Stop the BBC - Abolish the Licence Fee

Undecided and Uninvited - Biased BBC

2010-04-18T14:19:00.000-07:00

Undecided and Uninvited: "I may have been a bit slow to realise this, but as soon as one becomes associated with a particular cause, one alienates people.

It is a mistake to assume that reasoned argument will win anyone over. People make their minds up for all sorts of reasons - then say “that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.”

The more rational you are, the more people use distancing strategies to avoid being seduced by your reasonableness. They marginalise you, label you, and grossly exaggerate your position to avoid accidentally considering any of your points.
This principle works both ways. I confess I’ve caught myself doing it, remonstrated with myself, and carried on regardless.

Questioning the wisdom of pandering to Muslims puts one into the dreaded position of Islamophobe.

On the Sunday programme R4 (31:06) I had to listen to Ed Stourton asking a group of Muslims about their voting habits. One was from the Muslim Council of Britain, an organisation I thought had been deemed unrepresentative of the ‘Muslim voice,’ but no matter. The MCB fella said their aim was fighting Islamophobia and mobilising the Muslim vote, though he was also anxious to point out that there is no such thing as a Muslim vote, apart from successfully ousting Oona King that time.

The conversation turned to ‘cavassing’ Muslims and encouraging them to get out and vote. There is a tickbox system to aid selection of your candidate. A helpful suggestion came from Ed Stourton.. ‘What,’ Muslims must ask, ‘are your views on foreign policy, and do you support Israel?’
‘Posh Ed’ presided benignly over a mutually assured consensus that no Muslim should entertain the idea of squandering their vote on anyone who supports the Zionist entity.

Fighting Islamophobia evidently entails embracing a little antisemitism. This reminds me of another incident that erupted on the internet that also revealed Muslim cognitive dissonance.

It involved the last minute withdrawal of an invitation to Douglas Murray to speak on a panel at the NUS conference at Gateshead.
Douglas Murray is an outspoken opponent of radical Islam, and an advocate of Jewish issues. Therefore, he has alienated quite a few.

The Federation of Islamic Student Societies (FOSIS) refused to participate in the conference unless Douglas Murray was disinvited.

Although Douglas Murray’s friendship is invaluable to supporters of Israel, especially when such eloquent champions are few and far between, the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) felt, on balance, that the chance to expose the hypocrisy of FOSIS before an NUS audience was worth the regrettable loss of his participation.
So they withdrew the invitation, whereupon he publicly criticised the UJS for being cowed by the Islamic Students’ demands.

According to the UJS, in the event, the FOSIS rep was well and truly defeated and exposed as a fool and a hypocrite; not a terribly difficult a task given that they host extremist Islamist speakers such as Anwar al-Awlaki at universities, and justify it on the grounds of ‘free speech,’ an argument that self destructs as soon as FOSIS is seen refusing to appear near Douglas Murray.

The argument is about whether it was worth jeopardising the ongoing backing of Douglas Murray, and sacrificing the opportunity to have him speak at the conference, for the sole benefit of exposing FOSIS to a comparatively limited audience. Past performance indicates that FOSIS itself is unlikely to change, and the ephemeral UJS triumph at the NUS conference seems to have evaporated.

It’s unlikely that Douglas Murray would retaliate by withdrawing his backing, but those who appreciate Douglas Murray’s friendship and support, and see its value in the context of the bigger picture, are concerned that the UJS were rude, misguided and unappreciative.

Antisemitic radical Islam infiltrating Britain’s academia is of no interest to the BBC it seems. There was a programme on R4 about rehabilitating radicals, but they are invariably regarded as the exception, not representative of the real Islam, and as misfits and outsiders.
Events suggest otherwise. That they’re not an exception, that they are representative, and they're gaining ground.
So if you haven’t already made up your mind, ask your prospective candidates whether they support Israel, and if not, don’t give them your vote.

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LET'S KICK UKIP... - Biased BBC

2010-04-18T14:16:00.000-07:00

LET'S KICK UKIP...: "For an example of BBC bias at its sneery, snidey best, have a listen to The World This Weekend here - the relevant item is at about 35 minutes into the programme and is by a reporter called John Manel. His target was alleged flaws in UKIP's immigration policy. He claims basically that the party is so stupid that it doesn't know what it is doing. In order to set up his premise, he talks to a chap called Will Sommerville, who he describes as follows:

Will Sommerville has worked as a civil servant in the Cabinet Office on immigration, for the left-leaning think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research, and for the Commission for Racial Equality. He is now a senior policy analyst at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute, based in Washington DC.

Who better to give and independent view of UKIP policy? Mr Manel's next tack is to sneerily talk to party figures and he edits the whole sequence into something which - hey presto! - Mr Somerville then says won't work. And in a final twist of the tale of bias, Mr Manel frames his reporting to suggest that this particular UKIP member is so venal and naive that he won't apply the policy to his own family; in other words, that old chestnut - if all else fails throw in ad hominem attack, especially if it is on someone who the BBC perceives to be right-wing.

This was a particularly biased report aimed at showing that UKIP are stupid, nasty, xenophobic racists. That's the BBC's default approach to the party. In coverage of UKIP so far, the leopard hadn't shown his spots; but it was only a matter of time before reports like this surfaced.

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FACTS FOR THE MEMORY.... - Biased BBC

2010-04-18T06:49:00.000-07:00

FACTS FOR THE MEMORY....: "

Here is an interesting exchange you should read....

On 7th April on the TODAY programme, champing
at the bit to link David Cameron to Richard Nixon for his use of the phrase
‘the great ignored’, M/s Berg falsely claimed that Richard Nixon coined the
phrase “The silent majority”.

The phrase 'the silent majority' was
actually coined by De Gaulle's Prime Minister Pompidou after De Gaulle called
parliamentary elections in 1968 and saw his party achieve the first absolute
majority in the history of the French Republic (clearly not something the BBC would wish to link David Cameron with).
The compiler of our B-BBC digest
Graeme sent a complaint to the BBC
8th April and copied it to the Conservative Party. He received a reply
15th April from BBC Complaints
Correspondent Liam Boyle which compounded falsehood upon falsehood.

See
Graeme's response below:

Dear Mr Boyle,

Thank you for your email.

Firstly, I note that when I submitted
my complaint via your website no reference number was generated or automated
email acknowledgement sent. This is very bad practice for dealing with
complaints and is an indication of the bad faith in which an endemically biased
BBC acts.

What, in my view, starkly
characterises the bad faith of today's BBC
and its contempt for democratic values is your following direct
falsehood:

Sanchia Berg's report
for the 'Today' programme on April 7th did not claim

that President Nixon coined the phrase the 'silent majority'

Sanchia Berg's exact words
once more: "Over 40 years ago Richard Nixon
coined a new phrase 'the silent majority' ... "

I transcribed these
words carefully from the recording you carried on your website. Of
course, you only carry these recordings for 7 days. I wonder if it is a
coincidence that you only respond to my complaint with this direct falsehood
after this recording has been removed?

Fortunately, the recording still comes
up under a search (see below) and I was able to confirm the 100% accuracy of my
transcription. As someone who adheres to the democratic standards the
Gramscian BBC has such contempt
for, I do not use the word "lie" to describe your direct falsehood as
I do not have the incontrovertible proof necessary that it
was intentional. However, on the basis of the systematic bias of the
BBC over the years I have every
reason to believe it was.

http://www.google.es/#hl=es&source=hp&q=sanchia+berg+%22the+silent+majority%22&meta=&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&fp=eb46abfb6321b77e

Mr Boyle, you're dealing with someone
who as a Tribunite member of the Labour Party in 1979 thought the only real
bias at the BBC was towards the
left and was against it as it was bad for democracy. I am absolutely
certain that Mr Cameron does not have the moral bottom to deal with the threat
the Gramscian BBC poses. I'm
sure you can continue to pursue your subversive ends with such patent
falsehoods with impunity till the Gramscian left has finally brought down
British democracy, which I'm sure it will. What you will
never escape though is that there will always be people like
me willing to remind you what your moral choice in life says about
you as a human being.

God bless,

Graeme...

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FISHY.... - Biased BBC

2010-04-18T06:48:00.000-07:00

FISHY....: "Here we have the BBC's Richard Black in the oleagenous, snake-oil-salesman mode he adopts whenever he seeks to tell us that he's listening to sceptics. He tries to convey that the Oxburgh report into Climategate had an important core message; that it's vital that climate scientists ensure that their work is accompanied by suitable warnings about its limitations. Yet he omits to tell us the most crucial fact in this particular equation - that in reaching their conclusions, Oxburgh and his fanatic cronies chose just 11 papers as a 'representative sample' to verify whether porkies were being told. And when asked, the Royal Society (the body which was behind the enquiry) come up with completely fishy explanations like this about how these papers were chosen. As Bishop Hill points out, it's a bit odd - to put it mildly - that the 11 were exactly the same as those also chosen by the House of Commons for its recent Climategate report. These people obviously think we are total, utter imbeciles.

Such contradictions are clearly far too complicated and too inconvenient for Mr Black to even consider.

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£1.6m for 18 new BBC bosses as it 'cuts costs' - Daily Mail

2010-04-18T06:29:00.000-07:00

£1.6m for 18 new BBC bosses as it 'cuts costs': "
One of the executives is being paid between £310,000 and £340,000 a year, and two between £190,000 and £220,000."

Yes, you heard right: BBC sends thousands of staff on course to teach them how to LISTEN - Daily Mail

2010-04-18T06:28:00.000-07:00

Yes, you heard right: BBC sends thousands of staff on course to teach them how to LISTEN: "
The BBC has been criticised for using licence fee payers’ money to send staff on a course to teach them how to listen."

Unreliable Sources by John Simpson | Book review - Guardian

2010-04-18T06:25:00.000-07:00

Unreliable Sources by John Simpson | Book review: "

Peter Beaumont finds partial truths in a BBC veteran's tale of his trade

Anyone who has been a journalist knows that whatever admiration one's efforts attract tends to be balanced by hatred and condemnation from another interested group. Ours is a Manichaean universe. This has always been the case, but what does seem to have changed recently is how visible those discontented with what is sneeringly known as the mainstream media (or 'MSM') have become.

For those on the further edges of both left and right, the MSM is usually defined as the problem. For tea partiers, we are too liberal and in hock to government, while for those who subscribe to Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman's Manufacturing Consent, we are too right wing and equally subservient to power.

So when Nick Davies's attack on the state of British journalism, Flat Earth News, was published two years ago, it plugged into a widespread sense of discontent with the MSM, which had been exacerbated by the misreporting of the run-up to the war in Iraq. While I didn't agree with everything he wrote, Davies did diagnose many of the modern media's failings and his coining of the neologism 'churnalism' seemed especially accurate.

He argued that there had once been a better era for reporting, before hacks became chained to the wheel of 24-hour news. This is an idea that John Simpson, the BBC's veteran world affairs editor, examines in Unreliable Sources. His survey of 20th-century reporting seems to confirm most of what critics of the MSM claim. From the Boer war onwards, he depicts egotistical and often unscrupulous hacks, many of them servile before power or even secretly working for it, such as the Times colonial editor, Flora Shaw, who was a go-between in the planning of the Jameson Raid of 1895-96.

When he offers 'extraordinary' exceptions, two are American – Ed Murrow and Martha Gellhorn – although he seems to forget that the latter, a friend of his, was capable of a famous fabrication, falsely placing herself at the scene of a lynching.

There are a couple of problems with this weighty volume. The first isn't confined to Simpson's book but to the broader issue of media criticism from Chomsky onwards, which has argued that journalists tend to self-regulate what they report to please authority, an assertion that has only ever been at best partially true. For what it fails to distinguish between is the degree to which journalism sets out to influence the society it operates within and the degree to which it is an inherent reflection of cultural norms and values.

Simpson, for instance, describes the media representations of the sieges of Mafeking, Ladysmith and Kimberley in the Boer war. But his assertion that 'Mafeking ensured that the mass of newspaper readers regarded the war as part of the nation's imperial adventure, rather than something questionable and potentially disastrous', while reflecting how we might see it today, ignores how contemporary readers would have felt about empire. It is a mistake he makes more than once, compounding the book's peculiarly ahistorical feel. In his conclusion, he says the media at the beginning of the 21st century are recognisably the same as those which existed at the beginning of the 20th. Is this really the case?

The second problem is related. The scale of his book, which tries to span two world wars, the end of empire, Northern Ireland, the Falklands and Kosovo, means it is difficult to marshal a cogent argument save that a lot of rum things go on in the media. Hardly a startling revelation. The drawbacks of this approach are particularly noticeable in later sections, where he is selective in presenting his material. His depiction of the Blair government's attempts to control the media over the Kosovo war, for example, is crudely stripped of explanatory context and the war is turned into a simplistic tale of gung-ho misreporting and government misdeeds.

Isn't he guilty of what he lambasts others for – misrepresentation? For if his subtext is that honest, passionate reporters have to struggle against vested interest to tell what they see, he has written out of his history an awful lot of them. In the case of Kosovo, this means the likes of Tim Judah, Anthony Loyd, the late Kurt Schork and photographers Ron Haviv and Andrew Testa. All have been edited out of history to make a better story. But that's journalists for you.

