Sunday 24 February 2019

Tommy's takedown

Part of my frustration is due to our snails-pace broadband. We live in an area that’s supposed to be fast. I understand certain vital parts are housed miles away in some Godforsaken roadside box. Oh well. Can’t odds it, as people round here will say. (it means we can’t do anything about it except spend a whole day fruitlessly hanging on the old fashioned landline waiting for someone in India to pick up.)

On The Big Questions, they’re talking about reincarnation. It occurred to me that I want to be reincarnated. When do I want it? Now! I want to be reincarnated straight away, this minute because I feel so depressed and unable to 'make-a-difference' in the here and now. Maybe I could come back as John Sweeney. (But I guess there’d be two of us, which might cause problems)


I spent a whole load of hours yesterday trying to find a direct link to Tommy Robinson’s documentary PanoDrama, so that I could see whether he’s really got his teeth into something new and chewy. I failed.

All I have to go on at the time of writing is yesterday’s live stream, which broke almost as often and annoyingly as my connectivity.

I did watch what seemed like hours of a pretty shambolic preamble. The upside was that no visible aggression could be seen. After all that fretting about BBC staff‘s safety. This time at least, nothing of the sort materialised. 

I have to say that the speeches were  - in the words of someone I can’t identify - lacklustre. Specifically Gerrard Batten’s. I can’t quite see what they were for in this particular context. Yes, try and recruit for UKIP if you must, but not at the unveiling of the much anticipated PanoDrama. 

Everyone was waiting patiently; all they wanted to see was Tommy’s takedown. But no. After that interminable wait, the sound was unintelligible and the visuals were worse. We need to see the real unfiltered article before passing our verdict. Meanwhile, the jury’s out. However, if I’m pushed, I will just say a few more lacklustre words. 

If there was something in there about Sweeney fabricating a sexual element to finesse his takedown, that’s pretty damning. I couldn’t quite hear it. However, the methods, ‘sting’ and ‘honeytrap’, weaken the case and possibly engender sympathy for Sweeney, the ‘victim’….although the PanoDrama team could plead they’re deliberately turning the tables to make their point.

The whole BBC, and in particular the once-respected Panorama remit, has dumbed down. It’s a tabloid version of its former self. Intelligent probing, if it ever existed, has been abandoned and replaced by lazy, agenda-driven, superficial and cherry-picked gossip. In this case, it was a straightforward character assassination, using all the low-hanging fruit at its disposal and abandoning any attempt at deeper investigative analysis. What’s the point in that? If that’s not bad enough,  they seem to have stooped low enough to lie.

Anyway, maybe the actual video is available now. If so, I might have to retract. Don’t watch this space though, in case I don’t actually bother. I could have written most of the last paragraph with or without Tommy’s Takedown.

***

Update (Craig): And here it is...:

33 comments:

  1. Some people are saying that the delay to the release of the video is for legal reasons - i.e. that it's having to be edited to remove some now-retracted allegations of sexual abuse by a member of Hope Not Hope.

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  2. The BBC's official statement in response runs as follows:

    “BBC Panorama is investigating Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.

    “The BBC strongly rejects any suggestion that our journalism is ‘faked’ or biased.

    "Any programme we broadcast will adhere to the BBC’s strict editorial guidelines.

    “Some of the footage which has been released was recorded without our knowledge during this investigation and John Sweeney made some offensive and inappropriate remarks, for which he apologises.

    “BBC Panorama’s investigation will continue.”

    Wonder which "offensive and inappropriate remarks" John Sweeney's had to apologise for?

    Knowing the BBC, my bet would be that "bloody woofters" was the one that really set the klaxons blaring at the BBC. I doubt "honkeys" would have bothered them that much.

    WILL the BBC still go ahead with their Tommy takedown 'Panorama'? Apparently, it should already have been broadcast but seems to have been derailed once already.

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    1. That first sentence sends a shiver down my spine. Do the BBC really think they have some sort of inquistorial powers to investigate someone on suspicions...not alleged crimes or misdemeanours? Note: they are "investigating Tommy Robinson"...the person.

      And then there's the arrogant disdain of "BBC Panorama's investigation will continue"...no response to the allegations in the documentary.

      The BBC needs to be brought down and dismantled. It has grown into a menace to our freedoms and our constitution.

