Sunday 21 May 2017

Nearly a Start the Week Open Thread


Please add any comments on BBC matters below. Unlike the BBC we won't report you to your employer!

17 comments:

  1. Well, we've been known to inform the BBC about the bad behavior on social media of their employees, so it's only fair, right?

    In other news, I've just read a review of a BBC 1 show about the 'grooming gangs' of Rochdale and Rotherham: 'Three Girls'. Apparently they do get it about right, even suggesting that the authorities didn't listen to the victims because that would be racist. But the reviewer didn't say Islam or a specific culture was to blame, just that it presented "the criminals' ethnicity as an undisputed fact." What this means, I have no idea.

    I might have time tomorrow to watch some or all of it.

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  2. "Hello, is that Mrs Brown? Jack's mum? "

    "Yes,what can I do for you? "

    "It's the BBC..we're calling about...Jack..."

    "Oh dear, what's he been up to now."

    "I'm afraid he's been making defamatory comments on our website about various people in public life."

    "Oh no...what's he been saying?"

    "Well he's called Diane Abbott a Grade One hypocrite with no self control on calorie intake...he's said Tim Farron is an annoying twat with the brain of a snail...he claimed Theresa May is more interested in shoe fashion than getting migration under control...and he says Nicola Sturgeon would probably put polonium in your tea if she thought it would lead to Scottish independence."

    "And?..."

    "Well I haven't got to the worst bit yet...he says Nick Robinson's enthusiasm for the EU leads him to be biased in his reporting on Brexit! As if!!!"

    "Does he say anything about Corbyn supporting the IRA?"

    "Er no..."

    "Oh dear, well I told him he needed to pay more attention to history. It won't happen again I can assure you - next time he'll definitely mention Corbyn and the IRA."


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  3. The BBC's not having a very good election. Lib Dem vote has gone down according to the polls. Corbynistas seem to be doing better than expected. And May still likely to win the election, committed to a hard Brexit if necessary.

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  4. Check out how the BBC managed to turn Melania Trump not wearing a headscarf to visit Saudi Arabia into an opportunity to criticize President Trump.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-39984830/melania-trump-didnt-wear-a-headscarf-but-does-it-matter

    There has been an outcry that Melania didn't do wear a head scarf from the Left, and in turn some on the Right have voiced approval for standing up to the Saudis' backwards religious rules. So fair enough that the BBC is touching on the story.

    But they make sure to point out it's not a big deal, and showed that Condoleeza Rice, Angela Merkel, and even Michelle Obama didn't wear one, either. Best of all, they found a Trump tweet where he said Mrs. Obama not wearing one was disrespectful and a mistake. 10 points for exposing his hypocrisy, and again, fair enough.

    At the time, the BBC made an extra effort to defend Mrs. Obama from criticism.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-middle-east-31038926/no-headscarf-for-michelle-obama-in-saudi-arabia-acceptable

    The tone was in her defense, while the current piece is framed as a dismissal of praise for Melania.

    But the same 10 points are deducted for the BBC not doing another segment on how Obama bowed to the Saudi ruler - about which there were a hell of a lot more complaints - but Trump did not.

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    1. Jon Sopel's language on tonight's main BBC One evening news bulletin was interesting. He seemed more approving than usual:

      "The President has been on a deep immersion into Middle East politics today, and a charm offensive, meeting a host of Arab and Gulf leaders from across the region. And one central geopolitical subject: the fight against Islamist extremism, and how to make good on his pledge to destroy so-called Islamic State.

      "But after the trenchant and some would say Islamophobic language of the Trump election campaign, the President chose a much more moderate tone today."

      Some would say...

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    2. That said, Jon Sopel then went straight on to point-score off Trump by citing his past criticism of the Obama administration for not using the words "radical Islamic terrorism" by playing clip after clip of Trump using the phrase and then pointing out that Trump hadn't used it today in Saudi Arabia....which, of course, is true. But it's still point-scoring from the BBC man.

