Britannia Radio

HARRABIN: I AM GUILTY

>> MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 06, 2010

I've listened to Roger Harrabin's second and final programme about climate change available here (due to be broadcast on R4 tonight). Obviously B-BBC readers will make up their own minds whether the programme could be regarded as balanced, but I have deliberately chosen this out-of-context phrase from Mr Harrabin because in my view his whole construct was deeply flawed. Yes he interviewed so-called sceptics, and yes, he conveyed elements of their perspective. But this was only a classic BBC lip-service ploy to convey fairness. The reality was that, on balance, he was snidely scathing about all those who disbelieve in the warmist fantasies, and at the same time, went out of his way to build credence for alarmists, both by allocating them more space and by talking of them reverentially as "mainstream" and "establishment" scientists. He gave his carefully chosen "sceptics" some space, but knocked them down by a combination of snide innuendo, highly selective editing, and by failing to put across their ideas in a way that showed them respect. The whole exercise reminded me of a Mafia chief saying he must be right because most those in his orbit agreed with him. All very unsurprising - it's what Mr Harrabin does, after all - but people I know were asking me at the weekend if these two programmes showed he might be having second thoughts about his warmist zeal. The answer is clearly a resounding 'no'. And he and the BBC are as committed to their green religion as they always have been. In future months the corporation will wheel Uncertain Climate out as an example of them giving "sceptics" airtime. But it was a charade.

ADVERTISING BIAS!

More evidence of how unbiased the BBC has become in this new era of Mark Thompson balance...

" Yesterday The Telegraph had a letter that gave information about how much money the BBC spent on job advertisements for the different newspapers: In The Guardian, the BBC spent a massive£231,944; in The Telegraph, £32,535; in The Times only £6,159.yet The Telegraph has by far the largest circulation of the three quality dailies, with The Times some way behind and The Guardian a poor third. Don't even ask about The Express because the BBC doesn't advertise at all there."

Fair and balanced all the way, Mark.

TALKING BALLS

A Biased BBC reader pointed me in the direction of some more dubious Stephanomics....here she goes;

"Partly thanks to Ed Balls, the debate over the scale and timing of spending cuts in the UK is still very much alive. Next week I'll be taking a look at the arguments in detail, as part of the BBC's special season on the spending review. But in the meantime, anyone who agrees with Mr Balls that the government is overstating the risk posed by the deficit may be surprised to hear they got some support this week from the IMF."

It's fascinating to watch the BBC go on and all out attack on everything NOT Labour ever since Mark Thompson boasted that bias was a thing of the past. It's the BBC that needs to be a thing of the past and Flanders cheer-leading for Balls is another example of how this hydra operates.

DEFENDING THE MULLAHS

It always encourages me when I see other people picking up on the blatant bias of the State Broadcaster. So hat-tip to Butterflies and Wheels(by no means an anti-BBC blog) for this excellent catch. I know that Susanna Reid is cute but the programme she presents is really ugly.

"The BBC has outdone itself this time.

BBC1′s Sunday Live did a programme on whether it is right to condemn the Iranian regime for the stoning of Ashtiani. Maryam Namazie was supposed to take part (and it is not difficult to guess what she would have said, and how firmly she would have said it), but somehow the programme never got around to her. It did get around to two people who said the other thing, but it did not get around to Maryam. Yes that’s right. It found the time to talk to two apologists for the fascist reactionary mullahs’ regime in Iran but it could not find the time to talk to a secular feminist who thinks women shouldn’t be buried up to their necks and stoned to death for anything and especially not for “adultery.”

The BBC gives a voice to fascist reactionary mullahs and denies a voice to secular feminists who defend human rights.

In the live debate, they managed to interview Suhaib Hassan from the Islamic Sharia Council defending stoning and someone from Tehran saying she faces execution for murdering her husband but somehow there was no time in the debate for me.

Even the presenter, Susanna Reid, said stonings were rare and that none had taken place since the 2002 moratorium! In fact 17 people have been stoned since the moratorium; also there are court documents provided by her lawyer specifying her stoning sentence for adultery. BBC had all this information. Without providing evidence to the contrary, BBC Sunday Live took as fact the regime’s pronouncements on her case. They failed to mention that the man charged with her husband’s murder is not being executed and that the trumped up murder charges are an attempt by the regime to silence the public outcry and kill Sakineh. As Sakineh herself has said: “they think they can do anything to women.”

OPEN THREAD...