      My guess is they will have wiped the slate clean on this programme. They will be putting their best minds (ie not Sweeney) on to it and redoubling their efforts to "take him down".

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    2. I think John Sweeney's non-PC outbursts (even if they were calculated to impress Lucy Brown by being unexpectedly blokish for a star 'Panorama' reporter and, thus, lull her into dishing the dirt on TR) are more embarrassing for him and the BBC than career-ending I suspect.

      As for his bizarre, drunken claim that Martin McGuinness is his political hero, well that's already being 'set in context' by the BBC - i.e. he meant the peace-making McGuinness of the Chuckle Brothers era, not the IRA period. And as if praising McGuinness could possibly harm his career at the BBC! Jeremy Corbyn's record is much worse here, and on he goes.

      And I think JS had a point that TR was casting the worst possible light on every he said.

      BUT...

      'Panodrama' raised some serious questions for the BBC:

      (1) What was the extent of Hope Not Hate's involvement with 'Panorama'? TR's video alleges it was extensive - arranging for ex-Tommy associates to spill the beans to the BBC, sitting in on 'Panorama' interviews, having an input in the BBC's scripts. So how much of that is true? And why were Hope Not Hate involved in the first place? And doesn't their involvement seriously compromise BBC impartiality?

      (2) We saw Tommy Robinson and Lucy Brown concoct a fake tweet - TR threatening violence against her if she talked to 'Panorama' - in order, TR said, to expose the ease with which the BBC could fall for/create fake news, and John Sweeney then produced that fake tweet on a print-out as a wave-around-in-your-face 'gotcha!' as the end of his interview with Tommy Robinson. So was 'Panorama' stung because it failed to do proper journalism and check the source of the tweet (Lucy, not Tommy)? That's certainly the way it looks. Isn't that why TR left Broadcasting House triumphantly asserting that John Sweeney and the BBC were guilty of fake news?

      (3) Did John Sweeney try to get Lucy Brown to smear TR in a #MeToo direction? The sound quality made that section very hard to hear. Subtitles would have helped.

      (4) Why is the BBC going after an individual? Should the BBC be engaged in such 'takedowns'?

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    3. MB: Point (4), of course, echoes your first point.

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  3. "And I think JS had a point that TR was casting the worst possible light on every he said." I expect he did but that simply reflects the BBC's MO which likes to play back some of TR's less well advised comments, rather than, say, his Oxford Union speech.
    This is fire fighting fire.

    Also, let's not forget that John Sweeney had apologised for the offensive and inappropriate nature of his (unspecified) comments so I don't think he's offering "journalistic practice" as a defence.

    Brian from London says that a proper YT-friendly version of the video will be out later today with subtitles. Let's hope so.

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  4. .... ' "BBC Panorama's investigation will continue" ' ....

    I believe that the BBC have painted themselves into a corner. I'm sure they will have hoped to complete Tommy's Takedown, and afterwards claim that the ends justified the means. TR has turned the tables and caught them in the act of manufacturing the 'means'.

    .... ' "BBC Panorama's investigation will continue" ' ... has the most sinister implication because until they have succeeded in their aim, they cannot claim justification. It's starting to look like persecution.

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    1. Absolutely. Not journalism...the Holy Inquisition by another name: the Virtue Signalling Inquisition maybe. As the undercover filming showed, applying their own standards, the virtue signallers are however guilty of racism, ethnic slurs, homophobia, Islamophobia, dodgy funding and Fake News - all the things they accuse Tommy of indulging in.

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  5. TR explains probs with rendering and uploading the documentary...

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

    Hmmmmm...

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  6. V. good article by Delingpole - a fundamentally decent journalist unlike Sweeney and co.

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/02/24/tommy-robinsons-panodrama-exposes-the-bbcs-left-bias/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

    I think he very much echoes my feelings as to why this is an extremely important chapter in our country's history. But I don't think that licence fee prostest is going anywhere. No, the real importance I think that is contrary to the efforts of the UK MSM, the BBC, Far Left HNH, the May Government, the GMP, the ludicrous "Mayor" (Thunderbird puppet) of Manchester and our biased judiciary, by a process of osmosis Panodrama is goign to sink into people's consciousness. We (the majority) still have a vestigial belief in fairness, we still hate stinking hypocrisy, we still despise narrow ideologues, we don't trust the blandishments of the elite and we believe in free speech. Panodrama confirms everything we believe in and why we are not "conspiratorial", "paranoid" or "phobic" in feeling our long established culture is under serious threat. Panorama's senior correspondent happily confesses to considering the chief of the IRA to be his hero!!!

