THE REGIONAL MALIGNANCY

THE REGIONAL MALIGNANCY

>> MONDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2010

I think it's useful to sometimes consider how the BBC regional programmes also play a significant role in advancing the BBC's own national malignancy. Take this small item tucked away in the Northern Ireland section. It takes a report from one of the local Banks flagging up a loss of "consumer confidence" ever since "the General Election and the June emergency budget". The coda is simple - the Coalition is making our lives less comfortable. Fight the Cuts. Vote Labour. Presumably the illusive "consumer confidence" was soaring as Labour wracked up massive public debt, created jobs that we could not fund, and allowed a property bubble to build that then burst ruining lives for possibly generations. It seems that the Banks can have their uses for the BBC!

THE NOT SO DARLING BUDS OF MAY

Anyone catch this interview on Today? John Humphrys versus Theresa May. As ever, our intrepid BBC impartial interviewer (it's in his DNA) was out to grill the evil Conservative and I think he gave the game away when at one point he claims "your job is to protect police jobs". No, her job is to provide us with an efficient and affordable Police Force. In the BBC world view, the role of the politician is to protect Public Sector jobs at all costs. Humphrys all too evident hostility towards May is simply the manifestation of BBC outrage that the scale and size of the State can be directly challenged. However rather than cut back on Police numbers, I would prefer the Government to get us a cool £3bn per annum saving by cutting the parasitic BBC from the public purse.

MESSAGE CONTROL!

Further to Robin's post on the Richard Black led "End is nigh" waffle on the Biodiversity Junket in Japan, I noticed that Today was quick enough to follow on that item with an item on how the Otter has made a remarkable comeback from "the edge of extinction." All subtle stuff from the State propagandists.

PESTO AIN'T IMPRESSSED

It's going to be a crunch week for the Coalition and the BBC is out to ensure maximum damage, as one would anticipate from such a biased leftist broadcaster. So, take the news this morning that the leaders of 35 of the UK's most successful large companies have come out supporting Chancellor Osborne's approach to making the necessary cuts. It's good news for wee Georgie but Robert Pesto (He who speaks in an odd voice) isn't impressed. As he puts it...

"However, some people would point out that these bosses may be experts at running businesses but that does not make them experts at how best to manage the economy, our correspondent adds."

Great point, Robert, Oh, and some of them are are "widely viewed" as ..gasp, supporters of the Conservative Party. Where will it end? Who needs Labour when you have the BBC to oppose the Coalition?

THE END IS NIGH.....(AGAIN)

As I have suspected would happen, now that there are more and more problems in the climate change crusade, the BBC is increasingly shifting its emphasis on the intensifying push to introduce world government to ensure biodiversity. The UN convention that is frantically studying this topic in order to extract as much political cpaital as possible is meeting in Japan, and Richard Black is of course there at our expense. This is what he concludes:

Many experts believe it is necessary if scientific evidence on the importance of biodiversity loss is to be transmitted effectively to governments, in the same way that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assembles evidence that governments can use when deciding whether to tackle climate change.

What he doesn't say, of course, is that many competent (but less political) experts maintain the opposite: that his carefully chosen glass half empty phrases, such as "deforestation", and "species extinction", are a load of alarmist cobblers. I have referred before to this Extinction Fiction paper by Donna Laframboise which puts the whole pile of pessimist agitsprop into perspective. Mr Black, as usual, ignores material like this and is only concerned to present the negative, world-will-end, must-tax-us-more synthesis; it's not balanced reporting, just propaganda.

You're Joking, Surely?

>> SUNDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2010

"I'm happy to announce I'm proud of the BBC", says Mitch Benn, who has made a small fortune over the years on the back of the telly tax.

So happy he's even made a video about his "beleaguered meal ticket Beeb" - which you can apparently get from iTunes from November 1st; although to be fair you'd need to be a brain damaged lemur on crack to want to.

looks like his Beeboid friends have already been busy in the YouTube comments. Why not head over there and provide some fair and impartial balance?

And he's actually made T-shirts to go along with it. Really. For £15 each.

This has got to be a wind-up [checks diary for early Aprilness]....hasn't it?

