Saturday, May 24, 2008 David Vance#SOUTH AFRICA - WHERE THE BLAME LIES. I was listening to BBC Radio 4 "Today" this morning and tuned in to an interview concerning the explosion of xenophobic violence that is afflicting the so-called Rainbow nation of South Africa. I was amazed to hear an interviewee place the blame for all this mob thuggery squarely on....apartheid! The BBC interviewer went with this nonsensical idea and their was an agreement so absolving those murderous black gangs of any sense of real responsibility for their intolerant actions. Theo Mbeke really owes the BBC!
Friday, May 23, 2008 David Vance#THOSE BAD ISRAELIS. It's Friday and the BBC as ever is running a series of stories aimed at undermining the image of Israel. First up, at 6.55am on the Today programme we had an item on the "Investment conference" for the West Bank and Gaza. (Judea and Samaria) The key theme here was that these were great places to invest (!!!) but that the fact that those pesky Jews have such strict border restrictions in place does make such financial investment so much more difficult. Not a mention WHY Israel needs to have such strict security arrangements and not a mention of the fact that the savages in Hamas (My apologies to those tender souls who may object to me labelling Hamas as such but there you go, it's accurate) have given Israel no choice in this matter whatsoever. Throughout it's coverage of this region, the BBC consistently downplays the atrocious behaviour of the Palestinians who wallow in their own depravity. Then, having shilled for Hamas, the BBC runs a news item entitled "Blair jet faced Israeli warplanes". My god, isn't it bad enough that Israel denies Hamas the right to slaughter its citizens without confronting Mr Blair at 35,000 feet? Turns out that the story reduces to the fact that the jet carrying the former great leader failed to identify itself as it crossed Israeli air space. A better headline might have been "Israeli jets confront unidentified aircraft" but then why miss a chance to imply how aggrssive the Israelis are?
David Vance#END OF THE LINE IN CREWE. Well well, poor Mr Broon, it looks like the end of the line has been reached in Crewe. I noticed that the BBC headline running earlier this morning was that the Conservatives had "snatched" the seat from Labour but it has now been changed to repeat David Cameron's accurate claim that this was "a remarkable victory." I thought the use of the word "snatched " to describe this stunning victory was stunning. Wonder did anyone watch the BBC coverage and if so, what your opinion was? It strikes me that so immense has the swing been away from Labour, and so devastating the defeat, that it must be causing great concern for the BBC.
Thursday, May 22, 2008 David Vance#NOT THE WHOLE TRUTH. As you and I both know the BBC plays an active role in advancing certain political left-wing agendas, rather than just objectively reporting the news, and as such it frequently has to studiously avoid stating unplatable truths. So when we read "news" it's always important to consider what is left out as much as what is put in. Bias is a subtle beast.
Now then, I was reading this glowing propaganda piece on how the late David Ervine "was an example to us all." So says US Senator George Mitchell, another much-loved BBC figure. But who was this good man David Ervine? He was a convicted loyalist terrorist, intercepted by the police whilst on a bombing mission. Ervine got out of jail years later and moved into politics. His closest political associates were Gusty Spence (convicted murderer) and Billy Hutchinson (convicted murderer) During his tenURE as leader of the Orwellian-entitled Progressive Unionist Party, he was feted by the BBC as the exciting new face of unionist even as the scent of semtex exuded from him. The PUP were and remain the political apology wing for the murderous UVF terror group, to which Ervine had belonged. The UVF continued to murder and maim even as Ervine preened as a neo-politician. You would not get any of this background from this piece put up by the BBC, and you are not intended to. This is all about the State Broadcaster playing the subtle game, ensuring that government policy of appeasing terrorists and indeed eulogising them is sustained. I imagine that the day terror godfather Martin McGuinness dies the BBC will don black ties and play solemn music - more than his victims ever got.
David Vance#TROLLING FOR OLMERT. In an act of political desperation, besieged by corruption charges, Israeli PM Osloid Olmert has been engaging in "peace talks" with Syria. These reduce to Olmert potentially handing over the Golan Heights to the Syrian fascists even though most Israelis oppose this. However, if you read this BBC report on the issue, what you get is a massively pro-Olmert spin - starting with the palpable nonsense that Syria will have to make "painful concessions" such as severing its ties with Iran! We all know this is about as unlikely as the BBC voluntarily severing its ties with the license fee. It's ONLY when you get to the very last sentence that you read that "Mr Olmert is currently battling corruption allegations, and the BBC's Katya Adler in Jerusalem says the prime minister's critics believe the confirmation of peace talks may be an attempt to divert some attention from that. " No. Olmert's critics are clear that this is an ill-judged attempt by a desperate politician to buy off the liberal-controlled Israeli media, judiciary and Prosecutors office and I am surprised that Katya Asler seems unaware of this. I wonder why? Doesn't she know what goes on in Israel?