    The only real joy I am deriving from all this is the thought of all those damage-limitation meetings that have been taking place around the BBC... involving HR ("couldn't we say John's been under stress...mental health...out of character...addressing his personal demons, alcohol, you know, gone to rehab - the usual stuff?") and Equalities officers ("I'm sorry we can't condone homophobia and ethnic slurs, he's got to apologise..."), and the trade unions ("the NUJ demand you stand by John, a renowned anti-fascist who has been set up by Neo-Nazis") and the DG ("Can someone please confirm we had the OK from No 10 for this takedown? I'm sure I was told by someone we did...") ... and so on...

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  7. This is a pretty good version of the live Panodrama doc.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6ZyolV0Z28

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    1. And when you hear Sweeney's "homophobic "comments (as the BBC would have it), you can see why they cut him adrift (as I think Craig surmised previously.)

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    2. From this good live version, I know realise that the "cannibal" is Danny Lockwood from "The Press"!...a perfectly sensible, lucid individual. What's Sweeney's effing problem?

      I recommend though you scroll to the end for the "Gotcha" moment when Sweeney waves the fake e mail exchange thinking he's "got" Tommy! lol x 1000. It's Sweeney who's been Gotchaed.

      Also loved the brief sight of the BBC producer with his head in his hands! :)

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    3. know = now

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  8. A very important video:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFvox0vLQd8

    "Someone at You Tube is messing with the streams..."

    I think the creator here is on to something.

    This was very much my experience...

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    1. It was my experience too. I went through half a dozen YouTube streams and it happened on them all - all from about 3 o'clock onwards. The mass of scrolling comments at the time complaining shows how widespread it was.

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  9. I saw it all live
    Firstly, there is a thread over on B-BBC biasedbbc.org/blog/2019/02/24/heres-hoping-panodrama
    The quality on the live screen was good, at one point they jacked the sound up.
    You could hear all the audio without sometitles.
    I think TR’s point was that sometimes the undercover footage was fast, so he really should have had the subtitles on more bits .. the slurred speech was mostly subtitled.
    - Journalists have a very difficult job, of trying to sum up happenings, that's why whenever you've been at something and then seen the news report you think that's quite different from what I saw..the journo has resorted to simplistic narrative .. and therefore deceived cos nuance and context are missing.
    That's why it always take me 3 pages to make a proper comment.
    However when Twitter pushed news at me Left sources were giving info I knew to be false
    eg Their Famous Troll MS said the Panodrama vid contains scenes from Tommy's wedding
    ..er no it didn't cos the vid was late things were put in to fill time ie Batten's speech was moved to the front, and TR fished out a tribute video to his wife, which showed the wedding etc. It was NOt in the main film
    eg the ITV correspondent tweeted a shot of the crowd I'm guessing from slightly earlier than when I arrived at 12:20pm cos by the film started at 3pm the place was rammed.

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  10. Activists did publish one thing I didn't see live
    A video tweet claims "journalist were kicked out"
    I am used to be special roaming steward at festivals keeping an eye out. So earlier I went around the site bagging any lose litter, cos if you keep litter under control then people don't drop so much more. At one stage there was a stir as a line of about 4 or 5 tabarded stewards were heading off after someone, they were followed by 4 or 5 young lads who looked like they wanted to lend muscle. I knew to leave the stewards to it , as did most people. The stewards flowed through the non-rammed crowd, but came back a couple of minutes later as if everything had been quickly resolved. An announcement was made a few mins later that If we saw Antifa Infiltrators we should just let the stewards know and not try anything ourselves. About a quarter of an hour later the same thing happened, a stir as stewards flowed through followed by the 4-5 lads and came back in a couple of mins.
    That Twitter footage I saw this morning does show two known antifa activists being marched out of the crowd by those stewards ..someone can be heard saying "don't touch her just lead them out"
    Now I didn't see that bit live so whether that was part of one of the 2 stirs I saw or a similar one that might have happened later behind me when I had my eyes on the screen .. I don't know .
    But when TR came on about 2pm he did say ' We will be peaceful as ever, but today for once be especially kind to journos.'
    The claim that journalist were evicted seems bogus to me , there were quite a few people roaming with cameras .. One of the official TR photographers who happened to be black did take a photo when I was talking to a placard man and I talked to him. One guy then later to spoke to me aside and said 'oh you have to be careful with these press they trick you by sweet talking you. I thught that was a paranoid comment, yeh that black guy might have cunningly got hold of a Tr tabard as a ruse, but so what I didn't mind talking to him..anyway he wasn't fake cos he was on stage later.
    Throughout the pockets of police were stood well back as if they expected no trouble from the TR crowd.
    The crowd was more Antiques Roadshow live crowd, rather than soccer hooligans.