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    3. It's a false point, though. The complaint about Obama was that he wouldn't say 'radical Islamist terrorism' in the US, which Trump has done.

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    4. All we are asking of the BBC is that they describe the current President of Iran an "extreme ideologue". They persist in calling him a "moderate cleric". Maybe the BBC's point is that all Western leaders should genuflect to Islam and its various luminaries.

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    5. ...but not even Trump will suggest "radical Islamist terrorism" has anything to do with Saudi Arabia. There's arms deals to be done.

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    6. Two wrongs don't make a right. I certainly recognise that Saudi Arabia is on a par with Iran in terms of its baleful influence on the region and the world (including our own neck of the woods, where universities, media outlets, mosques, and even the monarchy have all felt their corrupting influence). Trump's the elected President of the USA. It's for him to justify his actions to Americans but very few anti-globalists approve of creating co-dependency with a regime like the Saudis.

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  5. https://twitter.com/BBCNormanS/status/866220012578713600

    Is Norman Smith a player in the election campaign or a reporter on it?

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  6. Has the BBC covered this outrageous gangsterism on our streets?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPsY0HrmTvI

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  7. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2017-39969275
    Nick Robinson in his Election Takeaway seeks to 'explain' the BBC policy on the forthcoming General Election....

    '.... All the voters I spoke to in Bedford expressed their deep concern about the pressure on, or future cuts to, the NHS - an issue that has yet to really take off in this campaign. If Jeremy Corbyn is to have any chance of stopping a Tory landslide let alone winning outright he needs to persuade the sort of voters I have been speaking to that traditional domestic concerns matter as much, if not more, than Brexit....'.

    He and other BBC presenters are desperate to redraw the traditional Labour v Conservative battle lines, and then push hard for (New) Labour success. Criticism of NHS funding, aka 'Tory Cuts', plays well with that audience. One of the principal reasons for the Leave vote was in an attempt to somehow restrict the number of people using our beleaguered NHS. To say this is not to be racist. Statistics which show the exact increase in NHS usage over the last few years never seem to be published or publicised. Might it be that this year-on-year percentage increase in NHS usage has a direct correlation with the net increase in migration figure?

    If 'traditional domestic concerns matter as much, if not more, than Brexit' then why aren't we kept reliably informed by the BBC about the burden place upon the NHS.

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    1. Sadly the NHS recently had to tackle an increased burden in Manchester.

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  8. Manchester Arena..Four years after Lee Rigby? Neither BBC nor Sky have made that link...

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  9. The BBC is a £5 billion organisation. They can't get a reporter to the Manchester Arena area within 2 and a half hours after the terror attack? Don't they have a huge base in Manchester? Very poor. Also insulting to our intelligence to speak of baloons popping as a possible cause some 2 hours after the incident occurred. The BBC really is the Cult of Delusion isn't it?

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  10. Some thoughts on yesterday's outrage.

    1. The Police communications performance re the public was appalling. Two and hours after the incident, the Police had still not announced it was a suicide bombing. The BBC were still speculating about balloons! If it had been a multi-location attack, then this would have caused numerous deaths as cafes remained open. Also, there was no attempt to direct parents to
    physical locations where they could get information about their children. This isn't hindsight, as the Police obviously plan for such attacks and such problems could easily be seen.

    Generally, the delusion and denial has been at full pitch in the media, and the BBC especially. No acknowledgement that Jihadis based in this country have previously tried to target young people having fun, nor that mainstream Sharia considers it an abomination that young women and girls in immodest clothing might have fun in the absence of male guardians watching over them.

    The media strategy appears to be one of silence, because they can't really say anything without letting the cat out of the bag.

    Are UKIP going to be allowed to comment on the outrage? I've seen references/quotes from Tories, Labour, Lib Dems and SNP but nothing from UKIP. Have they been silenced?

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