Counter-narratives must be disseminated and key facts – for instance, that more Muslims have died in Pakistan as a result of Taliban actions than American drones…must be widely publicised.’ Maajid Nawaz, Quilliam The BBC has reported extensively on the protest by the Stop The War Coalition against the opening of an airbase to operate drones from the UK. The story was endlessly reported … Continue reading
Mark Thompson has made his mark at the New York Times…..as he announced a sharp downturn in profits…net profit falling 93%. Early days yet I’m sure….how could he fail with his vast experience of running a real world commercial media company as opposed to a privileged, spoon fed, elitist corporation that lives in its own little bubble? Ah look there’s the problem…he’s trying to run … Continue reading
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Victoria Derbyshire has been talking (11:09) to a senior police officer, Detective Chief Superintendent Mick Duffy, from the Metropolitan Police about its reforms and efficiency drive. Two things of especial note that he said: 1. The Met. will be putting 26,000 constables on the streets of London….more than at any time in its history…due to its efficiency changes. 2. The main priorities for police are gang crime, foreign national … Continue reading
Did laugh this morning listening to Rachel Burden on 5Live (07:53) interviewing David Cameron. Cameron was reeling off statistics about how Tory councils save you money and suggested any expert would back his figures up. Rachel Burden, presumably unequiped with the necessary facts to contest his claims, thought fast and resorted to the slipperiest of get outs I’ve heard in a long time: ‘You can ask … Continue reading
‘Hacked Off’….Andrew Gilligan says that they have engineered a ‘coup…..one of perhaps the most important constitutional change yet of the 21st century.’ A ‘coup’….’constitutional change’? Shouldn’t the BBC be asking who Hacked Off is, and is it fit and proper that they had such influence over such an important and consequential piece of politically contrived ‘legislation’? I don’t know what you think about Hacked Off’s successful campaign to create that … Continue reading
This is a bit off the usual beaten track for this blog, nothing to do with ‘bias’, but I think we can spare a little space for such an astonishing story…one that shows the BBC at its best treating what might be seen as a sensationalist Tabloid ‘freak’ story with sensitivity…I guess this is one of those stories that by exposing people to not just the condition but also … Continue reading
Another quandary for the BBC….they’ve had the problem of Thatcher’s success to cope with as mentioned in the last post, they’ve had the inconvenient fact that unemployment has been going down…’the great puzzle’….and now they are confronted with another bothersome fact…crime is going down. Mark Easton has decided this too is a riddle…though never when Labour was in power. The riddle of peacefulness All a bit of a conundrum … Continue reading
There is a new, at least to me, theme that it might be worth listening out for on the BBC, and elsewhere. There are no links for this but I have heard this new theory several times now on the BBC. For over thirty years the BBC has attacked Mrs Thatcher’s policies and record, blaming her for destroying manufacturing, the mining and steel industry, rising unemployment, social breakdown…and added … Continue reading
The revelation that the Gay Girl in Damascus is actually a stubbly bloke in Edinburgh has sent shockwaves through the media. That serious journalists fell for MacMaster’s fiction speaks to a profound crisis of objectivity in the modern media, and a preference for simplistic moralism over the tough task of reporting. The trend for transforming other people’s struggles into self-serving morality plays has led to an alarmingly casual attitude … Continue reading
