IN THEIR DNA

IN THEIR DNA

Peter Sissons has written a book about his time at the BBC. No surprises for readers of B-BBC, and my sources in the newsroom have been telling me these sort of anecdotes for 15 years or more. But finally, someone has broken ranks,and Mr Sissons conveys conviction. The BBC reaction, of course, will be wearyingly predictable; an embittered old man who has lost his marbles.

The full article is here.

Enjoy every nuanced kick!

COULSON - MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

>> FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 2011

The BBC has been to the fore over many months to try and get the head of Andy Coulson - Cameron's spinmeister. The Today programme has never missed the opportunity to sink the knife in. So I am sure there are celebrations at the Beeb that Coulson has resigned today. First Postman Pat (BBC meme - one of the good guys) and now Andy Coulson (BBC meme - forces of darkness) - it's been a busy week!

PLETT THE IMPARTIAL

I thought that this was a good catch by a B-BBC reader on one of our favourites, the pouting Barbara Plett.

Visit Barbara Plett's statement in the fifth paragraph here to the effect that Middle East peace talks ended with "Israel's refusal to reinstate a partial moratorium on construction". I thought that Netanyahu had offered a three month extension but that the Palestinians had pulled-out (in addition to refusing to negotiate over the major part of the previous 10 month period). If I'm right, then it's bad faith on the part of Plett and her employers as well as bad faith on the part of the Palestinians who had had no problems in negotiating with Olmert, irrespective of there being no freeze!

THAT BIASED BBC EXPERIENCE!

One of the joys of editing this blog is the frequent emails I receive from so many readers. I do try to respond to as many as possible although sometimes this can be tricky if I am away from BBBC central, as has been the case for most of this past week. Thank you all for the great and frequent contributions made publicly and sometimes privately. I wish I had more time to focus on this but as Booker T put it, Time is tight! Here is a guest article submitted by Clameur de Haro for which I am indebted.

Financial Crisis Flavoured With Pesto Sauce

One should by now, I suppose, be resigned to the inevitability of any so-called investigative documentary produced by the BBC depicting a predominantly one-sided and partisan account of its subject-matter. In that negative sense at least, Robert Peston’s documentary “Britain’s Banks – Too Big To Save?”, which aired on BBC on Tuesday evening of this week, did not disappoint: because it maintained, for this viewer, the Corporation’s lamentable standards for that depressing genre, and in a number of areas.

Few readers will fail to recollect, particularly during Gordon Brown’s reign at the Treasury but persisting through his disastrous premiership, Peston’s seeming uncanny closeness and access to Brown and the claque surrounding him, which manifested itself in a number of apparent journalistic coups either presenting, or at least sympathetic to, the Brownian position. And surprise, surprise - conspicuous by its almost complete absence in Tuesday night’s programme was any disinterested assessment of what part might have been played by Brown and his government, if not in directly causing, then certainly in at least exacerbating the effect in Britain, of the financial crisis of 2008.

Whether its was the programme’s intention to deflect any examination of Brownian culpability by naked pandering to populist banker-bashing prejudice in explicitly attributing virtually all blame to the usual “excessive risk-taking by bankers solely in pursuit of bonuses” mantra is a moot point: but a signal disregard of the extent of any governmental contribution was certainly the most egregious effect.

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