Britannia Radio

Biased BBC

Monday, January 12, 2009 Natalie # Bremner vs Bush Among the comments to the previous post I particularly liked this one by Joe N: What I found rather cute in the R4 documentary, was the way it tried to be reasonable, but resorted to "mockumentary" tacktics anyway. They had a voice-actor imitating President Bush at each segment, and when they played a series of quotations by him, the background music was of rural banjo fuges, as though it meant to cue the pavlov's dogs of the listening audience a seeming reference to the movie "deliverance". The arrogant, culturally ignorant bastards at the BBC don't even realize that there is no such tradition in Texas, and that he doesn't comre from the Appalachian or mountain-south traditions associated with the type of fade-in/fade-out music they played. Really - they are idiots willing to employ what they think they know about a folk culture to abuse someone! It's about as sophisticated and shows as much a lack of depth of familiarity as a would-be photo-montage of Barack Obama with a watermelon and a bucket of fried chicken. I assume Joe N is referring to this programme in which the impressionist Rory Bremner "considers the rhetorical evolution of George W Bush from gaffe-prone candidate to grandiose war president." I caught the end of the programme. It could have been worse, I suppose. At least it allowed various of Bush's speechwriters and so on to have a word, though of course the beginning and end of each segment had to be according to the BBC narrative. I did notice one thing - after actually praising Bush for some good rhetoric, the inevitable contrasting Bush-is-stupid bit was the occasion where Bush said that he was "proud to shake the hand of a brave Iraqi citizen who had his hands cut off by Saddam Hussein." Ha ha ha. Now, given that the BBC researchers managed to dig out from the archives a clip of his actual words (52 minutes in) then the programme-makers must have known the context in which this speech was made. The link takes you to a post at the Volokh Conspiracy blog, which (unlike the BBC or the Slate magazine feature that prompted Eugene Volokh's post) gives the next few lines of the speech: I'm honored to shake the hand of a brave Iraqi citizen who had his hand cut off by Saddam Hussein. I'm with six other Iraqi citizens, as well, who suffered the same fate. They are examples of the brutality of the tyrant. I am also here with Marvin Zindler, of Houston, Texas. I appreciate Joe Agris, the doctor who helped put these hands on these men; Don North, the documentary producer who made a film of this brutality, which brought the plight of these gentlemen to the attention of Marvin and his foundation. These men had hands restored because of the generosity and love of an American citizen. And I am so proud to welcome them to the Oval Office. . . . Bush was able to shake this man's hand because he was among several men who had just been provided with artificial hands by US surgeons. That was what occasioned the speech being made at all. He was saying, wasn't it great that they did, once again, have functioning hands despite the barbaric punishment inflicted upon them. As I said, the programme makers must have understood those circumstances. But they - and Rory Bremner - chose a cheap laugh over explaining them. Comments: 17 (unread) - Biased BBC Home David Vance # BUBBA VS BUSH. The bias is so in your face it is almost unbelievable. Compare this withthis. Comments: 47 (unread) - Biased BBC Home David Vance # THE SAME TODAY AS TOMORROW. My but wasn't the Today programme in cracking form this morning? Did you catch the class warrior Martin Narey from poverty-industry giant Barnardos declaring that "investment" in Education has helped mostly the middle-classes whilst the "poor" have seen little benefit. Yes, right-on, Comrade and pass the sick-bucket. This then segued into a report featuring a Gazan doctor and the death of hundreds of babies at the hands of those evil Israelis. The question was asked of the not so good doctor where the greatest risk to babies in Gaza comes from, the answer, Hamas, was never even considered! Next, Prince Harry and that alleged "racist" comment three years ago. The oleaginous Keith Vaz was given time to slime on and give his opinion. The BBC loves nothing better than attacking a Royal and this non-story, spun by the circulation-deprived News of the World, is perfect for the BBC since it allows them to set the attack dogs on the Royal Family but using the veneer of "racism." Comments: 45 (unread) - Biased BBC Home David Vance # GOOGLE MELTS THE POLES? I see the BBC have been generous with the amount of publicity they have given to a US academic who believes that two search requests on the internet website Google produces as much carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle. There is no discussion on the science that has led to this conclusion but that's not important since the BBC objective in pushing this story is to further crank up the hysteria about man made carbon emissions. That's why all this little quirky stories have a danger, they are all part of the mega-narrative that pushes AGW. Comments: 37 (unread) - Biased BBC Home David Vance # NOT A WAR ZONE The purpose of this blog is to discuss, to expose and to excoriate BBC bias. That's where the energy should go and that's why I write here. What I don't enjoy, at all, is the ad hominem abuse that disfigures some of the threads. I've noticed it creeping in more in recent times and I am worried that it weakens the blog and gives the BBC and those who apologise for it reason to dismiss us as a bunch of in-fighting keyboard warriors. We're all better than that and so I would urge you all, PLEASE, to desist from having a go at individuals with whom you may not agree or get on. Tackling their arguments, of course, is fine but we could do with less personally directed obscenities and a bit more consideration for others. I am not seeking to patronise or single out anyone but I am trying to start 2009 here on a sound basis and that means YOU all making your usual brilliant points on bias at the BBC but without attacks on each other. Thanks for your help on this, let's all pull together. Comments: 60 (unread) - Biased BBC Home Sunday, January 11, 2009 David Vance # MONEY WELL SPENT? Interesting to read that the BBC takes our license tax and then uses it to pay teenagers to brandish guns. "A teenager's claim that he was paid £50 by a "fixer" to brandish guns on the BBC's Panorama programme is to be investigated by Merseyside Police. The 17-year-old was filmed assembling a shotgun for the programme about guns and gang culture on Merseyside. On Friday, Liverpool Crown Court heard he was paid by a leading figure in the Marsh Gang to show off the weapon. A Merseyside Police spokeswoman said they were investigating whether they could identify those involved. Jason Smith, defending the youth, said: "The defence contention is not that he was paid directly by the Panorama film producers, but he was paid money by an intermediary who had been paid money to fix it on their behalf." The stated mission of the BBC is "to inform, educate and entertain" but I didn't realise that funding gangsters was all part of this rich tapestry! Comments: 15 (unread) - Biased BBC Home ed thomas #