Thousands log complaints with BBC over closure of 6 Music - Telegraph

Thousands log complaints with BBC over closure of 6 Music: "The proposed closure of BBC 6 Music has prompted one of the biggest complaints
campaigns ever directed at the BBC, figures showed today."

Cringe Spotted - Biased BBC

Cringe Spotted: "From Autonomous Mind:

John Inverdale, the BBC presenter fronting the Scotland v England Six Nations Rugby today, said a few moments ago on BBC1 that Christine Bleakley successfully managed to water-ski ‘across the whole of the British Channel’ yesterday.

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

"

Simon Says... What He Was Signed Up To Say - Biased BBC

Simon Says... What He Was Signed Up To Say: "The first offering from Simon Schama's much-trailed ten-week stint on Radio 4's A Point of View is pretty much as expected - Labour spin from a Labour supporter. According to Schama the narrowing polls prove that 'we' the electorate really want bad tempered tough guy Gordon Brown as our leader, in defiance of those nasty anti-Brown newspapers and their politically-motivated narrative about the PM as a bully. (Remind me - where was Andrew Rawnsley's book serialised? Oh yes, those renowned Tory rags The Observer and The Guardian.) In his attempt to convince us that Gordon's the man we desire Schama gives much of his essay over to an embarrassingly unfunny imagined phone call between Peter Mandelson and Alastair Campbell (whose name he misspells). Schama's services don't come cheap; if this dire effort is a foretaste of what's to come I think a BBC Trust inquiry could be in order. There's not much that BBC bosses enjoy more than throwing bundles of cash at their favourite historian in return for his reliably left-of-centre take on events, but even some of them must be concerned at the quality of this opening piece.

And what's with Schama referring to himself in the third person? He did in it one of the two oft-repeated trails for the programme (the other had him enthusing about Labour closing the gap in the polls), and he does it again in an interview for the Radio 4 blog. It's an affectation that's ridiculous in ego-inflated punch-drunk boxers, never mind fucking historians.

Update. Forgot to add, Schama does get one thing correct - suck up to your opponents and likely they'll spit in your eye. Last week, in one of those depressingly common celeb-obsessed announcements that all political parties love, the Tories promised to involve big-name historians in their proposed overhaul of the national curriculum. One of those historians? Simon Schama.

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

"

USING YOUR MONEY WISELY? - Biased BBC

USING YOUR MONEY WISELY?: "The BBC needs every penny of that £3.5bn it steals from us each year. I mean, it does such invaluable work.

The BBC has spent tens of thousands of pounds on teaching staff how to use Facebook. The corporation is holding classes for large numbers of its 23,000 workforce, despite the fact that using the social networking site is second nature to millions. Hundreds of BBC workers have already signed up for the sessions, in which they learn how to set up accounts on Facebook, as well as Twitter and Bebo.

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

"

SAMCAM BAD, LIBDEMS GOOD - Biased BBC

SAMCAM BAD, LIBDEMS GOOD: "Caught BBC TV news this morning, rather in the same way as one catches a cold. There was an item on Samantha Cameron talking about her husband, David. I thought she came across fine and quite human. The BBC instantly went to get a woman's group who found the whole thing 'patronising'. It's clear they seek to undermine the Conservatives even on the most mundane level. Then there was a fawning interview with Nick Clegg, in which he was allowed to bash 'the rich' and agree with the Orwellian Childre's Commissioner that we are criminalising children. BBC loves the liberal agenda and this translates into the toadying interview with Cleggy.

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

"

Julian Fellowes: TV obsessed with youth - Telegraph

Julian Fellowes: TV obsessed with youth: "Julian Fellowes, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Gosford Park, has claimed
that television is run by executives who are obsessed with youth."

BBC left red-faced after coffee-powered car runs out of caffeine - Telegraph

BBC left red-faced after coffee-powered car runs out of caffeine: "The BBC have been left red-faced after the UK's first coffee powered car ran
out of caffeine leaving it on the side of the M1 motorway."

BBC sends staff on 'Facebook course' - Telegraph

BBC sends staff on 'Facebook course': "The BBC is spending thousands of pounds on sending staff on a course to teach
them how to use Facebook."

