The Telegraph is very clear: electricity prices are going to to rise £500 a year because of the government's lunatic "clean" energy obsession. For the BBC it's a different equation (written in matter-of-fact business need terms and a cue for pictures of useless windfarms): I know it’s no good getting nostalgic, but in the olden days, when BBC spokespersons such as “John Reith” called in occasionally to remind us of our stupidity, they would cite a survey which concluded that the BBC was indeed biased in its Middle East reporting. In favour of Israel. Anyway, the other day when ace reporter John Pilger was holding forth to Justin Webb about his new film, aired last night on ITV, it reminded me of those times. “When we’re embedded,” he bleated, “we distort the news by peddling the government line.” Justin Webb, remembering that his job is to probe, ventured chummily: “You’re a bit of a polemicist yourself, my old matey”. “I was waiting for that” Pilger countered, chuckling with feigned good humour, and with that unequivocal put-down Justin surrendered. Anyway, the survey that showed that the BBC was biased towards Israel was something to do with this: “Bad News From Israel”. Here are some eager BBC converts: Mark Kinver, as I have pointed out before, is as fervent a BBC greenie as Richard Black and Roger Harrabin, if not more so. And here he is, given a political platform to comment on the Cancun so-called agreement. First he is worried that no "legally binding" deal was reached (that is, he is sad that we have not had billions of pounds of taxes imposed on us); second, he reports comment from the greenie extremist blog 350 or Bust (which believes that more snow is a sure sign of AGW), but - surprise, surprise - not from any of the sceptical commentators who have summarised the outcome of Cancun; and thirdly, he appears to think that a "twitter-storm" from disaffected youth (who know the truth about AGW) was responsible for keeping Chris Huhne at Cancun rather than dashing home to vote over student financing. Mr Kinver also appears (on my reading of his phrasing) to think that the attack on Camilla by these self-same students was rather amusing and inconsequential. I have news for Mr Kinver. Chris Huhne stayed in Cancun for the reasons that our bloated politicians attend these junkets; he's addicted to power and enjoys putting his fat, greedy snout in the trough. It's true that he's also a fanatic eco-fascist, but the idea that he would make decisions about his schedule because students are worried about global warming is risible in the extreme. Most people here will be well aware that the BBC censored news of the beginnings of the Tea Party movement in the US for about two months before the reality of nationwide, simultaneous protests on April 15, involving hundreds of thousands of people, forced them to report it. I first mentioned the issue on an open thread here back on Feb. 19, 2009, even before anyone started calling them "tea parties". They were anti-tax protests first and always. And even when the BBC at last reported it, Kevin Connolly worked to discredit the participants by hinting at dark forces behind it, suggesting that this was not, in fact, an independent, spontaneous grassroots movement. Connolly went further than that, and highlighted the skin color of the majority of participants, implying a racist element behind the motivation of the people involved. And then, of course, he insulted all of us with a sexual innuendo, whichremains on the BBC website to this day. After that, the BBC again ignored the growing movement, and refused to acknowledge its success in affecting local issues and elections, until Scott Brown surprised them. At that point, the BBC occasionally acknowledged the existence of the Tea Party movement, but - with the lone exception of one video report by Katty Kay - their reports were uniformly negative, suggested racism, and tried to portray extreme fringe elements as representative of the entire movement. You all heard about Christine O'Donnell nearly every day for weeks and weeks, yet during the campaign the BBC censored any mention of Col. Allen West until a few days before the election. Even Katty's report from January focused on "anger", and the majority of BBC reports at the time were full of quips about "boiling anger" and whatnot. Anger is okay when it's against things the Beeboids don't like, but not when it's against their beloved Obamessiah. The BBC's censorship and subsequent attempts to minimize the impact of the Tea Party movement in the minds of their audience got so bad that it led to Emily Maitlis declaring during the BBC's coverage on the night of the recent mid-term elections that the Tea Party movement had "come out of nowhere". Only to those who trusted the BBC for their news on US issues, dear. The link to Katty Kay's report from Jan. 2010 refers to the Tea Party movement as "new" (fourth one down), even though it was nearly a year old by then and had had some political success. I'm sure most here will remember just how biased and negative their reporting was during the weeks before the election. They spent more time looking for racists under the bed than covering the issues at hand. In stark contrast, the BBC wasted no time at all in enthusiastically reporting an alleged grassroots anti-Tea Party movement calling itself the "Coffee Party". Contrary to the BBC's portrayal as an innocent group of people, it was in fact started by a former New York Times hack and dedicated campaigner for The Obamessiah's Presidential bid, who used her media connections to gain support and hype. Hardly the grassroots darlings the BBC wanted you to believe they were. The article also quoted one of her own colleagues in support, even though that colleague was well aware of the Coffee Party's partisan makeup. Of course, Kate Zernicke was quoted because she had written a partisan hit book about the Tea Party movement. Still, the BBC reported the existence of the movement within days of its launch. However, as the movement was not in fact a genuine grassroots movement and was merely yet another partisan group competing for the attention of loyal Democrats and far-Left activists, it was more or less stillborn, and went nowhere. The BBC's utter silence on the Coffee Party after that initial glowing report is testament to how useless it was, for if there was even one tiny success the BBC surely would have reported it with equal vigor. Now there's another non-partisan group, calling themselves "No Labels". There was a forum held in New York City on Monday, presenting itself as a non-partisan group of people dedicated to reaching across the aisle and "working together". The BBC, of course, sent Katty Kay to cover it, and set about informing you immediately, declaring the group's desire to reduce partisanship for the common good. Once again their editorial double standard is revealed. 
