Britannia Radio

 

BBC - Cameron On The Ropes After Irish Vote

>> SATURDAY, OCTOBER 03, 2009

On its website the BBC could hardly restrain its glee. 

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has welcomed the "Yes" vote on the EU's Lisbon Treaty in the Republic of Ireland referendum. 
Mr Brown said the treaty was "good for the UK and good for Europe".

Accompanied on the websites front page by a picture of a smiling Mr Brown it was if the last few days at Brighton had never existed. But there was also a BBC bonus. Not only had the Irish electorate come to their senses and submitted to the BBC position on the Lisbon Treaty but it spelt out trouble for those divided Tories currently languishing in the polls – and where did the BBC go to for that information? Why, “The Independent”, of course, quoting the helpful findings of a poll of Conservatives activists views of Lisbon conducted by websiteConservativehome.

"The findings suggest that the damaging divisions on Europe which destabilised the last Tory government could resurface at the party's annual conference in Manchester," the newspaper suggests.

Cue Marr, Crick, Naughty and Robinson – you have your orders....

BBC F-Bomb Rant By Cameron Eton Schoolmate

Does anybody have a recording of today's Morning Reports on Radio Five Live - specifically the bit where they played the wrong clip, a brief but very amusing f-bomb filled rant by one of the sports correspondents? I was only half awake at the time and missed the name of the reporter, but evidence suggests it was the racing correspondent Cornelius Lysaght.

This is nothing to do with BBC bias - I'm just taking advantage of the blog in the hope of flushing out the relevant clip for no other reason than I'd quite like to hear it again. Unsurprisingly, the programme isn't available on iPlayer.

If any tabloid journalists are reading this and need a little story to keep in the editor's good books, the above headline should help point you in the right direction. Judging by Peter Sisson's observations earlier this week, I imagine there must be someone on the BBC factory floor willing to pass on the clip in exchange for a few quid.

GETTING USED TO THE FUTURE..

Did any listen to this interview on Today this morning between John Humphyrs and Conservative Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley? The tone adopted by Humphrys throughout was sneering, aggressive, combative and very challenging. Now I have no problem with this whatsoever, but I would simply contrast this with the last twelve years of pro-Labour Today driven sycophancy (apart from when Tony went to war, of course!). I suspect that as we enter the next period of Conservative government Today will once again assert itself as the broadcaster of choice for the insurgency. This morning, we got a glimpse of the future as the State Broadcaster prepares to go into opposition. I would prefer it went into oblivion, wouldn't you?

THE NIGHT CHICAGO DIED....

Oh way joy! Did you catch Justin Webb and Mark Waddell discuss the failure of The Lightworker to bring the Olympic Games to Chicago in 2016? Comedy classic. It's fun watching these Obamaphiles disguised as BBC journalists coming to terms with the awful truth that their hero is - to quote Waddell - "mortal"

CIVILITY ON B-BBC

>> FRIDAY, OCTOBER 02, 2009

Guys - we need to keep the comments as clean as possible and there is an increasing amount of vulgarity creeping in. So, please respect the blog and watch your language. If I don't see an improvement I will take firm action. It only gives our enemies ammunition. I can set up the comment thread to select certain words but would rather you just edited what is posted.

Bye Bye Balen Report

BBC report to stay confidential

The report looked at the BBC's news coverage of the Middle East
A bid to force publication of a review by the BBC of its Middle East coverage has been rejected in the High Court.
London lawyer Steven Sugar wanted the Balen report, which was drawn up in 2004, to be revealed under the Freedom of Information Act.
But Mr Justice Irwin ruled that, as the material was held "for the purposes of journalism, art or literature", the corporation had no duty to disclose it.

Open Thread

Here's a new open thread, before the old one disappears out of sight.

Unfair Exchange

One video in exchange for the release of several Palestinian prisoners? The knowledge that Shalit is alive, unlike the two kidnapped soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser whose corpses were exchanged for Palestinian prisoners not so very long ago. How good a deal is that? How proportionate?
A resounding silence from the usual bunch who screech ‘disproportionate’ every time the numbers don’t tally. A bit quiet now though aren’t they.

It’s good news to see that Gilad Shalit looks okay on the video.

Even the female anchor on BBC news 24 managed to appear fairly glad. She was quick to point out however, that it wasn’t poor Gilad’s fault he was in the beastly Israeli army. He, and all young Israelis are forced to join. So it was okay to suspend our dislike of Israeli soldiers in this one case. Momentarily.

His relative was even given air time to explain that Israel is surrounded by enemies, and that people in the UK who have had a taste of terrorism courtesy of the IRA shouldn’t forget what it’s like as they sit comfortably at home casting dispersions on Israel, and furthermore Hamas is a terrorist organisation.