So it Goes. - Biased BBC

So it Goes.: "Two untypical BBC items to report.

The Culture Show BBC2 featured the Jewish Museum, soon to reopen after a £10 m refurbishment. Sharfraz Mazoor chatted to some well-known Jewish TV faces, and took us through various bits of British Jewish history. Which was nice.

Item two, Radicalization in Prison
BBC News 24 has been featuring Daniel Sandford’s report about this topic as 'news.' It even appeared slightly critical, and perhaps a tiny bit judgmental.
Which is – not nice, but comparatively frank for the Beeb.
Of course it’s not new, surely it’s been common knowledge for ages; and it goes without saying that they’re referring to ‘a distorted version of Islam,’ not the real version, which is peaceful.
There's an upcoming documentary on R5 Sunday by Donal MacIntyre.

Back to abnormal with something more typical.

Melanie Phillips reveals how the PA, led by so-called moderate Mahmoud Abbas, really feels about ‘the liberation of their own land.’ They still regard a mass murdering suicide bomber as a heroine. This might be hard to reconcile with their so-called desire for peace. But not to worry. Jeremy Bowen had this sorted in 2003:

“these people are seen by Palestinians as heroes of their would-be independence movement, and it's important for them to be mentioned [by Yasser Arafat] and it fulfils their ritualistic sloganising function”. [bless]
“Let's not forget that before Israeli independence Messrs Shamir and Begin were regarded by the British as terrorists. They went on - in the case of Begin - to win the Nobel Prize for Peace.”

The BBC is currently much more interested in the untimely granting of planning permission for a few houses for Jews. Joe Biden’s visit was just in time for that, but, dammit, just too late for the ceremonial dedication of a public square to Dalal Mughrabi. Which was a shame.

It seems that many posters and bloggers assume that it goes without saying that the BBC is terminally biased against Israel and in favour of Muslims. So much so that many of them do literally allow it to go without saying, unless something exceptional comes up and prompts them to mention it in passing. If people are so resigned to the BBC’s bias that they just sigh and roll their eyes at it, it makes B-BBC, including myself, look a bit futile and old hat. Which is annoying.

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

"

Different Strokes - Biased BBC

Different Strokes: "When Alan (I’m telling your story) Johnston was kidnapped in Gaza we never heard the end of it from the BBC.
But when whassisname was kidnapped, silence reigned.
Now Paul Martin’s been released, and Tom Gross offers an explanation.
Something to do with wanting to tell the truth.

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

"

EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: BBC director general Mark Thompson might be on the way out, but will he get a knighthood to sweeten the pill? - Daily Mail

EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: BBC director general Mark Thompson might be on the way out, but will he get a knighthood to sweeten the pill?: "
Only two post-war DGs have failed to get a 'K' - Alasdair Milne, after two Tory MPs sued the BBC for libel, winning £500,000; and Greg Dyke, forced out after the Corporation offended the Government by suggesting it 'sexed up' its Iraq dossier."

Welsh television channel attracts 'no viewers' for 200 shows - Telegraph

Welsh television channel attracts 'no viewers' for 200 shows: "A Welsh television channel funded by public money showed nearly 200 programmes
which were watched by nobody in the last month, according to official
figures."

BBC should stop chasing 'an extra million idiot' viewers, says Libby Purves - Telegraph

BBC should stop chasing 'an extra million idiot' viewers, says Libby Purves: "The BBC should stop scrabbling for audiences and worrying about how to get
''an extra million idiots'' to watch shows like Snog, Marry, Avoid?, the
radio presenter Libby Purves said."

BBC licence fee to increase by 2pc in April - Telegraph

BBC licence fee to increase by 2pc in April: "The cost of the BBC licence fee will increase by 2 per cent to £145.50 from
April 1."

A FORMAL COMPLAINT TO THE BBC – Part 4 - CiF Watch

A FORMAL COMPLAINT TO THE BBC – Part 4: "

This is a guest post by Mitnaged

BBC Radio London aired an interview with the Guardian’s Political Editor, Michael White on 14^th December last year. On the 19^th December last, I initiated a formal complaint about the content and conduct of that interview. You can find accounts of the various stages of the process here, here and here

The saga has come to an end. I received two pages of very underwhelming guff from Andrew Bell, the Complaints Director of the BBC’s Editorial Complaints Unit.