WHICH IS IT?
Government to guarantee electricity prices
Yes, there's mention of a possible price hike, but it's well down in the story in the BBC's version. The main thrust is to justify how necessary this price-rigging mechanism is. And of course, no BBC climate change story would be complete without a smug, patronising comment from Friends of the Earth that we are now on course for saving the planet, but it's not enough. Update: The BBC reporting of Huhne the loon's crazy policies has become more and more obfuscatory as the day has progressed. They note the claims of a £500 increase mentioned in the Telegraph, but give by far the most weight to Huhne's own preposterous assertion that the figure will be far less, and the headline is now that firms are being given ***new low-carbon incentives***. Me, I think today's lunatic measures will go down as the longest suicide note in history, as James Delingpole brilliantly outlines. Margaret Thatcher bequeathed us arguably the most competitive power industry in Europe; the nutjob Cleggerons are busy dismantling it. And they have today condemned countless thousands of old people to die miserable, cold deaths. It's unspeakable.The Flaw Pilger Doesn’t See.
>> WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2010
"I wasn't under the impression that Israeli borders had changed or that they had taken land from other people - I thought it was more a Palestinian aggression than it was Israeli aggression."
But now, thanks to the BBC, I think the opposite of the truth is the truth! Hooray! "The impression I got (from news) was that the Palestinians had lived around about that area and now they were trying to come back and get some more land for themselves - I didn't realise they had been driven out of places in wars previously."
Thank goodness for the BBC!! Thank goodness for misinformed journalists who are keen to pass on all they don’t know. Yippee!"You always think of the Palestinians as being really aggressive because of the stories you hear on the news. I always think the Israelis are fighting back against the bombings that have been done to them."
Until now I haven’t hated the Israelis properly. Thank you BBC. There. Conclusive proof that the BBC is biased in favour of Israel. The Pilger programme is on ITV iPlayer. One of Pilger’s theories seems to be: if only people knew that war is a nasty business there wouldn’t be any more wars. Pilger is no peacemaker however. He is full of hate and malice. The Palestinian section demonstrates why this filmette is so hypocritical. Pilger detests Israel so much that he has overlooked the fact that the thesis underpinning the whole thing doesn’t hold up when applied to what he calls ‘Palestine’. He promises to show that ‘embedding’ influences reporting. Which reporters does he think are embedded with the IDF? Never mind though, in the exceptional case of Israel, or should I say Palestine, embedding isn’t necessary because mere phone calls from Israeli government propagandists are so terrifying that BBC broadcasters crumple up and obey. What incenses Pilger more than anything is the hateful propagandist Mark Regev. Even the oddly dull Fran Unsworth wouldn’t swallow that. “He’s a government spokesman.” she replies bravely. “Where’s the Palestinian equivalent to Mark Regev?” he asks her. She didn’t mention that the Palestinian viewpoint permeates every report that is ever put out on the BBC because she hasn’t noticed that. Pilger even brings in the incontrovertible Bad News From Israel I mentioned earlier. “Never believe anything” he says, towards the end. Wise words from Mr. Pilger, which rather encapsulate the elephantine flaw in the whole programme. I do realise by the way, that this film wasn't shown on the BBC, so please don't bother pointing that out.TWITTERING AWAY....
Sometimes The BBC Doesn't Censor News From The US - When It's An Approved Thought
>> TUESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2010
Thursday, 16 December 2010
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