Well, our Google Blogger stats show that (despite a lack of comments) "A Special Edition Broadcast Live from East London Mosque" has proved to be our super soaraway smash hit post of the day (thanks, perhaps, to a kindly tweet from a prominent anti-BBC tweeter)...
Thank you for reading it (and please don't be so shy about commenting).
I'm especially pleased about that as it's the only post of mine today that (I think) really nails the BBC on the issue of bias - and does so on an issue that truly matters. (As does Sue's one-and-only post today).
I have to say that I thought that edition of Sunday was about as clear an example of BBC bias in action as I've heard in some time - hence the post's length and detail.
And it's not harmless bias either. Such whitewashing, such blatant propaganda, can be seriously counter-productive (however 'nice' and 'well-meaning' it may appear). Sweeping things under the carpet may feel like the right, PC, BBC thing to do, especially if it helps British Muslims feel that the BBC is on their side, but....
...those things swept under that carpet might be deeply, deeply unhealthy and deadly dangerous things.
And we all know where that kind of censorship (and self-censorship) leads (see Rotherham, Rochdale, Oldham, Oxford, etc, etc, etc).
It really is silly to, metaphorically-speaking, sing Kumbaya to the tune of the Muslim call to prayer, as Sunday was doing today.
Yes, everyone in Citizens UK and at the BBC must have felt great afterwards, but so what? So what if Citizens UK, the BBC and the Woolf Institute felt pleased with themselves about having flooded Radio 4's airwaves for 45 minutes with interfaith love and harmony whilst unison-chanting hymns and psalms in praise of the East London Mosque?
Yes, everyone in Citizens UK and at the BBC must have felt great afterwards, but so what? So what if Citizens UK, the BBC and the Woolf Institute felt pleased with themselves about having flooded Radio 4's airwaves for 45 minutes with interfaith love and harmony whilst unison-chanting hymns and psalms in praise of the East London Mosque?
This sort of thing is why I wanted to blog about BBC bias in the first place - to record the evidence.
If you agree with the arguments here, please feel free to complain to the BBC about it. They might ignore you if they realise we've sent you their way (see an earlier post), but if you pay the licence fee you are perfectly entitled to complain to the BBC if you think they are behaving badly.
Why on a sunday and not a Friday ? Meanwhile , "Songs of Praise" is limited to 30 minutes each sunday and broadcast at differing times each week.
ReplyDeleteRemember Mark Easton's opening statement in this video:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pLFhUpsupI
And remember "John Reith" telling us so many times to shut up because the BBC was trying to educate the public.
See 1:03 on that video - and here is what a body language website says about Easton's gesture when he talks about "promoting good race relations":
Delete"Scratching One’s Neck
Another sign of lying is scratching the neck below the earlobe around five times. This is also often a sign of doubting or disagreeing with what has been said."
If only one could see the body language used by BBC complaints staff in their replies. It would be like a flea circus.
Delete