I'm head down at the moment helping to write a long paper on BBC bias that I hope will appear in print in due course. I missed - Autonomous Mindand Harmless Sky didn't - that the BBC trustees had issued a grovelling retraction about the Steve Jones paper that is being used by the corporation to support its climate change activism. In a nutshell the public school hating Professor Jones - in a key section where he argues vehemently for the suppression of all dissent - fingered Lord Lawson and Lord Christopher Monckton for making crassly erroneous statements on specific BBC programmes. He simply did not check his facts. What he said was wrong and now the Trust has begrudgingly owned up, although - par for the course - they haven't the grace to call it an apology or properly acknowledge their mistake. The retraction has instead been quietly attached to the latest version of the report. It beggars belief that £140,000 of our cash was spent by the so-called regulatory body of a £3.5bn organisation on this report and that it saw the light of day with such crass errors. It confirms the vindictiveness and hate against "deniers" at the top levels of the corporation and the obscene rush to suppress them. Part of my current research covers the operations of the BBC Trust. I will make my revelations soon. But what has happened here fits perfectly with what I have uncovered so far...the "trust" is anything but trustworthy on this and other editorial issues. A couple days ago, BBC Washington correspondent and anchor of what's left of BBC World News America, Katty Kay participated in a panel discussion on Chris "Thrill Up My Leg" Matthews' show on MSNBC. Unlike the BBC, MSNBC has no Charter & Agreement requiring them to provide balance and remain impartial, and the panel is even more weighted to the Left: John Heilmann from New York Magazine, Katty, Helene Cooper from the New York Times, and Time Magazine's Richard Stengel. The host himself is now infamous for his over-emotional statement on air of devotion to the President, and has spent much of the time since His election viciously attacking any opponent. Before we get to the video, I have to say that it's certainly not Katty's fault that this is a far-Left echo-chamber, or that Matthews has a specific partisan agenda to push and assembled this panel accordingly. But she is responsible for her own words and behavior. Therein lies the danger of being a talking head on these panels. It's all opinion-mongering, and there's no escaping that the whole point of appearances like this is to give opinions on stories. Sometimes that's not a big deal, like when a pundit is asked to predict how things might turn out, or explain a couple of angles a politician might take on something. But that's not what's going on this time. Since she's not actually on the BBC here, and is not performing any BBC-related duty, defenders of the indefensible can claim that she has no obligation to be impartial. All I can do is present this from the BBC's own rulebook, and let people judge for themselves: A B-BBC reader observes of BBC Countryfile 21/08/2011; I hope everyone enjoys this brief segment on Today with Evan Davis. He discusses the new report from the Social Market Foundation which is highly critical of the Department of Work and Pension's Work Programme to get the long-term unemployed back to work. Now, normally I'd say that any organization which has "Social" anything in its title is Left-leaning. I'd also generally say that any organization which states that they are not in favor of free markets but rather open markets under the guiding hand of government (a step away from fascist corporatism) is Left-leaning. But they have George Osborne and a couple of other non-Leftoids on their board and as associates, so they get away with the "independent" label and I can't complain that Davis should have described the foundation as Left-leaning when he introduced its director. (Yes, I know the clip I've linked starts just after Davis mentions the Foundation, but I've listened to the full programme and there was no qualifier of any kind.) However.... I can complain that there was something else missing from Davis' introduction of the group, something that calls into question his very presence at the mic on this topic: Evan Davis is one of the board members of the Social Market Foundation. Do you think the BBC thinks Labour is still in power? The reason I ask is this item it ran earlier today focusing on Tony Blair's comments that "muddle headed analysis" (ie Conservative) of the riots could lead to wrong policy decisions. In a wonderful example of balance, the BBC invites Jack Straw and Tony McNultyon the programme to discuss. So two Labour politicians discussing the pearls of wisdom offered by another Labour politician, on the Labour accommodating BBC. Lovely stuff. I particularly enjoyed Straw and McNulty claiming that Labour's golden years had seen crime cut in two, teenage pregnancies reduced and the alienation tackled that creates so much rioting and looting. Another opportunity for the BBC to help bestow further sainthood on one of their favourites - Jew-bashing Ken Loach. This morning, Ken was affordedthis bully pulpit on Today. It concerns a film he made back in 1969 (Nothing like up to date news for the BBC!) for Save The Children. Basically, they didn't like what he did back then because it "exposed" how awfully racist they were, or so we are led to believe. Nowadays, under the enlightened leadership of Julian Forsyth, Save the Children has given the OK for the film to be shown, vindicating wise Ken. Of course one could also point out that in these intervening years, Save The Children has lurches into one more left of center political campaigning false charity undeserving of so much as one penny. Ken Loach, Save the Children and the BBC - a match made in heaven, or hell. The BBC trust's propaganda campaign about climate change is taking shape. Alison Hastings, chair of the editorial standards committee, it will be recalled, has decreed - on the authority of IPCC diktats - that the views of dissenters will not be covered. Indoctrinated BBC acolyte Jennifer Carpenter is hot on the case. She reports this preposterous paper about species "fleeing faster than previously thought" to the poles and up mountains as if it were gospel truth; it's part of the creed. This is a highlight from Ms Carpenter's breathless diatribe: 
UNTRUSTWORTHY
>> TUESDAY, AUGUST 23, 2011
The Bias Of Katty Kay Revealed On MSNBC
>> MONDAY, AUGUST 22, 2011
BBC News and Current affairs staff, BBC correspondents on non-staff contracts and freelances known primarily as presenters or reporters on BBC news and current affairs programmes, must remain impartial when speaking publicly or taking part in similar events, such as a public discussion or debate.