Peter Beaumont

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Jeremy Hunt: Tories would scrap BBC Trust - Guardian

2010-04-14T14:54:00.000-07:00

Jeremy Hunt: Tories would scrap BBC Trust: "

Shadow culture secretary reinforces Tory pledge to get rid of BBC Trust if his party wins the general election

The shadow culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has today reinforced the Tory pledge to look immediately at scrapping the BBC Trust if his party wins the general election.

Hunt, in an interview on The Media Show on BBC Radio 4, also gave a clear indication that under a Tory government the BBC should expect a freeze on its £3.4bn licence fee for the next period from April 2013.

In its election manifesto yesterday, the party promised to give the National Audit Office 'full access' to the BBC's accounts in order to make the corporation more accountable for the way it spends the licence fee.

Last year Hunt said that the BBC Trust, which replaced the corporation's board of governors in 2007, had to change and that the Tories were considering 'ripping up the charter' ahead of its expiration in 2016 to achieve its plan.

'We looked at that [ripping up the charter] and decided to stick with the current charter,' he said. '[However] we want to make a start on reforms that can be made now... like the name.'

He added that the BBC would benefit from a new system whereby director general Mark Thompson would have some form of non-executive chairman, or similar figure, to support his decision-making.

'I don't think the structure works at the moment,' he said, arguing that the BBC Trust is conflicted as cheerleader and champion of the corporation. 'What the viewers want, the people that pay the licence fee, is a body wholly independent they can complain to if they are not happy with something [the corporation] has done.'

When asked about freezing the licence fee Hunt gave a clear indication that the BBC could almost certainly rule out a rise from the Tories in the next settlement.

'We are not ruling out any options at all,' said Hunt. '[However] it is unlikely that the BBC would be able to argue for a rise in the current climate.'

Hunt also said that the Tories' long-overdue creative industries review, headed by former BBC director general Greg Dyke, was unlikely to emerge before the 6 May election. However, he added that some of the ideas that had 'arisen' from the review have, and would, emerge during the Conservative election campaign.

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Mark Sweney

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MOVE ALONG THERE, NOTHING TO SEE.... - Biased BBC

2010-04-14T09:52:00.000-07:00

MOVE ALONG THERE, NOTHING TO SEE....: "The BBC is very keen to tell us in detail why Lord Oxburgh and his panel of cronies have exonerated in a rushed report the University of East Anglia climate change fabricators. Their reasons for the whitewash - which can be paraphrased as the need to perpetuate the lies - are trumpeted loudly, while the sceptic community gets, as usual, only a nodding mention, 74 words out of 760. Here, for the record and for starters, are some of the concerns of 'sceptics' that the BBC has chosen not to tell us. They are from Steve McIntyre, of Climate Audit, the man who for almost a decade has been painstakingly revealing the tricks and lies of those who have been so rapidly absolved:

The Oxburgh report ” is a flimsy and embarrassing 5-pages.

They did not interview me (nor, to my knowledge, any other CRU critics or targets). The committee was announced on March 22 and their “report” is dated April 12 – three weeks end to end – less time than even the Parliamentary Committee. They took no evidence. Their list of references is 11 CRU papers, five on tree rings, six on CRUTEM. Notably missing from the “sample” are their 1000-year reconstructions: Jones et al 1998, Mann and Jones 2003, Jones and Mann 2004, etc.)

They did not discuss specifically discuss or report on any of the incidents of arbitrary adjustment (“bodging”), cherry picking and deletion of adverse data, mentioned in my submissions to the Science and Technology Committee and the Muir Russell Committee.

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Letters: Spoiling the joke about Down's syndrome - Guardian

2010-04-12T16:52:00.000-07:00

Letters: Spoiling the joke about Down's syndrome: "

Comedian Frankie Boyle's favourite catchphrase appears to be 'Ah, but it's all true, isn't it?' He reportedly said as much to a woman in the audience at his Glasgow show who objected to his routine about Down's syndrome (Report, 9 April). Sharon Smith, the mother of a Down's syndrome daughter, had become upset that he thought it hilarious that Down's syndrome people die 'early'. (Still, it's all true, isn't it?)

It depends how you define 'dying early'. When I was growing up, I was told my sister, who has Down's syndrome, would not live much beyond 20. She's now approaching 50. Since the early 80s, the life expectancy of people with Down's syndrome has more than doubled and is now put by some estimates as high as 60. That's because they now receive decent medical and social care. Still, I don't want to spoil the joke. That would just be me being politically correct and we all know where that leads.

Colin Richardson

London

• The experience of Sharon Smith reminded me of a similar occasion some time ago when Julian Clary used people with learning disabilities as a target. When compering Have I got News for You, he referred to '… the village idiot who collects the trolleys at your local Tesco'. I wrote to the BBC to complain and said I had known a number of people who, having survived hospitalisation and other forms of exclusion, were holding down permanent jobs very successfully. The BBC replied that comedy was subjective and the question of which groups should be immune was a matter for personal judgment. I sympathise with Mrs Smith's view that Frankie Boyle's style was 'childish playground stuff'. But it is also a form of denigration which thinly disguises a hatred of difference. Compared with the controversial and irreverent humour of, say, Richard Pryor, it is – to use Elvis Presley's phrase – 'about as funny as a turd in a punch-bowl'.

Dr Alan Phipps

Manchester

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Radio 5 Live criticised over Rage Against The Machine swearing - Independent

2010-04-12T04:51:00.000-07:00

Radio 5 Live criticised over Rage Against The Machine swearing: "

BBC station Radio 5 Live has been criticised by the broadcasting watchdog for letting the US band Rage Against The Machine swear four times on the breakfast show before they were faded out by a producer.

MORE BBC BIAS... - Biased BBC

2010-04-12T03:11:00.000-07:00

MORE BBC BIAS...: "I notice that in pursuance of its dream of a 'hung Parliament' the BBC's Today reporter Kevin Connolly claims that such an event could represent a 'huge opportunity' for the DUP. Gosh, how exciting and what a good reason to vote for them, right? Well, it could do if they were ever there but as Mr Connolly should be aware, the DUP's attendance record at Westminster is appalling. Worse, DUP leader Peter Robinson has stated that should he be returned (I am running against him) then he will continue to double job, instantly ruling himself out of two-thirds of votes. I will be contacting the BBC about Mr Connolly's biased coverage (again) this morning, but as of yet they do not respond. It's a disgrace the way in which the BBC is interfering in the NI aspect of the General Election and spinning for the establishment.

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ANY COLOUR YOU WANT... - Biased BBC

2010-04-12T03:10:00.000-07:00

ANY COLOUR YOU WANT...: "...so long as it is black. Yes, Henry Ford's maxim still directs much of what the BBC passes off as 'debate'.

Last night, here in Northern Ireland, Irish republican terrorists detonated a car bomb outside MI5 headquarters at Holywood just outside Belfast. Plus ca change? Irish republican terrorists have been doing this for decades. But through the pervasive prism of the 'peace process' - to which the BBC is ideologically committed - there are now 'good' and 'bad' terrorists. Hence IRA commander 'Butcher Boy' Martin McGuinness is a good guy, and those behind last night's bombing are the bad guys. Today sees Policing and Justice powers devolved here, a key IRA demand, but the orthodoxy perpetuated by the BBC is that this is a good thing. So, just before 8am, the BBC Today invited two Police Officers on to discuss this. Both were 100% supportive of the idea that Police and Courts now answer to IRA commander McGuinness. I could have given the BBC names of dozens of Police Officers revolted at this idea but curiously, they could ONLY find those who agree with the rancid deal. Where is the debate, where is the varied opinions, where is the representation of the outrage that many people in my community feel about this?

As you may know, I am standing for election in this General Election and so I have been canvassing opinion on the ground. Many people are nauseated by the idea that an IRA terrorist in the shape of McGuinness gets to appoint the Attorney General and gets to select the person who will appoint future judges. But were one to listen to the BBC as an alleged impartial reporter of facts, none of this would be obvious. That deception, of course, is part of the toxic BBC remit. Pravda but in HD.

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SO COMPLEX.... - Biased BBC

2010-04-12T03:09:00.000-07:00

SO COMPLEX....: "I caught an interview on Today this morning at 7.34am with Jo Webber, deputy director of the NHS Confederation. The issue for the BBC was why the % increase of pay awards for NHS bosses was so much higher than for nurses. Ms Webber kept repeating how 'complex' a job it is to run an NHS Trust, she must have used the word at least a dozen times! At no point did the BBC interviewer ask her should we not therefore simplify this complexity so reducing costs. The impression left was that only the most highly skilled management can run an NHS trust (Equivalent to a FTSE 250 company and less well paid, she claimed)) and that they do so from a vocational yearning!!Just so much nonsense and, as ever, the BBC shies away from challenging NHS orthodoxy.

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Stephen Glover: Press battle lines are reset – but who gets the BBC's vote? - The Independent

2010-04-11T17:04:00.000-07:00

Stephen Glover: Press battle lines are reset – but who gets the BBC's vote?: "

From the moment he was elected Tory leader in December 2005, David Cameron developed a new media strategy.

Carbon credit documentary should not have been shown, BBC admits - Guardian

2010-04-11T02:38:00.000-07:00

Carbon credit documentary should not have been shown, BBC admits: "

Corporation acts on Observer investigation into secretive trust linked to socialite Robin Birley that funded film on his carbon credits firm, Envirotrade

A BBC documentary about socialite Robin Birley and his carbon credits business venture in Africa should never have been broadcast, an internal inquiry by the corporation has found. Millions of viewers were misled because the sympathetic documentary shown on BBC World News failed to declare that it was financed by a secretive trust that was linked to Birley.

The BBC acted in response to an Observer investigation into Birley's 'philanthropy capitalism' venture in Mozambique. Taxpayers' money was used to subsidise poor farmers there to protect forests and plant trees that absorb carbon dioxide. Envirotrade, Birley's company, then sells 'carbon credits' to celebrities and businesses wanting to offset their emissions. Customers who used Birley's venture to offset emissions included the agency that handles Brad Pitt and George Clooney.

Rockhopper TV, the production company that made the documentary, knew but did not disclose to BBC executives, of links between Envirotrade and the Africa Carbon Livelihood Trust, which funded the making of the documentary. Had it done so, Taking The Credit, the documentary, would never have been shown, the BBC ruled, although it also claimed the programme was balanced.

Birley set up and funded the Mauritius-based trust but would not say who its other donors are or how much Rockhopper was paid to make the programme. Envirotrade saw it as a 'marketing' opportunity.

A BBC statement said: 'As a consequence of this case, [we] will work closely with Rockhopper to ensure that robust compliance measures are implemented … Until the BBC is fully satisfied that these measures have been put in place, no Rockhopper programmes will be acquired or commissioned.'

Rockhopper, which is run by Richard Wilson, a former BBC environment correspondent, and ex-Sky News presenter Anya Sitaram, told the Observer that every indication suggested that the trust was independent.

However, the inquiry found there was a 'conflict of interest [that] risked bringing the BBC's editorial reputation into disrepute' because the trust's managing director, Charles Hall, is also chief executive of Envirotrade.

The BBC's own compliance failures have not been made known because the corporation refuses to release its report into the Rockhopper affair, adding to concern that a wider problem exists over commercial sponsorship arrangements on its international channel.

Birley founded Envirotrade in 2002 with a South African, Philip Powell. A year later, the European Commission awarded a €1.5m (£1.3m) grant to Envirotrade and Edinburgh University to pilot a forest project at N'hambita, Mozambique. However, in October 2007, the EC suspended its last €450,000 payment for the project and concluded the following year that unsubstantiated claims were being made about its environmental impact. The suspension was still in force when Rockhopper filmed with Birley in Mozambique last August. By then, a second team of experts working for the EC had just returned from the project. Their report was more positive than the first, but continued to find 'major drawbacks' with the implementation of an aspect key to N'hambita's survival – the sale of carbon credits. Viewers of the documentary, which was shown last October, were not told about these criticisms.

Envirotrade says it has sold £1m of carbon credits. However, the EC's criticisms could mean at least £150,000 are unverified and may have to be paid back. Charles Hall, Envirotrade's chief executive, told the Observer: 'The business model for Envirotrade frankly remains to be proven. The fact that this can be made into a sustainable business on the basis of selling carbon offsets remains to be seen.'

It has also emerged that Envirotrade's London arm is insolvent and owes £800,000 to its parent company in Mauritius.

Hall revealed that the N'hambita project needs an immediate £1m injection from Birley. However, Birley, who says he has already put in more than £1.5m, has given no legal undertaking to provide these extra funds.

Sitaram, executive producer of the documentary, said that had Rockhopper known about the EC's criticisms it would not have touched the project. However, six weeks before broadcast, Fern, a climate campaign group, outlined these criticisms in an email exchange with the programme's researcher.

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Hilarious, Jonathan Ross? It wasn¿t for me and my wife, says Andrew Sachs - Daily Mail

2010-04-11T02:28:00.000-07:00

Hilarious, Jonathan Ross? It wasn¿t for me and my wife, says Andrew Sachs: "
In an interview, Ross said the notorious incident - in which he and Russell Brand left obscene messages about Mr Sachs’s granddaughter on his answerphone - was ‘fun’."

