Who-whom? Heard during the course of a segment on Hugo Chavez during The World This Weekend, at about 1.25pm: “The US depends on Venezuela for nearly a fifth of its oil imports.” As Lenin was wont to ask about any political relationship, “Who – whom?” Meaning, who has power over whom? A quick Google is giving me that Venezuela depend son the US to buy between 60 and 80% of … Continue reading
Alex Deane, former aide to David Cameron, at the Social Affairs Unit blog, on a little vignette in a Telegraph Joan Bakewell interview. (For post-diluvian readers, Joan Bakewell was the Kirsty Wark of her late-Sixties to mid-Eighties day, popping up all over the BBC either as presenter or pundit. Famously described by Frank Muir as ‘the thinking man’s crumpet’).
So brave … so incredibly brave. “We can’t ignore Iraq and the war, it’s as simple as that. I think the writers have been incredibly brave to have taken it on and included it in the script.” – Keith Allen, who plays the Sheriff of Nottingham in the latest BBC version of Robin Hood, is awed by the courage of the Scriptwriters who Took On Bush. Those guys – they … Continue reading
… the coverage of two court cases where teachers are alleged to have had sex with pupils. A Grammar school music teacher embarked on an affair with a sixth-form pupil, a court heard on Tuesday. The headline originally referred to the school’s grammar status – it’s since been amended. Contrast with : An art teacher has appeared in court charged with sexual offences against girls over a period of 30 … 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
says NHS Blog Doctor. I ain’t going to say it any better. …Though I will add that the practice of significantly changing an article while leaving the “Last Updated” field unchanged has been noted many times on this blog. Both the old and the new versions of the article on milk allergy say that they were last updated on Monday, 20 November 2006, 04:54 GMT. UPDATE Tuesday 10.23am. A comment … Continue reading
“The BBC has excised all references to the anti-black and antisemitic nature of the attack …” Melanie Phillipscompares how the BBC reported what happened after a football match between the Israeli team Hapoel and Paris Saint Germain with the AFP and AP reports of the same incident.Her link doesn’t work. The BBC story is here. Hat tip: Biodegradable 800,000 demonstrate. Guess which three we found.Pounce comments: Three Lebanese people … 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
(aka Amnesty and HRW) It was a while back that I read the Human Rights Watch report on the war between Israel and Hezbullah. I realised then that there was quite a bizarre section which claimed that on the one hand Hezbullah had used settlements for rocket launch pads, while on the other that they hadn’t used “human shields”. Just how wrapped in humanity one has to be to have … Continue reading
My colleague Andrew recently highlighted a case where the Beeb re-wrote a company’s press release and called it news. He felt, he said, a Mandy Rice-Davies moment coming on. Here’s another instance where Mandy’s wisdom should be heard. NHS Blog Doctor pointed out this BBC story. Nearly 80% of 500 doctors polled by the medical taskforce Act Against Allergy thought their colleagues confused milk allergy symptoms with other conditions. Experts … Continue reading