Embedded in it, at the beginning of the penultimate paragraph, was the information that he had not been able to uphold my complaint. There were clues earlier on, of course, notably where he told me that he had researched into targeted killings by Israel, which seemed to me to be over and above the call of duty, but no matter. The letter informs me that I can if I wish take the complaint further still, but I get the distinct sense that that would be rather like shouting down a well.

I was treated to a reiteration of exactly what Michael White said. In a discursive paragraph which set the scene (which I already knew by heart) of the discussion which had been prompted by the attack on Silvio Berlusconi, Bell told me that White began “recounting stories of broadly similar attacks on other politicians before changing tack slightly (emphasis mine) and addressing the rather distinct subject of political assassination.”

Bell reminded me about White’s mention of the lack of political assassinations in Northern Ireland during the troubles, that they “…didn’t take to murdering each other in a serious way…” (??)

This of course led on to the infamous and grammatically ridiculous statement from White:

“In Israel they murder each other a great deal. The Israeli Defence Forces murder people because they don’t like their political style and what they’ve got to say and it only means that people more extreme come in and take their place….”

Andrew Bell admits that Michael White’s terminology is “not as exact as it might be” (this has to be the understatement of 2010 so far) but then goes on to presume to tell me what Michael White actually means by this fatuous nonsense – that “it is clear” that White is referring to Israel’s controversial targeted killings of opponents it believes are involved in terrorism.

Bell’s research appears to have taken him on a long journey outside the remit of his investigation when he tells me that these extra-judicial killings are called “foilings” and that, although they are approved by the Israeli Supreme Court, others, including Michael White, appear to believe that they are extra-judicial killings and “possibly murder.”

And how does Bell know what White had in mind? Why, the implied comparison, by White, of Israeli leaders with political leaders in Northern Ireland who may have had a background in Republican terrorism but who “didn’t take to murdering each other in a serious way…!”

(The fundamental differences between the Northern Ireland conflict and that between Israel and her neighbours seem to have escaped Andrew Bell and Michael White both. The Northern Irish conflict was always far less toxic than that in the Middle East, according to Lord Alderdyce, one of the main architects of the Northern Ireland peace process. It seems to me therefore that any comparison between them is inherently flawed, but nevertheless Michael White, Andrew Bell and other misguided souls continue to try to use Northern Ireland as a template for solving Israel’s problems with Hamas’ murderous inclinations towards her).

Bell then continues that because White admitted that he had digressed from the original topic of discussion, this absolved the presenters from prolonging the digression by taking issue with his distinctly questionable and highly offensive views by challenging him about them! Bell explains that the presenters did not want to challenge or open up a debate about the merits and legitimacy of a policy of targeted killings because it would have taken them even further away from the topic.

(The disingenuousness of this excuse almost beggars belief. Bell has obviously forgotten that I, too, heard the broadcast. Quite apart from the impression the presenters gave, that they could not have challenged their way out of a paper bag, Bell studiously omits to mention, much less to address, my concerns that not only did these two not challenge White, but actually indicated agreement with what he said!)

For myself, I care very little about White’s opinions about anything. He is a Guardian political editor and little more need be said in the light of that. I do care, however, that presenters of a radio programme showed partiality and bias in their agreement with White’s distinctly questionable anti-Israel views and his choice of where and how to air them, and have been allowed to get away with it.

I am also very concerned that the BBC, which I fund from my licence fee, can promulgate such drivel from Andrew Bell under the guise of an investigation into a complaint. (In this it operates very much like CiF, which believes it can have the reader believing at least six impossible things before breakfast if it spins them correctly). The letter was verbose and unclear from the beginning and, as I have said, I realised that my complaint had not been upheld only at the end of the penultimate paragraph. In this it was rather like the tale told by an idiot, but one which completely lacked sound and fury and signified absolutely nothing and I began thinking, after the second reading of it, that Bell’s intention was to bore me into a stupor.

I am not surprised, of course. This is, after all, the BBC.

