Saturday 13 February 2010

MORE HORROR... - Biased BBC

MORE HORROR...: "Apologies for returning to him so soon, but Roger Harrabin in some senses is himself the story as far as this site is concerned; his endless spinning, dissembling and contorting are at the heart of why BBC so-called journalism is rotten to the core. His latest posting gives - in reverential tones that Wackford Squeers himself would have been proud - Professor Phil Jones's account of why he is right about climate change and the rest of the world is wrong. To be sure, Mr Harrabin has clothed the good professor's utterances with weasel words that acknowledge that sceptics exist and that he might have handled the odd bit of data, the odd fact, ineptly. But Harrabin's overall message if that professor Jones is right, the facts and the datasets prove global warming, and it is a tragedy that Copenhagen did not achieve the world governance that he so desperately craves. Every time there is an opportunity to put the warmist case like this, Mr Harrabin takes it, savours it, and embellishes it; and he never troubles to give another side of the story, even though Steve McIntyre, Anthony Watts and others have shown time and time again that the very data that Professor Jones so exults is as full of holes as a colander.

One final point. Surely, even Mr Harrabin does not believe this (at the end of the latest story)?

He said many people had been made sceptical about climate change by the snow in the northern hemisphere - but they didn't realise that the satellite record from the University of Alabama in Huntsville showed that January had been the warmest month since records began in 1979.

But because Professor Jones said it, perhaps he does. In the world of alarmists, the words from on high must be true.

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

"

Friday 12 February 2010

BBC pays £229m a year in salaries for stars - The Indepenent

BBC pays £229m a year in salaries for stars: "

The BBC spent £54m on its top-earning stars but their salaries accounted for just 1.6 per cent of the £3.6bn annual licence fee income, according to figures released yesterday.



"

BBC accused of cover-up over stars' pay - Telegraph

BBC accused of cover-up over stars' pay: "The BBC is facing accusations that it is deliberately covering up how much it
pays celebrities and star presenters"

How the BBC's technology chief spent £639 on one taxi ride (that's the equivalent of a journey from London to Newcastle) - Daily Mail

How the BBC's technology chief spent £639 on one taxi ride (that's the equivalent of a journey from London to Newcastle): "
Of the £4,984 spent on taxi travel, the largest single claim was £627.37 - the equivalent of a journey from the BBC's Television Centre in London to Newcastle Upon Tyne."

BBC's Six Nations Spidercam made us feel sick, complain viewers - Daily Mail

BBC's Six Nations Spidercam made us feel sick, complain viewers: "
The BBC said it received almost 170 complaints about the so-called SpiderCam which was used during Saturday's England V Wales game."

HORROR HARRABIN - Biased BBC

HORROR HARRABIN: "Yesterday Richard North, of the blog EU Referendum, appeared on the Gaby Logan show on Radio 5 to discuss the setting up of the UEA panel to investigate Climategate. That's pretty amazing in its own right, although one swallow does not make a summer. Richard, as would be expected, was pretty formidable, but what was fascinating about the exchanges was the contribution of Roger Harrabin. I'm including the relevant section in full because it has to be seen to be believed. Note especially his pathetic attempts at obfuscation and his rapid descent into claims of insults. What insults?

Mr Harrabin opened his contribution by stating that the CRU emails had been 'stolen'. Richard rightly took exception to this, and pointed out that the latest evidence suggested an internal leak:


. . . we’ve had wonderful theories about intelligence agencies and hackers and this and that and the other – this is prejudicing the inquiry, against the reality is that it is probably an internal job and to talk about stolen emails and hackers and all the rest is, I think, distorting the debate and not helping the listener and the general public understand what has been going on.

Gaby Logan: Roger, do you take that.

Roger Harrabin: I would like to know what the better term would be? They’ve been referred to consistently as stolen emails, I know there are other theories about, that there was an inside job. The fact is that they were private emails not for publication, and the people who had them published on the internet considered them to have been stolen, they’d been referred to as being stolen. I’m not sure what else we would call them . . . This is another one of these things where you probably need a sentence rather than a word . . .

RN: Roger, sorry . . .

RH: I think this is not a helpful . . . honestly, this is not a helpful debate at the moment to talk about whether they’ve been stolen or not. A review has been set up . . . .

RN: (interjects) Well, then don’t refer to it as being stolen.

RH: Can we . . . I think we should be thinking today, and this is how this gets bogged down in arguments, please, please, it would be a change as well if we could get into a debate without having insults as well, that would be a nice change.

RN: Well, all the . . .

GL: Sorry, sorry, could we just let Roger . . .

RN: Well all the point I’m making, Roger, is stop prejudicing the debate. You are making an assumption in your terminology.


I simply love that Roger seems to think that because the emails have been called 'stolen'(by him, mainly!)that this is the best way to describe them. And the point of balanced journalism is, Mr Harrabin?

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

"

EU BETTER BELIEVE IT.. - Biased BBC

EU BETTER BELIEVE IT..: "Had to laugh at the BBC reporting the news that the German economy has racked up an impressive....0% growth in quarter four 2009. Whoops. This seems to surprise the BBC experts. Just yesterday, the BBC was reporting that Merkel and co were lecturing the Greeks on financial probity and now today one has to enquire as to whether the Germans need to look closer to their own economy before lecturing others. Still, the BBC finds solace in the fact that the French managed 0.6% growth! Way to go. The Eurozone is in serious trouble with the money markets making more informed decisions on it than any simpering pro EU BBC journalist!

