Britannia Radio

Biased BBC

Monday, October 20, 2008 David Vance # OPPORTUNISM? I am sure you will have read about the brutal murder of Christian charity worker Gayle Williams by the Taliban near Kabul in Afghanistan. Her killers, those intrepid followers of the religion of peace, plainly state that they shot this defenceless lady because she was a Christian and that she was trying to convert people. The BBC was quick to declare that this was most likely NOT the case and that this was simply an "opportunistic" shooting. They managed to interview one of the bosses of the Christian charity concerned "Serving Afghanistan" who declared that Gayle Williams was not killed for her faith since, as he put it, they are not there to spread Christianity, merely to give aid to Afghanistanis. OK, so where is the bias? Well, it lies in the fact that Islamists kill a Christian worker stating that her faith was reason enough for her to die and yet the BBC moves to instantly counter this with the idea floated by the charity spokesman that there was no such malice intended. Patently some of the NGO's working in this region are hugely naive - to be kind about it - however surely the BBC could have provided space to someone who thinks this was the act of murderous Islamic scum. Or does no such person exist? Comments: 2 (unread) - Biased BBC Home David Vance # "FLEXIBLE WORKING"? Caught the truly appalling Patricia Hewitt being interviewed by Eddie Mair on PM. This was concerning Peter Mandelson's suggestion that the legislation bringing about a mandatory requirement for employers to accommodate flexible working hours for all employees with children under 16 be knocked on the head, for a while. The BBC was keen to offer Hewitt this soap-box from which she could witter on about how essential for small business that this provision be activated! Now I can understand that Hewitt is supremely ignorant when it comes to the stress on small business but I thought Eddie Mair should have made the point that any business can operate such flexible hours without draconian legislation making them do so. In the past day we have seen the Labour and Conservative Party offer up ideas as to how business can be given some help in these tough times. I personally think that the Conservative Party's ideas have been quite good, but seem to have gained little media traction within the BBC, whilst Labour's whimsies are discussed ad infinitum. Comments: 5 (unread) - Biased BBC Home David Vance # MARXISM IS BACK. I see the BBC reports that Marxism is resurgent in Germany. (I suppose that makes a change from certain other toxic ideologies that Germans have also been attracted in the past...) You can sense Beeb hearts swelling with pride when they repeat that "Globalisation, which is implicit in capitalism, not only destroys the heritage and tradition but it is incredibly unstable, it operates through a series of crises, and I think this has been recognised to be the end of this particular era." Cue the Red Flag? I also love the way the BBC editorialises that "Marxist economic philosophy - and in particular its Russian Leninist version - fell out of favour with the collapse of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s. " Oh really? I was just wondering where in the world it has EVER been successful? Comments: 24 (unread) - Biased BBC Home Hugh # Brought to book To be honest, I don't think the the BBC should be publishing opinion pieces, but since it does, do they all have to be so crashingly predictable?Here's the review they've decided to run on the Jewel of Medina, the fictional account of Muhammad's child bride that's caused a stir. Based on your knowledge of the BBC see if you can guess whether it's supportive before clicking through. If the BBC did want a piece on this that would fulfill its charter obligations, was this blogger really the obvious choice? Apart from the naked partisanship, here's a sample of the level of intellectual honesty on show: ...parts of the media who wanted to stir things up said Muslims wanted it banned. So, in order to find out what the (manufactured) fuss was about, I found myself spending 12 dreary hours reading this cringe-worthy melodramatic prose. The fuss hasn't been entirely "manufactured", though, has it? And here she is on the thorny subject of Aisha's age (nine): I lost count of the references to "child bride". Even till relatively modern times, marriage for women in their early teens was completely natural and common in parts of the world, including Europe. If the Beeb is so sure of the knuckle-dragging tendencies of its audience that the only way it thinks it can safely cover issues like this is to quite so comprehensively patronise its Muslim and non-Muslim audience it really shouldn't bother. I wish it hadn't. Comments: 20 (unread) - Biased BBC Home