That told ‘em.

US Chat Show Host Shocked By Revelations About his Sex Life

Big on the BBC website headlines today was this about 62 year old US talk show host David Letterman

A man has been charged over an alleged plot to blackmail chat show host David Letterman over sexual relationships he had with female staff members. 
CBS employee Robert "Joe" Halderman, was arrested after an undercover sting operation, New York authorities said. 
Letterman confessed during a recording of his show, broadcast by CBS, that he had had sex with female colleagues. 
He said a man had threatened to expose the relationships unless a payment of $2m (£1.2m) was made.

The American people breathed a collective sigh of relief – a clean, decent andalways polite media hero is saved from the clutches of a blackmailer. Letterman himself said "This whole thing has been quite scary”

I wish someone had asked him if he had tried to "knock these women up" but no doubt his representative would have said that such crude remarks about a prominent media celebrity were cruel, demeaning and quite uncalled for. However, of course, slutty flight attendants from Alaska and their 14 yr old daughters, would be quite legitimate targets....

"Horrible for Chicago!"

Tweets from BBC Sports News Correspondent James Pearce today. (H/T David Preiser in the comments).

First...
"Both Obamas were brilliant. In some ways Michelle upstaged her husband. She spoke with real passion"

Then...
"My analysis of Chicago presentation: Michelle Obama absolutely fantastic. President Obama very good. Rest average"

And then...
"Just been speaking to Lord Coe. He reckons IOC members loved Michelle Obama"

Finally, heartache:
"Wow. Vow. Vow. Vow! We always knew first round would be close. But this is horrible for Chicago." (I think those are all meant to be "Wows", not "Vows".)

This guy wasn't as impressed as Mr Pearce:
"Pass the sick bucket - just listened to the Obamas' begging for the Olympics and having their usual luv-in. Enough schmaltz already."

Neither, apparently, were the Radio Five Live listeners:
"Michelle Obama: Listeners phoning 5live saying "Pass me the sick bucket" - :D"

Updated. The CNN anchor was as nonplussed as James Pearce. Very funny.

Obama Death Poll

The most viewed story on the BBC Americas site on Tuesday was "US probes Obama 'death' web poll" about a sick Facebook page asking if Obama should be killed. The story was given prominence on the main pages of the BBC's News, World and Americas sections. Sky News also covered the story online, albeit with added alarmist undertones about racist protesters which the BBC, to its credit, avoided. However, unlike the BBC, Sky has done a follow up:

US Secret Service agents have revealed a teenager was behind a Facebook survey asking whether President Barack Obama should be assassinated.
The agency says it has spoken to the juvenile and his parents and determined there is no intent to harm the president.

This turn of events can't be unknown to the BBC, and given the evident interest in the story it seems a strange editorial decision not to provide an update explaining that it was just a stupid kid doing a very stupid thing. Why would the BBC not be keen to allay the fears of its readers? Was the bland denouement such a disappointment to BBC journos that not one of them can be bothered reporting on it? 

If the BBC does decide to update the story, the following information fromMichael Deacon might be worth including:

But try typing “George Bush” and “die” into Facebook’s search engine.
You’ll be hit by a Niagara of groups with titles such as “George W Bush should die”, “I vote that George Bush can die”, “If this group reaches 1,000 [members] then George Bush will die”, “I want George Bush to die”, “Die Bush die”, “George Walker Bush should be killed”, “Will someone please kill George W Bush”…
These groups were there while George W Bush was in office. Eight months after he left, they’re still there.

Also possibly worthy of mention could be this plea for the assassination of George Bush, written in 2004:

The world will endure four more years of idiocy, arrogance and unwarranted bloodshed, with no benevolent deity to watch over and save us. John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinckley Jr. — where are you now that we need you?

That was Charlie Brooker, Guardian columnist and now, er, BBC TV presenter.

HARI UP JOHANN!

It's Friday, time to start chilling down, and what better way to start than to read this article by Johann Hari in the soon to be extinct Independent. Johann is very concerned that the much loved BBC is going to be broken up by the evil Tories. Now read on....

Let's start with the good news. The BBC works. For just £2.60 a week, the British get a package of the best television and radio in the world. We get the best comedies, the best drama and the best news. There's a reason why we have won seven of the past 10 international Emmies, and the BBC News website is the most popular on earth. As soon as he took power, Nicolas Sarkozy asked how he could make French broadcasting more like ours. It is a model for the world of how to create journalism that isn't contaminated by either corporate advertisers and proprietors on one side, or state ownership on the other. Three independent polls have found that a large majority of Brits would happily pay more for it.

What say you, dear reader? I can but wish that Johann's worst nightmare comes true.