from 200 members, it grew by 130 to 330.

These weren’t members attracted by the magic of Arnie Graf’s community organising, or an inspirational Ed Miliband speech.

They were shipped in, en masse, by Unite.

Why did Steve Hart leave his position as Unite’s political director?…….because he failed to keep the machiavellian scheme to take Labour over out of the Press:　

Steve Hart was national political director of a political operation that is seen to be misfiring. The fiasco over the selection of Labour’s European candidates is symptomatic of a wider problem.

The issue for Hart within the union is not the fixing – no one in the union disagrees with the goal of installing Unite placemen and women as Labour candidates.

The problem has been the scrutiny and headlines generated by the clumsy nature of the fixing. Motions criticising the selection process have rippled across London CLPs with the row making front page news in the national press.

Len McCluskey has had to publicly defend Unite’s conduct and the union has become embroiled in a running row that has made Unite activity in candidate selection an increasingly sensitive topic within the Labour party.

This is not how a political operation is meant to work. The dark arts require shadows, not the harsh spotlight of national newspaper stories.

Still, at least someone on the Left has woken up to some aspects of the ‘moderate face of Islam’ so beloved of the BBC:

Erdogan’s democracy bus ride

As a little footnote to my piece on the Turkish protests, a little nugget I have just discovered (h/t: Harry’s Place). In what seems now like quite a prescient interview earlier this year, King Abdullah of Jordan is quoted as saying the following:

”Erdogan once said that democracy for him is a bus ride,” Abdullah told the Atlantic. ”Once I get to my stop, I’m getting off.”

In the context of the reaction to the protests, and the frustrating comments of many that he is a “moderate”, I find these words particularly chilling

Whilst the BBC report the goings on in Falkirk West  where Unite tried to rig things in their favour they look no further, they turn over no stones even though the work has been done for them….more often than not by Left wing blogs.

The BBC has no excuse not to be all over this…a Labour leader in hock to a union which is trying to rig elections and which has close ties to an extremist, violent ‘anti-Fascist’ group in league with extremist Islamists.

What’s not to like for any journalist worth his salt?

UAF’s honorary presidents are Ken Livingstone and Doreen Lawrence.

Our elected officers for 2013 are:

Chair

– Steve Hart, political officer, Unite
Vice chair – Christine Blower, general secretary, NUT
Vice chair – Hugh Lanning, deputy general secretary, PCS
Vice chair – Azad Ali
Vice chair – Jennifer Moses, national official for equality and training, NASUWT
Treasurer – Jane Loftus, deputy general secretary, CWU
Joint secretary – Weyman Bennett
Joint secretary – Sabby Dhalu
Assistant secretary – Brian Richardson
Assistant secretary – Jude Woodward
Parliamentary Officer – Peter Hain MP
European officer – Claude Moraes MEP
European officer – Glyn Ford

Unite’s think tank CLASS and its officers:

Steve Hart, Chair – Political Director at Unite the Union (no longer)

Tim Roache, President – Regional Secretary at GMB

Geoff Shears, Vice President – President of Union Solidarity International

Christine Blower – NUT

Manuel Cortes – TSSA

Keith Ewing – Kings College London

Billy Hayes – CWU

John Hendy QC

Carolyn Jones – Director of the Institute of Employment Rights

James McGowan – Head of Policy and Communications at ASLEF

Steve Murphy – UCATT

Andrew Murray – Chief of Staff at Unite the Union

Doug Nicholls – GFTU

Dave Watson – Senior Policy Advisor at PCS

Sound familiar?  Not a description of a musical version of the EDL but the rap group ‘Public Enemy’:

‘In the late 1980s Public Enemy were the biggest rap group on the planet. Their mission: to raise the consciousness of a generation. With a rebellious attitude to match their militant image they sold millions of records preaching pro-black politics to fans of all races, all done through a groundbreaking wall of noise that changed the sound of hip hop. White, middle Americans were outraged, but their kids loved it.

Not surprisingly, this confrontational approach attracted controversy. Critics claimed the group themselves were racist, exposing racial divides rather than promoting equality. They were banned from some TV and radio stations and when one member reportedly made anti-Semitic remarks in a newspaper interview the resulting media-storm threatened to end their career. Tensions were running high and arguments within the band ended in violence. Could they keep it together long enough to get their message across?’

