BECAUSE THEY ARE WORTH IT?

BECAUSE THEY ARE WORTH IT?

>> SUNDAY, JANUARY 03, 2010

So, hands up all those who think that Arts projects headed by Alan Yentob to mark the refurbishmeof Broadcasting House costing licence fee-payers £3.9m is well worth it? It's that "special relationship" that the BBC enjoys with the British public, right?

TOO TOLERANT...

Nicky Campbell's "Big Question" returned to BBC1 this morning and the first question asked was "Are we too tolerant of Muslim extremism". It was an interesting programme with one Muslim in the audience being given a lot of time to inform us that we are not overly tolerant and that Islamophobia is the major concern. (And guess what, UK Foreign policy was blamed by several audience members for Muslim anger.) However the panel was robust on this with Kevin MacKenzie and Rabbi Schochet making some strong points not normally aired on the BBC. However the third panelist, Christine Rees, blamed UK citizens for creating feelings of anger within Muslim hearts. Nicky Campbell did ask the non-Muslim audience if they could understand "the anger" of the Muslims. Naturally some liberals did. In fairness, this was an unusual tone for a BBC programme and Islam was given a rougher time than I have normally heard.

BE AFRAID....

Have you noticed how eerily silent the BBC has become on the topic of 'climate change' since the Copenhagen fiasco? Newspapers and theblogsphere are chronicling that we are in the midst of one of the coldest winters in decades, but on the BBC, there's nothing - not even their usual counter-assertions that in our torrid era, temperature graphs only go upwards, so this is only a temporary respite before we all fry. Be afraid, be very afraid. Harrabin, Black, Peter Thomson and whole cohorts of senior editors are probably meeting in darkened White City rooms to plan their new alarmist onslaught.

Soulmates

>> SATURDAY, JANUARY 02, 2010

Here's BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner on the Phil Williams show (Radio Five Live, 31/12/09) discussing the Guardian's front page story about Iran's involvement in the kidnap of Peter Moore and his bodyguards:

"They've spent a lot of time and money and given cameras to people going into places that are too dangerous for Western reporters to go to. To some extent we've worked with them in the last few weeks trying to stand up or down their claims, and they've allowed us to interview, or re-interview, some of the people who they've used as sources."

Does the BBC provide weeks of journalistic assistance to all newspapers seeking to break major stories or is this licence fee funded service available only to the Guardian?

(Happy New Year to all, btw)

Time for Al Het from Naughtie?

Remember James Naughtie’s disgraceful interview with the Israeli Ambassador Ron Proser on Today 22nd December? I commented that Naughtie seemed unaware of ex President Jimmy Carter’s reputation as the most anti Israel US President ever. To further a point, Naughtie produced one of Mr. Carter’s notoriously disparaging statements, saying: “I take it you don’t regard him [Carter] as somebody who is anti-Israel in his bones!” “Does Naughtie know nothing about this subject?” I wondered. Well, it’s high time someone tells Naughtie all about it if he doesn’t know already, because now Jimmeh is offering a kind of apology, which, of course, is a tacit admission of guilt. People are speculating as to whether it’s because his grandson is running for office in an area with Jewish voters, or for some other reason. The peanut president has written an open letter to the Jewish community, and concludes: " we must not permit criticisms for improvement to stigmatize Israel. As I would have noted at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but which is appropriate at any time of the year, I offer an Al Het for any words or deeds of mine that may have done so." In Hebrew 'Al Het’ means plea for forgiveness.

The Elephant in the University

In yesterday’s mini round-up I began with the BBC interview with cherubic Qasim Rafiq, who appeared to be baffled by the behaviour of his best friend the baby-faced underpants bomber. The BBC’s apparent assumption that the twosome's association with the UCL’s Islamic Society was as good as a character reference was baffling too. They accepted it as a kind of alibi and seemed to be satisfied that for this reason alone he couldn’t have been radicalised while he was in the UK. Robin Shepherd nails it again. Con Coughlin has: “even though Abdulmutallab is not even a British citizen, he was still allowed to be elected president of the Islamic Society at University College London (UCL), where he was then allowed to arrange debates on subjects such as Guantanamo Bay and “Jihad v Terrorism”. No points for guessing which side Abdulmutallab was on.” It seems though, that the BBC is not alone in its refusal to confront the elephant in the uni. The events of Christmas day came as a complete shock to Malcolm Grant of UCL. It’s freedom of speech innit?