How This Old Brit Sees It ...

15 June 2009

Iranian protesters chase police away from BBC crew: UPDATED

Brave protesters protect journalists so that the world can see what's really happening inside Iran (incident begins about 2 minutes in):

Interestingly, conservatives Richard Perle, Frank Gaffney, and Mitt Romney are saying that Ahmadinejad won the election through fraud, and that he won the election because of Obama's new policy of engagement and diplomacy with hostile regimes.

So which is it? Did Ahmadinejad win because Iranians concluded that his confrontational foreign policy is effective, or did he have to rig the vote?

It would appear that Obama's overtures helped swing the vote against Ahmadinejad, which is why his supporters had to engage in election fraud. In the days after Obama's speech in Cairo, Ahmadinejad fell behind in national polling.

UPDATE: Ahmadinejad (in white) was surrounded by students at Sharrif University in Tehran and had to climb on top of his car to escape:

Apparently, the crowd is yelling Mousavi, Mousavi, Mousavi. At the end, they begin yelling 'doorogh gou!', which means, "liar".

(cross posted at appletree)

Labels: BBC, Hussein Moussavi, Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, politics, protests

30 March 2009

Jaqui Smith : Should she simply "sod off" as soon as poss?

Pictured above: Jacqui Smith, British Home Secretary in Gordon Brown's government.

(snip)

To many voters she's a minister "on the take" who is not satisfied with a fat salary, a chauffeur and two homes but also claims more by employing her husband, calling her family home her second home and submitting bills for porn films.

The gap between the elected and those who elect them has rarely been wider. It is in all our interests that that gap is closed.

Read the rest of an ultra bright Brit bloke's excellent entry ~~ at the popular blog of Nick Robinson, BBC political editor.

Incidentally, for our none-Brit readers who may not be too familiar with this particular Brit bloke's face, here's a reminder of a couple of his 'close encounters' with the ogre aka George W. Bush, which most of the world witnessed ~ and probably enjoyed, as immensely as ourselves.

(snip)

Robinson got a very hard stare from George W. Bush when he asked him if he was in denial about the situation in Iraq (since the most Bush had said about the situation was that the increase in attacks was "unsettling"). Bush replied "It's bad in Iraq. Does that help?".

Nick Robinson had another run in with George Bush. At a press conference featuring Bush and Gordon Brown, Bush said to Robinson "you should cover up your bald head, its getting hot".

As Bush walked away Robinson replied "Didn't know you cared", to which the President said "I don't".

Learn a little more regarding Nick.

Almost as an afterthought we realised that even some Brits may not yet be fully aware of the latest 'accusations of fiddling' affair that Smith's become embroiled in.

So, see the latest sad & sorry Smith story.

Labels: BBC, Britain, British politicians, corruption, crooks and liars, Gordon Brown, Jacqui Smith, Nick Robinson, politics, porn, scandal, United Kingdom

29 January 2009

See & hear urgent Gaza humanitarian aid appeal, banned by 'top brass' BBC bums

We sincerely wish to apologise in advance for not publishing this particular piece sooner.

We also offer our apologies to any of our readers who may be offended by the above banner ...

... but unfortunately we couldn't find one using stronger language.

Arwh, whatever.

There are many mere lesser mortals (with much more humanity and honesty than those supposedly above them ), to be found among ordinary, everyday, honest, hard working Beeb employees -- including some of the fast becoming increasingly crappy BBC's real journalists.

Witness this cut & pasted taster:

(snip)

Meanwhile, the BBC is facing a growing revolt from its own journalists, with sources reporting "widespread disgust" within its newsrooms. However, BBC staff have said they have been told they face the sack if they speak out on the issue.

Sources said there was "fury" at the BBC News morning meeting today about the decision, with news editors saying they had not been consulted on the move to not show the appeal.

"Feelings are running extremely high and there is widespread disgust at the BBC's top management," one BBC News source said. "There is widespread anger and frustration at the BBC's refusal to allow people to speak out about it."

Members of the NUJ at London's Television Centre are expected to tomorrow pass a resolution condemning the BBC's decision.

(snip)

Good on you guys & gals, sez we,

Read the rest of the report, which includes the appeal video itself, in it's entirety.

And ...

Good on the United Nations' boss too, who's told the BBC big-boys straight - to effin' forget the planned interview with him.

*(Cross posted across at 'appletree')

Labels: BBC, bias, Gaza, human rights, Israel, lies, Lying

19 November 2008

Special International Info-tainment Incident:Strictly Come Dancing's Old Brit Broadcast Journalist, John Sergeant Succumbs Secedes

Hold the front page.

