“Apology follows Pantsil gesture”

says an article the BBC Sports section, referring to John Pantsil, a member of the Ghanaian team that unexpectedly defeated the Czech Republic in the World Cup match on Saturday. It is an odd choice of headline. Those who get no further than the headline might be forgiven for thinking that the unspecified gesture was obscene. Actually it was much more shocking than that. He waved an Israeli flag. Mr … Continue reading

Open thread – for comments of general Biased BBC interest:

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

Knowing how keen BBC Views Online’s Saturday graveyard shift

are to pick up interesting stories from the Sunday Papers, I’m surprised to see that they missed this fascinating story by Philip Sherwell in the Sunday Telegraph, Ayatollah’s grandson calls for US overthrow of Iran. A couple of excerpts: The grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini, the inspiration of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, has broken a three-year silence to back the United States military to overthrow the country’s clerical regime. Hossein Khomeini’s … Continue reading

Time for a spot of comparing and contrasting:

examine the following introductory excerpts from two news reports about the same ongoing Old Bailey trial:   ‘Suicide plan to crash BA flight’ was heard by MI5 TWO Islamist extremists discussed crashing a British Airways flight with 30 suicide bombers on board, the Old Bailey was told yesterday. In a conversation bugged by MI5 officers, one of them describes an aircraft suicide attack as a “good idea”. Omar Khyam, 24, … Continue reading

Open thread – for comments of general Biased BBC interest:

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 follow-up to Natalie’s Hadji Girl post below:

Commenter SteveB complained to the Beeboids, and received the following reply, which he kindly shared with us: Dear Mr Bxxxxxxxx Thank you for your comments. We accept that our initial story wasdeficient and should have made it much clearer what the killing in thesong lyrics referred to. We revised the story after re-checking thefacts. We also subsequently did an updated story to include the marine’sapology, which detailed out much more … Continue reading

An excellent letter in today’s Times: The BBC Rap:

Sir, As a record producer, a black parent and a taxpaying citizen, I welcome David Cameron’s criticism of Radio 1’s promotion of music that encourages violence (People, June 13). The BBC and other media continue to install “white liberals” and irresponsible blacks to brainwash our youngsters. The black community is silent and powerless: as in the days of slavery, we have no say in what music our people listen to. … Continue reading

Apologies for this intrusion – a little Biased BBC housekeeping:

Our persistent Spanish comment spammer, El Pajero (a.k.a. Hal, hippiepooter, Irishcustard, englishpatriotuk@hotmail.com etc.), comments (here and here in full): “If you’re so absolutely confident that your fellow Contributors have absolute confidence in you, why not put this to the test to shut the likes of me up once and for all, and step down from B-BBC – relinquishing all your sabotage powers et al – and see if a few … Continue reading

BBC Views Online reports: Assets Recovery Agency ‘failing’:

An agency set up to seize criminals’ assets has cost taxpayers around £60m despite only recovering just over £8m from law breakers since 2003. The Asset Recovery Agency was set up to tackle organised crime. It was meant to raise enough cash to cover its budget. Tory Grant Shapps obtained figures from the Home Office showing in the ARA cost four times what it recovered in 2005. Presumably they mean … Continue reading