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

"

BINYAN MOHAMMED TO GET HIS OWN BBC TV SHOW? - Biased BBC

BINYAN MOHAMMED TO GET HIS OWN BBC TV SHOW?: "Not impossible given the love-in between the State Broadcaster and the Ethiopian Jihad poster-boy Binyam Mohammed. I am heartily sick of the way in which the BBC pushes Mr Mohammed, and before him Moazzam Begg, as some sort of doe eyed innocent victims of our bad and evil security services. It seems to me that the BBC avoids asking hard questions of Mohammed and Begg and instead simply uses their grievance as grist to its own mill, always aiming to undermine the moral of our military and our intelligence services. It is maddening the way in which OUR cash is taken and then used by the BBC to promote the notion that all these Jihadists are innocent. Perhaps Binyam will get his own talent show 'Simply Come Jihad' in which celebrities travel to distant countries to 'find themselves', then get captured by the evil spawn of the Great Satan, and compete to see who can illicit the most sympathy from a panel of judges.

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

"

HOW BBC BIAS WORKS... - Biased BBC

HOW BBC BIAS WORKS...: "Last evening's Question Time, liveblogged in this parish, is a great example of the toxic working of the State Broadcaster. You see it had a clear propaganda job to do last night on behalf of the Government, a task it facilitated with practised ease. You see Question Time came from Belfast last night and just last week the major political event here was the Democratic Unionist Party rolling over on their pledges and conceding IRA/Sinn Fein - the organisation that murdered police officers and judges - the right to now have a veto over every decision affecting police officers and judges. The Government warmly approves of this naked appeasement, of course, and so QT trundled into Belfast. And the audience - that alleged random selection of the public - was all set up to ensure that each time the IRA convict, Old Bailey bomber and Sinn Fein delegate Gerry Kelly spoke, there was rapturous applause for him. Each time the DUP delegate on the panel spoke, there was applause. And when the ONLY person on the panel who opposes this shameful surrender - my political colleage Jim Allister even tried to speak - David Dimbleby interrupted him and the audience met his comments in frosty silence. The media message was simple - EVERYONE supports what has been done here last week. Nothing could be further than the truth but then again the BBC is very far from the truth. The bias lies in the structure of the audience and the willingness of the BBC to act as whores to perpetuate government policy. Just saying....

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

"

MANDELA WORSHIP... - Biased BBC

MANDELA WORSHIP...: "I am sure you will have encountered the Mandela worship on the BBC today. It is 20 years since Nelson Mandela was released from captivity and the excitement at the BBC has been palpable. However I believe the coverage has been very one dimensional and has stayed away from asking any of the tough questions lest the halo around Saint Nelson be dented. 20 years on, we have the corrupt ANC regime rather than the corrupt Apartheid regime. Yes, some of Mandela's cronies have grown rich during this period but for the majority of South African people, there is still unrelenting poverty, widespread crime and rampant disease. How is this an improvement? Furthermore, I see the football loving Winnie Mandela is now fully rehabilitated and the BBC is again portraying this wicked woman in the 'mother of the nation' mode it initially used before the unfortunate Stompie Seipei incident made that impossible. Can you imagine what the coverage of his death will be like? We're all ANC now. (And to hell with the victims of their terrorism)

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

"

COMPARE AND CONTRAST... - Biased BBC

COMPARE AND CONTRAST...: "I have covered this on A Tangled Web but wanted to post it here as well.




It's a sad story.







British fashion designer Alexander McQueen has been found dead at his home. The poor chap, a doyen in the fashion world, was only 40 years old. His mother died last week.


Here's the issue.


The BBC report on it here. He died. Just like that, seemingly.


However, as is reported elsewhere, he committed suicide. He hanged himself.


A terrible waste of his life but I wonder WHY the BBC seemed determined to avoid this simple detail? Were they trying to spare the feelings of the family? If so, why is such censorship not afforded to others in such circumstances? Might his gay background be in any way linked to this sudden BBC reluctance to report the facts? I don't see the issue for the BBC withholding the reason for his death, can you?

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

"

INDEPENDENT INQUIRY, SAYS BBC!!! - Biased BBC

INDEPENDENT INQUIRY, SAYS BBC!!!: "Mark Kinver, one of the BBC's most prolific global warming alarmists,was quick off the mark today to say that an 'independent panel' is going to review the leaking of the Climategate file from UEA, and also whether climate research has been accurately conducted there. Mr Kinver is telling monstrous economies-with-the-truth and he knows it. The panel is anything but independent; as Bishop Hill points out with his usual eloquence, most of them are solidly wedded to to climate change in the same way that quacks are to snake oil. Not only that, the Royal Society are involved, whose website already proclaims that the world is coming to an end - based on material almost exclusively provided by the UEA climate change mob. Oh,and last but not least, the head of the inquiry has announced he's investigating a hack, not a leak - thereby showing his true colours from the outset. Mr Kinver was no doubt fed news of the inquiry because of services by him and his employers to the cult of climate alarmism; they knew he would loyally trumpet their 'independence'.

Update: No sign yet on the BBC website that Phil Campbell, editor-in-chief of Nature, has already resigned from the panel because he patently and blatantly was not 'indepedent'. I wonder why?

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

"

Dynamite! BBC fails to Notice. Again. - Biased BBC

Dynamite! BBC fails to Notice. Again.: "Last October I blogged about the BBC’s silence over Andrew Neather’s revelations about the government’s open door policy on immigration, allegedly to fill gaps in the labour market. But the government’s deliberate policy of manipulating the demographics in the UK was to fill gaps in the Labour-voting market, not the job vacancy one.

Before backtracking and claiming his words had been twisted and misrepresented, Andrew Neather mentioned that the government was paranoid about the media getting hold of this information.

Now that formerly concealed parts of this document have been revealed, the BBC is still strangely silent about this, and to what Sir Andrew Green of MigrationWatch UK has written. Other news organs still think it is a bit of a bombshell.

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

"

That BBC/Guardian thing again - Biased BBC

That BBC/Guardian thing again: "Earlier this year we learned that the BBC was helping the Guardian produce its front-page scoops. An interesting series of tweets from yesterday shows that the licence payer is also subsidising technological advice to our national broadcaster's favourite newspaper.