However, I did email Bell once more:

“Dear Mr Bell

“Thank you for your letter of 4^th March.

“In it, you write, “… I do not feel that there was any lack of impartiality shown by the fact that he [ie Michael White] was not challenged….”

“I am afraid that you miss the point completely:

“My complaint was not only that the presenters failed to challenge Michael White but that they indicated agreement with his views.

“It is evident to me that you have singularly failed to address this evident bias on their part in your reply to me and I would like an explanation of whether this was because you ignored this in your investigation and, if so, why you did not think it important.

“Yours sincerely”

Tagged: Antisemitism, Michael White "

What if they were Republicans? - Biased BBC

What if they were Republicans?: "From The Washington Examiner:

Democrats have suffered from a string of scandals reminiscent of the corruption that plagued the GOP before the party lost the majority in Congress four years ago…
Charlie Rangel… is under investigation by the House ethics committee for five separate matters…
Eric Massa…stands accused of sexually harassing a male staffer…
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is investigating whether (Governor David) Paterson improperly interfered in a domestic abuse case involving one of his aides.

Of those stories, only Paterson's has been covered briefly by the BBC and - surprise surprise - the article fails to mention which party he belongs to. Google News searches on Rangel and Massa reveal a total lack of interest, even after fresh revelations about the latter's bizarre predatory sexual behaviour.





It is completely inconceivable that the BBC would have dealt with these stories in the same manner if Republican politicians had been involved. The word 'Republican' would be blazing from headlines and highlighted in the opening sentences of numerous articles. The 'Republican sleaze' narrative would be unstoppable.

But these are Democrat scandals, and Democrat scandals simply don't get BBC journalistic juices flowing. Move along now, nothing to see here. Come back when a Republican does something wrong.

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

"

Who's Complaining? - Biased BBC

Who's Complaining?: "Some months ago, we commented on an item on The London Breakfast Show, hosted by Wossy’s brother Paul and an actress called JoAnne Good.
They were interviewing Michael White, political editor of the Guardian.

In synch with both the rag he represents and its conjoined twin the BBC, this man bears considerable hostility to Israel. Both news organs are renowned for their anti-Zionist position, but the BBC alone is constrained by an inconvenient obligation to appear impartial.

These incompatible phenomena (hatred of Israel and the obligation to appear impartial) might condemn the BBC to a lifetime struggle, viz. maintaining an increasingly fragile charade that compels them to wriggle and contort in a doomed attempt to reconcile the irreconcilable.

But by designating Israel automatically guilty (on all counts, at all times,) they shift the entire middle ground, readjusting it till it’s accepted that all and sundry are steadfastly opposed to Israel. This allows partiality to masquerade as impartiality, solves the problem of irreconcilable anomalies and upholds the BBC Charter, all in one fell swoop.

Because of the BBC’s own shortcomings, namely their lack of rigor in tackling the complexities of the Israel Palestine conflict, BBC reporters probably rely on romantic Lawrence of Arabia type fantasies or instinctive suspicion of Jews to influence the decision over which side to regard as the goodie, and which the baddie.
Then all they have to do is swallow and regurgitate the Palestinian narrative, lock stock and fiction.

Michael White’s words on December 14th 2009 obviously met with the approval of the interviewing duo, because their chorus of mmmms in agreement floated audibly across the airwaves.

“In Israel they murder each other a great deal. The Israeli Defense Forces murder people because they don’t like their political style and what they’ve got to say and it only means that people more extreme come in and take their place.”

Some listeners found this highly offensive, and were persistent enough to engage with the complaints procedure, whereupon an unfortunate BBC employee named Andrew Bell was tasked to respond. It appears he set about adapting the regulation one-size-fits-all reply to suit the occasion. He conceded that the terminology was “not as exact as it might be,” but added that since Michael White’s meaning was clear to Andrew Bell, ( that Israel murders people willy-nilly if they “don’t like their political style,”) he decided that all awkward, contrary and pedantic Moaning Minnies could ‘away and bile their heeds’ to borrow a phrase from north of the border.

While the BBC Trust, or the BBC Itself are the sole adjudicators,
complaining about the BBC seems as useless, as Mitnaged on CiFWatch puts it, as shouting down a well.