David Vance#General BBC-related comment thread! Please use this thread for comments about the BBC's current programming and activities. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog - scroll down for new topic-specific posts. N.B. This is not an invitation for general off-topic comments, rants or chit-chat. Thoughtful comments are encouraged. Comments may also be moderated. Any suggestions for stories that you might like covered would be appreciated! It's your space, use it wisely.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008 David Vance#"POLITICAL LEADERS" AND TERRORISM. I was intrigued by this BBC report which is entitled "ETA "Political Leader" arrested." This is a very odd heading because the guy arrested in a joint Spanish-French operation Javier Lopez Pena is not in any way "a political leader" but rather a cold-blooded terrorist killer. Spanish police said Lopez Pena was one of the major movers behind the abandonment of Eta's ceasefire last year. He is accused of being involved in the December 2006 car bombing at Madrid's airport that killed two people, an attack that signalled the ending of the ceasefire. Eta is blamed for the deaths of more than 820 people in its 40-year campaign for an independent Basque nation. So, Lopez Pena is a TERRORIST, and there is not need to put any quotation marks around that. I wish the BBC did not have this constant problem in understanding the nature of a terrorist.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008 David Vance#THE HEAT ON THE STREET. I think it quite interesting if you first read this report of the burning to death of a Zimbabwean man in South Africa by a vicious baying mob, and then this report from the BBC. The BBC leads by parroting the ANC party line, assuring us that all is under control even as The Times exposes the raging hatred of the mobs. It strikes me that any criticism of the South African government is frowned upon by the BBC, still blinded to the total an absolute failure of Mbeki and his pals to do anything of substance even as their country burns and migrants are incinerated on the street.
Monday, May 19, 2008 David Vance#THE IDEAL BBC APPROVED STATE - VENEZUELA. I reckon that the BBC's idea of the dream nation state is Venezuela under the guiding fist of Hugo Chavez. The communist thug Chavez has earned his brownie points by nationalising anything that moves, oppressing private enterprise - and you can read all about it on various approving BBC posts. Just select through the sidebar menu of this latest story expressing Venezuelan outrage that there has been an alleged violation of its airspace by an American military aircraft. Defence Minister Gustavo Rangel said the jet had been tracked by country's air defences over the Venezuelan-owned island of La Orchila on Saturday. You can just tell how in sympathy the BBC writer of this report was in the admiring tone that Chavez "is a fierce critic of Washington." It strikes me that the BBC admires those thuggocracies like Venezuela who delight in attacking the USA and this seeps through to the tone of the reports it files.
David Vance#GROUND RULES. Can I take a minute of your time to thank you all for your many and excellent contributions here. I hope you are enjoying my period in residence and I have gained much from your eagle-eyed dissection of the BBC. I think the site is frequently distinguished by good debate and most trolls have gone away - which is a good thing. One favour I would ask of everyone is that even when debate gets heated, please try and keep it civil! I appreciate that many of you loath the BBC and get a tad heated in the accompanying discussions but let's show them that we have the sense to moderate the TENOR, though not the substance, of what we say. I hope that is OK with you all but it will help me so thanks in advance. I always think of blogs like a good pub - a place where you can argue and debate but not be offensive! Cheers!!
Sunday, May 18, 2008 David Vance#AMERICAN GANGSTER CRIME. I just love the screaming BBC headline "US SNIPER SHOT AT KORAN" An American sniper has been sent home from Iraq for ....using a copy of the Koran for target practice at a shooting range near Baghdad. The Muslim "holy book" (DV italics) was found riddled with bullet holes last week by Iraqi police, who also discovered offensive graffiti inside its cover. My god - as if Abu Ghraib wasn't bad enough now those pesky Yanks go shooting a copy of the Koran. Time for a Presidential apology and a public enquiry? At a time when too many Islamists use the Koran as their essential manual to justify mass murder without the mildest censure from Al-beeb, I would have thought that this was one of the mildest possible incidents that could occur in any war. However the BBC is so steeped in anti-Americanism that any sort of incident like this is used to demonise the US military further.
As people have been pointing out in the comments (thank you very much), The Feral Beast has revealed that emails which led to the exposure of ex-London mayor Red Ken Livingstone's racial right hand man Lee Jasper had already been handed to the BBC's Tim Donovan and rejected as "of no news value". One year after Donovan's rejection, this "non-news value" was turned into scoop-of-the-year by an old friend of this blog's, Andrew Gilligan*. Jasper resigned, Red Ken lost the mayoral election- and the BBC were left counselling their public "And what is your concern about Boris?"