Here's the head of all things digital and interactive at BBC Radio 5 Live, Brett Spencer:
A good morning spent hammering out our big interactive general election offering. Off now to do a bit of show and tell at the Guardian
The natural first port of call following a morning's discussion of election coverage.

The Guardian's Matt Hall was grateful for the BBC employee's time:
Great presentation from @brettsr on #fivelive visualisation . He even came over to Guardian Towers to do it!
The editor of the Radio 4 blog Steve Bowbrick was there too:
Just grabbed a coffee with @bowbrick in the Guardian canteen. Talking blogs, governors, twitter & the like.
The Guardian's head of audio Matthew Wells:
Great presentation about BBC 5 Live interactivity from @brettsr - Gdn can only afford a fraction of what they do, but will take inspiration.
A question from 'medluv':
@MatthewWells Did Guardian pay BBC industry rates for R5L presentation today?
The reply from Wells:
@medluv @brettsr no we didn't pay. Equally my colleagues and I do similar talks at other organisations. It's called collaboration
Are these licence fee funded presentations available to all newspapers, or just the BBC's ideological soul mates?

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

"

Justice From Justin - Biased BBC

Justice From Justin: "I know this isn’t saying much, but Justin Webb on Today is a great improvement on Ed Stourton whom he replaced much to some people’s dismay. I thought he gave Gita Sahgal a fair hearing this morning, and it’s certainly encouraging that for once the BBC allowed someone to dislodge the halo surrounding Amnesty International.

If you haven’t been following the story, Ms Sahgal, a senior official at AI, became uneasy about Amnesty’s association with Moazzam Begg who heads the organization Cageprisoners that “ actively promotes Islamic Right ideas and individuals.”
So she wrote about her concerns to the Times.
Within a few hours of the article being published Amnesty had suspended me from my job.”
The Today interview gave her the opportunity to express her point without the usual innuendos and interruptions. In My Humble Opinion. *And not a word from Widney Brown.
* H/T Hippiepooter
Update.
As you were!
I may have to take it all back.
Who had an exclusive platform for her rebuttal today? Why, Widney Brown.
But then… but then… did I detect a whiff of hostility in Justin’s tone?

Today R4. 8:46. (Link not up yet.)

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

"

More Palin Bashing - Biased BBC

More Palin Bashing: "When Barack Obama was mocked recently for addressing a sixth grade class, and later a committee meeting, with teleprompters present, did the BBC report it? No.
When he was mocked recently for repeatedly mispronouncing 'Navy corpsman' as 'Navy corpse-man' at the National Prayer Breakfast, did the BBC report it? No.
When he was mocked recently for saying, 'The Middle East is a problem that has plagued the region for centuries', a line right up there with any Bushism, did the BBC report it? No.

But Sarah Palin jots a few words on her hand and already the BBC has responded with two news articles (neither of which finds space to mention Palin's amusing 'Hi Mom' response to the media frenzy). No doubt broadcast versions of BBC news have also covered the story with equal glee.

Unfortunately for all the rabid Palin-haters at the BBC and elsewhere, the repeated attacks on her don't appear to be doing her any harm within the increasingly influential Tea Party movement. I like the House of Dumb description of Palin as Roadrunner and her detractors as Wile E Coyote:
Every single time they think they've totally nailed her, they somehow end up under the boulder while Sarah disappears in the distance.
Update 7pm. Some neat reactions from Monica Crowley and Sean Hannity and guests (hat tips Jack and John in the comments). And here's an earlier Hannity on Gibbs.

And in related news, here's Vagina Monologues author Eve Ensler on the Jo Behar Show on Monday, showing us all just how much more intelligent she is than Sarah Palin:
ENSLER: Well, I just think the idea that she doesn't believe in global warming is bizarre.
BEHAR: Every scientist at every note believes in it but Sarah Palin doesn't believe in it.
ENSLER: And I think we just kind of have to walk around the world at this point and look at what is happening to nature and earthquakes and tsunamis.
Global warming = earthquakes and tsunamis. I wonder how many luvvie actresses who have appeared in Ensler's play over the years have slagged off Palin for being stupid.

[I'm sure our old friend Scott will be keen to report this story in The Stage. Suggestions welcome for the headline. I'll set things rolling with 'The Vagina Dumbalogues' and 'All About Eve (Stupid Bitch)']

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

"

IT STINKS... - Biased BBC

IT STINKS...: "The latest climate scare story from the BBC is this gem. Plants are going to be on permanent high alert and a lot smellier. Why this is a problem is not quite clear, but hey, this is climate change work, there's lots of money in pursuing this line of research, so the authors clearly believe it's something we should worry about - and the BBC think its worth covering. Who's the reporter? Matt Walker, who is also editor of BBC Earth News, based at the Natural History Unit in Bristol, increasingly a source of climate alarmism. Oh, and Matt is also a former reporter for New Scientist, and still a contributor. He was writing scare stories like this, even before the BBC caught climate fanaticism. And that will be the New Scientist that is so fervently pro-warmist that it publishes stories with titles such as '50 Reasons Why Warming isn't Natural'.

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

"

Tuesday 9 February 2010

BBC expenses: details here - Guardian

BBC expenses: details here: "

Which will be the eyecatching, or even extravagant, BBC expenses claims? Follow them here – and pitch in yourself

2.40pm update: Dominic Coles, the chief operating officer of journalism, claimed £27.20 to cover his mileage costs to watch motor racing on 21 June, giving as his reason: 'British GP – Bernie et al'.

He also claimed for a £5.60 tube ride to see Hugh Robertson, the Tory MP for Faversham and Mid Kent, on 14 July.

Peter Horrocks, the director of the World Service, put in a claim for £3.00 for a 'charge on cash withdrawal' on 24 May, adding as his reason '3.00 buy back guarantee'.