2010-04-11T02:27:00.000-07:00

GREEN INSANITY - Biased BBC

2010-04-10T11:49:00.000-07:00

GREEN INSANITY: "The election continues, with all three main parties steadfastly refusing to discuss properly their insane, bigoted advocacy of massive new taxes on energy. Meanwhile, the BBC continues to report the agenda of greenies with relentless bias. Take this story about greenie fanatics stopping the import to Kenya of GM maize on the ground that it might contiminate the soil. Such supersititious rot would put Matthew Hopkins (the Witchfinder-General) to shame, but the reporter doesn't waste an ounce of effort looking for alternative views. Tens of thousands are at risk of starvation in Kenya because of cyclical drought, but the BBC has green issues to pursue and that is all that matters.

Anyone who has visited Africa knows that one of the main problems of the continent is inadequate power supplies. As well as endless power cuts, tens of thousands of Africans die every year through house fires that are caused because they don't have access to electricity and use crude torches instead. So when the World Bank decides to help (and act sensibly for once) with the building of a major new power plant, it should be unqualified good news. Not for the BBC; its main concern in its reporting of the topic is what 'environmentalists' think.

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Jonathan Ross: 'Sachsgate was hilarious and I can't wait to leave BBC' - Telegraph

2010-04-10T03:57:00.000-07:00

Jonathan Ross: 'Sachsgate was hilarious and I can't wait to leave BBC': "Jonathan Ross has described the 'Sachsgate' affair as 'hilarious'
fun and claimed that the BBC bosses who failed to stand by him were
pandering to politicians."

Tom and Jerry could never be made today because of health and safety rules - Telegraph

2010-04-09T03:47:00.000-07:00

Tom and Jerry could never be made today because of health and safety rules: "Classic children's cartoons like Tom and Jerry could never be
made today because of health and safety rules, according to the creator of Bob
the Builder."

Complaints BBC's interview with Elle Macpherson was 'advert for her lingerie' - Telegraph

2010-04-09T03:45:00.000-07:00

Complaints BBC's interview with Elle Macpherson was 'advert for her lingerie': "The BBC is investigating complaints that an interview with Elle Macpherson was
effectively an 'advert' for her lingerie collection in Paris."

Comedian Frankie Boyle confronted for mocking Down's syndrome victims - Daily Mail

2010-04-09T03:42:00.000-07:00

Comedian Frankie Boyle confronted for mocking Down's syndrome victims: "
The Scot, formerly a panellist on BBC quiz Mock The Week, devoted five minutes of a live stand-up show to a foul tirade against those with Down's syndrome."

RELENTLESS! - Biased BBC

2010-04-09T03:33:00.000-07:00

RELENTLESS!: "I had the misfortune to ensure 60 minutes of the BBC 'Today' bias this morning and believe me, it's just not good for your health! Between 7am and 8am, there was a stream of anti-Conservative propaganda spewing from the State Broadcaster and I speak as someone who is not a Cameron Conservative but believes in the need for balance!

The farce started with Stephanie Flanders going over to Dublin. Apparently there has been a recession there (!) and Steph went to have a chat with Brian Lenihan, the Finance Minister. In his first sentence, Lenihan explained he was a Keynsian (BBC tick) but because Ireland had no access to easy funds, tough decisions had to be taken (BBC sad). Stephanie explained that if the scale of these cuts was replicated in the UK, it would mean tens of thousands of job losses in the public sector. Oh no. Stephanie didn't ask if the cuts were working.

This set up the next item which was...cue drum roll ..Tory plans for 'efficiency cuts' in the public sector. BBC produced an academic professor to point out just how dreadful this would be. Plus ca change?

Then, a break from undermining the Conservatives to go to South Africa for the funeral of 'notorious white supremacist' leader Eugene Terreblanche. I found this guy to be a pretty repellent character BUT then again BBC silence on the murder of 3000 white farmers since the notorious ANC came to power in 1994 hardly provides balanced debate, does it?

Anyway, we all know whites are bad so back to some more Conservative bashing concerning their voluntary national citizen service scheme. Sanchia Berg made plenty of mention of 'people with posh accents' telling da yoof what to do. That pesky Etonian Cameron, eh?

Then, across the Irish sea to my part of the woods where Kevin Connolly talked uncommon nonsense for 5 minutes, pretending we now live in a land of milk and honey in which the 'constitutional question' is settled. I am inviting Kevin to come an interview me so an alternative view can be heard, I bet he won't. Will keep you posted.

Moving on this time across the pond, we had a bit of Obama worship and in particular on his cunning plan that "could" lead to tough new sanctions being imposed on Iran, sometime, in the not too distant future. Possibly. Maybe, Bet the Mullahs are panicking about that. Again, no counter voice protesting Obama's total failure to grasp the nettle on this issue! On the other hand, he does bully Israel and that is always worth a BBC bonus.

Finally, and exhausted, I listened to a tribute to Sex Pistol's manager, Malcolm McLaren who has died aged 64, Wish the BBC had played 'Pretty Vacant', it would have summed up the last hour of bias, drivel, propaganda and faux comment. No future for you?

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NEWSNIGHT DISGRACE - Biased BBC

2010-04-08T15:44:00.000-07:00

NEWSNIGHT DISGRACE: "Anyone watch Newsnight? Paxman interviewed Labour apologist Liam Byrne on the matter of the Conservatives £6bn savings vs Labour £15bn. Byrne just bluffed it and castigated the Tories. Probably as one would expect. But then, by way of 'balance', a businessman was in the studio to respond, It was suave Dragon's Den star James Caan, and yes, he agreed with Labour and suggested that the Labour NIC hike next year was 'no big deal'. Fair and balanced - both sides supporting Labour,

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A TAXING PROBLEM... - Biased BBC

2010-04-08T02:33:00.000-07:00

A TAXING PROBLEM...: "It seems to me that like Labour, the BBC does not understand why an increase in NIC is a tax on jobs.Perhaps Statism erodes the capacity for clear economic thinking but I listened in amazement to the BBC 'Today' interview with Sir Stuart Rose, he of M&S fame. When Rose pointed out that the NIC increase with Brown and Clegg think so virtuous is a direct impediment to business growth, he was ignored on the substance of that argument and instead presented with the Labour attack line that IF government does not jack up NIC it will have to increase VAT. A false choice and talk of reducing Government efficiency was dismissed. Rose rightly pointed out that if VAT did rise, it would be a tax on consumption and therefore one has the choice to avoid it by limiting expenditure whereas an NIC increase hits all, this was met with silence. Then, most disgracefully, Humphrys suggested that Rose was saying these things because he would be offered a peerage to the Lords. Rose denied this but the impression was aimed at listeners, not Rose. More BBC attack dog stuff dressed up as news.

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Inconvenient Tale - Biased BBC

2010-04-07T06:49:00.000-07:00

Inconvenient Tale: "Please put the pressing issue of UK politics to one side for a moment to read the latest post on Robin Shepherd’s blog. It’s aimed at the BBC because of something they're currently ignoring.
Robin says he has reason to believe that BBC editors sometimes read his blog, and I sincerely hope they do. Whether they still read this one I know not. In case they do, I’ll reiterate here that Robin poses a challenge to the BBC. It’s a pigs will fly sort of a challenge, but never mind.

The story involves rape, a television series, Palestinian prisoners, and the IDF.
All subjects that would normally be of great interest to the BBC. So why isn’t this one? Read on....

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Here is the news... - Biased BBC

2010-04-07T03:53:00.000-07:00

Here is the news...: "The pretence of impartiality has been scrapped in the last-minute scramble to change minds before Labour faces the electorate next month.

Well, actually that's a paraphrase of the introduction to this article. No mention of the fact that Labour has a large majority and that it has no need, based on this, to scrap anything. The correct reading of events must be that they are trying to disrupt Conservative campaigning by changing some of the talking points relating to tax, for instance the cider tax and the broadband tax. Notice in the article how the 'experts' magically align themselves with the Government policy while the Conservatives are depicted as spoilers. Repeat after me, Beebies: Labour has a majority and has no need to scrap anything; the Conservatives have no power to scrap this stuff; any such action we can presume is dictated by the drive for Labour presentation at the elections. Fair dos, eh?

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ELECTION OVER? - Biased BBC

2010-04-07T03:52:00.002-07:00

ELECTION OVER?: "Based on BBC GE coverage, two things strike me.

1. It's going to be a hung Parliament.

2. Most people are bored with it.

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COME WHAT MAY - Biased BBC

2010-04-07T03:52:00.001-07:00

COME WHAT MAY: "It may be a general election, and we may be emerging from the coldest winter in thirty years. But hey ho, this is the BBC, and there's always a global warming scare story around somewhere. Today, it's that old canard, 'early spring'. The fanatics at the Woodland Trust have done a bit of cod research to back up their prejudices, and Richard Black has swallowed it hook, line and sinker, as usual. If he'd spent two minutes searching the internet, he would have found this excellent piece, filed yesterday, which urges strong caution and points out that all such claims are fraught with problems. It lays bare how warmists, led by the BBC, have been pushing relentlessly this seam of scariness for more than a decade. But never let the facts get in the way of a good scare story, Richard, eh? And certainly never quote anybody who might disagree with your moonshine.

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BBC should be held to account, MPs say - Telegraph

2010-04-07T03:52:00.000-07:00

BBC should be held to account, MPs say: "The BBC's insistence on financial secrecy in the way it spends billions of
pounds of public money 'beggars belief', according to an influential
committee of MPs."

Letters: Today needs a new tomorrow - Guardian

2010-04-06T16:56:00.000-07:00

Letters: Today needs a new tomorrow: "

What Ceri Thomas does not seem to get is that to be an effective interviewer it is not necessary to behave like a bully (Comment, 6 April). On many occasions I have been driven to turn off, or down, an interview on the Today programme because of John Humphries' or others' aggressive and loud interviewing. They demonstrate an inability to listen or let the interviewee answer the questions. They repeatedly interrupt, preventing a full response. They seem to want to be the focus of the interview, rather than the person being interviewed.

Listeners are not, as they seem to think, stupid. We are perfectly able to discern when someone is prevaricating. Thomas's patronising comments about women interviewers show he fails to understand that macho posturing does not serve the listener, or the subject in question. He obviously learnt nothing from the superb interview given by PD James last year when she edited the Today programme and, with her calm, determined and discerning questioning, tied the head of the BBC up in knots. More women (or men) like this please.

Sally Barnes

London

• Listening to the macho men on the radio sharpening their wits as they set the parameters and define the issues of the election campaign, it must have occurred to much of their audience that it's time for a change. A clutch of mainly male commentators has ruled the airways for too many years. They are unelected, yet collectively display the arrogance of power; speak as from some unassailable moral high ground; undermine any lingering respect we may have for the great officers of state; make a point-scoring game of debates on pressing national issues, presumably hoping to gain kudos for an assertiveness bordering on aggression and, of course, neither their fat salaries, expenses or pension arrangements are put up for public scrutiny.

Sue Hopkinson

Ullapool, Ross-shire

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Open the books, furious MPs tell 'reluctant' BBC - Daily Mail

2010-04-06T16:55:00.000-07:00

Open the books, furious MPs tell 'reluctant' BBC: "
The Public Accounts Committee is furious that the broadcaster has not opened up its books so that licence fee payers can see how their money is being spent."

Ceri, it's simple: ask more women on air - Guardian

2010-04-06T14:14:00.000-07:00

Ceri, it's simple: ask more women on air | Bidisha: "

I also work for a BBC radio programme, yet my department has gender equality. The BBC's Today programme should take note

Poor Ceri Thomas. Verily, he squirmeth. Watching him wriggle makes me feel like a strapping schoolyard brawler poking a weeny worm with a stick. Is it the worm of discrimination, being poked by the stick of justice? Hmm – you can see why my prose never made Book at Bedtime. Anyway, I write in a spirit of absolution. Thomas is a victim of circumstance. He happens, through a stroke of bad luck which must agonise him, to manage a show which has one woman presenter out of five and 10 woman contributors out of a hundred. It makes me sad. But it makes me happy that he's 'working on it'.

Let Queen B help.

To get more women on your show you need to invite more. Invite half, since that is a fair representation of us in the population. Defenders of the status quo speak as though this is a difficult procedure, logistically complicated, psychologically taxing, physically a little nauseating and philosophically complex. It's not. Research who you want and then contact them. Do not wait for Mercury (planet of communication) and Uranus (planet of sudden change) to be in alignment with Aries (sign of energy).

Equality happens when the participants in a team value it and act on it. I currently present The Strand for the World Service. We have total sexual equality and a cultural diversity which make me want to kiss the marble steps of Bush House in tribute every time I go to work. We've achieved this by facilitating it. Same goes for Front Row, various Beeb radio arts shows and the few documentaries I've been privileged to work on. The same goes for countless producers I've met. It is endorsement from the top – the editors and execs – that is needed.

Thomas talks defensively about 'the re-emergence of bull-headed sexism', as though this is what Today has been accused of. It isn't. Bull-headed sexism is easy to fight because of its blatancy. Far more pernicious is an unconscious and generalised misogyny which is prevalent in organisations and industries of all kinds. The public absence of women is enforced automatically and attempts to change are resisted with spurious arguments fuelled by basic unwillingness. It makes no difference whether the perpetrators are male or female. If they have no politics they will not do anything to challenge the status quo. Additionally, women in these organisations are in a tricky position: if you speak up, you jeopardise your position.

Should Thomas be feeling unconfident in the face of all this, let me urge him to valour. If he employs so very few women in such a very obvious way, on such an important show, he is seeming to hint that he does not like women. If he did, he would be able to stomach more than one at a time. It must torment him to be misrepresented like this, so no doubt any changes will be dramatic and happen swiftly. We women are the single biggest group in the world. Ceri Thomas, you have the power to change the world of Today, and we will make you a hero for it. Be not afraid.