A doff of the fedora to the free-to-air GrumpyOldTwat.

LLAMAS HEART OBAMA

Backing up DB's revelations about Matt Danzico - one of the BBC's new recruits to its heavily biased Washington outfit -, which showed that he's a strong Democrat supporter who campaigned for Obama in 2008, here's some footage which might suggest why the BBC's coverage of American politics doesn't seem entirely impartial (despite Helen Boaden).

A TALE OF TWO INTERVIEWS

B-BBC favourite Andrew Marr gave his fellow BBC interviewers a masterclass this morning in how to be biased.

He interviewed both the chancellor George Osborne and the new shadow chancellor Alan Johnson. Compare the introductions to each each interview and you will get a very good idea of what the actual interviews were like:

Johnson:
"Well from one legendary rocker to another. No, not quite. But though the new shadow chancellor is a rock n' roll enthusiast from his earlydays and he's said from time to time that politics is just a sideline, he's risen pretty fast. Alan Johnson came through the trades union movement, declined to go for the Labour leadership and he was Ed Miliband's surprise choice for the top economics job. He said he was rushing off to get his economics primer. Anyway, he's read the economics primer now and he's with me now. Welcome!"

Osborne (following straight on from the Johnson interview):
"So that is the case for the prosecution - that the cuts are too drastic, that they're irresponsible, they'll damage the recovery, and that they're unfair on the poorest I suppose as well, erm..driven by ideological zeal even. Well, there is another line of attack emerging which says that they're simply too ambitious and in practise they won't achieve the kind of money that they're intended too, that all the tough talk from John..George Osborne is indeed just talk. Well, the chancellor of the exchequer is here to respond to all of those things now. Welcome!"

You won't be surprised that Andrew Marr was laughing and Alan Johnson grinning broadly at the former and that George Osborne wore a very strained expression as he listened to the latter (though he didn't protest about it).

How the interviews ended is similarly revealing:

Johnson: "All right, for now, Alan Johnson. Thank you very much."
Osborne: "Politicians always talk about what they're going to spend money on, not what they're going to cut! But thank you very much indeed chancellor. Over to Louise for the news headlines."

Yes, the Johnson interview ended with smiles all round but the Osborne interview ended with Marr telling Osborne off and giving him no chance to respond.

The Alan Johnson interview as a whole was very soft, with just 6interruptions, passing quickly over his lack of economic expertise. The George Osborne interview, however, was a tough one with 28interruptions.

When Alan Johnson talked of this seeming to be an L-shaped recession with the economy dragging along the bottom, adding that we could face a Japanese-style 'lost decade', Marr chipped in supportively, "That's the danger!"

The main danger for the Conservatives is that that keep allowing partisan BBC hacks like Andrew Marr to keep skewing the news agenda against them.

FIRST CLASS TO DC...

Did you read that expenses claims lodged by Peter Horrocks, the director of the World Service and BBC Global News, show he travelled business class for a British General Election reception on May 6th held at the British Embassy in Washington DC. He flew back to London the following day.

The flights cost £1,780 with an additional £181.49 spent on his hotel room. Mr Horrocks, who earns £242,800 a year, also charged the corporation £79.60 for taxis to and from the airport in Washington and a further £19.44 for 'access to secure BBC internet'.

Ain't life grand when you can tap into £3bn per annum? Vital business, obviously.

SUNDAY MORNING LIVE

Well, the big question the BBC asks this morning via the pouting Suzanne Reid on Sunday Morning Live is.."Should the age of consent be lowered to 14"? Peter Tatchell was on to pontificate on this subject, hardly appropriate for a Sunday morning but the BBC seem to get excited about it.

MANDELA WORSHIP...AN ONGOING SERIES

>> SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2010

Whilst figures such as Lady Thatcher and Ronald Reagan have always attracted BBC opprobrium, Nelson Mandela has been one of their heroes, beyond criticism, a knight in shining armour. Did you catch this latestgushing tribute to the elderly Marxist? It's not that I think it fair enough to discuss Mandela but the sort of starry-eyed hero worship continually served up by the BBC does not provide the full story. It might not suit the BBC but perhaps there are other aspects to his life that merit consideration so we get a balanced view of this man?