Unintentionally Ironic Statement Of The Year?

Unintentionally Ironic Statement Of The Year?

>> SUNDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2010

"Instead of balanced coverage you’ve got somebody, a commentator, finding a way to reaffirm the beliefs of their viewers."

That's Foster Kamer of the Village Voice in his dire paint-by-numbers attack on Fox News and the American Right for the BBC's Culture Show (h/t Oliver via David Preiser). Kamer's item is so clichéd, so typical of lazy left-wing conventional wisdom that I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the BBC College of Journalism is already using it as an example of best practice. It wouldn't have occurred to the editor of the Culture Show to commission a conservative commentator (Klavan, Breitbart, Gutfeld?) to give a different perspective on the US media for once. No, that would risk alienating the target audience - pretentious Guardian-reading dickwads. Far better to play it safe and get a reliably on-message left-wing hack to serve up the usual BBC smug prejudiced toss about the US. How do you suppose Kamer responded to NPR's sacking of Juan Williams? By championing open debate and free speech? No, like this: A nasty little left-wing bigot. Not unlike the Culture Show supremo Janet Lee, in fact, as the editor of GQ Dylan Jones can testify:

Last summer, even I was subjected to a volley of abuse from a BBC executive. Janet Lee, the editor of the BBC’s flagship arts programme, The Culture Show (and who I have known for over 25 years), came up to me at a party on the Thames and, after calling me a ‘Tory ****’ proceeded to disparage the Tory leader, using ‘Etonian’ as though it were the very worst word in her lexicon of obscenities. You could tell she couldn’t work out what was worse: becoming a Tory, or admitting it.

Impartiality is in their genes.

IN THE SHADOWS...

B-BBC contributor David Jones asked me to look into BBC connections inthis story, that the UN has established a whole new machinery to ensure that its line on biodiversity alarmism is properly reported. In this instance, I can find no obvious smoking gun. But there are inevitably some BBC links. One of the key organisations that the UN is using to enforce its groupthink is the International Institute for Environment and Development (often quoted by Richard Black). In turn, the IIED is a a key supporter of theClimate Change Media Partnership (CCMP), which exists to indoctrinate journalists about both climate change and biodiversity. On the board of CCMP is - suprise, surprise, an ex BBC environment reporter (Mr Harrabin's predecessor) Alex Kirby. As his wiki biography shows, he now works on developing "media training skills" among NGOs, as well as continuing to work for the BBC on a freelance basis. He was a pioneer of alarmist reporting about climate and biodiversity, as this feature shows. Also listed as a key member of CCMP is Mark Harvey, whom I know was an employee for many years of the Television Trust for the Environment(TVE), which I have mentioned before on this blog - they are a favoured supplier to the BBC of greenie propaganda, linked in turn closely with the BBC World Service Trust, the primary purpose of which is also to spread greenie propaganda, and train journalists how to do so. Indirect links, maybe, but they illustrate that the BBC is entwined to some extent with the UN's own propaganda machine. And my bet is that behind the scenes, BBC staff are working flat out to assist the UN's goals. These people work together and feed off each other.

Four Whores of the Apocalypse

>> SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2010

Robin Shepherd is one of the most articulate of Israel’s supporters. As he’s not Jewish, a single word from him counts, in the eyes of the world, as twice that of a Jew, so the BBC should sit up and take notice. He understands only too well the way the BBC misrepresents the complexities of the I/P conflict, leaving out essential information while maintaining a semblence of the impartiality it is obliged to display. Here is his analysis of Barbara Plett’s BBC article about anti Israel campaigner Richard Falk’s report to the UN General Assembly. In one corner, in apocalypse terms, is the white horse, representing evil, in the form of Barbara Plett, famous for her emotional outburst at Yassir Arafat’s departure, in a helicopter, to die. On the red horse (war) is Richard Falk, well known for associating Israel’s "treatment of Palestinians with [the] criminalized Nazi record of collective atrocity”, not to mention some odd views on 9/11. Number three, black, representing famine, is the UN - always ready willing and able to condemn Israel for anything and everything while ignoring terrible misdemeanours of other countries. In the final corner astride the pale horse which stands for ‘death’, is the BBC, which is obsessed with denigrating Israel, whilst praising the Palestinians and showering Islam and the Muslim world with admiration. What a formidable quartet. Robin Shepherd understands how it works. Barbara Plett’s article ignores Falk’s biased political agenda. Basic good journalistic practice obliges the BBC to provide context and sufficient information to “ help the reader understand precisely why Israel and the rest of us should treat his words with something less than the reverence they are accorded by the BBC.” Barbara Plett sees no need for that. The travesty of ‘balance’ consists of: “Israel said (Falk’s) report was utterly biased and served a political agenda, criticising its author for making no mention of what it called Palestinian terrorist attacks”. So, now they do mention Falk’s political agenda, belatedly, in such a way as to dismiss it as Israel’s fabrication, and they also imply that Palestinian terrorist attacks are a fantasy, an exaggeration and a matter of opinion. Do read Robin Shepherd’s article to get the full picture. He concludes:

“You can bet your house that Barbara Plett and the editorial team that helped produce this story have no inkling at all that they have violated what should be considered basic journalistic standards and practices. In their world, their behaviour is reasonable and normal. And so, they would argue, is Richard Falk.”