I just did something unusual. I listened to Feedback on BBC radio 4, whereupon I heard a strange item. Roger Bolton summoned Alison Hastings,chair of the Trust’s Editorial Standards Committee, to talk about the BBC Trust’s upcoming review of the impartiality of the BBC's coverage of the Arab Spring. Oh Roger! You challenged Alison about the wisdom of appointing Edward Mortimer to conduct it, in view of his close friendship with Chris Patten! “No problem” said Alison, “We commissioned Mortimer to do the review without Patten’s knowledge.” Not verbatim, but I think that was the gist. So that’s okay. Then Roger sharpened his probe to a steely edge, and with a rapier-like lunge inquired if Alison knew what impartiality actually was. Oooh! You cheeky monkey! As it happens, she gave a pretty good explanation of impartiality, to the effect that it all depends on who says what about what to whom, and when. In the Observer Peter Preston said that the BBC could save a lot of money by not bothering with this - in his opinion, pointless review. I mean, will they have to spend squillions in legal fees to protect the outcome’s secrecy? “You might as well commission a Jeremy Bowen report on Mortimer's impartiality.” he adds, drolly. I agree. I mean, you might as well get Kevin Connolly to examine the fashion trends of the Arab Spring. Oh. Anyway, I do hope they enjoy themselves re-living all that breathless footage of Tahrir Square in which they managed to overlook all the signs of the rebels’ antisemitism right up until the storming of Cairo’s Israeli Embassy, an occurrence that no-one including the BBC could honourably ignore. Edward Mortimer is a fan of the Ayatollah Khomeini, and a rabid antisemite himself, so I can guess what sort of impartiality he’ll be looking out for. “We got it about right,” he might say, ”file it in the cupboard, next to the Balen report.” I wonder why some people get the idea that the BBC is pro-Palestinian and resolutely anti-Israel. Give this a listen. and weep. The bias is effortless. This is beginning to look like let's get Richard Black, but he (and the BBC idiots who employ him) deserve it. There is a delicious irony in this story. Mr Black has come out all guns blaring in support of his old chums Greenpeace against a nasty nuclear energy company, EDF. Greenpeace, like Mr Black, want the UK energy supply industry to go back to the dark ages, so the fact that EDF have -in a very French way - looked after their own interests is an occasion for Mr Black to give them a very good (one-sided) kicking, and to remind us how nasty the French government was to the sainted zealots of Greenpeace in the past in helping to sink one of their boats. But I wonder what the BBC chairman thinks of all this? My guess is that he's choking over his cornflakes this morning. Or I certainly hope he is. Euromaniac Lord Patten is an ardent greenie, ready to flaunt his eco-fascist credentials to anyone who asks him. To that end, I'm sure he thought he was on a brilliant wicket when he decided (with the inducement, no doubt, of a nice, fat fee) to join the advisory board of a company boasting about its greenie policies and strategy. But I'm afraid all that glitters is not gold - that company just happens to be...EDF Energy. As I've noted before, he and his lefty deputy Diane Coyle both sit on the EDF advisory board - so what price their green credentials now? And I'd love to hear them justify how they will continue to serve on a company, which it has been found, is happy to break the law in pursuit of its goals. This shows, yet again, that the BBC is rotten to the core. Its trustees arenakedly partisan on the subject of climate change, and have sanctioned deliberate misreporting of the whole debate. But at least two of them can't resist - like so many public servants - the lure of fat consultancy fees... and this morning, they are shown up as venal hypocrites. A couple of days ago he was getting his panties in a bunch about those evilKoch Brothers, today it's the Anglo-Saxon world in general:
Futile Exercise
>> FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2011
Peas in a Pod
"Israeli soldiers disperse the tiny crowd with a couple of volleys of stinging, choking tear gas!”
The scoundrels! “It all feels a little jaded. A little like the international game of getting the Israelis and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table.”
He then hurries off to interview Mustafa Barghouti, the *moderate*Palestinian politician who is so moderate and non violent that he calls forFatah and Hamas to be *unified*. He now wants the international community to be pro-active, just as they were in Libya, that’s how moderate and non violent he is. COMEDIANS?
"Scottish comedian Brian ‘Limmy’ Limond has apologised for controversial Twitter messages about Prince William and the Conservative Party, after calls were made to sack him from the BBC, which also came to the attention of Conservative MP Louise Mensch this morning. Last night, Limmy, turned his attention to Prince William’s involvement in the FIFA Poppy ban on the England team’s shirts, which drew the eire of members of the Conservatives, who called for him to be sacked from the BBC. The BBC subsequently released a statement stating that he did not work for the organisation and that his comments were his own. This morning, Limmy continued to provoke the Conservatives, members of which, it is understood had contacted the BBC to complain about the comments, by adding an avatar of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher with the words ‘Die Now’ written in red over it."
Thoughts? I see he has wiped out the offending tweets although if you read some of the subsequent ones, I struggle to understand why the BBC, or anyone, bothers with his clown.NOW, IT'S SERIOUS
HAMAS LITTLE HELPERS
ALL THAT GLITTERS...
RICHARD BLACK: AVOID CLIMATE SCEPTICISM - LEARN ANOTHER LANGUAGE
>> THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2011
To those who despair of the success of sceptical lobbying, the message is clear: learn one of the languages of Brazil, China or India. Even French might do at a pinch.
Black's article - which bemoans the apparent undue influence of climate scepticism in English-speaking countries - is based on a report by a former BBC journalist (naturally) from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. The RISJ is funded in part by George Soros - a good-guy evil capitalist who uses his money to promote the sort of left-wing propaganda approved of by BBC journalists. Other funding for the RISJ comes from the BBC, the BBC World Service and the British Council, which means we pay for it at least three times over. And one of the ubiquitous Joseph Rowntree trusts is involved too, of course. Anyway, I hope it's all true. Altogether now (to the tune of U-S-A! U-S-A!): AN-GLO-SAX'N! AN-GLO-SAX'N! AN-GLO-SAX'N!
Friday, 11 November 2011
Hat-tip to Ryan
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