Quite surprised indeed that the BBC chose to longlist one of the few massively anti-Iraq war [Iraqi] blogs out there (compiled by some fanatic into a book) for their Samuel Johnson award: maybe some of you will have heard or visited Riverbend’s blog. For those who haven’t, imagine the unremitting gloom of an Eastender’s character transposed to Baghdad and cleaned up grammatically and you’ll have a fair idea. My guess … Continue reading →

This is not a post about the BBC’s lacking courage. They do, but the metaphor is a bit more literal than that. I’m referring to an interesting article concerning the booming state of the Israeli economy which is paradoxically dominated by the BBC’s focus on poverty. The trouble is, like so many BBC reports, it lacks the spine provided by recognition of fundamentals. So we get a jelly-like rambling commentary … Continue reading →

… that make a BBC worldview. Take the coverage of today’s March for Free Expression, a response to the recent world-wide outbreak of cartoonophobia. “Blog site The free speech movement was born from a blog site on the internet and rallied hundreds from across the political spectrum to join Saturday’s rally.” You’d think the story might contain a link to said blog. Ah yes, there’s a link at the side … Continue reading →

One could create a blog dedicated to the BBC’s disfigurement of the English language, but it wouldn’t make one happy. However, I have to comment on language + on this occasion. First up there’s this absurd article in praise of Israel’s campaigning Labour leader. Can someone, anyone, find a shred of light between the writer’s gabbing mouth and the Labour candidate’s posterior? Thought not. Well, a quote mark or two … Continue reading →

Guess what! The latest Have Your Say features Francis Fukuyama! “Has Iraq fatally damaged US foreign policy?” Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

Stephen Pollard points out a bit of BBC stealth editing – from very biased to just biased. This BBC story by Alan Johnston originally said: Hamas has largely been respecting a ceasefire, despite frequent Israeli army provocations, for more than a year, and it is unlikely to go back on the offensive now. Someone complained. Now it says: Hamas has largely been respecting a ceasefire, despite what it sees as … Continue reading →

(but you knew that). What is it with them? As our Canadian friends pointed out (see below post), they ignored a press conference at which the current and fully elected President of Iraq stated that ‘civil war is out of the question and… the Iraqi people will not accept [for] a civil war to take place’ in favour of Mr Allawi, the former President’s comments about civil war being emblazoned … Continue reading →

concerning Iraq from a blog unknown to me. Canadian, apparently. I really wanted to make something like this argument but didn’t have the energy. A taster: ‘Long story short; the former PM declares civil war. No matter how tentatively he does it, the BBC jumps on the story and whips up a bold headline. On the same day, the current President declares that there is no civil war, citing the … Continue reading →

. Rottweiler Puppy picks up the BBC’s online coverage of London’s weekend anti-war demo (rarely the sort of thing to lack lavish coverage when featuring Iraq); amongst the most appalling issues at large is the state of the BBC’s spelling. ‘snot a blog y’know, auntie. Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

A reader called Dina writes: Hi, I just wondered if anyone else watched the programme on BBC2 on Friday 17th March about called “The Family that Walks on All Fours”? I watched this expecting it to be a scientific documentary about the curious anomaly of a rural Turkish family who have several mentally handicapped children who walk on all fours, like monkeys. The programme started well. About half way through, … Continue reading →