Richard Sambrook, the BBC's director of global news, filed a £16.95 claim for internet access to the BBC's internal site on 29 June.

He also spent £10 each way on taxis when he visited the Guardian's editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger on 9 July.

2pm update: To the BBC's department of audio and music, or radio, as you might know it better.

The BBC Radio 3 controller, Roger Wright, racked up a huge number of taxi fares – more than 100 – in fact, many of them travelling between Broadcasting House and the Royal Albert Hall for the Proms.

Wright also had 18 minicab trips in the three months, including nine for more than £100 each. Away from travel, Wright also claimed £470.87 on a lunch entertaining Radio 3 talent, and £655. 20 'external hospitality' on a supper after the first night of the Proms.

The BBC Radio 4 controller, Mark Damazer, spent £290 to say thanks to the production team behind the station's 90-part series on American history, plus another £51.98 to discuss 'issues' on the Today programme.

The BBC Radio 1 controller, Andy Parfitt, claimed £273 for three successive monthly team meetings, and £509 on 'internal entertainment' at the annual Sony Radio Academy Awards.

Bob Shennan, the controller of BBC Radio 5 Live, spent £284.35 on a business lunch for five people, and £193 for another business lunch for four.

1.15pm: The total claimed by the BBC's 107 senior staff between July and September was £188,284.98, up from £174,650.42 the previous quarter.

Total spent on taxis and hospitality was down, but there was a big increase in the amount claimed for flights and a smaller increase in hotel expenditure. The BBC attributed this to the cost of flights to the annual LA screenings. The new figures also include travel to the annual MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival, which took place at the end of August.

Overall, expenditure on taxis was £39,029.72, down from £46,110.25 the previous month.

Hospitality spending was £23,642.21, down from £30,314.87.

Flights cost a total of £70,870.96, up from £50,375, while hotel expenditure was £18,517.60, up from £16,678.34.

The average amount claimed per executive was £1,759.67, an average of £586.56 per month, according to BBC figures.

1.05pm update: Danny Cohen, BBC3 controller, claimed £1,555.10 for six night stay at Sunset Marquis hotel, Los Angeles, in May during LA Screenings, of which £173.10 was for meals. During the same trip he also claimed £7.61 for buying the New York Times for 'research info on US pilots' and £4.12 for 'business calls' from the hotel.

Cohen also claimed £250.83 over the three month period for 'business-related calls and texts' on his personal mobile.

1pm update: Director of vision Jana Bennett's minicab expenses have been eclipsed by the BBC's director, future media and technology Erik Huggers.

Huggers claimed around £4,750 on cabs in the three month period, including one for £538.45 on 11 June last year, with another for £627.37 the following day. Presumably the return trip.

Elsewhere, Huggers's list of expenses appears to include £7,514.80 for a flight between Seoul and London Heathrow.

The BBC's chief operating officer Caroline Thomson also took a lot of minicabs – more than 90 of them, the most expensive of which was for £89.16 on 24 September last year.

BBC North director Peter Salmon, who is in charge of overseeing the BBC's new Salford HQ, claimed £3,787.80 for a return flight to San Francisco on 5 July. Not surprisingly, his expenses also include quite a few train tickets between London and Manchester.

Salmon's list of expenses are also show the lengths to which management are keen to explain why they incurred a particular cost. Take this £61.50 train ticket, which comes with the addendum 'Meeting over ran and a later train was needed... previously purchased tickets were used by other team members.'

And this, next to five taxi fares totalling around £250: 'Taxi shared with Richard Deverell and Alice Webb'. Never let it be said Salmon isn't value for money.

Two other big flight claims from the BBC's director of global news, Richard Sambrook, including £2,765 for a return flight from London to Beijing, and £4,990 for a trip from London to San Francisco.

The BBC's creative director Alan Yentob's expenses including a dinner for 10 people totalling £317.19, and two three-figure 'meetings to discuss future projects' which came to £108.75 and £147.43. Yentob's total minicabs expenditure: £1,652.

12pm update: The total amount the BBC paid to artists, presenters, musicians and other contributors in the 12 months to 31 March 2009 was £229m – 6.56% of the £3.49bn licence fee income that year.

The BBC issued 300,000 contracts to talent during the year, but declined to provide any further breakdown of the information, either in terms of how many individuals are in each of the income bands listed below, or revealing how much an individuals earned.

This total amount is broken down as follows: Individual salaries/fees up to £50,000: £115m (3.29% of the licence fee)

£50,000 to £100,000: £44m (1.26%)

£100,000 to £150,000: £16m (0.46%)

£150,000 plus: £54m (1.55%) – this band includes the BBC's highest paid stars, including Jonathan Ross and Graham Norton 11.30am: The BBC today published the latest details of salaries and expenses paid to its top executives, including nearly £2,500 of minicab receipts accrued by the BBC director of vision, Jana Bennett.

The corporation's quarterly disclosure of the business-related expenses of its 107 most senior managers also includes, for the first time, gifts and hospitality enjoyed by its senior executives.

BBC director general Mark Thompson and his wife had days out at Glyndebourne, the Chelsea flower show, the Royal Box at Ascot and the women's tennis final at Wimbledon. Thompson also went to the British Grand Prix, with his son, as a guest of Formula One.

The latest expenses relate to the three months between July and September last year. Bennett claimed for more than 50 minicab trips, including three of over £100, the highest being a claim for £156.42 on 10 September.

The statistics are both exhaustive – and exhausting – and I will be reporting further items of interest.

You can too, with the figures available in full on the BBC's website. Please share your thoughts below.

The BBC spent a total of £229m on artists, presenters, musicians and contributors across TV and radio, or 6.5% of the licence fee.

Just over half of the total spending was on people earning £50,000 or less. But around a sixth – £54m – went to people earning more than £150,000 a year.

