Spurious balance in the celebrity culture

Isn’t it terrible how today we are exposed to so much idiocy, not least through the BBC, just because of the cult of celebrity? The response to the post David made about “most disliked” BBC personalities just shows the flip-side to the pursuit of celebrity- which is that many people are sick of their inanity. This blog is about bias, but there are some intersecting themes. Sometimes a comment is … Continue reading

CHURCHILL AND WENDY ALEXANDER.

It’s not obvious but earlier today, on the Today programme, the BBC ran an item which suggested that Winston Churchill may well have endorsed the call from Scottish Labour leader, the mediocre Wendy Alexander, for a referendum on whether Scotland should stay in the Union! It’s amazing the lengths the BBC will go to in order to sully the reputation of a truly Great Briton whilst seeking to elevate that … Continue reading

LEAST LIKED AND WHY?

OK, it’s Friday evening here in the People’s Socialist Republic of Gordonstan and it’s time to unwind a little. So, which BBC personality winds YOU up most and why? I know it’s a target-rich environment but I have two nominations. 1. Nicky Campbell – the personification of smug and leftist. 2. Jeremy Bowen – I think I’ve covered this one on my posts! So, the space is yours – ready, … Continue reading

PUNCH OFTEN PROVOKES RESPONSE.

Don’t know about you but I find that trying to get any balanced news from the BBC on Israel is pretty much impossible. I see that Hamas terrorists have killed an innocent Israeli man by another indiscriminate mortar attack so favoured by these savages, sorry I meant oppressed militants, right? But just reflect on the way the BBC reports this killing.. “Palestinian militants frequently fire rockets and mortars at Israel … Continue reading

CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME.

The BBC has been flagging up the the fines handed out to ITV for abusing premium rate phone call-ins. Meanwhile, this afternoon, the BBC lets slip that IT has been forced to apologise for keeping £106,000 from premium-rate phone- ins that should have gone to charity. Nice. Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

Two, no three, quick links

“And what is your concern about Boris?” London Assembly member James Cleverly writes that “This was the question which greeted callers into Dotun Adebayo’s show on BBC Radio London last night.” His criticism related to the person answering the phones, not to the show itself. The link above came via Iain Dale, who also says, “So in the most successful week for the Conservatives since 1992 THIS WEEK doesn’t have … Continue reading

The nonsense that passes for news

One can’t push back against it all, but Dizzy has a great go at a story which the Independent-echoing BBC report about food waste. It’s probably supposed to make the supposed food crisis more, you know, “interactive”. An absurdly long BBC report misses most of the points which Dizzy raises. The money quote as far as I am concerned occurs almost at the bottom: “WRAP receives government funding from England, … Continue reading

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ISRAEL

. There is a great dissection of the BBC’s recent 60th birthday “tribute” “to Israel here over on Honest Reporting. The very fact that the BBC selected Jeremy Al Bowen to present this one hour documentary is surreal given HIS track record. It’s akin to having Hannibal Lecter front up a documentary on Veganism. “A taste of things to come arrives in the first few seconds of the broadcast, which … Continue reading

You know where they stand.

On the BBConline UK frontpage we see “Row looming over cannabis grading” To its right, a survey is highlighted: “Third of staff ‘hungover at desk’“ Surveys and political “debates”- two of the BBC’s favourite things. Well, what I am suggesting is that such tie-ins between a feature about the classifiction of Cannabis and the deleterous effects of alcohol is not coincidental- the BBC want to emphasise the old talking point … Continue reading

RISING WATERS.

You just KNEW it was coming. The BBC ran an item on the “Today” programme this morning just before the 7am headlines about the fact that we are entering into a period where England will suffer more from flooding than it has in the past several decades. Wonder if you caught it? At the start of this three minute item, it was made clear that “global warming” was not the … Continue reading