Following the account of procedures attached to the production of The Big Questions, and exposure of the tactics used to ensure car-crash telly (so as not to bore the audience) here’s another example of the tampering that goes into making a programme aimed, above all else, at ratings. I know the strictest parents series has an agenda. It’s set up to show that delinquents need boot-camp parenting. This theory has … Continue reading
“Are you selfish – or are we bad journalists?” asks the BBC’s Mark Sandell on the World Have Your Say blog. “Whatever we do, whatever debate we come up with, we can’t seem to interest you in the issue of climate change.” What a shame, eh? (A related item – last week on the Conan O’Brien show Al Gore stated that “the interior of the earth is extremely hot, several … Continue reading
Christopher Hitchens has had two fairly well publicised articles out during the past week. The first, from Newsweek, attacked Sarah Palin; the second more recent piece appeared in Slate and attacked “the host of damage-control commentators” who rushed to claim that religion was not a motivating factor in the Fort Hood killings. No prizes for guessing which topic Hitchens was invited on the Today programme to discuss just before 7 … Continue reading
Heh: A Russian icebreaker carrying over 100 tourists, scientists and journalists on a cruise around Antarctica was struggling to free itself from sea ice but was not in any danger, a shipping company said Tuesday… Russian news agencies said a BBC camera crew filming a documentary about the Antarctic was also on board. Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.
Bio has already linked to this article by Israelinurse, everyone’s favourite contributor to blogs Harry’s Place and CiFWatch. She describes appearing on The Big Questions, in the third and last topic on the show, antisemitism. The format of this programme is bound to lead to frustration all round, and true to form, this one ended just at the point when they were getting down to some delicate nitty gritty.Israelinurse’s original … Continue reading
Credit where credit is due. BBC Radio 4’s Analysis programme last night examined what would happen if the UK left the EU, and they made a near-decent fist of the territory, giving prominence to both UKIP’s Lord Pearson of Rannoch and the Conservative withdrawalist, Daniel Hannan. There were, inevitably, some problems, with balance and some silly, unchallenged contributions from EU fanatics. But this is normally a taboo subject for the … Continue reading
I wonder is it FEAR that makes the Conservatives seem so mild-mannered about the BBC? The BBC could be forced by an incoming Conservative Government to accept a cut in the licence fee. The party has already called for the licence fee — currently £142.50 — to be frozen. But Jeremy Hunt, the shadow Culture Secretary, strengthened its stance with a warning that the Tories would expect the BBC to … Continue reading
Here’s a publication we don’t hear much from on this blog – Farmers Guardian: COUNTRYFILE, the BBC’s flagship rural programme, has been accused of a bias towards organic farming…During the show Mr Craven interviewed a representative of the Organic Trade Board, a spokesman for leading organic brand Duchy Originals and the branding expert Marcel Knobil, who was given the task of coming up with a new marketing campaign to promote … Continue reading
I await tonight’s Dispatches programme on C4. with that familiar dread and sinking feeling.It’s no good saying wait and see before getting upset because there’s plenty there already… The inevitable baying mob on the C4 website sets the scene. The gist is that the Jewish lobby is a sinister secretive conspiracy influencing political decisions and forcing our trembling government to support the brutal Zionist entity against the interests of the … Continue reading
Bit of a double whammy on how we Brits treat our kids today, care of the State Broadcaster. First we have the Rudd ritual apologies concerning the alleged “institutionalised” abuse that went on in Australia before many of us were even born. With Brown also poised to apologise for a programme that commenced before he was born and which he could have done nothing about, this is a good old … Continue reading