Hope that helps.

Bidisha

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Elderly eggs thrown at Martha Kearney - Guardian

2010-04-06T08:51:00.000-07:00

Elderly eggs thrown at Martha Kearney: "

Not even a day into the general election campaign, and Monkey has already seen the first egg thrown at a politician. Not actually thrown today, we hasten to add, but a video clip of a poultry (but not paltry) missile aimed at the then Liberal leader David Steel in 1987. It missed. But who did it hit? None other than Martha Kearney, now better known as host of BBC Radio 4's World at One and former political editor of Newsnight. Her pained 'Argh!' as the egg strikes about four seconds in is a cause of concern - and hilarity - in approximately equal measure.

Monkey

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Silent Witness - CiF Watch

2010-04-06T04:45:00.000-07:00

Silent Witness: "

Sometimes, what is not reported in the media can be as enlightening as what is. So when the Guardian chooses to virtually or completely ignore a particular story, a certain insight is provided into the workings of the editorial decisions made by that organisation. As we are only too aware, two recent incidents produced a plethora of articles in almost comic proportions on the pages of the Guardian and CiF: the expulsion by the UK of an Israeli diplomat over the alleged forging of British passports and Joe Biden’s decision to be insulted by the workings of an Israeli planning committee. To be honest, I lost count of the precise numbers of articles on these two subjects at some point, but both issues were done to death from any and every possible angle with speculation often rife.

Between the breaking of these two stories another incident occurred which merited only one fairly laconic Guardian article: Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan threatened to expel 100,000 Armenians from his country as a reaction to the decisions by the US and Sweden to describe the World War I killings of Armenians as genocide.

Just Journalism’s Michael Weiss has a very interesting article on this subject on Standpoint, in which he writes:

One would have expected The Guardian, which indeed reported on the nonbinding resolution passed in early March by the U.S. House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee recognizing and condemning the Armenian genocide, to be all over this story. It certainly was incensed at Downing Street’s sheepish reaction to theft of UK passports in the assassination of Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, widely assumed to have been carried out by Mossad, and now the cause of British Foreign Secretary David Miliband’s expulsion of Israel’s Mossad representative at the Israeli embassy in London. Britain may not have a large Armenian diaspora but it has got a large and vocal Kurdish one, and the Kurds, too, have had their difficulties as an ethnic minority in Turkey. Also, is Turkey not a Nato ally and a perennial candidate for admittance to the European Union?

The entire article is well worth reading and can be found here.

Another story which does not seem to have received any attention at all from the Guardian is that of Muhammed Al Farmawi, aged 15, who was reported by the Gaza Health Authorities as having been killed by the IDF on March 30th during ‘Land Day’ protests in Rafah, despite the fact that Israel denied all knowledge of the incident.

“Gaza – Ma’an – A child was shot and killed east of the Yasser Arafat International Airport in Rafah on Tuesday, medics said.

Muawiya Hassanein, director of ambulance and emergency services in Gaza, said Muhammad Zen Ismail Al-Farmawi, 15, was shot dead near the southeasterly border by Israeli forces”

Then, four days later the same boy miraculously reappeared, alive and well.

“It turns out Al-Farmawi was among 17 Palestinians detained by Egyptian forces shortly after the infiltrated the Egyptian side of Rafah via one of Gaza’s numerous underground smuggling tunnels. The detainees, among them 12 minors, were returned to security forces at the border on Friday. They had been questioned about tunnel locations, leading to at least three closures, Egyptian security sources said.”

Should this latest incident, like others before it, raise questions regarding the credibility of official Palestinian sources and their reports of casualties at the hands of Israel? Should it be a lesson to those so eager to believe accusations of Israeli wrongdoings without sufficient proof? Of course it should, but the public apparently only has ‘the right to know’ what the Guardian’s editors want them to know and therefore on some subjects, our journalist witnesses to the events of the world prefer to remain silent, whilst on others they indulge themselves in media gluttony.

Tagged: Comment is Free, Guardian, Obsession "

BBC set for soaring headlines as choppers take off - Guardian

2010-04-06T04:35:00.000-07:00

BBC set for soaring headlines as choppers take off | Media Monkey: "

Newscopter alert: Both Sky News and BBC News scrambled their helicopters to follow Gordon Brown's five-minute trip from Downing Street to Buckingham Palace to ask the Queen to dissolve parliament. With the general election ball now officially rolling Monkey expects more footage from the news choppers. Oh and of course the obligatory story in the Daily Mail about the cost to licence fee payers of the Beebcopter.

Monkey

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Selective feedback - Biased BBC

2010-04-05T12:03:00.000-07:00

Selective feedback: "According to the BBC, Ed Balls 'received a standing ovation - unusual for a minister at a teachers' conference - as he outlined the increased investments in education since 1997.'

Wow. Good to know. Those investments wouldn't have included massive pay increases for teachers, would they? I believe they would (not that the BBC would ever spell it out). And who wouldn't give an ovation when the pay concerned was theirs?

The Beeb seemed to think that Balls' challenge to the Conservatives to match his spending plans for education was a solid punch.

On the other hand the BBC consider it just not worth remarking that one of Britain's most celebrated recent war heroes wanted to 'knock out' Gordon Brown, so angry was he made by Brown's disrespect for the armed forces.

I guess Balls' jab just seemed more punchy, from a certain point of view. (thank to Hippiepooter and others for pointing out the Beharry omission)

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Ooops. BBC Retracts Misleading Report - Biased BBC

2010-04-05T09:25:00.000-07:00

Ooops. BBC Retracts Misleading Report: "It seems some people DO have success when it comes to having their complaints upheld by the BBC. As long as they belong to the anti-Israel brigade.

Should a report that shows anti Israel campaigners in a poor light accidentally slip through the net, the BBC Editorial department will leap into action.

Nobody can interrupt a meeting or performance and come out smelling of roses.
Certainly Tony Greenstein and Deborah Fink’s display of exhibitionism that ruined the Jerusalem Quartet’s performance at the Wigmore Hall was counterproductive in the extreme. I hope their ‘cause’ suffered a setback of disproportionately greater magnitude than the distress their disruptive outbursts caused to the musicians and the audience that had hoped to enjoy the performance.

On the other hand, a meeting that took place at the School of Oriental and African Studies last year in which the guest speaker was Bongani Masuku, 'a man condemned as an inciter of hatred against Jews by the South African Human Rights Commission,' was ‘disrupted’ by a question from Jonathan Hoffman about the morality of hosting such an event and inviting such a speaker, a hullaballoo ensued, which, unlike the one at the Wigmore Hall, was reported on the BBC website.

In the confusion it is alleged that racist taunts were hurled at Mr. Hoffman. “Jew-ish” and some such. Whatever they were, the threatening atmosphere that was engendered simply because of a question that went against the grain, was undeniable. If you can bear to look at the video, you’ll see that when Mr Hoffman asks “Why do you interrupt me?” The woman behind him can clearly be seen wagging a finger and saying “Because you’re a Jew!”

Some furious lobbying by organisations such as “JustPeaceUK” were instigated, in order to get the BBC report amended to what they considered was a TRUE representation of what had taken place, and to omit the bit about the racist taunts.

They succeeded; not only was the web report amended, but the original reporter was reprimanded, and the editor wrote:

“After publication it quickly became clear that there was more to what had happened in the meeting than was apparent from the video and Mr Hoffman’s allegations. As soon as that became clear the story was amended to reflect the differing views of those who had been at the meeting.
It is regrettable that the original story did not reflect a wider range of views and the journalist concerned has been made well aware of the requirement to do so in the future.
Yours Sincerely
Hugh Berlyn
Editor
News and Sport Interactive
BBC England “

Concert disrupter and anti-Zionist campaigner Tony Greenstein proudly declares the success of their lobbying on his website under the heading
“ BBC - Hoffman Lied When Claiming He was a Victim of anti-Semitism.”

Not only that, but the Head of editorial complaints, Fraser Steel has written apologising profusely and promising to take further action. We must wait with bated breath to see what that will be..

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Martha Kearney should stick to the Queen's English - Telegraph

2010-04-05T04:10:00.000-07:00

Martha Kearney should stick to the Queen's English: "Telegraph View: Listeners of The World At One do not appreciate
Americanised lazy talk."

TARGET THE TORIES! - Biased BBC

2010-04-05T04:08:00.000-07:00

TARGET THE TORIES!: "With the likelihood that Gordon Brown will FINALLY call the General Election tomorrow, the BBC are lumbering up for the final round of 'Save Gordon.' Last evening, I listened to the BBC Radio 4 between 10-11pm and there was the concerted witch-hunt against Chris Grayling and also an attack on George Osborne. It's going to be a tumultuous four weeks as the BBC seeks to damage the Conservatives as much as possible which I would hope David Cameron will remember when he gets in power. The malignancy of the State Broadcaster needs excised once and for all.

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Grayling - Biased BBC

2010-04-04T11:57:00.000-07:00

Grayling: "
Radio Five Live whipped itself into quite a frenzy over the Chris Grayling rumpus. Stephen Nolan could hardly contain himself when the story broke during his show last night, admitting to the senior programme editor of Channel 4 News today that he was 'ready to burst' waiting for the boxing to finish (not a pleasant image - can't get Mr Creosote out of my mind for some reason).

Five Live's political reporter Chris Mason shared Nolan's enthusiasm:

Anna Adams ('Interactive Reporter, BBC News') was so excited she posted her first tweets in over a week. The story remained Five Live's top headline until midday today (even the breaking news of three car bombs and dozens dead in Baghdad was deemed a lesser item on the 11am and 11.30 am bulletins). Unsurprisingly, the Tory Party's widening lead in the opinion polls was not considered very newsworthy.

The fervour shown for this story by the Beeb (and particularly Five Live) suggests that there are a number of BBC journalists simply itching to give the Tories a good kicking. Unfortunately for them I don't think most people are particularly bothered one way or the other by Grayling's views on gays and B&Bs. Still, no doubt there will be other opportunities to stick the boot in between now and election day.

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Stomach turning - Biased BBC

2010-04-04T07:36:00.000-07:00

Stomach turning: "From today's Telegraph

The editors and presenters on Radio 4's Today programme have been told they must interview representatives of the BNP, Ukip, the Green party, SNP and Plaid Cymru on the same show, the morning after the debates.

Sources said this will leave almost no room for serious discussion of how the mainstream leaders performed.

One source said: 'We're all spitting feathers here. This is further proof that the BBC's obsession with 'compliance' is destroying its news coverage and journalism.

'The only result of this directive from Mark Byford and the rest of the overpaid detached senior management is that listeners will simply switch off in droves.

'The idea of having to interview the Ukip leader Nigel Farage – let alone Nick Griffin – is turning people's stomachs.'

No Alka Seltzer needed for the leaders of the Greens, the SNP and Plaid Cymru, just the BNP and UKIP. So even the party that came second in the European elections is beyond the pale as far as sophisticated metropolitan BBC journalists are concerned. Too stupid to know that UKIP's leader is Lord Pearson, not Nigel Farage, though. (H-t John Anderson in the comments).

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Happy Easter, Papa - Biased BBC

2010-04-04T07:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter, Papa: "I hold no brief for the Pope; I am a Protestant if anything. However, I do recognise when the forces of Progressivism see an opp for agitation, and that time is now. As a Briton, I don't really give a damn about the proclivities of papists. If guilty of a crime, let 'em go to jail. If not, let them be like every other oddity up with which we put. I cannot think of any justification for the BBC's intense interest in the Catholic church and child sex. Can it be that there are limits to tolerance? How borgeois! Or is it just al Beeb seeking to stick it into another institution of western civilisation? As a reader/viewer/citizen, I just find their scrutiny bizarre, three days running by my count. Why are the Beebies so obsessed with Catholic child sex?

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BBC spending criticised in MPs' report - Telegraph

2010-04-04T03:44:00.000-07:00

BBC spending criticised in MPs' report: "The BBC will be criticised for wasting money on building projects and overstaffing at big sports and music events in a report to be published this week."

BBC plunged into BNP election row - Telegraph

2010-04-03T15:57:00.000-07:00

BBC plunged into BNP election row: "Senior BBC journalists furious that Nick Griffin is being guaranteed prime
time election interview slots."

Classic BBC Cringe - Biased BBC

2010-04-03T10:15:00.000-07:00

Classic BBC Cringe: "The BBC's Wendy Urquhart enters the realms of 'beyond parody' in this butt-clenchingly PC report about the anniversary of the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands (or 'the Falkland Islands or Las Malvinas' as it is apparently known when it isn't simply 'Las Malvinas') :

A solemn day in Argentina. Thousands gather to pay their respects, but the issue of sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, or Las Malvinas, is clearly one that's far from settled. President Cristina Kirchner told the crowds that it was a time to remember those they'd lost but it was most definitely not a time to forget about Las Malvinas and vowed to keep pushing for ownership of the islands...

Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, or Las Malvinas, on April 2nd 1982...

The Falklands, or Las Malvinas, lie just 300 miles form the coast of Argentina and have been claimed at one time or another by Britain, France, Spain and Argentina...

The two nations appear to agree that war is not the answer, but Argentina wants Las Malvinas back and President Kirchner is determined to make that happen.

