FAIR GAME?

I see the BBC have covered Warsi’s comments on a “small minority” of Pakistani men seeing young white girls as “fair game”.  Lots of parenthesis lest we got the wrong impression and how wonderful to read that extensive item without the words MUSLIM or ISLAM getting a mention. That said, Mosques do get a name check but happily the world class BBC journos hit the brakes at that point….

Question Time LiveBlog 17th May 2012

Tonight Question Time comes from Cardiff from the original Welsh “Cahhhhdeff”. The “You Are Leaving Cardiff” sign has been voted Most Welcome Sight for six years running. The dialling code for Cardiff is 029 which came second in the 2011 Wales Most Interesting Area Code competition, losing out to Newport’s 01633.*

On the panel: Minister for Disabled People Maria Miller (who? And why do they need a Minister?); the only ever UK Cabinet Minister to have stood trial for bank robbery Peter Hain (TheEye asked that in our pub quiz two weeks ago!); Leanne Wood, a republican socialist who is leader of something which looks like a bad hand at Scrabble called Plaid Cymru and the usually quite splendid Kelvin MacKenzie, Daily Mail columnist and former editor of the Sun.

Also appearing is someone billed on the BBC website as author and comedy scriptwriter John O’Farrell. Will Dimbleby also mention that he was a Labour candidate in the 2001 General Election? Or that he wrote the “jokes” in speeches given by Blair, Brown and other Labour politicians? Who’ll open the betting? Make me an offer.

Your Moderators line-up consists of David Vance, David Mosque, TheEye and John Ward.

Question Time is followed by This Week. Andrew Neil is cursed with the world pie-eating champion Diane Abbott, Michael Portillo – probably in a shirt resembling a 60’s deckchair – the unspeakably stupid Mehdi Hasan, Jilly Goolden, and a Greek stand-up commedienne called Katerina Vrana. No, I hadn’t heard of her either, before you ask, but she lists Eddie Izzard as her favourite comedian so on that basis alone she probably needs to be set on fire and the flames put out with a golf shoe.

Prediction: it’s going to be dreadful. And in other unexpected news, Fernando Alonso complains about the lack of charm in modern F1 and Brian Blessed calls for everyone to quiet down.

* May contain traces of lie.

What That “World-Class” BBC Spends Your Money On

This is a guest post by B-BBC reader A Libertarian Rebel…do give it a read.

“There must be very few, if any, B-BBC readers unaware of the visceral hatred which our much beloved national broadcaster harbours towards all things Murdoch and News International.

It’s dressed up, of course, as a lofty, altruistic, public-service-broadcasting concern about quality standards and the monopolistic effects of excessive market share (conveniently ignoring, err, the Beeb’s own 70% share of broadcast news & current affairs coverage): but what it’s really about is a determination to neutralise NI’s position as a right-leaning print media alternative to the left-liberal BBC/ Guardian/Independent nexus, and head off the threat of what, for the Corporation, would be the ultimate nightmare – a wholly NI-controlled BSkyB or a UK version of Fox News, presenting the UK viewing public with a libertarian, small-state, free-markets, EU-sceptic option for their news and current affairs viewing.

We’ve seen this operating already in the highest gear with the BBC’s far from impartial and blatantly anti-Murdoch tenor of its coverage of the phone-hacking scandals and the Leveson Inquiry: but what flicked in into overdrive on Tuesday evening was the news that Rebekah Brooks had been charged with conspiracy to convert the course of justice. Despite Merkel/Hollande meeting on the EU Fiscal pact and the euro visibly collapsing about our ears with Heaven-knows-what implications for the UK economy, BBC News channels not merely led with it (not unreasonable – other channels did too) but gave it virtually saturation coverage for the remainder of the evening.

So it was interesting come across these 3 tweets posted late that same night by someone for whom the BBC evidently has a high regard:

Brian Limond@DaftLimmy

Make Murdoch eat all of Brooks’ hair, and I’m willing to forget everything.