More details from me – and you – to come.


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How do you spend £639 on a taxi? Ask the BBC's technology chief - Guardian

How do you spend £639 on a taxi? Ask the BBC's technology chief: "

Silicon Valley and Las Vegas provide backdrop for limousine journeys by BBC whizz behind the iPlayer

As the BBC's director of future media and technology, Eric Huggers is accustomed to wrestling with the most tricky questions relating to the corporation's role in a rapidly changing digital age.

But even he may find himself struggling to answer one conundrum thrown up by his newly released expenses claims: how is it possible to justify spending £638.73 on a taxi?

That was the eyebrow-raising sum claimed by the Dutch-born Huggers for a 'minicab' on 12 June last year, a day after he'd spent £538.45 on another cab, also charged to the corporation. The claims are among the latest wave of expenses to be claimed by BBC top brass, publishedtoday.

Huggers, who sits on the BBC executive board and was behind the introduction of the iPlayer, is responsible, according to his official biography, for 'helping audiences enjoy a seamless experience of BBC programmes, wherever they may be'. On the occasion in question, a spokesman said, the audiences enjoying a seamless BBC experience were in Palo Alto, California, and the claims classified as minicab fares related to limousine hire, when Huggers, who earns £223,000 a year, required transportation from the 'picturesque water and flower gardens and koi ponds' of the Sheraton Palo Alto hotel, where he stayed for three nights, to meetings at locations around Silicon Valley.

The claims, which calculated at the exchange rate of the time total $889.52 and $1,036.42, 'reflect typical day rates for the hire of a car with driver during Erik's business trip in the US,' said the spokesman. 'This ensured time spent was used as effectively as possible, ­enabling the maximum number of ­meetings to be scheduled and to enable work to continue between appointments in the car.'

Thanks to its strict policy on endorsements, alas, the corporation is unable to reveal the supplier or type of car used by Huggers, but a brief investigation by the Guardian hints at the level of ingenuity required to spend more than $1,000 in one day on a cab.

San Francisco Car Service, for instance, quotes an hourly rate within the Bay Area of $50, exclusive of fees. At Virgin Limo, an eight-hour hire in the San Francisco area of a chauffeured sedan 'with full leather interior, dual climate controls, power points for laptops computers and cellular phones', inclusive of fuel surcharge, tolls and tip, would cost $626.40. Ten hours in a 'Turtle top limo-van', however, with DVD player, conference player, and 'luxurious reclining leather seats', would take his bill to $1,010.25.

The corporation was happy to explain that the reason Huggers had stayed, during a separate US trip in January last year, at the famous Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, spending £647.50, was because he was attending the annual Consumer Electronics Show which was being held in the hotel. BBC guidelines permit stays in luxury hotels such as the Bellagio (where 'contentment and opulence are the hallmarks') if the claimant needs to be on site to attend a conference, said the spokesman, adding that executives often hold meetings in their rooms.

And the explanation, given his many meetings in the Bellagio, as to why Huggers required a car and driver for two days on that trip at £812.24 per day? 'This was the most cost and time effective way to travel from meeting to meeting while on that particular business trip rather than booking ad hoc taxis,' the spokesman said.


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BBC like the 'Duckhouse gang' for not disclosing star salaries, say MPs - Telegraph

BBC like the 'Duckhouse gang' for not disclosing star salaries, say MPs: "The BBC is acting like the 'Duckhouse gang' of MPs in its refusal to disclose
what it pays its top stars, according to the Public Accounts Committee."

Anger as BBC hides pay of its £229m stars - Evening Standard

Anger as BBC hides pay of its £229m stars: "BBC accused of having a 'culture of secrecy' after it refused to reveal how much it pays its top presenters and stars
"

£12,000 for Korea trip but BBC boss gives free camera to charity - Evening Standard

£12,000 for Korea trip but BBC boss gives free camera to charity: "BBC executives spent more than £12,000 of taxpayers' money on a trip to Korea, according to the latest figures on staff expenses revealed today.


"

BBC executives' expenses rise by 8% as corporation spends £54m on its top-earning stars - Daily Mail

BBC executives' expenses rise by 8% as corporation spends £54m on its top-earning stars: "
A total of £188,000 was claimed in overall expenses by 107 of the BBC's most senior staff between July and September 2009, a monthly average per executive of £586."

The Assumptions of a Lazy Liar - CiF Watch

The Assumptions of a Lazy Liar: "

This is a guest post by Margie in Tel Aviv


Part of the Guardian World View (GWV) is that it is permissible to accuse the Israelis of anything that happens to pop into one’s head without examining it for truth or actuality. We had an example of that when Michael White of the Guardian made, in passing in an interview on the BBC, a statement without foundation about people murdering each other a great deal in Israel.


Here is an example of how this sort of behaviour has a ripple effect. This is a comment found in the thread following Yoav Shamir’s defence of his documentary, Defamation.


oldonmk2


25 Jan 2010, 3:29PM


Zamalek


As usual the Palestinian right to drive along route 443 trumps Israeli rights to drive along the road without being blown up or shot at.


So Israeli rights to use a highway, trumps Palestinian rights to travel in their own land! Not even apartheid South Africa denied blacks the right to travel along its highways! The Ulster govt never denied Catholics the right to use roads.


The not to be shot at requires the law enforcement authorities to take action to prosecute offenders, not blanket bans based on race or religion. this provides the evidence that Israel IS a racist state.


Zionists believe they are above the law. Robert Maxwell stole millions from UK pension funds, and donated the money to Israel. There has been no expression of regret or apology from Israel, nor one penny returned!

Israeli intelligence organizations carry out assinations anywhere they chose. Not even apologising when the kill an innocent Italian waiter, by mistake. These kind of acts create ill feelings among non-jews, and are an embarrasment to the diaspora.


