writes: In browsing the BBC complaints website recently, there is a report on complaints over the last few months, preceded by a statement from Mark Thompson, the Director-General. In that statement, I found a remarkable sentence. He states: “Of course there will always be cases where people are dissatisfied with the BBC’s initial response, and the aim then is to give them the opportunity of independent investigation by the Editorial … Continue reading →

(from Blithering Bunny) Rare good news story about Iraq sighted at BBC: Iraq’s devastated marshlands can be partially revitalised, says a team writing in the journal Science. (via reader D. Burbage). Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

Ok, first off I’ll admit that I’m a luddite sceptic when it comes to the global environmental debate that seems to have been foisted on us for an indefinite period from around the mid-eighties. I’ve heard little except grave warnings, and deep grave warnings, throughout my life about what a mess we’ve made/are making of the world’s environment. My feeling about this statement has always been that it’s a shame … Continue reading →

(from Blithering Bunny) EU Serf sends us this report: Kyoto Week, Blame Bush With the expensive and badly conceived Kyoto treaty the major news of the week, the BBC has been running full steam to blame everything on Bush. This morning whilst getting my daily dose of Bush-hating bias, BBC World News ran a story on the coal industry in the USA. In summary the story was something like this: … Continue reading →

Discussing the arrest of seven people and recovery of £2.3M by the Irish police, which is almost certainly linked to the IRA robbery at Northern Bank, BBC Radio Scotland news ‘anchorman’ Andrew Cassell in discussion with a fellow BBC hack came out with the following gem: “So they [the IRA] must be bricking it” For the uninitiated, bricking it means to have, er, loose bowels. Click through to read and … Continue reading →

(from Blithering Bunny) The Guardian: Tessa Jowell, the culture secretary, and Lord Birt, the No 10 policy adviser, are at odds over proposals that would force the corporation to share some of its £2.8bn licence fee income with commercial rivals. Ms Jowell, who has been putting the final touches to a green paper on the BBC charter, is determined to fend off proposals for a new external regulator of the … Continue reading →

(from Blithering Bunny) From The Telegraph: The BBC apologised yesterday for an item on a religious programme that angered the Jewish community by “demonising” Israel. Dozens of complaints have been received about a story on Radio 4’s Thought for the Day during the Today programme that suggested a Muslim corporal in the Israeli army had been jailed for refusing to shoot Palestinian children. The contributor, the Rev Dr John Bell, … Continue reading →

. Excuse the unusual title, but I remember vividly how, early last year, the phrase ‘Godfather’ was used by Orla to describe Ariel Sharon in an obscure early morning BBC TV news report. I don’t think she meant to flatter him by casting him as a genial, responsible volunteer parent. The point? Well, the latest BBCOnline report on Sharon’s legal position (once a concern, no longer) refers to him in … Continue reading →

(from Blithering Bunny) Even New Labourites are attacking the BBC now for its appalling bias: http://www.stephenpollard.net/002015.html And an increasing amount of bloggers are also getting stuck in: Nicholas Vance at Last Night’s BBC News here and here. Laban Tall at UK Commentators. Blimpish. Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

Just a note to let you know that I am offline at the moment. OK, not at this exact moment because I wouldn’t be typing this from an internet cafe if I were, would I? But in general. So don’t write to me. Computers are evil, bad, useless things anyway; a snare and a delusion. Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.