This week's From Our Own Correspondent also included an Argentinian perspective on the Falklands War. Nothing from our brethren islanders with their unpleasantly positive views about Margaret Thatcher, though. Funny, that.

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Labour revolt as Peter Mandelson's pal Tristram Hunt gets a safe seat - Daily Mail

2010-04-03T06:08:00.000-07:00

Labour revolt as Peter Mandelson's pal Tristram Hunt gets a safe seat: "
Television historian Tristram Hunt, 35, has been selected for rock-solid Stoke-on-Trent Central in what insiders claim is a Blairite stitch-up to ensure David Miliband becomes party leader."

Keep Trying - Biased BBC

2010-04-02T14:46:00.001-07:00

Keep Trying: "Instead of blogging the emotive language used in the BBC’s report of the Israeli retaliation to heightened attacks from Gaza, I’m going to discuss the embarrassing exposure of Jeremy 'I'll have to take your first answer' Paxman’s pissmronouncing stumbling incompetence as per the Telegraph. Well, not discuss, just mention. Hats off to Alexander Guttenplan.

The many fascinating ways the news about Gaza has been phrased this morning shows how difficult it is to get it right. Keep trying.

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BLACKWASH.... - Biased BBC

2010-04-02T14:46:00.000-07:00

BLACKWASH....: "Richard Black has filed his take on the Parliamentary 'investigation' into the Climategate emails. Naturally, he thinks it's a wonderful outcome showing the integrity of the climate change community. As a sop, he mentions a couple of important sceptics and that they are not happy with the 'whitewash' conclusion. But there's no doubt who's side he's on:

in parts of the opinion spectrum, anything that did not result in mass resignations and a conclusion that man-made climate change is a myth and a fraud would be so regarded.

This can only be construed as a contemptuous dismissal of those whom he sees are against him. The men he quotes, Steve McIntyre and Benny Peiser, actually want something very different from what Mr Black claims. They are simply seeking an honest and open debate about the science involved and a proper re-appraisal of the data that has been twisted by those at East Anglia and elsewhere to support political theories. And that is what MPs are so disgracefully busting a gut to block.

If you question me, take a look at this astonishing story of how important research doubting the UEA temperature record, by Steve McIntyre's colleague Ross McKitrick, was kept out of peer-reviewed journals by the academic climate change community. Those will be the so-called scientists that the House of Commons committee so cravenly backed.

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BBC chief apologises for salaries cover-up - Telegraph

2010-04-02T14:45:00.000-07:00

BBC chief apologises for salaries cover-up: "A senior BBC executive has been forced to apologise after it was revealed that
he had tried to 'deliberately disguise' the number of BBC staff who earn
more than £100,000."

Question Time 1st April 2010 - Biased BBC

2010-04-01T17:25:00.000-07:00

Question Time 1st April 2010: "

Question Time this week comes from Stevenage, which is twinned with Shymkent in Kazakhstan, and location of The Pied Piper which is the only pub in the world to be opened by Her Majesty the Queen. Stevenage is represented for Labour by Daphne Barbara Follett, who is standing down at this election after overclaiming the highest amount of expenses of any MP in the country.

On the panel is ex-postman and soon to be ex-Home Secretary Alan Johnson, shadow Business Secretary Ken Clarke, broadcaster Richard Littlejohn and poker-playing Grauniad columnist Victoria Coren.

For those who wish to take part in the Biased-BBC Buzzword Bingo, we will be playing by the 'April Fool Rules' meaning that anyone with enthusiastic references to 'Capitalism', 'Thatcher' and 'Ashcroft' on a diagonal line will be disqualified for watching a spoof show.

Once again TheEye and David Mosque will be scanning the small text for dodgy Labour statistics, and we look forward to the pleasure of your company at 10:30pm UK time.

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Dogma - Biased BBC

2010-04-01T09:18:00.000-07:00

Dogma: "The economics editor of BBC TV's flagship news programme:

And if he ever gets a budgie he can call it Venceremos.

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REWARDING GUILE? - Biased BBC

2010-04-01T09:17:00.000-07:00

REWARDING GUILE?: "I note that The Time has exposed more BBC duplicity...

A BBC executive who is paid almost £200,000 a year to award bonuses to senior managers tried to manipulate salary information to hide the number of staff earning more than £100,000.

Robert Johnston, who is “reward director”, asked staff responsible for releasing the data to the public to “deliberately disguise” the number of managers on six-figure salaries, according to e-mails seen by The Times.

Have they no shame? And yet, day in day out, they talk about the 'fat cat' bankers????

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Jeremy Paxman 'regularly mispronounces questions on University Challenge' - Telegraph

2010-04-01T09:11:00.000-07:00

Jeremy Paxman 'regularly mispronounces questions on University Challenge': "Jeremy Paxman's image as the all-knowing host of University Challenge has been
dealt an embarrassing blow after it emerged that he regularly mispronounces
the questions."

BBC's £196,0000 'reward director' forced to apologise over attempts to cover up staff pay - Daily Mail

2010-04-01T09:10:00.000-07:00

BBC's £196,0000 'reward director' forced to apologise over attempts to cover up staff pay: "
Robert Johnston suggested in emails that staff should 'deliberately disguise' the number of bosses on six-figure salaries."

Why women are tough enough for Today - Telegraph

2010-04-01T09:09:00.000-07:00

Why women are tough enough for Today: "As the editor of Radio 4's Today programme says women are not tough enough for
the top jobs, veteran presenter Sue MacGregor disagrees"

BBC 'meeting culture' stopping people doing jobs, says boss - Telegraph

2010-04-01T09:08:00.000-07:00

BBC 'meeting culture' stopping people doing jobs, says boss: "A 'meeting culture' at the BBC is stopping people doing the jobs they were
hired to do, according to one of the Corporation's senior executives."

David Cameron on the Politics Show. Interesting crop - Guardian

2010-03-31T11:51:00.000-07:00

David Cameron on the Politics Show. Interesting crop: "

What happens when the camera operator misses out all the letters from 'Politics Show' except for P, O, S and H

I don't think I need to write anything here. Comment away.

Simon Jeffery

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

A reminder… - Biased BBC

2010-03-31T11:49:00.000-07:00

A reminder…: "...for all those BBC hacks, with their selective memories, who are currently pushing the 'Angry American Right' narrative:

Frei, Webb, Mardell, Mason et al - a bit of balance and perspective would be nice.

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BBC resigned to losing Masters - Independent

2010-03-31T11:28:00.001-07:00

BBC resigned to losing Masters: "

Augusta might not just be witnessing Tiger Woods' competitive comeback next week but also Peter Alliss's farewell from the Masters. Barbara Slater, the BBC's new director of sport, will travel to the season's first major to try to persuade the green-jackets to remain with the corporation. But one industry insider last night claimed that the BBC is 'almost resigned' to losing the rights to Sky.

BBC should spend more on compliance, says report - Independent

2010-03-31T11:28:00.000-07:00

BBC should spend more on compliance, says report: "

More cash should be spent on ensuring radio programmes meet editorial standards in the wake of the Sachsgate furore, a report into the aftermath of the scandal said today.

Women do not have a thick enough skin to present Today, says BBC editor - Telegraph

2010-03-31T11:26:00.002-07:00

Women do not have a thick enough skin to present Today, says BBC editor: "Ceri Thomas, the editor of the BBC radio programme Today, has said that women
do not have a thick enough skin to deal with the programme's 'incredibly
difficult' environment."

Women do not have a thick enough skin to present Today, says BBC editor - Telegraph

2010-03-31T11:26:00.001-07:00

Jonathan Ross taunts 'ugly' Bruce Forsyth in new comedy show - Telegraph

2010-03-31T11:26:00.000-07:00

Jonathan Ross taunts 'ugly' Bruce Forsyth in new comedy show: "Jonathan Ross is to insult Bruce Forsyth in a new TV comedy programme, telling
him he's '------- ugly' and has 'done a lot of ----' in his career."

The old comedians are the best, says survey - Telegraph

2010-03-31T11:25:00.000-07:00

The old comedians are the best, says survey: "Billy Connolly voted Britain's favourite comic followed by Victoria Wood."

No BBC presenter should be paid more than £5 million a year, say MPs - Telegrpaph

2010-03-31T11:24:00.001-07:00

No BBC presenter should be paid more than £5 million a year, say MPs: "No BBC presenter should be paid more than £5 million a year, according to a
group of influential MPs, who have called for greater transparency about
salaries at the corporation."

Why won't the BBC give independent producers their due?, radio review - Telegraph

2010-03-31T11:24:00.000-07:00

Why won't the BBC give independent producers their due?, radio review: "Gillian Reynolds reviews the last week in radio, including a biography of Ian
Dury on Radio 2, the play No Place Like Home (Radio 4), a documentary-style
play Crime and Trial: Rage on the Road (Radio 4) and The Glasgow Boys (Radio
3)."

Digital radio confusion could prompt backlash - Telegraph

2010-03-31T11:23:00.000-07:00

Digital radio confusion could prompt backlash: "The confusion over the switch to digital radio could prompt a major public
backlash against the Government, an influential House of Lords committee has
said."

The future of BBC radio - Telegraph

2010-03-31T11:22:00.001-07:00

The future of BBC radio: "Jeremy Hunt is absolutely right to question the role of the BBC Trust, the size of the present Director-General's salary and whether the Corporation's stated aim to do fewer things better stands up to scrutiny."

Radio One and Two must not damage commercial rivals, say Conservatives - Telegraph

2010-03-31T11:22:00.000-07:00

Radio One and Two must not damage commercial rivals, say Conservatives: "The BBC will need to show that Radios 1 and 2 are not damaging their commercial rivals under a Tory government, shadow culture, Jeremy Hunt, signalled yesterday."

Cherie Lunghi: BBC has axed popular drama Casualty 1909 - Telegraph

2010-03-31T11:21:00.000-07:00

Cherie Lunghi: BBC has axed popular drama Casualty 1909: "Cherie Lunghi says the BBC has axed Casualty 1909 because it no longer values period drama."

Mossad expulsion: Michael White still doesn’t get it - CiF Watch

2010-03-31T11:20:00.000-07:00

Mossad expulsion: Michael White still doesn’t get it: "

This is a guest post by AKUS

Michael White, he of the infamous comment about Israel during an interview that had nothing to do with Israel:

“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”

Apparently glued to his laptop while waiting for a new episode in the Peter Pan series to begin in the House on March 24th – “waiting for Alistair Darling to deliver his budget”– what better way for an “assistant editor [who] has been writing for the Guardian for over 30 years, as a reporter, foreign correspondent and columnist” to pass the time than to condemn the Mossad’s assumed evil-doings: Mossad expulsion: they still don’t get it and explain how this excuses his comment.

(Before continuing, let me say that the expulsion of an Israeli “diplomat” or whatever status that person really had represents a new low in Britain’s descent from its once much-admired standing as an example of democracy, law, and order. Whatever the suspicions, there is no proof whatsoever that Israel was involved in the Dubai assassination of Mabhouh. The clownish nature of the operation makes me believe it was very unlikely to have been the Mossad. Nevertheless, a precedent has been set in Britain now. On the basis of suspicion alone, without proof, the British government will act against those against whom it feels represent some kind of threat. Of course, that does not mean the new rule will be applied equally – there are a number of notorious Hamas supporters at large in Britain, and it is clear that Mabhouh travelled on more than one false passport – yet no action has been taken against his terrorist colleagues happily sipping teas and eating scones in posh cafes in London while whipping up enthusiasm for the supposedly starving masses of Gaza. But now the door is open to this abuse of power and what starts with the Jews and Israel will not end with them).

The real point of White’s article was apparently to respond to criticism of his comment: “they murder each other a great deal” which was, weirdly enough, made during a BBC interview when he was supposed to be commenting on the attack on Berlusconi by a deranged (or not?) Italian. He makes no bones about having said it – after all it’s on tape, and available freely on the Internet – go to 3:30min in this replay. Almost as bad was the BBC’s Jo Good agreeing with him: ‘Mmm…hmmm…” she hummed. “Everyone knows that”, she seemed to be indicating – “I understand what you’re saying”.

Despite his comment, or in justification of it, oddly enough, White claims no special expertise about Israel other than his knowledge of Israelis having a jolly good old time murdering each other or their enemies a great deal and a vague understanding of the Israeli electoral system:

“Where do I fit into this jigsaw? Nowhere. I have no expertise in the generally grim politics of the Middle East and avoid writing or talking about it, except to tease electoral-reform-as-a-panacea liberals by pointing out that Israelis use a PR-voting system, which does them few favours.”

(I do agree with him about the voting system, however).

Having admitted ignorance, White then treats us to a few reasons why, in fact, we should not be upset about his comment:

“I’ve occasionally made versions of that point in print or on radio for years. I sometimes add (though not on this occasion): “The trouble is with killing political opponents, you never know when you’ve just killed Nelson Mandela. Apartheid South Africa was wise in that respect.””

Of course, the problem he does not acknowledge is that far from throwing up a Palestinian Mandela, the best the Palestinians have been able to come up with after about 100 years is a set of corrupt terrorists such as Yasser Arafat and Ismail Haniyah, or a corrupt and impotent nebbish like Mahmud Abbas, or a Hitlerite like the Mufti. But again, he would excuse himself by claiming that his knowledge of the situation doesn’t stretch that far.

