Warrior and healer Obama has a tough task as innocents die, says Mark Mardell Mardell doesn’t say he believes Obama is an inspirational warrior prophet but clearly he thinks Obama is heaven sent….leaving us with this thought about Obama….. ‘He is at his best when his words seek to leave the world a different place.’ Get a room!  

    The BBC are continuing down the road of pointing the finger of blame at white, far right groups or individuals  and other domestic possible candidates for the Boston bombing…..you have to ask on what evidence?….other than the coincidence of the date of the attack there is nothing else to go on. The German centre left publication Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: “Hysteria is the triumph of terror, but America has … Continue reading →

Thatcher couldn’t reform the BBC, Kim Jong Un hasn’t been able to….let’s see what you can do….

  Peter Allen relates to Nicky Campbell how when as a young journalist he asked Mrs Thatcher this (5 mins 30 secs) about the Falklands War: ‘Why are you bothering to fight this war when you  know perfectly well that you will have  to give them back to the Argentinians eventually.‘ Give them back?  The Argentinians never owned them.   And if anything Spain has a stronger claim than anyone else…other … Continue reading →

  Thoughtful in the comments has thoughtfully provided us with this link which I think deserves to be put up in lights here….let’s hope it wasn’t all talk: The BBC’s new director of News & Current Affairs, James Harding, on the BBC (Whilst at the Times): “The BBC distorts and suffocates an industry. It is too big.” “Big, bloated and cunning” – headline of a leader on the BBC, 2010 … Continue reading →

  The BBC has perhaps lost its way.   Listening to Nicky Campbell this morning I couldn’t help thinking that the old fashioned virtues of respect, courage, integrity, moderation, justice, wisdom, loyalty, dignity, honour, striving for excellence, humility and sincerity all seemed in somewhat short supply at the BBC in these modern times. Courage for instance…the BBC lacked the courage to just refuse to play the ‘Ding dong’ song when … Continue reading →

      John Sweeney spends 8 days undercover in North Korea. BBC News head of programmes Ceri Thomas said: “This is an important piece of public interest journalism.” Asked whether that justified putting student lives at risk, he replied: “We think it does.”    So what exactly was the public interest that merited the James Bond approach? We are informed that North Korea has been indulging in a great … Continue reading →

  Gordon Carera in the US was more balanced than the team in the Today studio (8:13)…mentioning the ‘dark skinned’ suspect and that a Saudi Student was being sought. However other conclusions have already been drawn. After the wise words of Rick Nelson, from US Homeland Security and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Evan Davis said ‘Everything points to keeping calm, play it slowly, be accurate and don’t jump to … Continue reading →

I posted earlier how the Authorities swiftly move in to manage the Public’s perceptions of an event and thence its reaction….and how the BBC obliges them by ‘managing’ its news output.   The horrific attack on the Boston Marathon is an example of this in operation.  Here it is the US government but there are certain elements to the situation that make the BBC want to control your idea of … Continue reading →

I am off to Hong Kong and then to Australia on Tuesday so blogging will be MUCH less frequent for the rest of this month. I hope the other B-BBC writers will keep you entertained but I will be travelling for next 24 hours.