I wonder why the BBC didn't consider Red Ken's corrupt crony a newsworthy story. Maybe, in the light of recent stories about BBC junketing, they just thought it was business as usual in NuLabour's Britain? As DB rightly points out in our comments, Donovan certainly considered it a story later on, but I did notice that in Donovan's account the potential criminality of Lee Jasper and misuse of hundreds of thousands was well in the background of the story.
*This blog-member is happy to acknowledge Gilligan's success, having rather worried about putting the boot in when Gilligan was floored by Hutton.
Saturday, May 17, 2008 David Vance#THE BROWN BROADCASTING CORPORATION; Another day and another piece of steaming Labour propaganda served up by the BBC, this time in its grovelling report of Mr Broon's "Global moral vision" (Cough Splutter) speech at the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in Edinburgh. Note that the BBC uses this as an opportunity to attack Margaret Thatcher - who, unlike Mr Brown, was a three times winner much to their eternal chagrin.
Friday, May 16, 2008 David Vance#General BBC-related comment thread! Please use this thread for comments about the BBC's current programming and activities. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog - scroll down for new topic-specific posts. N.B. This is not an invitation for general off-topic comments, rants or chit-chat. Thoughtful comments are encouraged. Comments may also be moderated. Any suggestions for stories that you might like covered would be appreciated! It's your space, use it wisely
More nonsense reporting from the BBC. A generous portion of the BBC's bias lies in giving credence to outlandish leftist notions- such as that the cause of food shortages is obesity.
Why exactly the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine is calculating the costs of John Prescott's sad "condition" is one of many unanswered questions from this report.
Let's just consider some real news shall we? How about Alistair Darling's attack on EU grain tariffs, which actually do keep food prices high? I couldn't find a BBC story on it or the backlash. Or how about the story mentioned in this report of how the UK Treasury is dealing with its debt problems by raking in from the high fuel prices which make food so expensive?
The war on fatties is pure diversion from the machinations of politicians. The BBC is entirely complicit in these. Politics, statism, and the manipulation of the populace is the BBC's stock in trade.
David Vance#A SMALL I.T. PROBLEM. I was reading the BBC's report on the progress of the NHS IT programme this morning and to be honest all seems well. We are informed that this I.T. programme has already delivered £208 million in savings and by 2014 it is on course to deliver £1.4bn savings. This is truly pathetic stuff - the BBC is merely regurgitating NHS propaganda. The FACTS of the matter is that this NHS I.T. fiasco has spiralled in cost from an initial estimated £2.3 billion to £6 billion then to £9 billion and most recently it has been moved up to £12.4 billion. Even this figure is no longer secure and the date of implementation also keeps moving out. The NHS is one of the articles of faith held by the BBC and so any hint that things are calamitously wrong is neatly shielded from public consumption by the State broadcaster. It makes you sick, but not so sick that you would trust the NHS. Or the BBC.
Thursday, May 15, 2008 David Vance#THE BEAR NECESSITIES. You know it wouldn't be a normal day in Beeboid land without a smattering of AGW stories. This is the new religion of the Left and the BBC always lives up to low expectations on the topic. This morning it's been running this story about the US Government "finally" recognising that the Polar Bear is a "threatened species". It quotes the Environ-mentalists partially approving of this decision whilst still lashing the Bush administration for not going even further. The thing that I find odd in this report, and so true of much BBC reporting, is the missing statistic that the Polar bear population in Canada is actually INCREASING. This must be the first time in natural history that the increase in numbers of a species is indicative that it's population is in danger. Then again, don't those bears like so cute? Let us consider the cold facts concerning the Polar bear but that means showing all sides to the story - the BBC shows but one.
