• When David Mills, somewhat-estranged husband of Olympics minister Tessa Jowell, was sentenced to four and a half years in prison by an Italian court, what was the headline those fearless BBC newshounds with their keen nose for a story came up with? Er… “UK lawyer guilty in bribery case”. Bet that one pulled in the punters.
• Freeborn John is thinking of starting a list of awful things caused by Conservatism. His first entry was provided by what the BBC calls the “conservative views” of one Abdurraheem Green. Funnily enough, the preacher himself describes his own views as “radical” rather than conservative:
  

  Despite these conservative views the Metropolitan Police has sought Abdurraheem Green’s advice recently.

  And the preacher himself insists that in spite of his conservative views about life in Britain he is “part of the solution” to extremism because young people listen to him.

  “I surely have said some pretty radical things and maybe even written some radical things in the past,” he told Panorama. “But one thing I have been very consistent on is terrorism, participating in terrorist activities, violent revolution – is not something that I have ever thought was part of the religion of Islam.”

  Some senior police officers argue it is vital to work with radicals because they have credibility amongst young British Muslims.

  But some moderate scholars warn this is a dangerous road.

  Sheikh Musa Admani, imam at London Metropolitan University, says if advice is sought from the radicals, or if they are funded with public money, then “Muslims are going to endorse them as a whole and so there’s the danger”.

  All emphases added. It is not clear to me whether Sheik Musa Admani actually used the term radical himself, but the sentence about senior police officers is certainly the wording of the BBC writer. How odd that he or she uses the antithetical terms “conservative” and “radical” almost interchangeably.

Interesting report carried by the BBC today on the news that Muslim police officers are being prevented from playing a role in fighting terrorism, according to a senior Muslim Officer. Supt Dal Babu was speaking at the first annual conference of the National Association of Muslim Police Officers. (Looking forward to the first conference of the National Association of Born again Christian Police Officers) Tony McNulty, the supernaturally inept Home Office Minister who attended this delightful exercise in victimhood naturally agreed with the views expressed by the Superintendent. Once again, the BBC delights in reporting how unfair our institutions are to followers of the Religion of Peace. But why is effective policing to be determined on a racial or religious head count? Shouldn’t it be a question of ensuring the most able officers be promoted to ensure that the Islamic Jihadists are tracked down before they can repeat what happened on 7/7? Are we really to believe that some sort of institutional bias is holding back all these intrepid Muslim officers? Why is is that this entire article pushes the one view – namely that Muslim police officers are being discriminated against? Isn’t this just more instance of the promotion of victimhood through the obliging BBC prism?

The cliched definition of a news story is that “man bites dog!

I laughed at this BBC headline on it’s Breaking News “Man admits plot to behead soldier”. This relates to a vicious plot to kidnap and behead a British soldier. The BBC tells us that this “man” Parviz Khan (an unemployed charity worker, natch. Nice to see he had a caring sharing side) has pleaded guilty to wanting to enact his very own decapitation scene, using an unnamed Muslim British soldier as his victim. Yeah, well we already know just how barbaric the more enthusiastic adherents of the Religion of Peace can be, but what surprises me is why the BBC just cannot come out and state that Parviz himself is a devout Muslim. How about a head-line that states “Muslim admits plot to behead Muslim soldier”? Is this not pertinent to the fact that the Jihad section of the Religion of Peace is as much a threat to those many decent Muslims, some of whom serve in our armed forces, as they are to us infidels? But then again, might that spoil the BBC narrative that all of Islam is pitched against us, when in fact it is obvious that the Jihadi are a threat to every civilised person.

Biased BBC reader Matthew sums up the BBC’s latest glorification:

The BBC never miss a chance to glorify Communist terrorists: Che: The icon and the ad.

This follows Tuesday’s propaganda on behalf of the Cuban dictatorship, where they described how wonderful doctors from Cuba provided free to Latin America had cured Guevara’s executioner’s blindness, saying “Four decades after Mario Teran attempted to destroy a dream and an idea, Che returns to win yet another battle”. (No mention of appalling hospitals in Cuba and illegality of dissent in Cuba)

Anyway, today’s ode to Che quotes numerous lefties on what a wonderful hero he was:

“His image will never die, his name will never die”.

“He was good-looking, he was young, but more than that, he died for his ideals, so he automatically becomes an icon”.

“He was an immensely charming man – likeable, roguish, good fun”.

