Naughty But Nice

Naughty But Nice

>> TUESDAY, MARCH 01, 2011

Robin Shepherd spots the BBC’s response to Iran’s official complaint that the Olympic logo reads “ZION.”

See how they do that? The 2 is like a Z, the 1 underneath is the I, the 0 is, of course, the O, and the other 2 is a sideways N.

The Iranians find the word Zion so objectionable that they’ve threatened to boycott the Olympics if nothing is done.

In this clip Adrian Warner and the cute BBC presenter find this amusing, if not a little endearing, in an “Ooh you are awful, but I like you” kind of way.

Robin Shepherd sees this as a typical nod to Muslim antisemitism - it’s the sort of thing that happens all the time, and tragically, we’re used to it.

THE SIN OF NOT ENDORSING HOMOSEXUALITY

Fascinating interview @7.50am on Today concerning the Christian coupledenied the right to foster any more children because they dare not endorse homosexuality values for 8 year olds. If you listen to the tone of the interview, there is clear BBC disbelief that ANY Christian person would not seek to convey the joys of the gay lifestyle. As ever the implication is that Christians are bigots and sexists.Having a go at Christians is now an essential aspect of the liberal judiciary and in this case it is one where the BBC is clearly content to go with the law. That said, I thought the couple concerned acquited themselves quite well although I can't wait for the BBC asking Muslim parents their view on gay advocacy.

AIDING POVERTY...

Sometimes the BBC sets up interviews in such a way that whatever they go, the BBC view prevails. Take this discussion on the British overseas aid budget. As you know, the Coalition has taken the decision (wrongly in my view) to ring-fence the currently £8bn a year budget. It has, however, decided not to waste our cash on rich countries like China and Brazil. Cue faux BBC outrage and a liberal brought on to allege the "securitisation" of UK overseas aid. I wonder if the BBC would care to bring on Dambisa Moyowho argues some very interesting views on the dangers of overseas aid? The BBC adopts a paternalistic approach to aid, and the idea of a well educated African born woman suggesting that Aid is counter-productive would probably blow their minds.

FISHY BUSINESS

Given the relentless ruination of the UK fishing industry by the European Union, I would have expected a rather more vigorous "debate" with EU's Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki on Today this morning. 7.13am No such luck! She was able to come on, waffle her way through a pathetic interview concerning the latest nonsense from Brussels. I wonder how many listeners take the sanguine approach to EU Fisheries policy adopted by the BBC? It's almost as if the BBC quite like the decimation of our fishing industry but naturally that couldn't be the case. Could it?

Open Thread

>> MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2011

New Open Thread.

Broken Promise

After watching the first two episodes of “The Promise” on Channel Four, I was sure Peter Kosminsky’s advertising-savvy, cinematographic trickery would whip the audience into a passionate frenzy of Israel bashing ferocity in no time. A few prematurely written rave reviews from predictable sources reinforced this probability.
However, halfway through the third episode confusion set in, and last night’s finale degenerated into farce, with what looked like a guest appearance from the bedridden old lady out of “’Allo ‘Allo,”(Will nobody 'ear the cries of a poor old woman?) along with a risible Rachel Corrie moment as Erin bravely faces a Caterpillar as it demolishes an already blown-up house. “Oh no!” I thought, “she’s going to be martyred!” But no luck.

Left-wing Paul’s pensive soliloquy, something like: “We can do anything we like to the Palestinians; beat them, rape them, pat them and prick them and mark them with B; disembowel them, blow their houses down - and we Israelis just carry on swaggering, like the dirty European Jewish interlopers on Muslim lands that we really are” - evidently reflecting the director’s personal politics. I assume Paul’s ominous “Come back soon Erin, there’s work to do” has further significance. A sequel perhaps?

As if all that wasn’t enough, consider the interactive Q&A debriefing with the great man himself. Winsome looking Kosminsky reveals that he and six others spent eight years talking to Combatants for Peace and Breaking the Silence, consulting experts from the Jenny Tonge school of thought, reading the Guardian and watching the BBC so that his film could give a true picture.
An interactive participant called Leia, possibly some sort of comedienne, asks insightfully: “Do you expect a backlash from the Jewish community?”
There was I, thinking his wistful expression was due to stress from being on constant lookout for a targeted assassination by terrorists from the Jewish community. But no. Kosminsky was philosophical. I paraphrase.“Unfortunately we’re not allowed to criticise Israel without being accused of antisemitism.”

After the Tweets on the Twitter thread, further indications of imbecility amongst Kosminski’s fans crop up in questions such as: “What is ‘ThePromise’ in the series?”
Instead of answering “The gigantic key, you moron!” Peter writes: “Hi Aisha. Thank you for your question. It has many levels, including I Promise to provide you illiterate cretins with a focus for all your pent-up frustration. Go forth and vent your spleens!! ..... promised land, Jews, nakba, catastrophe, etc etc.” (My paraphrasing again.)

