Tuesday 7 November 2017

Two (Or More) Days After Bonfire Night Open Thread


For those of you who chucked your effigies of the makers of BBC One's Gunpowder onto the fire a couple of nights ago (or more), please find below an explosive (fairly) new open thread.

20 comments:

  1. Re the appalling Sutherland Springs shooting...

    The BBC News Website is very keen to declare in a headline (yes, a headline) that the shooter is "young, white and male". Much relief in the newsroom. Have they ever chosen to highlight ethnicity in headlines regarding mass murder events where the suspect is not white and male? I doubt it, but I am sure Dimbelby would contradict me on that point since he has a photographic memory of every news story published by the BBC.

    Strangely, though, so far - although Mail Online indicates he had expressed strong atheist views - that atheist angle hasn't been highlighted by the BBC.

    I think Peter Hitchens will have something to say about this...the perpetrator has the look of someone who has been on heavy duty anti-depressants, and those have been strongly associated with these sorts of mass killings. Often also associated with heavy cannabis usage. It's time the BBC and other media outlets looked into that.

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    1. I'm sure you're right that Peter Hitchens will be having a close look at this. He's been pursuing this point for a while and he's definitely onto something. And, yes, no one else is interested. Mark Easton certainly isn't going to be pursuing it any time soon - or ever.

      The atheist angle is an interesting one. The reporting split between those mentioning it and those not mentioning it, as far as I can see, is uncannily similar to the split between those media outlets which emphasise and those which de-emphasise the Muslim angle in terrorist attacks. It's pretty much the same media outlets, for some reason that I can't quite fathom.

      Yes, I spotted they had a separate video report headlined "'We believe he is a young, white male'". I've not seen such a headline after a terror attack before either.

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  2. Why would media write in terms used by police looking for suspects rather than in ordinary language? In ordinary language he was a young man. We know the BBC is not averse to using the word man in other cases, e.g. when they do not want to use words such as terrorist or Muslim. Why the use of white I don't know. It'd be more useful to tell us whether he was local or Texan or from wherever.

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    1. Yes, white means far-right(or KKK), trigger-happy, Trump supporting uneducated redneck - in the BBC glossary of terms.

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  3. This story about cast members of Mrs Brown's Boys raises a question:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41886608

    Who commissioned the work, and who made out the cheque? I would venture that the BBC are complicit in this scheme of tax avoidance. Is this a one-off, or is this kind of deal routine?

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    1. This nosiness into the rich's dealings has a strong tradition in socialism. But, the BBC cannot hide behind the down-trodden underpaid socialist angle because their people are amongst the highest earners.

      I suspect that having been forced to declare salaries for some of their own 'stars', this is from the BBC a classic case of 'attack being the best form of defence'. They are seeking to deflect public opinion away from their own nest.

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  4. The BBC have a problem with the Sutherland Springs Shooting...the perpetrator (absurdly still described as a "suspect" by the BBC)was a militant atheist. So how do they deal with this inconvenient fact? They bury it several paras down in his personal profile and they also report it very ambiguously:

    "He is described as a loner with a number of minor traffic offences who posted about atheism online after giving up his role as a teacher in summer Bible classes."

    Well that is so uninformative isn't it? One could even read it that he was a Bible bashed OPPOSED to atheism.

    The BBC - stupid when it comes to ideology, clever when it comes to manipulation.

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  5. Yes, the BBC has a short memory: it's only a couple of years since it was revealed that BBC big names such as Fiona Bruce and Jeremy Paxman were being paid through Personal Service Companies to avoid tax. Paxman is on record as saying it was the BBC that advised him to set up a company.

    Could it, perhaps, be that the whole thing is a cynical attempt to bring down a Tory government that tolerates tax avoidance, while at the same time giving a boost to the arch-antimonarchist Corbyn? In my more paranoid moments, I could suspect EU involvement:the leaks took place just after we had voted for Brexit - quelle coincidence!

    Lastly, am I alone in being disturbed by the spectacle of a lanky lout of a BBC journalist pursuing - hounding in fact- a tiny dot of an actress half his size? She must have felt intimidated, harassed even...



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    1. That the BBC needs to pay such high salaries to retain their stars must be a myth. For instance, Alexander Armstrong, Clare Balding, and Gary Lineker all work regularly for other providers. The high salary sets a market benchmark, which these people can then tout around the other outlets. Surely with such high pay, exclusivity to their employer might be considered.

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    2. 2pm News Channel: The sexual harassment witch hunt has claimed its first victim: the news breaks that Carl Sargeant has apparently committed suicide. Simon McCoy looks deeply shocked. Meanwhile Mr Sargeant's Labour colleagues line up to say what a splendid chap he was.