Now to the video: WHAT A WASTE...
"Last evening they did a piece (John Craven) on food waste, and it's costs. The one scandalous item of waste that never got any mention at all was the EU Fisheries Policy, you know the one where should you catch the "wrong" type of fish you have to throw it back (dead of course) or risk draconian punishments. Funnily enough the policy never seems to bother the Spanish fishermen for example, wonder why?"
Evan Davis Advocates For His Think Tank At Your Expense
Davis has even co-written a pamphlet for the organization about the pros and cons of gay marriage. Yet no mention at all that of any association with the group, never mind that he's now on the board. So the Social Market Foundation criticizes a scheme by the Conservative-Led Coalition, and one of their board members uses his position at the BBC not only to bring it up but to actually question the Government Minister in charge. The director of the SMF gets his say first, but then isn't involved in any debate with Grayling. Only Davis challenges the Government, without mentioning his conflict of interest. And no challenge at all to the SMF director's statement. His challenging questions to Grayling come off as advocacy for the SMF position. At the very least, the Today producers should have made Davis recuse himself and had Justin Webb take the SMF's side against the Government. Your license fee hard at work. OPEN THREAD
Enjoying the BBC's world class coverage of Ghadaffi's fall? Here's a new Open Thread for you to start the week - let's see how quickly we can get to the 100 comments mark!MUDDLE HEADED?
SAVE THE CHILDREN FROM KEN LOACH...
STUFF THE FACTS
Animals like the British comma butterfly, for example, has (sic) moved 220km northward from central England to southern Scotland in the last two decades.
She doesn't report the rather key information that the author, Chris Thomas, a York University so-called "academic", has been ploughing his alarmist furrow for a decade and that he's got form as a fantasist. His technique of using Species-Area Relationship (SAR)to measure what is happening to individual animal types was comprehensively rubbished - nay, eviscerated - in this paper published by the Royal Society. Basically, the writer, Owen T.Lewis, points out that the methodology is so flawed and lacking in vital data that it's got more holes than a colander. More on why Mr Thomas's work isn't worth the paper it's printed on here from the excellent Donna Laframboise. But, of course, Ms Carpenter doesn't care. She's pursuing the corporation's climate change agenda, so stuff the facts. It's the message that counts. Expect more of the same when Richard Black returns from his holidays.Presenting a Better Image
>> SUNDAY, AUGUST 21, 2011
A news Correspondent from BBC’s One Show has been Tweeting. This person. ‘one_uk’ describes him/herself thus: “Research Correspondent from the One Show trying to present a better image of the UK. The frantic tweeting in question goes something like this:”PLS RT Israel did to a 5-year-old Palestinian boy.He was killed a last night by Israeli air strikes.”
If this photograph is genuine, and similar pictures have been known to be ‘unreliable’ in the past, it’s very sad. It’s an image of a young Palestinian victim, tragically killed by an Israeli air strike. Air strikes which the Palestinians themselves provoked by their own murderous attacks on Israeli civilians, including Israeli children aged four and six whose corpses probably won’t be appearing in any posed publicity pictures. What the hell does a BBC employee think he’s doing letting him/herself blatantly perpetuate Palestinian propaganda without a care in the world while proudly advertising his BBC credentials for all tthe world o see. The BBC's conduct in the latest outbreak of violence has already been heavily criticised. War is a nasty business Mr. One Show Researcher, and the motto is, if you don’t like it, don’t start it. P.S. I really should have focused on the tweet to CiF Watch.“You will realise how powerful the Muslims r growing through the use of media. Your Zionist tweets will show the world what u are”
If that isn’t explicit enough for your bosses at the BBC, Mr. One Show correspondent, I don’t know what is. UPDATE: I read in the comments that David Vance has been contacted by Heather from the BBC. My sources have also been contacted by Heather Taylor and have informed me that she stated that the account “is not connected to us or an official account in any way.” They still wished to know if there is someone who works for the BBC who may own that twitter account, and later received this assurance from Ms. Taylor: "To the best of our ability, we are sure that this is not owned by a BBC employee. Twitter are also investigating this further."
Tuesday, 23 August 2011
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