Truth or fiction?

Many complaints about the BBC’s sneering treatment of Christianity have been made. Meanwhile, in an article about the Hajj, this interesting line: ‘An estimated two million worshippers are expected at Mecca, where the prophet Ibrahim was told by Allah to build a shrine dedicated to him.’ I do not pretend to be an expert in Judaism or Islam, but I understand Ibrahim is the Islamic equivalent of Abraham. Whether in … Continue reading

Was Truman unpopular because of the atom bomb?

I don’t know if this one represents BBC bias or simply shows how little I know. Perhaps better-informed readers can tell me. Here’s the item: the answer to question 3 of this BBC quiz on the US presidency says: “President Truman had an 85% approval rating at the beginning of 1945, but that sank to a little over 30% after he ordered two atomic bombs to be dropped on Japan.” … Continue reading

In praise of the good government of savagery

. The BBC’s relativistic ‘impartiality’ explores the new depths available when you accomodate the Al Jazeera perspective, with this report of the Taleban’s drugs policy. We all know what sensitive and sensible civil administrators the Taleban were, so thank goodness the BBC have The Noble British Academic to rely on for this insightful appraisal. It does seem a bit coy, however, not to explain what having your face ‘blackened’ involved, … Continue reading

How do the Lebanese themselves feel?

In the comments to the previous post reader Lee Moore said this: A beautifully balanced tale of how the Lebanese have returned to the barbarity of the death penalty: Link. We hear about protestors, we hear about the former Prime Minister who refused to approve executions, we hear about Amnesty’s objections, we hear about other “human rights” groups’ objections, we even hear about the EU’s objections. Nothing is omitted, except….. … Continue reading

Sic transit gloria mundi

Foreign Policy is a highly regarded US publication with a wide and important international readership. From the current edition, this quote: ‘With varying degrees of delicacy, everyone from fringe U.S. presidential candidates Lyndon LaRouche and Patrick Buchanan to European news outlets such as the BBC and Le Monde have used neocon as a synonym for Jew, focusing on Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Eliot Cohen, and others with obvious Jewish names. … Continue reading

Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics

: one of the saddest sights for an opponent of deceit is to see politically-correct bias managing to deceive someone who is not its natural or willing dupe. Jeremy Clarkson, though he jokes about his anti-U.S. bias, is not the most natural target of left-wing propaganda. Most of his programme on the gun (‘Inventions that changed the world’, shown this evening on BBC 2) was, by BBC standards, a watchable … Continue reading

Public money

Nature may abhor a vacuum, but BBC’s website seems to have an insatiable desire to fill up bandwidth. The front page of the New York Times on 11 January had an interesting piece about the lengths of film credits – http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/11/movies/11CRED.html. Surprisingly, the BBC news website had an interesting article bylined Michael Osborn ‘Last Updated: Tuesday, 13 January, 2004, 17:41 GMT ‘ on: BBC: ‘The Lord of the Rings trilogy … Continue reading