David Vance#END OF THE LINE? I listened to an outrageous item on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme this morning around 7.20am concerning the forthcoming Crewe by-election. As you know, the portents suggest Labour may well lose this rock-solid seat held until her recent death by Gwyneth Dunwoody and it seems to me that the BBC is absolutely determined to bail out poor Gordon. The Great Leader is due on in about 15 minutes time to discuss his long term "vision" for Britain - myopic I would suggest and I can't stomach listening to it but this earlier item has set it all up very nicely for Mr Brown. It took the form of interviewing people in Crewe and oddly enough - the majority of those the BBC found indicated they would, albeit reluctantly, be voting Labour! The BBC even managed to find Liz Dawn - Vera Duckworth of Coronation Street - urging voters in Crewe to vote Labour. Apparently voters are keen to get the "long-term" vision from Labour which nicely dovetails into what Brown will drone on about shortly. It's my view that this item was constructed entirely to set up the later Brown interview in a way which accommodates the PM and it gave no sense of the mass dissatisfaction that every other opinion poll has found in Crewe. It's a remarkable insight into how the BBC operates, biased in favour of it's BBC pimp and shilling for a Labour victory even though WE know that a defeat is MUCH more likely. I can't wait until the result of this election becomes known although the BBC also got in the pre-emptive strike that by-elections are by no means indicative of the result of a general election. I suggest that the BBC - like Labour - is in full-on denial mode - and it is a pleasure to watch.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008 David Vance#MOVE OVER DARLING. I'm sure that you won't have missed the BBC eulogising Alistair Darlings' multi-billion tax bribe yesterday which now solves Labour's problem with the voters, allegedly. However the bit that I can't seem to find on the BBC coverage and which MAY have some relevance to those on the lowest incomes is as follows. "Basic rate taxpayers benefit by £120 while low income earners on £7,455 remain £32.40 worse off. Leading business and financial adviser, Grant Thornton, says the Chancellor's announcement to raise personal allowances to offset losses to low income earners by the abolition of the 10p rate will still leave some low income earners worse off, while benefiting all basic rate taxpayers under 65 to the tune of £120." In other words, the government is heaping incompetency upon incompetency even as the BBC leads it news agenda for the day with the news that Mr Broon is moving on from the 1op tax fiasco with his outline of the "Queen's speech" today. It must be a nightmare for the BBC seeing the end is nigh for their thieving socialist pals in NuLabour and I'm enjoying every moment of it. Can you imagine what the mood will be like at the BBC when Labour is routed at the next election?
Tuesday, May 13, 2008 David Vance#AIN'T LIFE GRAND? I wonder if you read this report about the freebies bonanza that afflicts those senior executives in the BBC? They have to endure being provided with the likes of Rugby Final tickets, Elton John concert tickets, even freebie cookery lessons with a Michelin-starred chef, poor dears. Naturally they take all these onerous tasks on the chin, such is their commitment to providing us with a public service without compare. Raise a glass of champagne to the pigs with their snouts in the trough of your financial largesse.
Monday, May 12, 2008 David Vance#A COMMERCIAL BREAK!
I hope this short commercial break will not affect your enjoyment of B-BBC but I wanted to take a few moments of your time to tell you about my new book called "Unionism Decayed" and to explain why I think it has a direct relevance to this site. For over ten years, I have watched the role the State Broadcaster has played in the relentless and merciless perversion of democracy in Northern Ireland. I have seen the bias, the spin and the neo-Stalinist questioning of the character of those people like myself who oppose putting murderers into government! I watched the BBC's chief political correspondent jump ship and become part of the very administration that he was supposed to impartially report upon. I watched BBC behaviour during a crunch referendum that was bias incarnate. Worst of all, I have seen how the BBC can help crush the spirit of freedom by acting as a compelling echo chamber for an immoral appeasing government. It's all detailed in my book along with my own political journey over this period. If you are interested in reading about this, please email me here and I will provide you with pricing details. My final observation is that you can be sure that the views I express are verboten on Al Beeb - the terrorists friend - so perhaps that is the finest recommendation I can have?
Just ten minutes this morning into the "Today" programme on BC Radio 4 and I had to turn it off.
Just before the 7 a.m. news we had an item on "social cohesion"and the racial tensions that are evident in places like Dagenham. The spectre of the rise of the BNP was raised by the BBC interviewer and all agreed that this "far-right" abomination was undesirable. The solution to "divided communities" appeared to be "arts-based" social initiatives! Tell it to the Jihadists and those within the Muslim community who support them and who refuse to integrate within our communities. The BBC can't even see the problem but instead fulminate against "the far right".
Meanwhile, just a few minutes later and after a weekend which saw John Prescott, Cherie Blair and Lord Levy all expose Gordon Brown's dysfunctional personality, the BBC then ran an item clearly designed to bolster Brown. The loathsome Denis McShane and Lance Price were allowed to explain why all this tittle-tattle meant nothing and said more about those who indulged in it than it did about the Great Leader. It seemed to escape them that all this invective against Brown was coming from within the Party, from senior figures. Operation Save Gordon seems in full swing and it should prove hugely entertaining to watch the BBC explain away what looks set to be a rout of Labour in Crewe in but a few weeks!