What a shame if Rebekah Brooks choked to death on her hair tonight. Or caught her hair on the cell bars, twisting them into a fucking noose.

 Follow

Imagine finding Rebekah Brooks dead in her cell. The trauma! Why, I would wish to compensate the officer £10,000. I repeat, £10,000.

Brian Limond is of course the serially unfunny & offensiveness-dependent (no doubt classified in BBC commissioning parlance as “edgy”) Scottish “alternative” comedian who about 6 months or so ago distinguished himself by gleefully anticipating the death of Baroness Thatcher and adopting an avatar showing Lady Thatcher bloodied and with her throat (presumably “edgily”) slashed.

More to the point however, the Beeb loves Limond’s output so much that it’s commissioned not one but two series from him, one in 2010 and one in 2011, both undoubtedly generously paid for by the licence fees which we’re all so delighted to provide in the form of a compulsory regressive tax extracted on pain of fine or imprisonment. With material as erudite and subtle as Limond’s, you can see why the Beeb values him highly.

But wait a minute – sending a message of an indecent, obscene or menacing character is an offence under S127 of the Communications Act 2003, isn’t it? And despite the necessities of safeguarding free speech, it’s surely difficult to argue that an invitation or recommendation for hanging or bridge-pushing isn’t menacing; nor that it doesn’t constitute an incitement to violence which, if uttered in a public place, would be an offence under S5 of the Public Order Act 1986 as well. Either of those offences, or preaching racist hate, will get you fired from the BBC (unless directed at BBC-approved targets like white male Christian libertarians, of course).

The Corporation would no doubt say that Limond’s not employed by it: but the fact is, it’s already commissioned two series from him. So the questions arise: does the BBC think it’s an appropriate use of licence-payers’ funds to commission material from someone who openly breaks the law to incite violence? Will it repudiate and disassociate itself from his comments? Will it undertake not to commission him again?

An ethical and responsible taxpayer-funded public service broadcaster should do all three: but ah, he’s virulently anti-Murdoch, isn’t he? Don’t hold your breath.

follow A Libertarian Rebel on Twitter at https://twitter.com/#!/A_Liberty_Rebel              

How Sweet..BBC Goes All Nostalgic Over The Punks Saying “Stuff The Jubilee” In 1977

Only the BBC would dream of digging up a graveyard full of corpses who were punks in 1977 when we were celebrating the Queen’s Silver Jubilee.

“I was against the Silver Jubilee, against the symbolism and the money being spent on the festivities. My friends and I thought the royals could afford to pay for the party themselves.”

Thus one Louise Bolotin, a 50 year old “writer”, reminiscing about those glory days. A real rebel was Louise..to show her rage against the machine she wore her “Stuff The Jubilee” badge ALL DAY…tell that to the Solidarity members who were being imprisoned in Communist Poland or the Cuban dissidents being tortured by Castro’s secret police. Louise showed true defiance and, what’s more, she feels the same today.

The Beeb revived other corpses to find the same sentiment and then proceeded to inform us of the historical/sociological significance of punk

Her attitude typifies those following the punk movement at that time. Although the nation had been encouraged to have a party in honour of the Queen, not everyone wanted to come.
The rising popularity of the punks provided a snarling, spitting, sometimes swearing outlet for some of the angry youths disillusioned with 1970s Britain – a time of strikes, economic hard times and high unemployment

What a load of pretentious colour supplement drivel. It wasn’t a movement, you moron, just a fashion trend like the Teds, hippies, mods, skinheads, Goths and thousands of others. There was no political dimension, just, like me in my Teddy Boy drainpipes in the 50s, a wish to irritate my elders by wearing something that made me stand out from the crowd and to make me seem intimidating (think hoodies)…the badge of youth in every generation.

However a tiny group of student/arty types muscled in on the trend and created a style industry and bigged it up to get some PR traction and, of course, with sound capitalist motives, to make some money selling music and fashion. These, like latter day Jacobites, are sad dinosaurs still dining out on the “movement” . Most of the punks, however, like the Teds and Goths and Mods grew up and became adults with families and proper jobs.