However, this has just popped into my inbox. Honest Reporting has concluded that complaining to the BBC is still worth it!
“All complaints are logged, and there is no better way to make the BBC aware of your concerns.”

I often wonder if anyone from the BBC still glances at this website.

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

"

MANKY BAN KI - Biased BBC

MANKY BAN KI: "Richard Black strikes again...he reports that the IPCC is going to be reviewed, but fails to tell us the most important point: that all the national scientific organisations chosen to conduct the process long since sold their collective souls to the climate lies machine. Guess what they will find? And old manky Ban Ki has already made up his mind. The science is 'robust', he declares, without an ounce of doubt. I am reminded of the Papal deliberations on infallibility during the Reformation.

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

"

The Jane Garvey Champagne Clip - Biased BBC

The Jane Garvey Champagne Clip: "Thanks to David Preiser in the comments at this earlier post for tracking down the Jane Garvey clip from May 2007 in which she told Peter Allen her memories of Labour's victory ten years earlier. Worth another listen:

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

"

TANGLED WEBB... - Biased BBC

TANGLED WEBB...: "Have a listen to Justin 'I love Obama' Webb of Today trying to persuade Sir Martin Rees - the climate change fanatic president of the Royal Society - that journalists who reported the Climategate 'controversies' were being irresponsible for daring to voice concerns that science might not be settled. Predictable, I suppose, but seriously biased all the same.

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

"

Graham Stuart on the BBC - Biased BBC

Graham Stuart on the BBC: "Conservative MP Graham Stuart appeared on the Victoria Derbyshire show this morning to discuss Lord Paul after the non-dom Labour peer had chickened out of an interview at the last minute. Stuart took the opportunity to have a bit of a go at the BBC (his segment begins approx 12.30 in - available for 7 days):

'Imagine a Tory donor who'd bought a company, run its pension fund into the ground, bought the assets back for pennies in the pound, who became a privy counsellor even though he wasn't qualified while personally funding the leader's leadership bid - they (sic) would be a massive story and yet somehow the BBC runs day after day on Lord Ashcroft, who as far as I can see has done nothing wrong, and gives Labour an easy ride. It takes me back to the tales we had of the champagne bottles in 1997 and I'm afraid the BBC remains biased and fails to ask the proper questions of those who are currently in power.'

Even though I won't be voting Tory I find much to agree with there.

Update 8pm. Iain Dale has made this his quote of the day (copy 'n' paste job, no link back here I might add). In response, Victoria Derbyshire has asked about the champagne reference:



I'm surprised she hasn't heard about it, but for her benefit here's her former Radio Five Live colleague Jane Garvey to explain. (Unfortunately the mp3 link no longer works. If Laban still has the sound file he might like to upload it again.)

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

"

BRITISH BRAINWASHING CORPORATION - PT 1 - Biased BBC

BRITISH BRAINWASHING CORPORATION - PT 1: "British Brainwashing Corporation. That's what it should be called because it is a central part of a massive, sustained effort to brainwash children throughout the world about climate change.

The impact of this devil's work is that thousands - if not millions - of children are growing up are terrified. Surviving may be difficult, and life tough, but why are our kids being made to arrive in their classrooms each morning and be told that we are all doomed because of the wicked ways of the West? And indoctrinated with cod science?

Not only that, the BBC is at the centre of a nexus of organisations that is training our children how to be 'campaigners' - climate change activists, whose highest goal in life is to become political activists trying to persuade the developing world to rise up against the West.

From Lusaka to the Shetlands kids are absorbing the climate change lies peddled by the corporation via its schools programme.

At the heart of this - and the subject of my first posting on this topic - is the BBC World Class project, which working with the British Council, links children throughout the world in climate change alarm.

The BBC is the propaganda arm; the British Council is the honey pot, because it provides information about grants which enable schools in Britain to link with other schools round the world to join in climate change projects that can involve overseas travel for teachers and kids and are worth up to £22,000 a pop. The money is naturally from the taxpayer, via bodies such as DFID.