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  7. BBC Radio 4 Fake News:

    On the 6pm news they were informing the listeners that the Isle of Man is part of the UK by comparing tax rates in the Isle of Man and "the rest of the UK". Such stunning ignorance by our national broadcaster. You'd think with £5 billion pa at their disposal they'd know the Isle of Man is not part of the UK. Never mind, they still referred to it as a "tax haven" though admitting there was no agreed definition of what a tax haven! Talk about haven your cake and eating it! lol

    I gave up when they got to the Trumpophobic segment, referring to Trump's previous defensive statements as "bellicose". It seems now if you say boo to a pyschotic dicatorship you are "bellicose". How would the BBC describe Churchill's famous "fight them on the beaches" speech these days? It would have to be "worryingly bellicose", wouldn't it? Still they were soon off to listen to the words of wisdom from protestors in Seoul...apparently we just need to display a bit more kindness and patience to North Korea for everything to be OK.

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  8. The Las Vegas shooting has also been ignored, or treated very oddly.
    "Professional gambler"?...wife hopping in and out of the country as he did all this?...no CCTV?
    No-this merits a Lee Harvey Oswald look if they don`t give some answers soon-had this been an attack on black activists, we`d have no stone unturned instead of this radio blackout.
    White Christian lives seem not to matter either, judged by the lack of concern in this case-unless Piers Morgan can berate the gun lobby yet again.

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  9. "We want our Brexit cash boost - NHS boss" (BBC News front page).

    Annoyingly comments are blocked. Otherwise I'd delight in pointing out that the UK hasn't left the EU and that the people who ran the 'leave' campaign aren't the government (who were on the losing side). Though I expect those still banging on about the bus message know these things.

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  10. The ITV programme Exposure tomorrow at 10.35pm I think - is looking to assassinate Anne Marie Waters' character. Whether or not you agree with everything she says, I think she needs to be defended. The reasons why are eloquently set out in this letter which she has quoted.

    http://www.annemariewaters.org/letter-to-ofcom-from-moral-philosopher-re-itvs-exposure/

    The view of the globalist no borders PC elite represented by ITV and Hardcash Productions appears to be that anyone who opposes Sharia law and the promotion of Sharia is "far right" and can be spied on, humiliated and destroyed. They are not allowed to have a democratic voice.

    We are on the verge of a political dictatorship...the media assault would be bad enough but of course it's far worse because Amber Rudd, Home Secretary wants to shut down Anne Marie Waters' free speech as well.

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    1. Merely type 'Free Speech' in argument on one US based forum and one might as well have been caught urinating in a church yard such is the level of offence taken.

      Coming to a country near you.

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  11. Busy night on the ole TV. On BBC2 I clicked on something called Exodus - gosh, I wonder why they picked that for a title, a word with such resonance - only to read this: "Following migrants searching for a better life...[instances a couple of families from Syria, followed by]But the Europe that welcomed them has changed. The politics of the far right is gaining momentum, so it is more difficult than ever for migrants and refugees to cross international borders..." Yeah, right, BBC.

    Not to be outdone, C4 has a double bill: Trump: An American Dream, followed by Gary Younge with a programme called Angry, White and American. He's a black man, is Gary, by the way.

    And if that is not enough, ITV has Undercover: Inside Britain's New Far Right. Not forgetting, of course, the usual Thursday night Question Time, providing further agenda-supporting opportunities.

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  12. I forced myself to watch the ITV Exposure programme. Normally I would have turned off such egregious rubbish.

    It appears the official ITV policy (I say it is official because they authorised the undercover work) is that:

    1. No politician can safely focus on mass immigration and Islam, despite there being major public concern about both.

    2. The Brexit vote has facilitated the growth of the Far Right (despite the Far Right growing hugely in Europe, in Germany, Asutria and other countries that are firmly embedded in the EU. That any politician who does can be spied on in private and hounded publicly.

    3. That UKIP is all fine and dandy and no longer the threat that it was previously stated to be (well done Henry).

    It also seems that ITV has a complete blind eye and deaf ear when it comes to the extreme online and street level abuse from assorted lefties and no-borders types towards Brexit voters, anyone who opposes Sharia and anyone who opposes PC multiculturalism.

    I won't make any comment about Hope Not Hate itself because they are doing their bit for free speech by litigating against anyone who says boo to them!

    I think I am permitted to say however that this country faces an unprecedented assault on free speech, free assembly, democracy, and our culture.

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  13. An item on the World Service schedule for late tonight caught my eye: Listener Wants More Balance in Trending Programme. A listener complained about a programme on what the blurb labels far-right" and antifa demonstrators. It's on at 12 50 am...
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/schedules/p00fzl9p#on-now

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