As for the BBC’s political point, as a teacher in South London during the 70’s, I remember that the punks tended to be the spotty, insecure loners on the fringe of school social life who found out of school solace in belonging to their outlandish tribe. In full punk gear they looked violent and terrifying but they were plaster board warriors who were essentially the embodiment of Urban Wimpdom.

So why did the Beeb even bother to visit this particular cemetery? The clue is in the description of 1970s Britain.. “a time of strikes, economic hard times and high unemployment”…it’s the BBC narrative about Cameron’s Britain and they are constantly searching for signs of disaffected youth. They thought they found it in the 2011 rioters but had to pull back when the public supported belated tough police action and harsh sentences. So, at the moment, they need to go back in time…except they forget to mention that punk erupted under a Labour government and the black fog of despair that generated the punks was dispelled in 1979 with the arrival of the BBC’s nemesis..

MONOPOLISTIC THINKING

I suppose when you are a state enforced monopoly this sort of thing brought to my attention by a B-BBC causes little concern;

“There was a freedom of information request 2009/2010 that showed that 94% of BBC staff advertising spending was with the Guardian. in defiance of their market share among quality dailies. I raised this on a BBC “have your say” page in response to some idiot/or perhaps a plant, accusing the BBC of right wing bias, my contribution disappeared just like the unwanted version of history Winston Smith consigned to oblivion. No surprise.”

 

 

HANG HER?

The BBC seem exultant that Rebekah Brooks has been charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. In fact this is the lead story on their UK news portal, the single biggest story for the UK population apparently. This is media village indulgence and I have to say that I feel sorry for Brooks and contempt for the self indulgence of the BBC.

HATE SITE?

Here’s one where I would appreciate your help. Did you know that Biased BBC, a site specifically and uniquely set up to challenge the BBC’s lack of impartiality, has been classified as a “hate site”? I am advised that “it was blocked on O2 and T-Mobile on 5th March. It is classified as a ‘hate site’ by O2’s URL checker” This is an outrage. Can I ask you to contact these companies and advise them we are a respectable and professional website that focus on the journalistic output of the BBC? Is it a crime to hold the BBC to account? I wonder if someone has reported Biased BBC to these mobile providers as it seems most unlikely they would ban us on this basis?

PS Yesterday Biased BBC recorder it’s biggest ever days visitor number with 11,300 people choosing to pay a call.

BBC PROMOTES OBAMA CAMPAIGN AD, IGNORES DETAILS

The Obama campaign has released an ad attacking Romney as a job killer during his time at the private equity firm Bain Capital. The pro-Obama team at the BBC Washington bureau has already produced two online pieces promoting the ad, which it describe as follows:

The video features former workers of a steel plant that was bought and later shut down by Bain Capital, the private equity firm co-founded by Mr Romney.

Not mentioned by the BBC is the fact that Romney left Bain in 1999. GST, the steel company featured in the ad, did not close until 2001. Also not mentioned by the BBC – the current Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer at Bain, who has been at the company since 1993, is a major bundler for the Obama campaign (Breitbart has the details). The ad has even been attacked as unfair by Obama’s former car czar – again not mentioned by the BBC.

If you want to see uncritical reproduction of Obama campaign material, the BBC is the place for you. If you want to find out what’s really going on in the 2012 election look elsewhere.

BORIS ON THE BEEB…

Excellent stuff from Boris Johnson here, little wonder the BBC went into mourning when he beat Red Ken the other week! Can anyone imagine Cameron being as forthright?

“The BBC is unlike any other media organisation in the free world, in that it levies billions from British households whether they want to watch it or not. No wonder its employees have an innocent belief that everything in life should be “free”. No wonder – and I speak as one who has just fought a campaign in which I sometimes felt that my chief opponent was the local BBC news – the prevailing view of Beeb newsrooms is, with honourable exceptions, statist, corporatist, defeatist, anti-business, Europhile and, above all, overwhelmingly biased to the Left.”