Please use this thread for off-topic, but preferably BBC related, comments. Please keep comments on other threads to the topic at hand. N.B. this is not an invitation for general off-topic comments – our aim is to maintain order and clarity on the topic-specific threads. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog. Please scroll down to find new topic-specific posts. One more thing. A commenter, … Continue reading →

When the charges against the lacrosse team at Duke University were first laid the BBC covered it in this article by Daniel Lak. The article correctly takes no explicit view about the truth or otherwise of the charge, as at that time investigations were still proceeding. A great deal of the article, in fact, is not about the details of the particular case at all. Rather it is “framing” – … Continue reading →

that the National Union of Journalists passed a motion proposing a boycott of Israeli goods even while one of their own members, Alan Johnston, has been kidnapped and may have been murdered by Palestinian terrorists? Adloyada quotes a source who claims that the editor of the NUJ’s house journal has admitted it was a quid pro pro for the support of the Palestinian journalists’ union in the campaign to free … Continue reading →

Back when US “shock jock” Michael Savage was fired by MSNBC (justifiably in my opinion) mention was made by the BBC of his right wing politics. (‘The brash, conservative Savage is founder of the Paul Revere Society, which advocates closing borders and deporting illegal immigrants.’) When Rush Limbaugh was pushed into resignation (unjustifiably in my opinion) from the ESPN cable TV network, mention was made of his right wing politics. … Continue reading →

, Alan Johnston, may have been murdered. Adloyada has more. Mr Johnston’s reporting from Gaza has been criticised on this blog several times. Some commenters have said that they have little or no sympathy for him because of their opposition to his views. After 9/11, so many people said that if this or that happened “the terrorists will have won” that the phrase became a laughing stock. But there was … Continue reading →

Please use this thread for off-topic, but preferably BBC related, comments. Please keep comments on other threads to the topic at hand. N.B. this is not an invitation for general off-topic comments – our aim is to maintain order and clarity on the topic-specific threads. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog. Please scroll down to find new topic-specific posts. Click through to read and … Continue reading →

Every now and then the cool squish of mouse innards under a naked foot as one steps out of the bedroom door reminds the cat owner that the animal he or she thinks of as “dear little Tibbles” thinks of itself as Devourer of Prey And Spitter-Out of Their Discarded Internal Organs. Thus I mused while trying not to put my foot on the carpet. I mused also on the … Continue reading →

: heard on BBC2 (circa 20:00, 9th April, advertising a later programme) Experts say it’s now or never to tackle climate change … Taken literally, this is a very balanced presentation of the two main viewpoints on this subject. Some experts state that humans cause global warming and we must act now. Other experts regard that theory as scientific nonsense and see never as a more appropriate time to do … Continue reading →

And some don’t. A drama commissioned by the BBC about how Private Johnson Beharry won his Victoria Cross in Iraq was cancelled as being “too positive”, according to the Telegraph. Remember The Falklands Play? Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.