After the fanfare given to the start of the George Zimmerman trial the BBC has gone a bit quiet on the topic. And I don’t just mean a lack of updated reports, I mean no tweets from its journalists or anything. The testimony of the prosecution’s surprise “star witness” Rachel Jeantel has been very poor to say the least. She told the court Trayvon Martin had referred to Zimmerman as … Continue reading →

   The final image of Dr Jacob Bronowski, in his “Ascent of Man”, standing in the mud at Auschwitz is implanted in my brain. He wept and said that Auschwitz and, by implication, all the other hell-holes constructed by Man, is the unavoidable destination reached by the denial and silencing of truth. ‘It’s said that science will dehumanize people and turn them into numbers. That’s false, tragically false. Look for … Continue reading →

‘ To open a discussion in the world about something which deeply concerns everyone, and of which it was previously ignorant, to prove to it that it is mistaken on some vital point of temporal or spiritual interest, is as important a service as a human being can render to his fellow-creatures. That the messengers of these ideas should be martyred, that their reward should be to be dealt with … Continue reading →

  Victoria Derbyshire can’t stop and won’t stop talking. She was rabbiting on about Ian Brady much to the annoyance of listeners who texted in to say ‘no more….it’s just giving him the publicity he craves.’ She read out some of the texts and said ‘Their point is that we shouldn’t be reporting on this ….’ To which she added….‘…which is another debate.’       Made me laugh anyway. Another open thread….carry … Continue reading →

Over the past 24 hours the BBC has, quite rightly, made a big deal about the intimidation of its journalists in Turkey. Bear that in mind. Also in the past 24 hours – an unassuming little animated film promoting opposition to the TV license (the source of the BBC’s wealth) was posted on YouTube. It mocked the current TV Licensing “Excuses” campaign [See original TV Licensing ad here – comments … Continue reading →

    As Boris Johnson might say….‘it sounds like a trivial thing to get worked up about, but one trivial thing leads to another.’   The BBC presented us with another exotic adventure chasing wild animals in out of the way places…this time Tigers in Siberia in ‘Operation Snow Tiger.’ Awesome landscape with some majestic beasties, the programme itself promised to be somewhat formulaic but was rescued by an unexpected … Continue reading →

    It is always apparent that any programme that uses audience participation either in a phone in or like Question Time, actually imports an audience, is vulnerable to those people who under cover of being someone unaffiliated with any agenda are in fact political, big business, religious or other activists or lobbyists peddling their own interests.   With that in mind it should be encumbent on the likes of … Continue reading →

  Just how much work does the BBC put into researching any subject in preparation for an interview?  When interviewing someone about a report that criticises the interviewee severely it might be well to read that report and test what the interviewee claims against what that report actually says.   On the Today programme today Jill Finney, former deputy chief executive of the Care Quality Commission claimed that: ‘As soon as Grant … Continue reading →

  The BBC’s top story all day has been the alleged police attempt to smear the Lawrence family. Listening to their reporting you would have the impression that this was ‘fact’…the police had been investigated and the allegation found proven. As always the BBC seem all too ready to attack the police when they get the chance…evidence of wrong doing, or the lack of, not being much of an impediment … Continue reading →