A friend of a friend writes:

10pm news coverage of David Davis speech – BBC showed a man with his head down, apparently sleeping during the speech. I saw that same man at two fringe meetings – he has some problem with his neck that causes his head to slump over permanently – it never changes, and I know that he was wide awake at those meetings. All praise to him for staying involved and in … Continue reading

Iraqi official criticizes exaggerations “by political elites…and by Western media and analysts.”

If some adult at the Beeb could provide a straight answer about stage-managed “insurgent” photos, could they also explain the Beeb’s failure to report the results of this poll? It finds that Sunnis are surprisingly supportive of the new Iraqi constitution (even before the latest improvement). However gloomy it looks to BBC reporters, the Iraqis seem ready to prove them wrong. …But the polling by the Iraqi Center for Development … Continue reading

Stage-managed photos and videos of insurgents in Iraq.

AL, of the blog Sir Humphrey’s, writes: Hi there, Two days ago I did a post on a series of photographs seemingly shown AP/Reuters photographer Bilal Hussein colluding with insurgents: link It has already featured on LGF, Instapundit etc. Now it turns out the BBC is broadcasting video featuring exactly the same “insurgent” actors and locations as part of an item claiminginsurgents have ‘taken control’ over several western Iraqi towns:link … Continue reading

It is National Poetry Day!

Sonnets on the subject of “Spring” may be submitted via the comments. I want proper rhyme, none of yer bleeding assonance. Alternatively, you may just have time to follow the CBBC website lesson plan “Fair trade, fairer world poetry” Students write a poem about a fairer future for Africa and enter them into a competition judged by Children’s Laureate Jacqueline Wilson. The competition that this BBC lesson plan promotes is … Continue reading

That said

, this response by the editor of Panorama to complaints by the Muslim Council of Britain was correctly described by Melanie Phillips as “detailed and utterly robust.” The Panorama programme concerned was A Question of Leadership shown on 21 August. I was away at that time so I didn’t see it. I wish I had. Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

Last night, following the BBC’s Ten O’Clock Views

, I was looking forward to enjoying And it’s Goodnight from Him – a Tribute to Ronnie Barker when on came the BBC London regional news, with the local weather forecast. Near the end of the forecast, the presenter, Peter Cockroft, came trotting out with: “…and if you’re observing Ramadan, sunrise is at… and sundown is at…” Good grief Peter! What about those of us who’re observing encroaching dhimmitude in … Continue reading

Wonderful edit

found in this edition of (D)HYS: “Should Turkey join the EU?” Here’s the original comment: Of course Turkey should be allowed to join if they have met the conditions of membership. Why Turkey want to join is a mystery though, the EU is a non-democratic dinosaur created to satisfy France and Germany’s dreams of power. Chris, UK An edited version of this comment was one of those chosen to appear … Continue reading

BBC, how EUseless are you?

I managed to get through last night’s lamentable BBC2 How Euro Are You? programme, but only just, and what a dreadful waste of time it was, except as fodder for this blog. As usual for the BBC, the term ‘Europe’ was used throughout instead of ‘EU’, nicely conflating two quite separate concepts – one a continent, the other a political organisation. The show was presented by Andrew Marr, a serious … Continue reading

Watching the BBC’s coverage of the Conservative Conference

, they’ve introduced a new innovation from the world of focus groups – a so-called Perceptions Panel, whereby viewers dial a freephone number and use their telephone keypads to express satisfaction or dissatisfaction throughout each of the speeches by the various leadership contenders. I can’t help but wonder why this interesting innovation has been held back until now though – wouldn’t it have been just as interesting to use it … Continue reading