The bottom line is that the Zionists were allowed to enter a country where they had no business, and drive out the legitimate population by terror, with the connivance of a foreign occupier. Probably a much higher percent of Palestinians are genetic descendants of the original Hebrew nation, than are the settles from Europe and the USA etc. Zionism is a mirror image of nazism.


The problem is as with Hitlers gang they cannot see the other as an equal human being, only as an “untermensch” without rights.


This is a free association posting of a person I had never noticed before, answering Zamalek’s description of the fact that despite the danger involved, the Palestinians have once again been allowed to travel on route 433 by the Israeli High Court on the basis of legality. Oldonmk2, typically of the kind of person we are discussing, does not bother to examine the facts of the case or to use references but assumes blithely that it is because people are not Jews they had been barred from using the highway. He seems to think that the original provision barred people according to ‘race or religion’ without taking into account that more than twenty percent of Israelis are of a minority race or religion and yet are not barred from travelling on route 433 on those grounds.


Those barred were Palestinians – people of a different nationality, to prevent terrorist acts such as the one attempted by those who planted an inexpertly improvised explosive device (IED) on the side of route 443 set to explode at peak hour, with a little explanatory note attached explaining its manufacture by Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, the Alla Abu Sharifa Unit.


Reflexively without thought or proof, oldonmk2 compares Israel to South Africa and finds Israel lacking.


Robert Maxwell, the British millionaire, “had used hundreds of millions of pounds from his companies’ pension funds to shore up the shares of the Mirror Group, to save his companies from bankruptcy. Eventually, the pension funds were replenished with monies from investment banks Shearson Lehman and Goldman Sachs, as well as the British government.” However the accusation by oldonmk2 presumably on the basis of the fact that Maxwell was a Jew is that the money from the pension funds was given to Israel. Proof? There is no proof. Who needs proof when we are dealing with Israel?


Our intrepid liar talks of Israel’s intelligence organisations killing an innocent Italian waiter, by mistake. The waiter in question was an Algerian-born Moroccan citizen in fact. Far from not apologising, in 1996, the Israeli government paid compensation equal to US$283,000 split between Bouchiki’s wife and daughter, and a separate settlement of US$118,000 to a son from a previous marriage.


His imagination and perhaps his education by the media is shown most clearly by his description of how Israel was created. Apparently this person has never heard of the UN or that they voted to grant Israel a state in the Palestinian Mandate territory. He says that Jews, who have lived continuously in Israel for millennia had ‘no business’ there, that they drove out the ‘legitimate population’ by terror, with the connivance of a foreign occupier – and here he has lost me completely. All his other lies and inventions have some grounding in the popular accounts, the media or even the hate sites, but who or what is this ‘foreign occupier’?


He has obviously half-read half-understood the results of some genetic studies and on that basis feels himself qualified to comment on the genetic heritage of Jews and Palestinians and to draw conclusions.


His statement that ‘Zionism is a mirror image of nazism’ is the antisemites’ creed.


This kind of comment, attributing all sorts of crimes to Israel without investigation and without examination is not limited to commenters on CiF. The media are rife with this kind of unexamined, unfair, unbalanced assumption.


Let me leave you with an example. Veteran political reporter Christine Amanpour finds it natural to say that Israel practises waterboarding without a smidgeon of proof. If she does it, why shouldn’t others?



Tagged: Antisemitism, Comment is Free, Guardian, Guest Post "

Justifying Jihad? - Biased BBC

Justifying Jihad?: "I only had half an eye on Peter Taylor’s Generation Jihad last night - and also, until I noticed it on the website, I didn’t realise it was only part one of a series of three. So my impression that he was more sympathetic to his Jihadi interviewees than strictly necessary may be premature. He may have been coaxing them into letting their fanaticism speak for itself. But this episode strove to convince us that Islamist extremism wasn’t the real Islam, but as chalk to ‘moderate’ Islam’s cheese.
I was horrified to see him perpetuating the discredited tale of the Al Durah shooting at the hands of the Israelis, when the veracity of that has been exposed, at the very least, as dubious.

If Peter Taylor is sufficiently ignorant about the controversy surrounding that case to use it to illustrate justification for Jihad how does that make the rest of his programme look?

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"

THE ENEMY WITHIN.. - Biased BBC

THE ENEMY WITHIN..: "


Did you read that the head of Britain’s special forces has been trying to stop the publication of a book by a senior BBC journalist which describes in “tactical detail” operations carried out by the SAS in Iraq from 2003 to 2009?


The major-general, who cannot be identified for security reasons, is concerned about the impact of Task Force Black on the elite regiment’s operational effectiveness because of the contents, which are understood to be based on interviews with members and former members of the SAS. Negotiations with lawyers representing the book’s author, Mark Urban, Newsnight’s diplomatic and defence editor, and the Ministry of Defence, have been going on for months, and a compromise had been reached.


I suggest that the BBC's visceral hatred of our military - and our Special Forces in particular - drives this sort of project and even though the publication of this book may result in future deaths of OUR soldiers, I am sure Newsnight's Urban has no such worries.

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"

LORD BROWNE - BBC IDOL - Biased BBC

LORD BROWNE - BBC IDOL: "I wonder what it might be about gay corporatist Lord Browne that encourages the BBC to give him ANOTHER spot on the Today programme, second day running?

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WHEN A DEBATE IS NOT A DEBATE - Biased BBC

WHEN A DEBATE IS NOT A DEBATE: "The BBC allows all shades of opinion, from A to B! With our first past the post system no longer looking so good for Labour, time for the Today programme to have a debate on alternatives. So, around 7.51am this morning bring on Hillary Benn and Chris Huhne to cover the topic - what could be more balanced than that? All shades of political opinion...!

