Though no time to draw political blood

when too much of the real stuff has been tragically split in our capital, Marc, at USS Neverdock, makes a legitimate point on behalf of all those people who might have lowered their guard as a result of the undermining of the notion of a War on Terror by some BBC journalism. ‘The Power of Nightmares’ assured us there was no real organised Islamic movement bent on our destruction, yet … Continue reading

“Eco-village” which is a “model for us all”

Scott at the Ablution notes Lisa Mitchell’s glowing assessment on the BBC website of the “Eco-village” which is a “model for us all”. Er … would that by any chance be this eco-village ? The protesters appeared to come from a temporary “eco-camp”, set up on the outskirts of the city, before dashing into Stirling. Around 200 hooligans dressed in hooded tops with scarves obscuring their faces hurled missiles at … Continue reading

Closer, but no cigar Mr Simpson

He followed up on his previous assessment of Iran’s election candidates, this time focussing on the winner, Ahmadnejad. It’s almost as though he were trying to bolster his argument that we should have been hoping for a Rafsanjani win. But I was struck by his characterisation of America’s view of Iran: ‘Abroad, the Americans were the least surprised by the result. They assume anyway that Iran is a country seething … Continue reading

When is a good result reported as a bad result?

In at least two of the news summaries on this morning’s example of the lamentable BBC Breakfast programme they reported that “Tory” Sir Patrick Cormack had been re-elected in Staffordshire South with a “reduced majority” in the much delayed General Election vote there following the death of the first LibDem candidate. Nonsense. Sir Patrick, standing as a Conservative (i.e. not the pejorative ‘Tory’ nickname hissed out by disapproving lefties everywhere, … Continue reading

The Shrewd Analyst

Lavished with praise he may be, but ‘liberator of Kabul’ John Simpson, also author of this analysis of the Iranian elections, ought to be a little embarrassed by this contrast: Simpson on Rafsanjani- ‘Unlike any of them, he understands the art of the deal, and is more concerned with what he can get away with than with making big statements.’ meanwhile… Rafsanjani contemplating putting the nuclear kybosh on Israel-‘ “If … Continue reading

Surprised by the obvious.

Brian Micklethwait is in sarcastic mode in this Samizdata post : I am watching the BBC Ten o’clock News, and the lead story is Condoleezza Rice, spelling out the Bush doctrine: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has delivered a forceful call for democratic reform in the Arab World in a major policy speech in Cairo. The US pursuit of stability in the Middle East at the expense of democracy … Continue reading

Fran wrote

: Stand by for some more Beeboid reporting from the Middle East. The trailer for Broadcasting House has just said that there will be some ‘moderate Israeli voices’ which we ‘rarely have the opportunity to hear’. Two questions dear Auntie. Firstly, exactly WHY do we have so few opportunities to hear ‘moderate Israeli voices?’ After all, Israel and the Israelis are always there, and you don’t have to run the … Continue reading

Dr Who has suffered from the most appalling sound mixing

This is not really the place for this complaint, but maybe some BBC-ites are reading. The whole series of Dr Who has suffered from the most appalling sound mixing. The music is way too loud compared to the dialogue. The last episode was particularly bad — at times the dialogue was almost inaudible under the music. I had to constantly adjust the volume — down when the loud music comes … Continue reading