“Religious fears force off opera A Berlin opera company cancelled a Mozart production over security fears because it features the severed heads of the Prophet Muhammad and Jesus.” article here 1)The Mozart opera was not cancelled due to fear of “religion”. 2)It was not for the offence given by the (staged, obviously!) severed head of Jesus that the Mozart opera was cancelled. 3)If the cancelling of the Mozart opera had … Continue reading →

DFH pointed out that this recent article on Iran by Frances Harrison met with the approval of MPACUK. What do you think? I haven’t time to go a’fisking, but it seems to me a case of the BBC celebrating dhimmitude. Here are two articles to start you off: Here and Here This could be point one: 1) There are 25,000 Jews (est) in Iran. Our Frances says “few know that … 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 →

The BBC on Russian demographics: wrong, wrong, ah, right– cheers Russian Prof. How did I miss that on the BBC’s frontpage? (I commented on the BBC’s clueless approach back in April; soon afterwards came Putin’s dramatic speech emphasising the demographic crisis- somehow this follow up article escaped me). I think a really important public service would have been to run a series looking at Russia’s (and European countries’) growing demographic … Continue reading →

Whose calendar? “Violence sweeps Iraq on Ramadan” Two problems, maybe three, or more, with this headline and splash across BBConline frontpage tonight. 1)The violence alluded to appears no worse than on many other days in Iraq over the last couple of years. Loathe as I am to follow the body count rule of headlines, this doesn’t seem to qualify for the big splash effect. 2)The violence alluded to has occurred … Continue reading →

Go to Google. Type in “Woman Sour”. Hit “I’m Feeling Lucky”. Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

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 →

Forgive my suspicion of this article from Frances Harrison in Tehran, but I’ve just seen such a lot of BBC pieces recently pushing the pacifist line against Iran. It was BBC world affairs editor John Simpson who described how “Iranian politics are as complex and sophisticated as any I have observed around the world”. Not that that means the BBC are soft on Iran of course, but I’ve always found … Continue reading →

Been picked up talking nonsense ? Someone had to correct it ? Never mind – just recycle it to the World Service. Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

. Paul Marks notes this at Samizdata: Presenter of Seven Man Made Wonders on BBC 2 television on Thursday 14th of September- “After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the old Pagan Roman ways were pitted against the new Christian ways of the invading Angles and Saxons”. A commenter remarks: ‘If the BBC could make such a blunder over the status of religion in the later Roman empire, I wonder … Continue reading →