The British Council, like the BBC, takes its brainwashing role very seriously. This is what it says in its annual report

:

We work with young people aged between 11 and 35 who share a passionate interest in climate change and want to make a difference. We provide training in areas such as project management and communication to help build a network of champions. By offering inspirational visits to organisations already working in this field we develop their knowledge of climate change and their project ideas.

As a result of efforts like this, one of the children from Sanday Community College on the Orkneys wrote this on the BBC website, illustrating the level of terror, ignorance and nonsense involved:

'We have storms on our island that sometimes lead to flooding on the roads. Lots of houses are below five metres above sea level and if sea levels rise many homes will be under water and the island would be divided into three islands. Lots of grazing land would become useless for farmers. I've noticed the water getting further up the side of the pier and the banks. We are all affected by climate change and it is our job to look after the natural world.'

And this came from a terrorised little girl in Lusaka:

We are also experiencing abnormal rainfall which leads to floods. They destroy our crops and kill people. Last season, many people were displaced.
People's properties are getting damaged due to storms and floods and they have nowhere to stay, nowhere to sleep and nothing to eat.

Climate change poem
Climate change, climate change,
Life has been lost because of climate change.
The rapid change in temperature has melted ice in polar regions.
It has left animals like bears homeless.
Plus, all over the country, lots of buildings have collapsed.
Fields of maize have been washed away,
Leaving farmers without food.
Climate change, oh spare life.

Political activism for kids is also firmly on the agenda of BBC World Class. In the related BBC learning Zone (of which more in another post), there is this neat little guide about how to go on a climate change demo. World Class helped send a number of such activists to Copenhagen to practise their techniques, and the site says:

Graeme, 14, from Shawlands, Glasgow, attends Hillpark Secondary School and is a UNICEF UK young climate activist.
He is already in Copenhagen for the Children's Climate Change Forum, which takes place from November 28 to December 4, and has been inspired by what young people in developing countries are getting up to.
The forum is setting an example for world leaders. 'All the young people have come to an agreement on how climate change can be tackled,' he said.
He believes that if a treaty is not agreed at Copenhagen young people will be severely affected. 'It will be a threat to their health, a threat to their human rights and a threat to their right to feel safe,' he added.

So there we have it. The BBC is funding the brainwashing of a whole generation of little eco-warriors, already conforming to the BBC mindset and ready to fight to the barricades for carbon dioxide taxes and a whole plethora of lunatic legislation. Not only that, its mission to inform and entertain has been grotesquely perverted to include the deliberate, calculated frightening and indoctrination of our youngsters. In a week in which the exploits of the Hitler Youth have been re-visited, Adolf would be speechless with admiration that his techniques have been so refined and sharpened.

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

"

Marcus Ryder: Too few black and Asian people involved in media awards - Guardian

Marcus Ryder: Too few black and Asian people involved in media awards: "

We need to stop being preoccupied with the awards themselves and join in the decision-making

Two weeks ago I sat at the Royal Television Society's Journalism Awards hoping to win an award. The great and the good from British current affairs were there but it was hardly the Oscars. There was no red carpet and no paparazzi . Probably only readers of the back pages of Media Guardian pay it any attention.

As one of the few black people at an awards ceremony not serving food, the same thoughts kept running through my mind. They range from 'Why aren't there more black and Asian people at the ceremony?' to 'Were black and Asian people overlooked in the winners and nominees?' I suppose the bigger question underlying all this, of course, is 'Are the television and film awards ceremonies racist?'

But, hand on heart, when I looked at the list of nominees and winners at the RTS ceremony I couldn't see any glaring omissions - programmes or people who were not nominated that should have been. Tamanna Rahman, an extremely talented Muslim reporter who exposed racism for Panorama, won Young Journalist of the Year, and even though Krishnan Guru-Murthy was pipped at the post for Presenter of the Year everyone knows that it is only a matter of time before he wins an RTS to go along with his Emma (Ethnic Multicultural Media Academy award). The reality is it is very difficult, if not impossible, to make an accusation of racism stick about the RTS awards - or almost any other British media award for that matter.

