BBC’s Cutting-Edge Arts Commentator on the Arab Spring

BBC’s Cutting-Edge Arts Commentator on the Arab Spring

>> THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 2011

There’s an article on Harry’s Place entitled “BBC and Guardian profile Latuff.” That’s Carlos Latuff the cartoonist. The cartoonist who has been working on behalf of those involved in the Arab Spring. Cartooning by demand so to speak. It must be his vivid interpretation of their passions rather than his drawing ability that makes him so popular with his fans. "The Guardian describes him as the “Voice of Tripoli” because of his cartoons relating to the Libyan uprising." I ran the BBC’s Portuguese page through Google translate. It’s easy, and worth a try. He’s a Twitter enthusiast, the BBC tells us.

“On Twitter, Latuff calculates Arabs have more followers than Brazilians. The friends you make on the Internet to help you translate the messages of his cartoons into Arabic. Latuff is mobilized from other causes. It is the militant Palestinian cause, the subject of many of his cartoons, and live out for conflicts in other parts of the world - this month, did work on the protests in London and on the famine in Somalia, for example.”

Says Google Translate, helpfully. It’s that “militant Palestinian cause” again. Just another casual, indifferent BBC observation.

OPEN THREAD...

Middle of the week, I'm writing this from my bunker in an undisclosed location awaiting your observations on BBC bias...

A LITTLE PROBLEM IN GERMANY....

It's the cringing selectivity of BBC news coverage that so enrages; Take this, sent in to me; "Democracy undermined, treaty violations...lack of democratic legitimacy...legally and politically questionable actions.....not a BBC journalist in sight when you need one....too busy investigating a self serving story on Murdoch that none of the public are interested in no doubt. "Germany fires cannon shot across Europe's bows"

German President Christian Wulff has accused the European Central Bank of violating its treaty mandate with the mass purchase of southern European bonds. In a cannon shot across Europe’s bows, he warned that Germany is reaching bailout exhaustion and cannot allow its own democracy to be undermined by EU mayhem. “I regard the huge buy-up of bonds of individual states by the ECB as legally and politically questionable. Article 123 of the Treaty on the EU’s workings prohibits the ECB from directly purchasing debt instruments, in order to safeguard the central bank’s independence,” he said. The blistering attack follows equally harsh words by the Bundesbank in its monthly report. The bank slammed the ECB’s bond purchases and also warned that the EU’s broader bail-out machinery violates EU treaties and lacks “democratic legitimacy”.

But the BBC seems less than intrigued by these MAJOR issues. I suppose it's own pro-EU enthusiasm immunises it from having to analyse the rising voices in Germany who seem no longer prepared to go along with what Merkel and co have been doing, so it simply blanks this as a non-story and instead elevates attacks on the Murdoch empire as being the more important. In this way it debases its own integrity, a point that Mark Thompson might do well to reflect upon.

FRENCH TURKEYS NOT QUITE VOTING FOR CHRISTMAS..

Fascinating sleight of hand by the BBC here, picked up by an eagle eyed BBC contributor; "Whilst the BBC ignores a big story from Germany making serious criticisms of the legality of Europe's bailout schemes the BBC are headlining a story from France that the 'Rich' are being taxed more to pay for the deficit....a whole 3% more. What the good old Beeb miss out is what the rate was before that addition.....41%, making a total of 44%.....still 6% below what the highest earners pay here. I wonder why the BBC would miss out that telling figure?

"When the public finances deficit and the prospects of a worsening state debt threaten the future of France and Europe and when the government is asking everybody for solidarity, it seems necessary for us to contribute." French Income tax bands 2011.... Up to €5,963 0% Between €5,964 - €11,896 5.5% Between €11,897 - €26,420 14% Between €26,421 - €70,830 30% Above €70,830 41%

BBC INTEGRITY?

Some interesting comments here from Mark Thompson.

"Mark Thompson, the director general of the BBC, went on the offensive against James Murdoch and other critics of the public broadcaster, effectively accusing News Corporation of lapses of integrity and warning that the collapse of the BSkyB takeover was not an excuse to start a debate about the scale and scope of the BBC.

Writing in the Guardian, just ahead of the start of this year'sMediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival, Thompson chose to explictly reject a 2009 lecture given by James Murdoch at the same event, in which the son of media mogul Rupert concluded that for media organisations "the only reliable, durable and perpetual guarantor of independence is profit".

Noting that the "broader debate about the future media landscape must not deflect us from the most obvious and urgent matters arising from the News of the World case … matters of personal conduct and criminality, and above all of ethics and values," Thompson proposed recasting Murdoch's 2009 conclusion.

"If James Murdoch was giving his lecture this year," Thompson writes, "I'd suggest he amended only one word in that final sentence. The only reliable, durable and perpetual guarantor of independence is not profit. Nor who you know. Nor what corners you can cut. It's integrity."

First of all, Thompson can only make this snide comment because HIS organisation raids our pockets to the tune of more than €3bn per annum, with the threat of imprisonment if one does not obey. Murdoch's point is valid in my view, a profitable business can sustain itself and thus maintain independence. But the BBC does not get the free market imperative and instead adopts a pious holier-than-thou attitude that is only viable because of its bully boy position.

Next, for Thompson to waffle about broadcasting "integrity" is a bit rich. Not only does it sound arrogant but also monumentally removed from reality. These pages, and elsewhere, document thousands of instances where the thing that is missing from BBC coverage is integrity. I suggest Mr Thompson would benefit from a little more humility.

Naturally, this story is lovingly catalogued in The Guardian, the print arm of the BBC.

SOUTH AFRICA TO THE RESCUE

The BBC seem a tad embarrassed by the news that South Africa - that wonderful rainbow nation - is refusing to accept a UN motion to unfreeze $1.5bn of Libyan assets to fund emergency humanitarian aid. I wonder why South Africa seems reluctant to help the Libyan Rebels? We may never know.

Here's Nelson

"I shall therefore take the liberty to invite our guests to rise and raise their glasses with me in salute to Muamar Qaddafi, our Brother Leader of the Revolution of the Libyan Jamahariya"

GHADAFFI IS SADDAM

BBC meme is clear; Libya is the new Iraq and chaos will descend. I listened to Robert Fisk (Sigh - who else) being interviewed on local BBC news channel and he was given free rein to indulge his every hard left whimsy, with no challenge, Then this morning, the BBC has been talking to a Manchester doctor who is in Tripoli (Driven there by hateful Tory cuts?) and he was bemoaning lack of facilities there. The local BBC reporter chirped in that there was no electricity for air-conditioning and "it's the height of the summer". Gosh - isn't war hell?