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ALI DIZAEI...BBC ICON - Biased BBC

ALI DIZAEI...BBC ICON: "The newspapers are well-and truly laying into jailed Met Commander Ali Dizaei this morning; it seems that the world and his wife knew about his corruption and his bullying, but the Met sought to cover it up as best they could because they feared his chants of racism - and shared his 'equality' agenda. So of course did the BBC. They disgracefully made his pack-of-porkies autobiography Not One of Us Radio 4's book of the week when it was published, despite its lack of obvious literary flair (to put it mildly!); and then there's this gem of an interview by Andrew Marr soon afterwards. Here's a small extract of the gut-wrenching exchange to illustrate how avid Marr and his cronies are to hear and air such claims:

ANDREW MARR: Just to be clear, you're saying that the police are still institutionally racist?

ALI DIZAEI: Yes they are. We are less institutionally racist than ten years ago. Have we got a clean bill of health? No. Is it within our grasp? Possibly. And I think the reason this is very important, and I think politicians ought to really take this very seriously, because there is direct correlation in the way the police service looks in terms of this composition, and the way we deliver a service to our community.

ANDREW MARR: You have become Commander at the fifth attempt, which of itself suggests that you are abnormally tough and determined to keep going when other people might have given up long ago. Was it frankly humiliating to have to do, go through that process five times...

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Monday 8 February 2010

BBC must walk away from negotiations with top stars - Telegraph

BBC must walk away from negotiations with top stars: "The BBC must be willing to walk away from negotiations with top stars, the
chairman of the BBC Trust said today."

BOILING SEAS ... - Biased BBC

BOILING SEAS ...: "This morning, I was intrigued by a new posting on the BBC website which said that 'endemic' seals are leaving the Galapagos islands for a new island 1,500 kms away where temperatures are said to have risen as a result of climate change by a whopping 6 degrees Centigrade in 10 years. Such a rise could, of course, could be the result of localised warming due to volcanic activity, but the report is very definite in asserting that it's because of climate change. On my calculations (the current temperature has reached 23 degrees), that means that we are heading for 100 degrees seas by 2110 or so. Boiling seas? That's beyond even the wildest claims of the IPCC.

So I started checking out the writer, Dan Collyns. It turns out that he works for GRNLive, a worldwide agency supplying reports from radio correspondents to broadcasters around the world, including the BBC World Service. GRN is run by a chap called Henry Peirse, and guess what? He's a climate change fanatic. Yet another. Mr Peirse says he is is proud to support, for example, the Earth Journalism Awards, which this year took place at the failed Copenhagen climate summit. I quote from their press release:

Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri and Internews, the international media development organization, celebrated the best in climate change reporting at the Internews Earth Journalism Awards in Copenhagen.

Among the presenters were key figures on climate and environmental issues, including Mary Robinson, the former President of Ireland; Marina Silva, the former environment minister of Brazil; and award-winning Chinese movie star Li Bingbing, who is also the Global Ambassador for WWF's Earth Hour.

'If we are to have any hope of reversing the effects of climate change, then we have a monumental task of educating the six billion people on our planet about how climate change works and what they can do to help,' Dr. Pachauri said. 'The media is critical in this effort, since just one reporter has the ability to reach thousands, even millions, of people. These awards help to expand and honour these vitally important efforts.'

So, wherever you look, have no fear. There's a Pachauri connection and a climate change activist supplying the BBC with a constant diet of the propagand it craves, no matter how nonsensical. Even from the Galapagos Islands, making predictions of boiling seas. And he's supported in his efforts by none other than Li Bingbing. I kid you not.

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"

YEO KNOW WHEN YOU'RE BEING CONNED! - Biased BBC

YEO KNOW WHEN YOU'RE BEING CONNED!: "C.I.N.O. Tim Yeo was given an interruption free outing on Today this morning 7.12am as he was allowed to waffle on about the EU Carbon emission trading scam. Yeo reckons the price of carbon is just too low to make this scheme work effectively and he was given free rein to pontificate on this scam. No tough questions for Yeo! It would have been nice had the BBC chosen to ask Yeo about the corruption that distinguishes this Carbon Trading system but then again I suppose that would require balance, something which is forbidden by the BBC.

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JOHN BROWNE'S BODY LIES.... - Biased BBC

JOHN BROWNE'S BODY LIES....: "Anyone catch Naughtie's swooning interview with former BP boss John Browne this morning? Browne is that rare beast - a corporatist that the BBC loves. Why do they love him? Because he came out and admitted he was gay. This simpering 6 minute interview was all about Browne's gayness and how tough it was for him in that macho Oil world. But cheer up, Browne has a new 'partner' and all is now well. I wonder if lying heterosexual corporatists will get the same easy ride from the BBC?

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BLAIR'S FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER - Biased BBC

BLAIR'S FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER: "This is a guest post by Hippiepooter.

One cannot be without sympathy for the upset Alastair Campbell suffered in his interview with Andrew Marr today, both on a human level and as a staunch supporter of the Iraq war myself, but as a committed democrat one does feel the need to state that he and Tony Blair dragged British politics through the mud in coopting the already biased BBC as a propaganda weapon and are now victims of the monster they created.

As a youthful Tribunite member of the Labour Party in the late 70's it was clear to me that the only real bias at the BBC was towards the Left, and I was against it as it was bad for democracy. When Tony Blair assumed leadership of the Labour Party, this bias went into overdrive. It was patently evident to anyone semi-politically literate that pre '97 Tony Blair's office was running an anti-Tory smear campaign in concert with the BBC to get elected, and once elected proceeded to govern with the same appalling contempt for democracy. Mr Campbell certainly wasn't complaining when Mr Marr in both his Observer and BBC incarnations was doing New Labour's dirty work traducing the integrity of the Conservative Party in the same manner that he has traduced his own and Mr Blair's over Iraq.