But for me that misses the point. We often think that when it comes to awards all that matters are the nominees, the winners and the big glittering ceremony. However, we all know award winners who have struggled for work after being 'recognised'. One black producer I can think of, who has more than his fair share of glassware, regularly calls me up looking for work, complaining that no one will employ him. David Upshal, another award-winning black producer, put it best when he recently posted on a Facebook page: 'Plenty of award winners return to a life of anonymity and plenty of the most influential people in TV have never won an award'. The fact is the most important part of an awards ceremony occurs not when everyone is in their rented tuxedos, but in the months running up to the tearful speeches.

Most awards are decided by small groups of industry figures watching, and then discussing, the best of that year's output. This is a chance to meet and 'feel out' fellow insiders. During the course of the discussions you see whether you are on the same 'wavelength', whether you share the same vision, and most importantly whether you have similar editorial judgments. Meetings with your peers, networking and seeing what makes other people tick are worth so much more than a strangely shaped piece of glassware. It is the contacts made in these small groups that decide who gets the next job, who is the executive producer on the next 'landmark' series and who sits on the next media quango. They are a major factor in the lifeblood of many a television career.

The fact is that far too few black and Asian people are involved in these backroom networking sessions and I struggle to answer why that is. Do awards bodies need to make more of an effort to attract a diverse membership? I suspect so. But I have also seen the efforts made by both Bafta and the RTS to widen their membership base. Often nothing is excluding black and Asian people except an annual subscription fee to one or other organisation. It is not uncommon for my white colleagues to be members of at least one television organisation – that definitely isn't the case when it comes to my black friends in television.

As a senior black producer at the BBC, I often think that we all need to be less preoccupied with shiny baubles and the awards themselves and more interested in how the television industry works. There is still racism, and there are still glass ceilings for ethnic minority people working in television but the award ceremonies are not the problem – not engaging with them and understanding how the television industry works is.

The bottom line is, if you want to get ahead, join a committee, whatever your racial make up. Bafta, RTS and all the other award bodies can definitely help your career but you don't need to win an award, or even be nominated, to get that next promotion.

Marcus Ryder is editor, current affairs, BBC Scotland

• Television industry
• BBC
• Baftas
• Television Baftas

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

"

Saturday Kitchen Live rapped over swearing incident - The Independent

Saturday Kitchen Live rapped over swearing incident: "

Popular TV show Saturday Kitchen Live has been rapped by the broadcasting watchdog after a guest chef swore while attempting to cook an omelette.

"

FISHY.... - Biased BBC

FISHY....: "The Environment Agency - which, from its support of windfarms should actually be known as the Environment-wrecking agency - has a new fantasy. It has spent shedloads of our money producing a survey that claims our energy needs could be met by building 26,000 water turbines on rivers round the country. Most taxpayers when faced with such codswallop would want to know how much damage that building schemes on this scale would do to the environment, how much it would all cost, how much such lunacy would put on the price of electricity bills and how practical it was in meeting the country's energy needs. But the intrepid boys and girls on the Today programme - greenie fanatics all - had only one concern when they covered the report his morning: whether the turbines can be built without affecting...fish. I kid you not. Meanwhile, real journalists, like Christopher Booker, are dealing with the real issues that are raised by this disastrous focus on green energy schemes; Britain is facing major power blackouts unless we abandon such idiocy.

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

"

BBC thinks viewers too 'stupid' for intelligent drama, says Tom Conti - Telegraph

BBC thinks viewers too 'stupid' for intelligent drama, says Tom Conti: "Tom Conti, the distinguished actor, has claimed that the BBC believes television viewers can no longer 'understand words longer than two syllables'."

IS ISLAM MISUNDERSTOOD - Biased BBC

IS ISLAM MISUNDERSTOOD: "Nice to see Nicky Campbell on 'The Big Question' asking the question on all our lips, 'Is Islam misunderstood?'

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

"

THE LIB-DEM SHOW - Biased BBC

THE LIB-DEM SHOW: "I think the Andrew Marr show has morphed into the Lib-Dem show this morning, with Charlie "Hic" Kennedy on the sofa followed by Saint Vince of I Told You So.. Harriet Har-person was also on to add extra balance. I think I spotted Liam Fiox but it was fleeting. Of course there's nothing like balance and this programme is nothing to do with balance. The BBC just lurve lefties...

