from Perry de Havilland at Samizdata: “What particularly made me laugh was when the BBC voice over said “and the fact over one hundred governments have endorsed this report will add to its credibility.” So let me get this straight… the fact one hundred states which exercise political power over people have endorsed a report that will be used to justify imposing even more political control over people, and that … Continue reading
said Rizzo the rat, as he was used to clean a window. Heard on Radio 4 this evening at 7.20pm (quoted from memory): “Hamas can now claim to speak for the majority of Palestinians. This means an end to the conflict is inconceivable without their involvement.” The BBC’s unquenchable belief that conflicts invariably end by mutual agreement is kind of sweet really. Don’t take this as an endorsement of any … 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
: Now, let’s see… violent politicised Islamists are out to kidnap and kill a soldier from what they see as an occupying army… So if it was Hamas or Islamic Jihad out to get an Israeli soldier, we could rely on the BBC to refer to “militants” “seizing” a soldier. For example, way back last July we had: Cpl Gilad Shalit was seized by Palestinian militants in an attack on … Continue reading
writes Jason Deans in yesterday’s MediaGrauniad, reporting on an article by Jeremy Paxman in the BBC’s internal magazine Ariel (known satirically inside and outside the Corporation as Pravda!). Some excerpts: Jeremy Paxman has accused the BBC of hypocrisy over climate change, saying it takes a “high moral tone” in its reporting of the issue while at the same time pursuing environmentally irresponsible policies… “I have neither the learning nor the … Continue reading
Ben Brown, BBC News 24 headlines at 9pm: “Nine men are in custody in connection with an alleged plot to kidnap a British Muslim soldier and film his execution” Note to all BBC journalists (and some at Sky News too): ‘Execution’ implies a legal or judicially sanctioned killing. You cannot be charged with conspiracy to ‘execute’ someone. These people are being held on suspicion of conspiracy to murder (along with … 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
A BBC report headed Iraq blasts kill Ashura pilgrims contains this sentence: Ashura, the most important Shia festival, has witnessed serious sectarian violence since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. That, alas, is true. But the BBC should have made clear (as it did in the report from 2004 I am about to link to) that the reason for the relative absence of of bombings of Shia pilgrims at Ashura … Continue reading
The BBC banned then unbanned one of its message board threads discussing Little Green Footballs. There is a detailed post discussing the affair at Augean Stables: On the Politics of Silence. The latter post led me to this post from Daniel Pipes’ blog, mentioned by Laban here, in which he said how odd it was that his recent debate with the mayor of our capital city, Ken Livingstone, in front … Continue reading
, I couldn’t help but notice how this BBC Views Online story, Three dead in Israel suicide bomb, about the tragic murder yesterday of three people in Eilat, had this paragraph tagged on to the end of it: The last suicide attack was at a Tel Aviv restaurant, killing 10 people. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in that time, mainly in the Gaza Strip. The first … Continue reading