White was surprised to find that some good friends seemed to be concerned about his comment or the effect it had on his credential as someone who does not relentlessly denigrate Israel (unlike some I could name whose articles appear with monotonous regularity in Mr. White’s paper):

“Wow! A hail of abuse came down on my head. Jewish friends got in touch to ask what I’d said or to assure me they’d told their outraged contacts that I “wasn’t one of those” – the kind of European liberal who relentlessly denigrates Israel and applies double-standards elsewhere.’

In response White claims that he’s “not one of those” – in fact, he seems to be claiming to be a closet Bushie to make sure we understand that he is really, if not a supporter of Israel, at least not a foe, nor is he always opposed to people murdering other people a great deal, if they are not Israelis:

“Indeed not. I suspect I am regarded as very suspect by serious Israel-baiters, certainly beyond redemption among my many friends who want to have Bush ‘n’ Blair tried as war criminals for invading Iraq with such dire consequences (so far)”.

White also believes the fix is in – unnamed “monitors” picked up his unfortunate phrase, wresting it out of context, when clearly, in his mind it had everything to do with a lunatic hitting Berlusconi on the nose with a statue:

“That detail confirms my suspicion that this was a monitoring job; a phrase picked up, wrenched from context and circulated among supporters eager to give anyone a hard time for being “unfair” to Israel. Even BBC London’s audience reach isn’t that impressive.”

Who, I wonder could he be referring to? Surely not a certain website …. Or a huge conspiracy?

Actually, yes – although he can’t name any “monitors” – should we give him a clue? – he is aware of something fishy going on:

“I’m aware that there is a vast hinterland behind all this, probably several websites devoted to monitoring what is deemed to be antisemitism, real or imagined. I tend not to go near such sites myself. Best to stay clear, I usually feel”.

So how does this tie back to the Mossad, Mabhouh, and Israelis murdering each other a great deal?

“Unfortunately, the Palestinian people have been the primary victims of the wider impasse and many innocents have suffered or died as a result of Israeli policy in the occupied territories. Everyone knows that, don’t they? ….

But only this week I read – again – of blameless families losing their homes to “settlers”. And I remain of the view that murdering Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in that hotel was both a crime and a mistake.” [emphasis added]

Note that even here he is so imbued with the accepted Guardian anti-Israeli bias that he cannot refrain from using the phrase: Everyone knows that, don’t they? In two paragraphs White managed to demonstrate the full range of the Guardian’s twisted view of what is happening between Israel and the Palestinians.

The link in his paragraph (suffered or died) goes directly to a year-old column by another “good friend” of Israel, Chris McGreal, that all but accuses Israel of war crimes, noting that that beacon of light and humanity, “The UN’s senior human rights body” – aka the UNHRC, comprised largely of representatives of the worst HR violators on the planet – “approved a resolution yesterday condemning the Israeli offensive for “massive violations of human rights”. That has been the Guardian’s standard position since – well, about 1967, I suspect.

Then there’s the issue of “victims”. Presumably, since the Palestinians, via intifadas, suicide bombers, plane kidnappings, Olympic massacres, bus bombings, school bombings, nightclub bombings, Passover Seder bombings, stabbings, sniping, hurling rocks on Jews praying at the Western Wall, firing thousands of mortars and rockets have not managed to kill as many Israelis as Israel has done in response, there is a “disproportionate” imbalance that make them the primary victims. Not because Israel has spent billions to protect its citizens, or because their leaders have never managed to bring themselves to sign an agreement with Israel, or, as is happening right now, the Arab League and notably Jordan is urging them not to enter negotiations with Israel.

There’s no recognition from White that Israel is offering these “victims” what no Arab country ever offered them if they could only bring themselves to say “Yes” – the chance to create their own state. Jordan and Egypt simply sat in the WB and Gaza till 1967, and, were it not for the 6 Day War, would be sitting there still, and the word “Palestinian” would not be in the dictionary.

Next, it’s time for White to worry about evicting people illegally occupying a dozen or so houses in Sheikh Jarrah, something that passes unnoticed on a daily basis in England, I’m sure. The “blameless [Arab] families” in Jerusalem were actually found after protracted legal proceedings to be squatters occupying houses to which they had no legal right – they simply occupied them during the Jordanian occupation of Jerusalem after the Jordanians killed and expelled the Jewish occupants in 1948 assuming correctly that the Jordanians would never allow the Jews to reclaim their property.

Although there are many things about which I disagree with Netanyahu, and the timing of the various recent announcements about building in Jerusalem was catastrophic (and may yet bring down his government), on one matter I am in full agreement – Jerusalem is not a settlement, Jews living there are not settlers, and the new-found Arab enthusiasm for Jerusalem after neglecting the city for centuries and more recently during the Jordanian occupation is nothing more than a dog-in-the-manger hankering after something they resent others having. Sheikh Jarrah, Ramat Shlomo, Har Homah are no more “settlements” than French Hill, Pisgat Ze’ev, and half a dozen other suburbs built since 1967. Now the world is agog at the prospect of 20 (!!) apartments to be built on the site of a dilapidated hotel which was purchased by a Jew 25 years ago. Of course, if an Arab were to do the same that would be seen as a triumph of Palestinian revival – only Jews should not be allowed to replace this disused hotel even after they bought it.

Finally, of course – “murdering Mahmoud al-Mabhouh” suggests that Israel may have killed the next Nelson Mandela.

Not bloody likely, old chap. To paraphrase a famous comment about Dan Quayle and John Kennedy, I’ve never known Mabhouh or Mandela, but I’m confident that Mabhouh was no Mandela. Despite trying to justify himself, White’s statement about Jews murdering each other a great deal had nothing to do with Mabhouh, Ramat Shlomo, or Sheikh Jarrah, and has not prevented the next Mandela from arising.

No – what Mr. White still doesn’t get is that his comment is a lie. The truth is that we objected to his statement because it’s simply not true. Israelis do not murder each other a great deal, nor do they murder their enemies a great deal. Israel makes efforts no other country does to take out only the worst of its enemies with as little collateral damage as possible, and only after every other method has failed. It took 8,000 rockets from Gaza to get Israel to finally retaliate in force.

Where do people murder each other a great deal?

Iraq, Afghanistan, and, despite what you said on the BBC… Northern Ireland. That’s the truth. The people doing it are not Israelis, and those doing the murdering – a great deal, I might point out – seem to be British. Perhaps not on forged Israeli passports, but still doing it a great deal. And have been for centuries.

“Everyone knows that, don’t they”, Mr. White?

Indeed they do –in fact, Jo Good might have to respond in agreement … “mm…hmm…”

Chag Pesach Sameach – Happy Passover. “Next year in Jerusalem”.

Tagged: Comment is Free, Guardian, Michael White "

AN OBJECTIVE OBSERVER? - Biased BBC

2010-03-31T11:18:00.003-07:00

AN OBJECTIVE OBSERVER?: "
Have you ever wondered why Roger Harrabin, the BBC's environmental analyst, is such a fanatical warmist, to the extent that he faithfully reports every utterance of warmist zealots? Could part of the reason be financial? He is registered with this speaker agency and demands fees of between £5,000 and £10,000 to chair sessions at plush conferences on climate change themes. He modestly describes himself as follows:

Roger Harrabin, the BBC's Environment Analyst, is one of the world's leading journalists and broadcasters on the environment and energy, and a distinguished speaker, host and moderator. Roger Harrabin is a distinguished and influential figure in the British media who has won many awards for broadcasting on issues related to sustainable development.

Recent events that he has chaired include a conference organised by the Royal Society of Arts and the Soil Association on this theme:

The politics of food and farming are on the agenda as never before. Up to 30% of the average consumer’s carbon footprint can be put down to our current, intensive food and farming systems. The UK Government has signed up to a target to reduce our emissions by 80% by 2050 – but has so far resisted tackling the ‘elephant in the room’ of food and farming.

Also on the panel was (Lord) Peter Melchett, a former director of Greenpeace in the UK who once faced criminal charges for allegedly tearing up GM crops. Mr Harrabin has thus chaired a panel in which at least one participant may fairly be described as a greenie extremist and activist.

The pattern continues. Mr Harrabin has been a very busy boy on the conference circuit. He chaired this event in Prague (an EU climate change-fest); this one in February (the World Sustainability Conference); the annual conference of the Combined Heat and Power Association(another group trying to make as much cash as possible from global warming subsidies); a session in Milan at the Power-Gen Europe conference; this conference in London on Green Strategy; and finally, is due at this one, to be held held by the Economist in June.

Thus the BBC's 'environmental analyst' is making oodles of cash - tens of thousands of pounds - by using his privileged BBC position to persuade conference organisers to hire him. All of the events he chairs have a common thread in that they are greenies or warmists trying to foist their views on the rest of us or make as much money as they can out of the massive subsidies that the EU and our government spray about for anyone on the right bandwagon. Put another way, Mr Harrabin makes bucketloads of cash out of the alarmism he spreads and has a therefore a major vested interest in it. His actions stink.

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LAPDOG HARRABIN - Biased BBC

2010-03-31T11:18:00.002-07:00

LAPDOG HARRABIN: "Roger Harrabin, like the lackey he is, faithfully reports the House of Commons whitewash about the University of East Anglia leaked emails. Not a whisper of a challenge or alternative view to that the committee involved has laughingly claimed that the science behind climate change is intact - even though it did not have the competence or remit to do so. One day, politicians will wake up with a revolution on their hands because they are so drastically out of touch with public opinion and are treating with malicious contempt their constituents. For genuine opinion about what people think of the House of Commons report, you have to look elsewhere, for example, the comments here. In the meantime, the BBC will be making no efforts to report the true picture on climate change, or anything else that's outside their liberal-lefty worldview.

Update: for an excellent assessment of why Harrabin's account is so dishonest and disingenuous see Frank Furedi here at Spiked.

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B-BBC DIGEST - Biased BBC

2010-03-31T11:18:00.001-07:00

B-BBC DIGEST: "I wanted to update you on a very recent Biased BBC innovation, namely a Weekly Digest of the 'Best of B-BBC' and this is being sent to 650 prominent MP's and MEP's. This is the result of the creativity and hard work of B-BBC contributor Graeme and we have already had some great feedback such as this...

Tory PPC for Lincoln Karl McCartney sent back:- "Thankyou for your email. I've previously visited your
site and indeed have the BBC's telephone number on speed dial... I also
attended a gathering hosted by the BBC Corporate Affairs section for PPCs and
was not reassured at all.

Others such as Nigel Farage have also responded favourable. We continue to get positive responses. The only Conservative MP's who have asked NOT to receive the weekly digest are Alan Duncan, Simon Burns, and Michael Mates. What a shocker!

Bearing in mind the hundreds of prominent political eyes reading B-BBC, please do your best to ensure that comment here is civil at all times. We're making an impact and we want to make sure everyone feels comfortable reading the blog. My sincere thanks to Graeme and I think this will help us further the mission to hold the BBC to account.

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THE CHANCELLORS CLASH. - Biased BBC

2010-03-31T11:18:00.000-07:00

THE CHANCELLORS CLASH.: "BBC reviews that Channel 4 debate between Darling, Osborne and Cable. No guesses who is determined as the winner. Arise Sir Vince.

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GAIA WORSHIP - Biased BBC

2010-03-31T11:17:00.002-07:00

GAIA WORSHIP: "Anyone catch this interview on Today this morning with Professor James Lovelock - he of the Gaia theory? The learned Professor casually opined that 7 out of 8 billion people will die because of climate change. Nothing beats some AGW hysteria over the breakfast table!

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TODAY EDITOR IS CLIMATE CHANGE ACTIVIST - Biased BBC

2010-03-31T11:17:00.001-07:00

TODAY EDITOR IS CLIMATE CHANGE ACTIVIST: "In Mongolia, it's sadly been so cold this winter that a million animals have died, and many of the nomadic herders and farmers are said to be in desperate need of aid. The Today programme reported this story this morning, but guess what was missing from the equation? Any mention of that dreaded phrase 'climate change'. This fits a pattern. Today reporters grind on about AGW every time there is a claim - however tenuous - that temperatures are getting hotter; but never when the reverse applies. Of course, one extremely bad winter does not prove cooling, but on Radio 4's co-called flagship news programme, the topic is never discussed properly.

Could this be because Ceri Thomas, the editor of Today, is yet another BBC executive who is a climate change activist? Mr Thomas, it transpires, is on the board of a body called the Science Media Centre, another shadowy outfit that has been created, according to its own blurb, to act as:

first and foremost a press office for science when science hits the headlines. We provide journalists with what they need in the form and time-frame they need it when science is in the news - whether this be accurate information, a scientist to interview or a feature article.

An admirable objective, if - but only if - the Centre was properly neutral on matters of scientific controversy. But it it isn't. It's yet another collection of warming fanatics. It runs a number of briefings for journalists which show the reverse is true; everything they do on the climate front is geared towards the AGW perspective. So when Copenhagen was looming, who did the centre choose as its speaker to make sure journalists were properly in the picture? Why, none other than Vicky Pope, of the Met Office, who might be described as one of the UK's warmists-in-chief. Others of these briefings follow exactly the same pattern and format, for example this one on so-called carbon sinks, which assumes as the start point that AGW is happening:

Efforts to control climate change require the stabilization of atmospheric CO2 concentrations, which in turn depends on the balance between our own emissions and natural carbon sinks. The Global Carbon Project has evaluated all the available evidence on carbon sinks and sources, the results of which have been published in Nature Geoscience. Two of the authors of the paper briefed journalists in their findings at the SMC.