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  11. This long Twitter thread seems to give a good run down of the whole event as it unfolded

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  12. 2:39pm Panodrama vid went live through various different Youtube accounts
    and his Facebook account 1:08pm
    Please see our other thread

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    1. Here's the YT link if that's not in Stew's post:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNd2bvLvyk4

      I think it's the "homophobic" stuff that's causing real probs for Sweeney. :) The BBC wouldn't be worried that one of their senior reporters hero-worships the late leader of a left-wing terrorist organisation but is still thought fit to "investigate" alleged extremism!

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    2. cheers I did mean to give a direct link to the YouTube and not to the BiasedBBC thread
      and yes you have given the link to the official TR one
      46K views and 4,000 comments
      I expect it to quite a bit more by midnight
      and there are multiple copies on YT

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    3. This You Tube video has been viewed over 100,000 times already - confirmation of just how important it is, and how damaging it is to the BBC's reputation.

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  13. Over 150,000 views now. It's getting around. But you have to ask why don't organisations like Breitbart London and Guido publicise it? Breitbart did mention it before but haven't publicised the video itself. Guido has sided with the rest of the UK MSM and hasn't even mentioned it! Unbelievable!! These are two sites that never stop complaining about the BBC but when the chance comes to really score a hit against the BBC, they ignore the opportunity. Proves for me that Guido is, was and always has been just a glorified establishment gossip column.

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    1. The BBC are making the most of Facebook's ban:

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47371290

      ... 'Facebook bans Tommy Robinson's page' ...

      However, this is on the Technology page of the BBC News website. Predictably there is no mention of Sweeney, Panorama or the exposure of BBC's covert methods designed to 'Take Down Tommy'.

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    2. I should add that the above BBC News website article includes:

      ... 'The ban means that Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon' ...

      Readers of ITBBCB? please give your opinions in explanation of the BBC's obsessive repetition of this. My guess is that it is a very English name. Could the BBC be trying to link TR together with all other indigenous English working-class males to TR's perceived,( by the BBC anyway), dangerously non PC opinions?

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    3. No, it's part of the attempt to paint him as an anti-social criminal - the false name is supposed to indicate criminality. I think the fact it's double-barrelled is possibly supposed to discredit him somewhat with his working class followers who might tend to view a double-barrelled name with suspicion...but that's possibly reading too much into it.

      The interesting thing though is how this suddenly came into vogue at the BBC and the rest of the UK MSM...it happened almost overnight...suddenly they were all doing it. That to me suggests co-ordination by some agency or agencies - e.g. Home Office, HNH, or the NUJ.

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  14. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y2ZnvL0hWE

    Here's a wonderful video to watch - a Jihad survivor says were are being strangled by Political Correctness. In view of Tommy's banning on Facebook, it's hard to disagree.

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  15. The BBC and Establishment seems to feel very smug about this.

    Might be premature.

    TR is now a known player and other avenues exists.

    When pressure builds sticking fingers in holes only leads to others erupting.

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  16. Extremely concerning that this guy is claiming "credit" for getting Tommy banned from Facebook and is now going after him on Google and You Tube.

    https://twitter.com/mshafiquk/status/1100378313539887104

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  17. Gerard Batten says Panodrama had over a million views on Tommy's Facebook account!

    https://twitter.com/GerardBattenMEP/status/1100379084914331648

    Add in You Tube and other sources you must be getting close to 2 million minimum and with luck this will just grow and grow.

    Will show Sweeney's claim that more people will see his (so far imaginary) documentary than Tommy's to be as hollow as the BBC's integrity.

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  18. Here you go https://youtu.be/oz5pnqu3CsA

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