This special info-tainment item seems set to, quite possibly, secure some sort of national pride of place amongst the top televised stories of the past several centuries; if not of all time

Former political journalist John Sergeant has decided to pull out of the BBC One show Strictly Come Dancing.

The 64-year-old has received strong support from the public since the show started, but the judges have been critical of his dancing.

In a statement, he said: "The trouble is that there is now a real danger that I might win the competition. Even for me that would be a joke too far."

[Pic purposely posted twice for proper effect. And, to enthusiastically encourage and further facilitate all & sundry readers' proper pondering.]

If anyone asks us, we can't see how, in all honesty, we can say such an all round 'good guy' & 'broadcaster-bloke' as John Sergeant, could possibly be all that bad.

See also, some bits about "Strictly ..."

*

Labels: BBC, Britain, entertainment, Great Britain, John Sergeant, Strictly Come Dancing, UK

29 October 2008

Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand : Why we're saying "Sack the sick sods!"

Brand and Ross: BBC statement

BBC director general Mark Thompson has suspended presenters Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand following the row over their prank phone calls to Fawlty Towers [Manuel] actor Andrew Sachs on Radio 2.
The move was announced in this statement:

What we really want to know is why the big-bods at the BBC took so bloody long. And, at the end of the day whether or not these two turds will be summarily turfed out on their unarguably undeservedly, obscenely overpaid arses.

And in case anyone hasn't yet heard, THIS is why. Talk about a tardy transcript , eh?

Shame on the pair of these perverted pricks. May the louts lead the rest of their lousy lives in extremely "interesting times." At least.

UPDATE : Russell Brand has resigned.

Labels: Andrew Sachs, BBC, entertainment, Fawlty Towers, Georgina Baillie, Jonathan Ross, Manuel, Mark Thompson, Russell Brand

01 August 2007

John Pilger Points To BBC Anti-Palestine Stance ...

John Pilger, renowned investigative journalist and documentary film-maker, is one of only two to have twice won British journalism's top award; his documentaries have won academy awards in both the UK and the US.

In a New Statesman survey of the 50 heroes of our time, Pilger came fourth behind Aung San Suu Kyi and Nelson Mandela. "John Pilger," wrote Harold Pinter, "unearths, with steely attention facts, the filthy truth. I salute him."

See why we so often pick up on a John Pilger piece?

Seen his latest (so-called-liberal-BBC), expose?

Here's how he opens.

It Never Happened...

By John Pilger - Published 26 July 2007

Concealed during the Alan Johnston kidnap crisis was the fate of a Palestinian cameraman shot by the Israelis. The BBC, desperate to deny charges of "bias", refused to follow the story.

Then he goes on:

One of the leaders of demonstrations in Gaza calling for the release of the [kidnapped] BBC reporter Alan Johnston was a Palestinian news cameraman, Imad Ghanem. On 5 July, he was shot by Israeli soldiers as he filmed them invading Gaza. A Reuters video shows bullets hitting his body as he lay on the ground. An ambulance trying to reach him was also attacked. The Israelis described him as a "legitimate target". The International Federation of Journalists called the shooting "a vicious and brutal example of deliberate targeting of a journalist".

At the age of 21, he has had both legs amputated.

Dr David Halpin, a British trauma surgeon who works with Palestinian children, emailed the BBC's Middle East editor, Jeremy Bowen. "The BBC should report the alleged details about the shooting," he wrote. "It should honour Alan [Johnston] as a journalist by reporting the facts, uncomfortable as they might be to Israel."

He received no reply.

The atrocity was reported in two sentences on the BBC online. Along with 11 Palestinian civilians killed by the Israelis on the same day, Alan Johnston's now legless champion slipped into what George Orwell in Nineteen Eighty-Four called the memory hole. (It was Winston Smith's job at the Ministry of Truth to make disappear all facts embarrassing to Big Brother.)

While Alan Johnston was being held, I was asked by the BBC World Service if I would say a few words of support for him. I readily agreed, and suggested I also mention the thousands of Palestinians abducted and held hostage. The answer was a polite no; and all the other hostages remained in the memory hole.

Or, as Harold Pinter wrote of such unmentionables: "It never happened. Nothing ever happened . . . It didn't matter. It was of no interest."

And there's much more absolutely unmissable stuff in this (also absolutely unmissable), latest Pilger power piece.

Why, he even gets round to 'mentioning' Rupert Mudoch.

Now, please read all Pilger's marvelous article.

*

Labels: Alan Johnson, BBC, Imad Ghanem, John Pilger, New Statesman, Palestine, Rupert Murdoch