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

"

PRIVATE VS PUBLIC - Biased BBC

PRIVATE VS PUBLIC: "Perhaps you saw this ludicrous comparison by the BBC of two equivalent jobs in private vs state sector. As a Biased BBC reader puts it, ONLY the BBC could find the only role in the country where the private
sector employee gets overtime and a final salary pension --- and where the
public sector employee doesn't!

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

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Demon Eyes - Biased BBC

Demon Eyes: "Friday’s Any Questions broadcast from the London Muslim Centre aka the East London Mosque was part of the BBC’s strategy of embracing Islam.

After the recent C4 Dispatches programme that showcased the unpleasant side of the Islamic Forum of Europe, appeasing Muslims might have seemed a good move by the BBC, what with their desire to promote social cohesion.

The fact that Ken Livingstone was one of the panellists and Mehdi Hasan was another, guaranteed that the programme would be on message.
Predictably, halfway through came the question ‘Does the press demonise Muslims?’
Mehdi Hasan’s outburst was as astonishing as it was hypocritical.

He said the MSM erroneously represent the outpourings of Anjem Choudary as though they were the views of all Muslims. They do this merely because they seek sensational stories. He insisted that the majority of Muslims, including the Islamic Forum of Europe, are moderate and peaceful. He said Andrew Gilligan was a disgrace.

He thought the press has created Islamophobia, which has turned people against Mosques being built in their area because they believe all Muslims are terrorists making bombs.

These ideas might have resonance from an Islamic perspective. But from a UK perspective things look different. Many people who don’t want Mosques do not have a phobia. Their objection to Mosques is likely because they associate them with non-assimilated communities whose cultural practises are at odds with the UK, quite a rational fear one might say. Many people who are perfectly sane don’t wish to be subjected to calls to prayer over loudspeakers several times a day - heaven knows some people find church bells intrusive - and many people, completely right in the head, just don’t want people walking round their neighbourhoods wearing shrouds. Certainly some ordinary English people still hang on to traditional English customs, like monogamous marriage, free speech, as well as new-fangled concepts such as equality for women and tolerance of homosexuality, agnosticism, sex drugs and rock’n’ roll; some of them like keeping dogs, listening to music and looking at cartoons of Mohammed with a bomb in his turban.

Back at the BBC noticing that radicalised Muslims predominantly perpetrate terrorism is considered Islamophobic, as is expressing concerns about such things as the increasing demands from Muslims that we conform to their idiosyncrasies.

All the panellists on Any Questions played it by those unspoken rules, tiptoeing round the subject dutifully, to boldly taboo where no man has tabooed before.

If anyone does want a prime example of demonisation by the press, the New Statesman is it. But Mehdi Hasan’s New Statesman target is Israel, so in that case demonisation is fine.

Any demonisation of Muslims by the media pales into insignificance beside the demonisation of Israel that has been the norm in the MSM for decades.
Even examining areas where Islamic ideology is incompatible with UK ideals is unacceptable in BBC world, whereas decades of the BBC’s treatment of Israel has resulted in hostile hordes, ready willing and able to express their passionately misinformed, phobic opinions in the press.

Exhibit ‘a,’ is the Guardian, closely followed by the Financial Times.

Future generations are affected too. Postcards that were sent to the Israeli Embassy by Spanish children declare: “Jews kill for money,” “Leave the country to the Palestinians” and “Go somewhere where they will accept you.”


They probably didn’t get this directly from the BBC, but it’s indicative of the European malaise that the BBC at once reflects and creates.

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THOSE MURDEROUS JEWS... - Biased BBC

THOSE MURDEROUS JEWS...: "

A Biased BBC reader contacts me with the following astute observation...

'....the last line in a report on an IDF soldier who posted
details of a military operation on Facebook reads: "Reports on whether the targets of the raids are
militants or civilians are often contradictory." The article thereby seeks to imply that the IDF targets
civilians for which there is simply no evidence.

The BBC consistently plays this game, implying that the IDF go after Palestinian civilians in much the same way as it likes to suggest that the US military in Afghanistan targets "wedding parties".

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

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