‘Iman’, wonders if Kosminsky found it hard to put aside his preconceptions.“What a great question Iman!” No, Iman, it wasn’t hard to put them all aside because I didn’t have any in the first place.”
“Hi Peter, I’m Jewish and I thought it was one-sided.” Says Lucy from London.
“Hi Lucy. You would say that wouldn’t you. But it wasn’t, so there.” (I paraphrase.)

“What is your favourite bit?” asks someone else. “Gosh, so hard to choose - a Palestinian woman tries to prevent the IDF using her child as a human shield.”
What is he talking about now? He’s cherry-picked an incident where two IDF soldiers were convicted by an Israeli military court, and turned human shield-dom on its head. In fact the entire charade was made from a crudely tacked-together patchwork of things turned on their heads.
So we wait, with bated breath, for Mark Thompson to confront us with “The Other.”

If anyone doubts that the programme was an incitement, or to use the popular term a “recruiting sergeant” for antisemitism, they should simply read the warm review in the Palestine Telegraph. A resounding thumbs-up from “Journalist” Sameh A. Habeeb, with one small reservation.
Like the BBC, it was still too biased in favour of the illegitimate rogue Zionist entity.

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE

Here, miracle of miracles you might at first think, the BBC website has reported a survey from the respected consultancy Verso Economicsshowing that the obscene rush to create renewable energy (mainly wind farms) in Scotland is actually losing 3.7 jobs for every one that it generates. The findings chime with dozens of other surveys, as is reflected in this article today by Christopher Booker. Credit to the BBC for publishing it.

But hang on to your wallets, there is a catch - as with everything the BBC does. When Richard Black and his cronies publish their climate change propaganda, such as here, or here, the stories are accompanied by scores of quotes from so called experts agreeing with the alarmism in all its varied forms. Not so with the Verso Economics story. Spot the difference. Less than a half of the story is about the actual report, and there is not one word about how the economists involved have carefully reached their conclusions.

The rest of the item is from those who are determined to shout Verso down, and those who financially benefit from wind farm development, including, of course, the Scottish government itself, which as Verso points out, is laughing all the way to the bank with its barrow-loads of subsidies from taxpayers elsewhere in the UK. The other objector is Scottish Renewables, a propaganda-scavenger, eco-fascist organisation that seeks to make maximum amounts of money from any damn green scan it can. One of the chief speakers at its forthcoming conference is Yvo de Boer, the former Executive Secretary of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and now an advisor to scam-consultant in chief KPMG, where surprise surprise, there is a BBC link - it's where Lord Hastings of Scarisbrick, the former BBC director of corporate social responsibility, also works.

So fanatical are the said Scottish Renewables about climate change that they actually believe the upheavals in North Africa have been caused by it. Shame on the BBC for including such a ludicrous end-of-the-world quote. And how predictable that they cover the Verso Economics report with such blatant bias.

Tea Party Movement Anniversary: Two Years of the BBC Getting It Wrong

>> SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2011

Today is being called the second anniversary of the Tea Party movement in the US. The genesis of the movement actually began with a small taxpayer protest against the Democrat's massive "Stimulus Bill" spending plan inSeattle, WA, on Feb. 16, 2009. They called it the "Porkulus Protest". As it happens, conservative blogger Michelle Malkin actually referred to the Boston Tea Party when she posted about it on the day, although the name didn't stick at the time. This was quickly followed by protests in Denver,Kansas, and a couple other cities, including New York.

It was on Feb. 19th, when Rick Santelli of CNBC made his on-air rant about how the country needed a new version of the Boston Tea Party that the name came to life. The impetus was already there nationwide, and word about the other protests had already spread like wildfire on the internet. And so a movement was born.

(UPDATE, Feb. 28: Paul Adams has done a report about the anniversary. It's nearly good, but in the end the bias rears its ugly head. I discuss it in the comments below.)

Hundreds of protests large and small popped up individually all across the country. The BBC refused to mention any of it until reality forced them to acknowledge hundreds of thousands of people protesting on April 15. In case anyone has forgotten, or isn't aware of how the BBC treated the movement and its participants, here's a reminder. It's no exaggeration to say that the movement was directly responsible for the Republican victories in November, and the current state of play in Congress.

With this background in mind, let's look at the latest BBC article about the fiscal policy scene in the US.

Read more »

ARMS KILL...

In recent days, the BBC has been leading the charge against what it alleges is our evil arms trade. Nicky Campbell is currently running such a debate on his dreadful Big Question programme. The meme is that we need to wind up this awful immoral trade, sack all those involved, and give peace a chance. Such 1960's hippy tripe is evidently deeply embedded in the BBC DNA. The leader of the Respect Party, Salma Yaqoob was on to lend her heavyweight insight and denied that the UK should have ANY Arms Industry.