While Scott Burgess of the Daily Ablution was reading my last post here, I was reading his last post there. More CBBC fun. Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

The treatment of the just-ended “Fair Trade Fortnight” on the Children’s BBC website could do with one or two words of dissent from the chorus of approval. The treatment of trade issues as a whole on the CBBC website is one long hymn of praise to the anti-globalisation movement. This piece, “What is Fair Trade?” presents the “fair trade” initiative as an unquestioned good. Children would never guess that there … Continue reading →

If saying anything remotely critical of Islam, criticise another religion first. As reported by 21st March World at One on BBC Radio 4, al-Qa’eda issued a statement after the Madrid bombing, part of which said You [the West] love life, we [al-Qa’eda] love death World at One decided this was worthy of discussion, which I though was surprising. The BBC tells us constantly how ‘peace-loving’ Islam is. So how does … Continue reading →

The BBC reports A Moroccan trainee teacher has been denied a job in Italy because school authorities feared her headscarf might scare children, local media reported. Put like that, the decision of the authorities in Samone sounds an utterly pathetic example of Islamophobia. The arguments offered by an official trying to defend the decision do nothing to change that impression: “(Children) might have been scared and it was better not … Continue reading →

(it’s like painting by numbers, but less intelligent): If an Islamic group commits a terrorist attack, run a story about how the particular ethnic group is ‘oppressed’. BBC Radio 4’s Today programme (20th March) carried a story from their Spanish ‘correspondent’ about the plight of the Moroccan community in Spain. Let’s start with a Moroccan restaurateur. We are informed about a feeling of suspicion, and business after the Madrid bombings … Continue reading →

There is a new group blog called Oh, That Liberal Media, somewhat on the model of this one but usually covering US newspapers. However this post mentions this BBC despatch: The BBC dispatch, however, is astonishingly biased, even considering its source. In about 800 words, there is literally no mention of Hamas’s suicide bombings and, amidst copious quotes from Palestinians, all of five words allocated to the Israeli perspective; the … Continue reading →

According to Tim Walker’s Mandrake column in the Sunday Telegraph, the BBC disinvited the historian William Shawcross from a debate at the behest of Tariq Ali. “The two were due to debate the rights and wrongs of the Iraq war on BBC2’s breakfast news programme Weekend 24 yesterday with the affable presenter Simon McCoy. Then Ali seemingly had a hissy fit and said that if Shawcross was taking part he’d … Continue reading →

new blog Talking Hoarsely will join the list of personal blogs by B-BBC posters just as soon as I summon up the courage to dive into the template. Ed’s most recent post is headed “Controversy over at B-BBC.” It’s about Patrick Crozier’s post of a few days ago, which was indeed very controversial. What’s our official collective position, then? Answer: there isn’t one. This blog is a functioning anarchy. Click … Continue reading →

, quoting a BBC article about Sheikh Yassin that says: “Militant groups like Hamas did initially declare a temporary truce, but that unravelled in July 2003 after Israeli forces killed two Hamas members in retaliation for the suicide bombing of a Jerusalem bus that left 21 people dead.” Walter comments: Note how the BBC has got this deliberately and completely a**-about. The suicide bomb that killed 21 people was not … Continue reading →

On the one year anniversary of the Iraq war, we are reliably informed by the BBC that “many Arab newspapers are deeply unhappy over the continued presence of foreign military forces.” This is not surprising given the sense of shame many Arabs feel over the downfall of the once proud and powerful regime led by Saddam Hussein. He seemed to be the only Arab leader willing to stand up to … Continue reading →