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

WRIGHT NOT WRONG?

So, I’m sure you eagle-eyed B-BBC readers will have spotted that the BBC has been caught out trying to downplay the impact of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s association with the Obama campaign, as picked up by Janet Daly in the Telegraph. The key line is the expression that the BBC correspondent uses when suggesting that the Reverend Jeremiah Wright is a man “whom the US media depicts” as a racially … Continue reading

MISSING WORDS.

It’s not what the BBC says in its reports, it often what it leaves out. For example, in this report on the Northern Ireland portal it factually reports certain changes regarding the constitution of a Victim’s Commission. Fair enough. It then blithely states concerning the members of this quango that amongst them is “Patricia MacBride, whose brother was killed by the SAS and whose father died 17 months after being … Continue reading

AN ARRESTING HEADLINE.

Did you spot that the BBC “has learned” that there has beena dramatic increase in the number of employers being prosecuted for hiring illegal immigrants? Now then, I’m all in favour of ensuring that those who are illegally residing in the UK be booted out pronto so I am naturally delighted to hear this news. However I was wondering if the BBC’s sudden enthusiasm for this new “get tough” prosecution … Continue reading

A TAXING INSIGHT.

Did you happen to catch Evan Davies interview Douglas Alexander on the Today programme just after 8am? Alexander was selling the government line that last weeks’ electoral disaster was all to do with world economic crisis, mid-term blues, etc, etc. However the interesting bit was when Evan Davies suggested that what Labour really needed to do to restore fortunes was to bite the bullet and raise taxes on “the rich … Continue reading

LESSONS IN DISCLOSURE.

I noticed the BBC has given great prominence to the report by the Institute for Public Policy Research claiming that training days for England’s teachers should be quadrupled to 20 a year, costing £75m. The Institute for Public Policy Research says the difference between excellent and bad teachers means pupils achieve more than a GCSE grade extra. However the IPPR is not just any old think-tank – it is a … Continue reading

RIP OFF BBC.

I’m sure you have seen the news that the BBC is facing a record fine of up to £250,000 after repeatedly ripping off licence fee payers on a string of shows. It’s expected to receive its biggest ever sanction when Ofcom rules on its faking of competition winners on a number of programmes. Viewers on shows including Children in Need, Comic Relief and Sport Relief were all duped. Production staff … Continue reading