Saturday, 13 March 2010

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

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

Cringe Spotted - Biased BBC

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

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

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

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

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

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USING YOUR MONEY WISELY? - Biased BBC

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



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



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SAMCAM BAD, LIBDEMS GOOD - Biased BBC

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

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Friday, 12 March 2010

Julian Fellowes: TV obsessed with youth - Telegraph

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

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

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