‘Public Enemy’ are playing at Glastonbury (Note the Black Power salutes) and getting documentaries on the BBC…wonder where the EDL will be in 20 years…will they have raised the consciousness of a generation and kept it together long enough to get their message across?

Funny what catches the imagination of the Tristrams and what doesn’t.  Black identity politics is OK….white or non-Muslim identity politics is taboo.

The BBC flooded the airwaves and its web pages with ‘warnings from history’ about the rise of the Far Right in Europe.

 It seems to have gone a bit quiet as Marine Le Pen’s Front National gains credible support in the polls in France…..much of it coming from ‘the Left’.

Before the French by-elections the BBC was willing to talk about the ‘fringe’ parties…what it dismissed as the ‘anti-establishment’ vote…but since a sweeping triumph by the Front National in a Socialist bastion all seems to have gone very quiet.

The BBC make a grudging mention of that success but only as a small add-on to another report:

Mr Montebourg attacked Mr Barroso after the far-right National Front made gains in a by-election on Sunday in the southern town of Villeneuve-sur-Lot.

Blink and you’d miss it.

Why such reticence?  Possibly the BBC don’t want to ‘encourager les autres’.  They see UKIP gaining ground in the UK and think that highlighting further successes of ‘the Right’ would add to the momentum leading to more voters looking on these parties as serious contenders.

But just how far ‘right’ is Le Pen?

The BBC may also be embarrassed by this description of the Front National from the Telegraph which paints it as a socialist party with echoes of 1930’s national socialism and Occupy today…

Only a minority of voters still thinks the Front is a “threat to democracy”. Mrs Le Pen is winning over white working class women in droves. The feminized Front is no longer the party of the angry white male. The softer image is why finance minister Pierre Moscovici describes her as “more dangerous than her father”.

It is her defence of the French welfare model and her critique of capitalism that gives her a Leftist hue — some call it 1930s national socialism — so far in outlook from Britain’s UKIP. She sounds like Occupy activists in her attacks on high finance and the way corporations profit from labour arbitrage, playing off wages in the West against cheap labour in Asia. “It is the law of the jungle,” she said.

It is curious how in light of that by-election success the BBC can’t find the time or space to analyse what is going on in France….it’s not as if France is just some insignificant country on the fringe of Europe, it is right at the heart of the European project.

What Marine Le Pen is saying must be terrifying for the good Europeans of the BBC as she gathers more and more support:

France’s triumphant ‘Joan of Arc’ vows to bring back franc and destroy euro

Marine Le Pen is spoiling for a fight. The leader of France’s Front National vows to smash the existing order of Europe and force the break-up of monetary union, if she wins the next election.

No one should get too carried away of course….success can come and go…but it looks like the BBC are burying their heads in the sand and are hoping it will all go away…soon….and they will be doing their best not to give anyone any ideas about jumping on this particular bandwagon.

An irony that the EU Empire’s policy of ‘EU Über Alles’ has led to a growth in the very nationalism that it was supposed to prevent.

Reading about the demonstrations in Egypt reminded me of BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen’s attempts to sell the Muslim Brotherhood as a moderate organisation prior to the overthrow of Mubarak.

Here was his original take in January 2011:

This was the first update:

And what you’ll see now:

Journalism is sometimes called the first rough draft of history. More like the first attempt at spin, with later updates where required.

This couple of interviews illustrates the problem with the BBC and the Left’s worldview…that the solution to poverty is not creating a sound economy, a good education, hard work, innovation, entrepreneurship, adapting, improvising and overcoming …the Left’s answer is an ever increasing government spending spree….it is sitting in your state sponsored home waiting for government handouts that keep the recipients in a thought free comfort zone where they no longer have to strive or think for themselves.

The Daily Mail‘s Stephen Glover sums up what is wrong with the BBC and its reporting of the economy and government policies:

Let me say it again. State spending is not being cut. And it’s iniquitous of the BBC to claim otherwise.

But now the BBC is in a bit of a panic…the Government is taking a big stick to the welfare system and it looks like Labour has caved in and joined it. Who is going to oppose these vicious cuts to the most vulnerable in society? I guess it will have to be the BBC which sees itself as the ’Official Opposition’ on occasions like these when ‘consensus’ politics breaks out…funny how, in the BBC’s eyes, political clashes in the US are a failure of democracy that block progress whilst in the UK an outbreak of agreement is to be regretted…if it doesn’t reflect BBC opinion.