“Combining capitalism and commerce, religion and revolution, the icon remains unchallenged”.

The BBC lefties ask you to:

“Send us your memories of Che Guevara using the form below”.

“You can also send pictures of Che memorabilia, posters and wall-paintings, to yourpics@bbc.co.uk”.

Truly mind-boggling.

The excuse, by the way, for this unbridled propaganda is that an “exhibition is due to open at Barcelona’s Palacio Virreina museum on 25 October 2007”.

NEVER expect to see any balance when eulogising the BBC’s glorious socialist heroes.

For instance, The Times just a month ago described the release of a critical biography (not covered by the BBC) which covers Guevara’s cold, brutal acts of summary murder for ‘treason’ (documented in Guevara’s own diaries), as well as his use of psychological torture techniques. Guevara is clearly a fairly typical terrorist guerilla-figure, more brutal than some, and far from a hero.

Yahoo also covers Guevera today, because of this exhibition. Their article? Fair and balanced. The headline is Che Guevara’s legacy fading with the years. It includes a section called “COLD KILLER?”, as well as a proper description of his status an icon.

Don’t expect any thing like this from the BBC, they really are determined to canonize the murderous terrorist.

Thank you Matthew.

via Wat Tyler, who examines the Today programme’s coverage of ITVs current woes, this little gem from ex-Beeb business editor Jeff Randall.

In its coverage of the private-equity debate, Newsnight, BBC2’s main current-affairs programme, depicted those in the industry as stand-and-deliver Dick Turpins. When I asked the editor of another leading BBC news show about impartiality and the internal reaction to Newsnight’s approach, he said: “Nobody even mentioned it.”

Sounds par for the course. It’s not a conspiracy – it’s “unwitting and unconscious”.

Slightly late (my reporting it, not the review), Tory councillor Harry Phibbs reviews the BBC’s political drama Party Animals.

What is so pitiful about this is that I think there was a genuine effort to be fair politically but the script writers just can’t get it into their heads that Conservatives have come, through a process of honest and intelligent thought, to a different conclusion about the world to themselves.

Little Bulldogs looks at the BBC’s coverage of arrest figures under anti-terror legislation and the case of the wrong photograph. And via anonanon in the comments, this glowing review of Adam ‘Power of Nightmares’ Curtis’ new BBC offering ‘The Trap‘. The review’s at Socialist Worker, the organ of that party which is so prominent in the left-of-Labour political landscape yet so strangely invisible to BBC news reporters.

UPDATE – the midnight news is again (as noted in the comments) referring to ‘the Islamic prophet (or perhaps Prophet – it’s difficult to capitalise speech) Muhammad’ rather than the usual ‘the p/Prophet Muhammad’ we’ve come to expect. And the BBC religion page on Muhammad, reported by Andrew here, has been moved and I think altered. Has anybody got the original ? Is this a move towards equality of treatment in news and factual programmes for all religions and none ?

, the BBC’s long-running children’s programme Blue Peter showed graphic footage last Thursday of the Halal slaughter of a goat in Oman, to “show the celebrations that mark the Muslim festival of Eid-ul-Adha”.

Biased BBC commenter Chuffer writes:

Astonishing bit on Blue Peter this evening, about 17:05, 18JAN07 – a long feature on the joys and general loveliness of the Religion of Plumbers in Oman, especially for the youngsters. Bless. At the end of Ramadan, a goat is killed. And as two men hold it down, and one slashes its throat, the Blue Peter muppet turns to camera and says “At least it’s done humanely….”

It would have been bad enough to show the humane stunning and killing of animals in a UK abbatoir, let alone the Halal slaughter of an animal having its carotid arteries cut and then being hung up to slowly bleed to death.

Fun for children on today’s multi-culti Blue Peter

Whatever happened to the Blue Peter that we knew and loved when we were children? The worst I remember was the sensitive coverage of those being helped by each year’s Blue Peter Annual Appeal and the occasional vandalism of the blessed Blue Peter Garden – which presumably nowadays wouldn’t be greeted with shock, but rather as an opportunity to explore the needs of frustrated inner-city yobs.

According to The Sun:

BBC bosses were forced to apologise last night after Blue Peter screened footage of a goat being slaughtered for a Muslim sacrifice.

Young viewers of the kids’ favourite — famed for its pet cats and dogs — watched in horror as the animal was held down and its throat slit. The bloody footage then showed the goat hanging dead from a tree.