What our former Prime Minister Mr Blair showed, to me at least, over the Iraq War, is that his heart was in the right place all along. He is, despite all his manifest shortcomings in attaining and retaining power, a personal hero. The Iraq War was just that critical. But if one's ego is large enough to believe that the means he used via Mr Campbell to attain power were justified, sympathy for their vilification over Iraq has to be qualified. As it is, many of the moral bankrupts who he'd previously exploited to his advantage and who are now vilifying him would be calling for Mr Blair to be strung up for not going to war if we had to suffer the consequences of that today. Saddam could restart his WMD programme at any moment of his choosing. He had given Al Qa'eda leader Al Zarqawi refuge after fleeing Afghanistan. Had we stood down from the threat of war to enforce compliance of UN arms inspection, the marriage between WMD's and terrorists that Blair feared would have become a reality, with all the apocalyptic consequences that carries.

We dont need another Iraq inquiry into Tony Blair's decision making. What we need is an Iraq Inquiry into how the BBC acts as a propaganda weapon for the enemy at time of war.

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Sunday 7 February 2010

BBC plans Boy George drama - Guardian

BBC plans Boy George drama: "

Mark Gatiss, Mathew Horne and Marc Warren will feature alongside newcomer Douglas Booth in drama set in 1980s

A drama chronicling the early life of musician Boy George will be the third film in BBC2's upcoming trilogy about the 1980s.

The part of Boy George will be taken by newcomer Douglas Booth, while Mark Gatiss plays music impresario Malcolm McLaren. Hustle actor Marc Warren will play nightclub pioneer and Visage front-man Steve Strange.

Gavin and Stacey star Mathew Horne will play Culture Club drummer Jon Moss in the new drama, which has been scripted by Hotel Babylon writer Tony Basgallop.

The BBC2 controller, Janice Hadlow, has given the green light to Worried About the Boy, a drama to be made by the independent producer Red which will follow the future Culture Club singer's journey to become a star of the 1980s fashion and music scene.

Worried About the Boy starts with George, known then by his real name George O'Dowd, leaving the London suburb of Eltham to work as a cloakroom attendant before he meets his future bandmates and becomes a fixture at London's Blitz Club – the favourite haunt of those at the forefront of the New Romantic pop culture movement.

BBC2's 90-minute drama will start filming in Manchester later this month and will be shown as part of the 1980s season on the channel this spring alongside The Royal Wedding, written by Abi Morgan, and an adaptation of Martin Amis' Money, starring Nick Frost.

The 80s season replaces the BBC's planned Decades series of dramas, which has been dropped because of creative problems and cost.

Ben Stephenson, controller, BBC drama commissioning, said: 'Worried About the Boy will be an evocative and visually enticing drama about one of our most iconic British pop stars. With its mix of music, fashion and youth, it rounds off our trio of dramas for BBC2's 80s season perfectly.'

The executive producer, Red founder Nicola Shindler, said the drama would 'show a different side to a story everyone thinks they know'.

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"

Church of England is 'living in the past', says BBC's head of religion - Telegraph

Church of England is 'living in the past', says BBC's head of religion: "The BBC's head of religion has accused the Church of England of 'living in the past' and said that the corporation should not give Christianity preferential treatment."

BBC to review how it treats commercial rivals after 'unfair' U2 deal - Times

BBC to review how it treats commercial rivals after 'unfair' U2 deal: "The BBC is to overhaul the regulations that dictate how much damage it can do to its commercial rivals after being criticised by its own fair trading committee."

STILL SEARCHING FOR HOPE AND CHANGE...

STILL SEARCHING FOR HOPE AND CHANGE...: "Have you read Mark Mardell's latest love message to Obama - and just before Valentine's! Mardell opines on The One's most recent teleprompter recital which contains 'solid economic measures' and in words which were 'striking'. Mardell goes on to allege that Obama was 'daring the GOP to vote against potentially popular measures such as curbing lobbyists, promoting new jobs and toughening banking rules.' Pity that under Obama lobbyists are even more to the fore and entrenched, jobs have hemorrhaged and $$billions have been lavished on the banks. Still, never let the facts get in the way of a good story, right Mark?

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WE LEAD - OTHERS FOLLOW! - Biased BBC

WE LEAD - OTHERS FOLLOW!: "Just to make it absolutely clear: the Sunday Express page one story here about BBC pensions and climate change follows on from what B-BBC exclusively revealed on Monday.

What's fascinating about how fast the warnming bubble is now bursting (in some quarters - not the BBC!) is that the MSM are now falling over themselves to follow up blogs like this - three months ago they didn't give a hoot. But of course, in the world of the MSM, credit where credit is due is not a term they recognise.

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INSTITUTIONAL AGW BIAS - Biased BBC

INSTITUTIONAL AGW BIAS: "My, who would have guessed that striking parallels between the BBC’s coverage of the global warming debate and the activities of its pension fund are revealed today.



The corporation is under investigation after being inundated with complaints that its editorial coverage of climate change is biased in favour of those who say it is a man-made phenomenon. The £8billion pension fund is likely to come under close scrutiny over its commitment to promote a low-carbon economy while struggling to reverse an estimated £2billion deficit.


Concerns are growing that BBC journalists and their bosses regard disputed scientific theory that climate change is caused by mankind as “mainstream” while huge sums of employees’ money is invested in companies whose success depends on the theory being widely accepted. The fund, which has 58,744 members, accounts for about £8 of the £142.50 licence fee and the proportion looks likely to rise while programme budgets may have to be cut to help reduce the deficit. The BBC is the only media organisation in Britain whose pension fund is a member of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change, which has more than 50 members across Europe. Its chairman is Peter Dunscombe, also the BBC’s Head of Pensions Investment.



I think B-BBC has done a cracking job in recent months nailing BBC bias in this regard and I wanted to thank all those fellow writers and contributors who collectively have done such a great job in this regard!

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