In these two interviews Webb and Davis decide that no one should vote for either party if you care about the poorest in society…Labour because it is not sticking to its core values…the Tories because they are sticking to their core values…which tells you where the BBC sees its own core values:

Justin Webb interviews Ed Balls.

Webb opens with:  Labour’s supporters say bang the drum for welfare…..You [Balls] say government reforms might be sensible despite what the charities say…’

Balls says the welfare bill has been rising and the government measures to control it are ineffective. He says that we’ve had a whole series of announcements from government that claim to save money and they’ve ended up not working and being ineffective and welfare and social security bill has been rising.

[So Balls wants to actually make more cuts, and more effective cuts, to welfare?]　

Webb: ‘The Unions say that it is an attack on the most vulnerable in society. It’s really striking this morning that you are not willing to join the General Secretary of the TUC and other people in the charity sector who are saying this is damaging…the whole point they make is that it isn’t fair, and it’s obviously unfair, [tone of voice is all there..sounds more like Webb’s own opinion] is what they say, and if you are labour you will know that in your core.’

Balls: ‘The reality is that for all the government’s nasty, divisive rhetoric on welfare and social security they’ve actually been very bad at controlling the bills. I think we’d have a tougher approach but also a fairer approach.’

[Yet again Balls says he will make more cuts]

Webb: ‘You’re saying you’re tougher than the coalition…that’s your boast this morning?…..What is Labour for, what is the point of voting Labour if , what looks very tough on the most vulnerable, if Labour doesn’t say stop, we’re not going to do that?’　

Evan Davis and George Osborne

Davis opens with the comment that Osborne is cutting by £11.5 bn but needs to cut a further £23 bn to get deficit where the government wants it.

He says: What is it that you plan for the public services in the long term? But before we get to the really big picture let’s look at welfare.  [Welfare seemingly the real concern of the BBC this morning]

Osborne tells us that he is introducing a welfare package to help people into work and to make sure work always pays….Davis disagrees and thinks it is all an evil plot to impoverish the already poorest in society.

ED: ‘One might interpret it all if you are concerned about the incomes of people at the very bottom and you are not someone who is worried about undeserving and deserving poor and you don’t believe there are lots of scroungers out there, you are just going to be concerned about the incomes of people at the bottom…you should probably vote Labour shouldn’t you…that would be your advise…vote Labour if you want to help the poorest people and vote Conservative if you’re concerned with hard working families and those not on benefits.

You would conclude if you want to help the poorest and you want to put money in their pockets you would vote Labour…otherwise don’t vote Tory.’

Osborne: I don’t accept that.

ED: ‘Why not? That seems to be the point of everything you’ve been saying.’

[Really…Osborne has been saying vote Labour?]

Osborne explains: We want to put more money in the pockets of those with lowest incomes, improve their education, better career opportunities, help dysfunctional families and create a sound economic base.

Davis jumps in..…‘Well other parties would say they want to do that too.’

Davis goes onto question Osborne about the £23 bn shortfall, or ‘Blackhole’ in the public finances that will turn up after the election…for all parties….but Balls didn’t get asked to spell out how he will deal with that.

Davis sums up, as usual deciding he doesn’t really want or need an answer from Osborne…..Davis’ questions so often being rhetorical:

‘You put the taxes up in the first week of parliament and I’m assuming you would repeat that trick…..you will need to take away from the poorest or the middle income.’

Davis just making up policy and telling the listener this is what the Tories will do…the use of the word ‘trick’ is pejorative, designed to make Osborne appear underhand and deceitful.

Then we get onto the important stuff and Davis turns into Ali G asking:

‘Can you confirm this was a posh burger?’

Clearly Osborne,  a man who won’t eat a McDonald’s burger,  isn’t a man of the people and can’t be trusted to do what is in the ‘People’s’ interest…preferring instead to line the pockets of his Banker friends with the ill gotten gains torn from the grubby outstretched hands of the most vulnerable in society.

I just wonder how many McDonald’s Davis has eaten?  No  jokes.