About 140 shocked viewers phoned the Beeb to complain about the programme, shown on Thursday afternoon. Furious parents accused the BBC of damaging the family-friendly reputation of Blue Peter, whose catchphrase “And Here’s One I Made Earlier” is known to generations.

Michael Alligham, 50, of Herts, who watched with his four-year-old daughter, said: “She sat there goggle-eyed. I tried to make light of it, but she knew. “One man was kneeling on the goat’s head, one holding its leg down, then they slit its throat.”

Blue Peter screened the footage, filmed in the Middle Eastern country of Oman, to show the celebrations that mark the Muslim festival of Eid-ul-Adha. Last night editor Richard Marson apologised to viewers.

But he insisted: “We felt it was important to show the link between the food people eat and where it actually comes from.”

Strangely though, having searched through BBC Views Online’s search engine, the Blue Peter Homepage and the BBC’s Press Office, I can find no references to this apology from the editor of Blue Peter – has it passed you by Beeboids? There’s still time to get an article up on BBC Views Online’s Entertainment page, the place where you normally need no excuse to toot the BBC’s horn!

Hat tip to commenters Chuffer and will.

“Religious fears force off opera

A Berlin opera company cancelled a Mozart production over security fears because it features the severed heads of the Prophet Muhammad and Jesus.”

article here

1)The Mozart opera was not cancelled due to fear of “religion”.

2)It was not for the offence given by the (staged, obviously!) severed head of Jesus that the Mozart opera was cancelled.

3)If the cancelling of the Mozart opera had anything to do with Jesus, the artist pictured below would be living with a permanent threat of death hanging over him, like Salman Rushdie.

(if anyone says that this blog is fixated on Islam/Muslims/racist etc, bring it on say I. This blog is focussed on BBC bias, and just now the BBC is far from objective when confronted with Islamic fascism. They are fixated on truth avoidance, like rabbits in the headlights of history. So there.)

Paul Reynolds has an article about terrorism experts ‘floundering about’ in an attempt to understand suicide bombers.

He seems to think they are missing something:

‘I felt that the conference rather ignored some of the political influences on suicide bombers, like the world events -Afghanistan, Iraq, the Middle East, Chechnya, Bosnia and others – that provide a basic motivation for many of them.’

Well I am quite prepared to accept that they are floundering, and missing something- the question is, what? Since, for instance, the West’s assistance for Muslims in Kosovo and Indonesia after the tsunami seemed to cause no softening of the “militant” rhetoric I would be inclined to agree with Peter C. Glover:

‘It is amazing how even the most intelligent and understanding among us sometimes refuse to countenance the plainest of answers when it comes to issues of faith. The root cause here is Islam’s teachings. As I have shown repeatedly on these pages Mohammed taught and the Koran and the Traditions teach openly that murder, violence is a perfectly Allah-given path to subjugating all other peoples, cultures and faiths. Moderate Muslims may well deny it by their overlooking of the innumerable passages that teach these things – something we should be thankful for (and encourage)…But it doesn’t change the reality. The ‘radicals’ not the ‘moderates’ are the ones living out true Islam. Until we grasp this key fact and understanding – as hard as President Bush and others find it – we are never really going to ‘get it’ entirely.’

Certainly political events have their impact, but the interpretation of them is the key, and that interpretation is provided by the extreme suspicion, negativity and contempt which can be drawn with a far amount of ease from the pages of the Koran.

In related matters, Ian Dale notes the BBC drawing back from calling terrorists terrorists, again.

I should add, I think, that over the course of time I’ve grown to like Paul Reynolds and his well-meaning work- aided no doubt by the personal encounters enabled by blogging and his own rather generous-spirited approach to us. Therefore I tend to see this kind of analytical weakness as a symptom of BBC malaise rather than a cause of it, in distinction to other BBC men.

Our own Laban Tall, meanwhile, notices another whitewashing of religion. I dare say he may post about it here sometime, but here is a link to the post, painfully funnily titled ‘Mr Clarke – Over Here !’. And here is a taste:

‘“Abdul El-Gharras, 31, was obsessed with decapitation and had downloaded videos of al Qaeda beheadings before murdering Marvin Gentles last June in an argument over crack cocaine, the Old Bailey criminal court heard.”

(Reuters)

Presumably a foreign national then – and with an unhealthy interest in the more robust manifestations of the Religion of Peace. Can’t understand why the BBC should have missed that’

BBC article here.