Sunday, May 11, 2008 ed thomas#General BBC-related comment thread! Please use this thread for comments about the BBC's current programming and activities. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog - scroll down for new topic-specific posts. N.B. This is not an invitation for general off-topic comments, rants or chit-chat. Thoughtful comments are encouraged. Comments may also be moderated. Any suggestions for stories that you might like covered would be appreciated! It's your space, use it wisely!
NiallKilmartin#If it doesn’t fit the agenda .... The BBC's Burma coverage since the cyclone always speaks of ‘generals’ or ‘the military’ when discussing the regime. After more than a week with no clue to the ideology of the regime in any of the reports I caught, I had to go to reference works and Wikipedia to discover that (quoting the latter):
Democratic rule ended in 1962 when General Ne Win led a military coup d'état. He ruled for nearly 26 years and pursued policies under the rubric of the Burmese Way to Socialism. Between 1962 and 1974, Burma was ruled by a Revolutionary Council headed by the general, and almost all aspects of society (business, media, production) were nationalized or brought under government control (including the Boy Scouts) .... Between 1974 and 1988, Burma was effectively ruled by General Ne Win through the Burma Socialist Programme Party ...
(For the whole wikipedia entry on the involved history of military rule in the country, go here.)
This socialist origin and orientation of military rule in Burma seems to have been airbrushed out of routine BBC coverage. The mention of ‘generals’ and ‘military’ with no hint of their ideology has an obvious tendency to suggest a right-wing regime rather than the left-wing regime it more appears to be. Is this actual deceptive intent, unconscious prejudice, mere carelessness, mere brevity of reporting, mere ignorance, ...? Take your pick.
[Added a few hours later] To be fair, I can believe the Burmese junta does not shout about 'socialism' as loudly now as in the days before the collapse of the Soviet Union (when it was more fashionable), and with frequent coups of one general against another it may be hard to say just what their current ideology is - beyond holding onto power, of course. I conjecture a situation similar to China: an unrepudiated socialist past but with little ideological rigour today. My reason for posting is that I found myself wondering whether, if the regime had a similarly-explicit right-wing origin, I would have found it equally easy not to hear of it during a week of coverage.
[highlighting of text in wikipedia quote added by me]
ed thomas#Spurious balance in the celebrity culture
Isn't it terrible how today we are exposed to so much idiocy, not least through the BBC, just because of the cult of celebrity?
The response to the post David made about "most disliked" BBC personalities just shows the flip-side to the pursuit of celebrity- which is that many people are sick of their inanity.
This blog is about bias, but there are some intersecting themes. Sometimes a comment is made and reported not because of newsworthiness per se but because of celebrity. How can a journalist be balanced starting from a statement like "Chefs should be fined if they haven't got ingredients in season on their menu."? Mussolini, Hitler, would have been proud of such high kitchen standards.
If your ten year old brother said it you'd tell him to shut up, but if Gordon Ramsay said it, and you were a BBC journalist, it'd be "news" (there again, who made G.R. except the BBC-led media establishment?).
Two lines of criticism have been picked up by the BBC, unworkability! and trade for poorer countries, but as Neil Reddin points out, the biggest of all is missing: the freedom argument.
"See what was missing? Of course, there was no mention of consumers making their own choices over where their food comes from. Individual freedom and all that. Hard to believe that the BBC, an organisation funded by a mechanism that gives its consumers no choice, could miss that one *cough*."
"We get from time to time people saying you're biased in favour of the Labour Party. Every time I ask people - show me a case of
that bias, explain to me where we got it wrong and why what we said was so unfair - they seem to be unable to do so",Andrew Marr, May 11th, 2001.
"The BBC is not impartial or neutral. It's a publicly funded, urban organisation with an abnormally large number of young people, ethnic minorities and gay people. It has a liberal bias not so much a party-political bias. It is better expressed as a cultural liberal bias",Andrew Marr, the Daily Mail, Oct 21st, 2006.
"It's not a conspiracy. It's visceral. They think they are on the middle ground",Jeff Randall, former BBC Business Editor, in
The Observer, Jan 15th, 2006.
"The idea of a tax on the ownership of a television belongs in the 1950s. Why not tax people for owning a washing machine to fund the manufacture of Persil?", Jeremy Paxman, James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture, Aug 24th, 2007.
"People who know a lot more than I do may be right when they claim that [global warming] is the consequence of our own behaviour.
I assume that this is why the BBC's coverage of the issue abandoned the pretence of impartiality long ago",
Jeremy Paxman, Media Guardian, Jan 31st, 2007.
"I do remember... the corridors of Broadcasting House were strewn with empty champagne bottles. I'll always remember that", Jane Garvey, BBC Five Live, May 10th, 2007, recalling May 2nd, 1997.
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