Thursday, 27 June 2013




Open Thread Wednesday


Victoria Derbyshire can’t stop and won’t stop talking.
She was rabbiting on about Ian Brady much to the annoyance of listeners who texted in to say ‘no more….it’s just giving him the publicity he craves.’
She read out some of the texts and said ‘Their point is that we shouldn’t be reporting on this ….’
To which she added….‘…which is another debate.’      
Made me laugh anyway.
Another open thread….carry on…tell us what it is about the BBC that makes you laugh……

Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you shall follow me afterwards

   The final image of Dr Jacob Bronowski, in his “Ascent of Man”, standing in the mud at Auschwitz is implanted in my brain. He wept and said that Auschwitz and, by implication, all the other hell-holes constructed by Man, is the unavoidable destination reached by the denial and silencing of truth. ‘It’s said that science will dehumanize people and turn them into numbers. That’s false, tragically false. Look for … Continue reading 

Slaying The Prophets

‘ To open a discussion in the world about something which deeply concerns everyone, and of which it was previously ignorant, to prove to it that it is mistaken on some vital point of temporal or spiritual interest, is as important a service as a human being can render to his fellow-creatures. That the messengers of these ideas should be martyred, that their reward should be to be dealt with …Continue reading 

That “Conservative” Supreme Court

In the Monday open thread, I called attention to the BBC’s misrepresentation of the US Supreme Court’s vote to overrule an Appeals Court ruling upholding racial preferences in university admissions. The BBC claimed that the Supreme Court has gotten more conservative since 2003, when the Court originally voted to uphold racial preferences, and on which the present case was based. This was a BBC suggestion as to the cause of … Continue reading 

TV LICENSING GETS ANTI-LICENSING VID REMOVED FROM YOUTUBE

Over the past 24 hours the BBC has, quite rightly, made a big deal about the intimidation of its journalists in Turkey. Bear that in mind. Also in the past 24 hours – an unassuming little animated film promoting opposition to the TV license (the source of the BBC’s wealth) was posted on YouTube. It mocked the current TV Licensing “Excuses” campaign [See original TV Licensing ad here – comments …Continue reading 

Cold Comfort Harm

    As Boris Johnson might say….‘it sounds like a trivial thing to get worked up about, but one trivial thing leads to another.’   The BBC presented us with another exotic adventure chasing wild animals in out of the way places…this time Tigers in Siberia in ‘Operation Snow Tiger.’ Awesome landscape with some majestic beasties, the programme itself promised to be somewhat formulaic but was rescued by an unexpected … Continue reading 

Florence Nightingale or A Labour Cuckoo In The Nest?

    It is always apparent that any programme that uses audience participation either in a phone in or like Question Time, actually imports an audience, is vulnerable to those people who under cover of being someone unaffiliated with any agenda are in fact political, big business, religious or other activists or lobbyists peddling their own interests.   With that in mind it should be encumbent on the likes of … Continue reading