I could go on, there's tons more, but I have made the main point. Mr Thomas deems it acceptable that he is an active member of a body which is grafting away behind the scenes to prejudice the debate about climate science towards the warmist viewpoint.I know from other sources that he also responds to complaints about the programme's climate change coverage by using sweeping warmist statements such as that there is a 'great consensus' about climate change science, therefore there is only the need for him to afford 'due impartiality' to sceptics - which means in practice that they rarely, if ever, appear on Today. And, in turn, that the programme is totally biased in its approach to the topic.

I submit that because of his activism, Mr Thomas is not fit to edit Today - or any other BBC programme. He should resign immediately.

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The Curious Incident of Joe Biden in the Daytime - Biased BBC

2010-03-31T11:17:00.000-07:00

The Curious Incident of Joe Biden in the Daytime: "The tidal wave of disapproval over Israel’s recent misadventures has taken on a life of its own.

The Joe Biden incident was interpreted as an insult, both to him personally and to the whole United States. People have noticed that the language used by the Obama administration inflates the degree of offence taken, mimicking Arab-style rhetoric where pride and honour take precedence over common sense. The unfortunate timing of what was primarily a formality over an internal matter was blown up out of all proportion so it could be misrepresented as Israel’s deliberately planned symbol of defiance, and exploited to camouflage / justify Obama’s emerging strategy of siding with Israel’s enemies.

If the BBC was interested in reporting the full story they would have explained that Obama has reneged on previous agreements between Israel and the US over Jerusalem and ‘houses for Jews’ and is making new demands for concessions from Israel while letting the Palestinians off the hook altogether. He has not asked them for any concessions at all and it is feared that they are thinking up new preconditions for talks about talks while the going is good.

The BBC’S expansionist attitude to the concept of ‘illegally occupied territory’ means it now encompasses everything captured in Israel’s 1967 defensive war, and they’ve got their beady colonialist eye on Israel as a whole. All’s fair in love and war, and in the BBC’s eyes, in war, the winner loses all. (this concept is exclusive to Israel)

While the press made an almighty fuss about the height of the Turkish Ambassador’s seat, the BBC is less keen to trumpet the snubs that Obama dishes out so rudely to those he regards as unworthy, like our own dear leader, and of course Binyamin Netanyahu, who seems to have been left alone in the White House to mull over a list of new demands from Obama while he went off to dine with Michelle and the girls. And would only come back if Israel’s prime minister said sorry for being a naughty boy.

David Miliband’s speech about the expulsion of the Israeli diplomat received a chorus of approval from MPs of all shades, and though he stressed that the issue in question was the cloning of passports rather than the assassination, the BBC doesn’t make that distinction.

Time after time people have been allowed to assert, unchallenged on the BBC, that the ‘victims’ of the cloning, the ‘British’ citizens who have been so wronged, risked being mistaken for terrorists. The final question on Thursdays QT was phrased strangely. Something like: “Is expulsion the appropriate penalty for an act of terrorism?” Dimbleby seemed happy enough with that.

In the eyes of the BBC and consequently, the public, Israel is a terrorist state, therefore Mossad, the IDF and whoever assassinated a ‘senior Hamas Commander’ are terrorists. Unless it transpires that it wasn’t Israel, in which case they’d be militants or freedom fighters.

David Miliband said the victims of the cloning woke up to find themselves ‘wanted terrorists.’ Denis MacShane on the Today programme bemoaned the fact that they had had their pictures splashed all over the papers.

Well, a) I thought the passport pictures were of the actual assassins, not the genuine passport holders, and, b) when the word terrorist is avoided like the plague by the BBC, why is it suddenly applied with gay abandon to assassins who targeted a scoundrel, doing what many other countries, including Great Britain, allegedly get away with all the time without a ripple. Is it coz they is (possibly) Joos?

See Robin Shepherd on the odious Richard Ingrams who has written more bile on this topic. Famous for:
“I have developed a habit, when confronted by letters to the editor in support of the Israeli government, to look at the signature to see if the writer has a Jewish name. If so, I tend not to read it.”

I have developed a habit, when confronted by articles in the Guardian or the Independent, to look at the signature to see if the writer is Richard Ingrams. If so, I tend not to read them.”

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GREEN WASTE... - Biased BBC

2010-03-31T11:16:00.001-07:00

GREEN WASTE...: "Here's the BBC's Richard Black at his best, positively beside himself with glee because China is now wasting more money on 'renewables' than that nasty place of over-production and excess, the USA. His tone throughout is one of adulation for what China (and Britain - alarmingly for us now in third place) have achieved in tipping money down the drain. Note, too, that there is no mention in his report of the most crucial factor, namely that Spain's policy over eight years of busting a gut to invest in green projects was a national disaster. A survey - the most detailed of its kind - by Spanish academics found:

Optimistically treating European Commission partially funded data, we find that for every renewable energy job that the State manages to finance, Spain’s experience cited by President Obama as a model reveals with high confidence, by two different methods, that the US should expect a loss of at least 2.2 jobs on average, or about nine jobs lost for every four created, to which we have to add those jobs that non-subsidized investments with the same resources would have created.

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Earth Hour vs Human Achievement Hour - Biased BBC

2010-03-31T11:16:00.000-07:00

Earth Hour vs Human Achievement Hour: "On Radio Five Live's Morning Reports today Nick Bryant ended a piece about Earth Hour with a quick reference to the Competitive Enterprise Institute counter campaign, Human Achievement Hour. The response from the newsreader in the studio (Vicki Sperrey?) amused me. Just in case listeners were in any doubt whose side the BBC is on...

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ON TOUR WITH GORDON.. - Biased BBC

2010-03-31T11:14:00.001-07:00

ON TOUR WITH GORDON..: "Is it true that Gordon Brown is charging £13,000 for any journalist wishing to join his bus tour of the Kingdom? I hope the BBC are not funding Labour by facilitating this? Perhaps a passing BBC journalist can confirm that the BBC is not lavishing OUR cash on Gordon?

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Small Icicle in Hades - Biased BBC

2010-03-31T11:14:00.000-07:00

Small Icicle in Hades: "On this week's Now Show Jon Holmes took advantage of Marcus Brigstocke's absence and actually did a segment mocking climate change alarmism. Hard to believe, I know. A sop to the show's critics, perhaps?

Another interesting little point. Brigstocke's replacement for the week was Paul Sinha whose routine was based - with stunning originality - on a Daily Mail article. However, he referred to it only as 'a major national newspaper'. Has criticism of lazy right-on comedians using the words 'Daily Mail' also hit home?

The story in the Mail was about a naughty word nearly appearing on Channel 4's Countdown. For Sinha it was an opportunity to use another tiresome comedy cliché, namely the 'Have you seen those crazy comments under right-wing newspaper articles?' bit. He riffed off a comment on the Mail's website from Doreen in Dorset who had written of the near-scandal: 'More evidence of how moral standards have fallen in Brown's Broken Britain.' If you look up the post by 'Doreen' you'll see she also adds: 'When will they scrap the awful licence fee TAX?' This is clearly someone taking the piss out of Daily Mail readers. There are other comments like it, such as 'Dave' in Maidstone: 'Another idiotic waste of taxpayers' money by Jonathan Ross and the BBC.' One wonders what percentage of comments on the Daily Mail website are actually written by crappy comedians stuck for things to joke about.

A better comedian might have questioned why so many newspapers covered this non-story (Guardian, Telegraph, Sun, Mirror) rather than take the all too familiar - and clearly fake - Daily Mail readers' comments route.

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Fun With Immigration Figures - Biased BBC

2010-03-31T11:13:00.001-07:00

Fun With Immigration Figures: "

From the Let's Compare Headlines Dept, we have another example of counter-spin in action. Via Channel4s FactCheck we hear that:

'Gordon Brown has done it again. The statistics he used for 2009 are an under-estimate, because they don’t include all migrants. The figures he used for 2007 and 2008, however, do. So he’s misled the public by comparing the most flattering data for the latest year with the most unflattering data in the previous years.'

That gives us a stark insight into the subject of a surprisingly wide spread of headlines:

'How Gordon Brown's podcast turned an immigration rise into a fall' - Daily Mail

'Gordon Brown accused of fiddling immigration figures' - Daily Telegraph

...a wide spread, because BBC doesn't seem to think it's that big a deal...

'Row over Gordon Brown immigration figures podcast'

A 'row' sounds so much less interesting, eh? Move along, nothing to see.

Hat-tip to GeorgeR in the Comments

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"We No Longer Own It" - Biased BBC

2010-03-31T11:13:00.000-07:00

"We No Longer Own It": "The following, by BBC presenter Dotun Adebayo, was, according to 'Damon', a commenter at the Pickled Politics site, printed in the Voice newspaper in September 2008.

Damon's view of it : 'It seems all kinds of people can feel this ”loss of hegemony”. When it’s articulated by the white working class (in places like East London) it’s usually called racism.'

I'll let it speak for itself, but I wonder - what would have been the career trajectory of a white BBC presenter writing such a piece, lamenting the loss of an earlier (John Major's ?) Brixton or White City and complaining that 'all the shops are now owned by'? Would they still be at the BBC ?

WAVE BRIXTON GOODBYE.

There used to be a time when everyone knew that Brixton belonged to us.
We fought for it, and made love for it.
Some of us even died in that corner of the landscape that would ever be black.

It didn’t mean that white folks weren’t welcome, all that it meant is that they KNEW it was ours, the same way as when I go to Norfolk or Suffolk, or any of the shires, I know that it’s NOT ours.
I’m on my ‘p’s and ‘q’s when I go up country, because I don’t have the backative to claim it as mine. And all the youts know this, so they’ve got the bottle to shout out ”N*****!” from across the road when they see you walking down one of their village streets or quiet country lanes.

I don’t have a problem with that because I KNOW when I venture out there I’m in a white mans country and the white man makes the rules.
Brixton was different though. Babylon THOUGHT he made the rules until Brixton made a stand against the so-called Operation ‘Swamp 81′. As the late Bernie Grant MP would say, the police got a ”bloody good hiding” that time.

There were of course casualties on both sides. But at least the message was clear all around the country that Brixton belonged to us. And so did Tottenham. And so did Hackney and Stonebridge and Peckham and Handsworth and Moss Side and Cheetham Hill and St Paul’s, so on and so forth.

ROOTS

Where ever you had an inner city, you had a corner of England that would be forever Jamaican or Nigerian or Bajan or St Kittian. We didn’t just put down roots, we put down down-payments on those areas, or at least our parents did. And like the law states, if you own a piece of this green and pleasant land, it’s yours.
Nobody can take it away from you (unless you divert the mortgage payments to buy a Ferrari).
But 27 years on, Brixton no longer belongs to us. I went down there the other day and discovered another country. Oh, we were still evident. It wasn’t like ‘’spot the black man” but we no longer own it.
The bars, the clubs, the resturants and shops no longer belong to us. With the exception of a pattie shop or two, Brixton belongs to everybody but us. It’s the same in Tottenham and Hackney. We spend most of the money, but virtually the only things we own are barbershops and hairdressers.
We’ve got ourselves to blame. Look at the Asian community. They came here at more or less the same time we did. They didn’t just put downpayments on the areas they claimed, they bought them outright.
Often jointly, communally, together as one family. So when you go to Southall, Alperton, Ealing, Whitechapel, and the other London areas they own, it’s all about Indiashire, Londonistan and Bangla-Brick Lane. They own the houses, the businesses AND the councils.
So who do you think makes the rules in those areas? It’s not the Women’s Institute and the Rotary Club and the Freemasons, I can tell you. Forget the local parish church and the sound of Bow Bells, it’s the Hindu temples and the mosques that call the shots, and if the Imam wants to call the belivers to worship at five in the morning, that’s up to him.

Like I said, we’ve got ourselves to blame. We had it all in the palm of our hands and we threw it away. We could have been contenders. We could have controlled entire neighbourhoods, businesswise and otherwise.
We should be in control of our local councils in those areas where we are/were the majority.

VICTORIES

But after the street battles that won us our victories of the past (and not just us, because let’s face it – Asian communities benefited from the blood we shed in the eighties (the two Asian people burned to death in Handsworth Post Office didn't - LT)) we rested on our laurels. Like ex-slaves, we indulged our new found freedoms far too long and partied until it was 1999. By then of course it was too late.

During the eighties and nineties more drugs were pumped into the black communities of Britain than ever before. I lived in and worked in Brixton at the time. Previously it had been all about the good sensi (or collie or lamb’s bread, as it used to be known). After the riots of 1981 and 1985, we began to see the emergence of hard drugs – heroin, speed, then cocaine, and then, of course, crack.

The drugs did their job, They subdued our people into submission. Those very same crack addicts that you see in ‘black’ neighbourhoods are the same guys who used to live on the frontline ready to protest at the injustices we suffered. Those injustices are still here, but if you ask the warriors of old to come out and demonstrate, they’ll fall prostrate, begging for one more hit.

You see, in winning the streets we really didn’t win anything. The streets belong to everybody, whatever your local gang might think. Real power and real wealth is all about who controls the means of production, the judiciary and executive.

The Nigerians of Peckham know this. They are the new Jamaicans. It remains to be seen whether they will be seduced into not buying the freehold of that corner of south east London that will forever be ‘Lagos’.

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BBC drama must keep us glued to our sets - Telegraph

2010-03-26T02:51:00.000-07:00

BBC drama must keep us glued to our sets: "Gripping series are the way to stop the creative rot at the corporation, says Neil
Midgley."

Question Time 25th March - Biased BBC

2010-03-26T02:50:00.000-07:00

Question Time 25th March: "

Question Time this week comes from Glasgow, home of the Red Clydeside socialist movement and not home to a Tory MP since 1982.

On the panel we have Chief Secretary Treasury and Unite member Liam Byrne MP, the Conservative Shadow Minister for Communities Baroness Warsi, the Liberal Democrat communities spokesman Julia Goldsworthy MP, the First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond and businessman Sir Martin Sorrell.

Liam Byrne is a late replacement for Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy who has pulled out - just possibly because last time he did something significant in Glasgow it was attending a Labour Party fundraising dinner with Gordoom and Steven Purcell, who then mysteriously resigned in a cocaine and financial scandal which has oddly not gained the prominence the story deserves.

For those who wish to take part in the Biased-BBC Buzzword Bingo, we will be playing by the 'Blatantly Political Budget Rules' meaning that anyone with 'Spending Up', 'Taxes Up' and 'Borrowing Up" on a diagonal line will win Greece, which is in much better shape than us now. Please note that for the duration of this game, living in Belize will result in your tax status being randomly targeted.

At the helm of the ship once again TheEye and David Mosque will be scanning the horizon for icebergs, and we look forward to the pleasure of your company at 10:30pm UK time.

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ITV regional news bidders told: don't count on BBC licence fee funds - Guardian

2010-03-25T08:02:00.000-07:00

ITV regional news bidders told: don't count on BBC licence fee funds: "

Move designed to thwart Tory threats to block legislation enabling long-term public funding in the digital economy bill

Consortiums bidding to run ITV regional news pilots have been told to develop plans to operate without funds from the BBC licence fee, a move designed to thwart Conservative threats to block legislation enabling long-term public funding in the digital economy bill.

Richard Hooper, the chair of the selection panel responsible for choosing the preferred bidders for the pilots in England, Wales and Scotland, said that 'political uncertainty' over the project meant consortiums should plan for life with no public funds.

If Labour wins the general election, which is expected to be called within days for 6 May, the pilots can be run until the end of 2012.

However, the Tories have pledged to block the necessary clause in the digital economy bill that would then enable Ofcom to fund an ongoing, national and regional ITV news services with public funds after 2012.

The Conservatives have also pledged to scrap the plan for regional news consortiums if the party wins the general election.

'We asked bidders also to think about longer term sustainability without public funds,' said Hooper. 'Given the political uncertainties surrounding IFNCs, my colleagues and I were particularly impressed by the sustained enthusiasm and resource commitment of the bidders and the momentum that has built up to deliver innovative multiplatform multilayered news in Wales, Scotland and the Borders/Tyne Tees region of England, competing with the BBC.'

ITV, which appears to be rethinking plans to dump its regional news service, greeted the news of the selection of the preferred bidders coolly.

The company, which is in the throes of a strategic review being led by new chairman Archie Norman, said that it would take no action until after the general election. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is aiming to have final contracts signed with the bidders, which also require deals with ITV and Scottish ITV licencee STV, by May.

'We will review the proposals to see how they would fit with our schedule, brand and the need for vibrant innovative news,' said a spokesman for ITV.

'We will then decide how to proceed after the election and in the context of the company's ongoing strategic review. There will be no further steps taken until the election outcome is known and the position on future funding is clear. Whatever the outcome of the general election, ITV remains committed to great regional and national news and our approach to this will be part of our strategic review,' he added.

The Liberal Democrats came out in support of the government's initiative arguing that Tory plans are 'short sighted' and will not help the UK media industry.

'If regional news is to survive in the digital age, we need to think beyond business as usual,' said a spokesman for the Liberal Democrats. 'The IFNC pilots are an excellent opportunity to explore new ways of delivering regional and local news. Tory attempts to block the pilots are short sighted and will do nothing to help struggling media outlets.'

• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000.

• If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly 'for publication'.

Mark Sweney

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Lindsay Lohan prompts on-air battle - Guardian

2010-03-25T08:01:00.000-07:00

Lindsay Lohan prompts on-air battle: "

BBC3's controller, Danny Cohen, is no stranger to defending his output from critics, not least the Hollywood starlet Lindsay Lohan's investigation into child trafficking for the channel. Celebrities help bring in viewers to difficult topics, says Cohen. But he came in for some persistent questioning from Eddie Mair on BBC Radio 4's PM programme yesterday, which turned into the 'When Eddie Met Danny' show and had echoes of Mark Thompson's recent mauling by Paxo on Newsnight. Forget about Lohan, the issue became Cohen's absolute refusal to say anything negative about his programmes or presenters in public. Ever. Listen for yourself - the report begins at 46m 30secs. Here's a few highlights.

Eddie Mair Celebrities get you viewers don't they?

Danny Cohen Sometimes, and sometimes they don't. I mean you can do something with a celebrity and you realise they weren't the right person for that thing or they weren't quite the person that should be related to it and they don't.

EM Have you got examples of that?

DC None that I'm going to give you because I don't like criticising individual programmes and programme makers.

EM How do they get better then?

DC Well I know and my team know but I don't think it's right. I've never thought it's right to criticise in public.

EM So the people who appear on your channel, you are only prepared to say positive things about them?

DC I'll say negative things about them sometimes in private, but I won't on the radio criticise ...

EM In front of the licence payers? Aren't they paid enough to take a bit of constructive criticism in public?

DC I don't think the airwaves is the right place to do it, no. I'm happy on an individual basis to talk to people but I don't want to criticise individuals on the radio, no.

EM Is [Lindsay Lohan] any good?

DC Yeah I think she asks some good questions and I think she ...

EM But then you wouldn't tell me if she was bad by your own admission.

DC I wouldn't criticise my talent directly on the radio to you now, no.

So, folks, you will clearly have to watch it for yourself. Monkey, like Eddie, no doubt, can't wait.

Monkey

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Bring back Play for Today, says McKellen - Telegraph

2010-03-25T07:56:00.000-07:00

Bring back Play for Today, says McKellen: "Sir Ian McKellen has criticised the BBC for abolishing plays on television in
favour of reality TV formats."

"BBC Radio's gang of Lefty comedians" - Biased BBC

2010-03-25T07:54:00.001-07:00

"BBC Radio's gang of Lefty comedians": "Telegraph blog - Patrick West on BBC Radio comedy. He makes many of the same observations as I did in The Two Generics.

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CONSPIRACY (PART2) - Biased BBC

2010-03-25T07:54:00.000-07:00

CONSPIRACY (PART2): "Following up the COMplus post, something that those who do not work in television might not realise is that organisations that are linked to it, such as the Television Trust for the Environment (TVE) would not exist unless they were adept beggars and propagandists and because of the BBC. TVE poses as an independent production company but it is not; the organisation is only economically viable because it receives lavish support from a clutch of warmist NGOs, including WWF, Oxfam, Christian Aid and World Vision.

All of these, of course, as I noted in the original post, have a massive climate change/political agenda, and they receive funds from governments and the EU. They turn to TVE to make films (supposedly 'independent' but rigidly sticking to the warmist agenda) because it's cheaper to fund a specialist producer on a collective basis. They might not get exactly what they want, but it's damn close.

It's also true that TVE could not exist unless it had a guaranteed outlet - and the BBC has provided that certainty for 25 years. In turn, the BBC itself leeches on TVE's subsidies because it uses its capacity often, not only on regular slots like Earth Report, but also to make material for programmes such as Newsnight, where TVE's alleged 'environmental expertise' is judged to be the reason why it is qualified to make and publish such material. The reality, of course, is that the resulting programming spreads the greenie propaganda message - exactly in line with the NGO agenda. Time and time again, in such BBC programming, spokesmen for warmist NGOs appear, but sceptics never do.

Thus the BBC does far more than work with TVE. It provides it with its very lifeblood, access to airtime. In turn, the BBC - by using TVE programmes - gets access to the millions of pounds of donor cash that go to NGOs. I wonder how many of the donors that so generously give to charities such as Oxfam know how their hard-earned cash is actually being spent? To me, it's fraud on a massive scale.

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CONSPIRACY? - Biased BBC

2010-03-25T07:53:00.001-07:00

CONSPIRACY?: "B-BBC has already established that the BBC World Service Trust is an organisation that exists mainly to spread climate change lies. Now, the redoubtable EU Referendum has gone a very important step further. The so-called trust is a founding partner of a body called COMplus, which describes itself as a 'diverse global alliance of organisations committed to scaling-up the impact of sustainable development communications through partnership and collaboration.' Thus the BBC is a prime mover in shadowy - but highly organised - international efforts to foist the greenie ethos upon us all. To add insult to injury, COMplus, surprise, surprise, is funded by your money, via the Department for International Development (and of course through WST itself).

The scale and modus operandi of this activity beggars belief, and the BBC is in every sense a key component, putting it firmly in bed with the main greenie activists around the world.Look for example, at just one of the COMplus partner organisations, the Television Trust for the Environment (TVE). Naturally, its main goal is to make greenie propaganda (the annual report is a manual about the chilling art). The main outlet is on the BBC World television service; its programmes such as Earth Report reach 172 countries and notch up audiences of 100m plus. Principal funders of TVE include the World Wildlife Fund, Christian Aid, and Oxfam - the usual suspect NGOs who, in their pursuit of climate change nonsense, have become polticial activists whose main aim is to spread the lie that the West is to blame for all the developing world ills. Predictably, TVE is run by one Cheryl Campbell, a former BBC journalist (and greenie fanatic) who was also communications chief of Christian Aid.

Also in on the act is the Reuters Foundation, which, as B-BBC also established in a previous post is the founder of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. This body is run partly by BBC journalist James Painter, a climate change activist who is a model of his type; Goebbels would have been proud of him.

Before the AGW myth was formed, I was not a great believer in conspiracies. But in every stage of investigation of climate change, there's evidence that this is a propaganda exercise on and unprecedented scale. And the BBC is at the epicentre of it all. It's no coincidence that men like snout-in-trough and ultra Blairite Stephen Byers are also involved as one of the main cheerleaders for COMplus.

Update: Hat Tip to B-BBC reader Cassandra King, who (I had not seen) had posted on this earlier; also to EU Referendum's Richard North, who told me last night about COMplus and also ensured that the previous B-BBC postings on WST were linked to his post.

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Sympathy For The Devil's Mother-in-Law - Biased BBC

2010-03-25T07:53:00.000-07:00

Sympathy For The Devil's Mother-in-Law: "Unbelievable. And no byline. Hat tip Pounce.

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Forecast Wrong Again - Biased BBC

2010-03-25T07:52:00.001-07:00

Forecast Wrong Again: "Via Tim Blair, a reminder of stark warnings from BBC Radio 4's Costing the Earth in 2007:

The Australian of the year 2007, environmentalist Tim Flannery, once predicted that Perth in Western Australia could become the world's first ghost metropolis, its population forced to abandon the city due to lack of water.

While some critics scoffed at this idea, there is no doubt that it has forced the city to wake up to the fact its water is running out and that it can no longer rely on its natural supply.

Perth this week:

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BBC asks "Why so sensitive on immigration?" - Biased BBC

2010-03-25T07:52:00.000-07:00

BBC asks "Why so sensitive on immigration?": "From this morning's Today programme:

As the election approaches, immigration has become a primary concern for many voters but the sensitivity around it is preventing election candidates from making immigration a central issue.

Could that sensitivity and reluctance perhaps have anything to do with the way the BBC has dealt with the issue in the past? When immigration - or more specifically Tory immigration policy - became a major topic during the 2005 election campaign, the Today programme responded by doing an outside broadcast (on St George's Day) from Leicester. The leader of the Conservatives on Leicester City Council was invited on to defend his party's policies; he faced a hostile audience and a clearly biased Carolyn Quinn who sided with the crowd and lobbed easy leading questions to a pro-immigration community representative.

It's a bit rich of the BBC to suddenly start asking why politicians from the mainstream parties are reluctant to talk about immigration when the BBC itself has shown such antagonism towards those who have raised the issue in the past.

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BBC is not just ageist against women, says John Simpson - The Independent

2010-03-23T15:28:00.000-07:00

BBC is not just ageist against women, says John Simpson: "

He once claimed to have liberated Kabul. Now, John Simpson is facing a different kind of war much closer to home: ageism at the BBC. Many female correspondents have railed against age discrimination and now it is the turn of the men. 'There are not many of us left,' said Simpson, the Corporation's 65-year-old world affairs editor. 'We have mostly died out or retired. I'm certainly the oldest person in the BBC newsroom.'

BBC under fire for putting Weakest Link Anne Robinson in £1,500-a-night luxury Glasgow hotel - Daily Mail

2010-03-23T15:22:00.000-07:00

BBC under fire for putting Weakest Link Anne Robinson in £1,500-a-night luxury Glasgow hotel: "
The BBC was embroiled in another row after it emerged presenter Anne Robinson has been staying at one of Britain’s most luxurious hotels while recording The Weakest Link."

BBC defends 18-hour sports blitz after dropping popular entertainment programmes - Daily Mail

2010-03-23T15:21:00.000-07:00

BBC defends 18-hour sports blitz after dropping popular entertainment programmes: "
On Saturday, football and back-to-back Six Nations rugby matches took over the schedule, with almost 13 hours of continuous coverage."