HE WHO PAYS THE PIPER

Has the BBC been running with this story today?

The BBC received millions of pounds from the European Union and local authorities over the past four years. The BBC admitted in a letter to a Tory MP that it has received nearly £3million in grant money from the European Union over the past four years. Other grants totalling £16million came from local authorities across the UK. The money was spent on "research and development projects". The broadcaster also disclosed that its commercial arm BBC Worldwide borrowed over £141million from the European Investment Bank since 2003. Of that figure £30million is still due to be repaid by the end of May this year.

HEROES?

You really should read this post over on Elder of Zion. It concerns the BBC's idea of what makes a hero. Or, as others might call it, a vicious savage who killed two Israeli teenagers. I suppose he had no choice? Utterly repugnant.

TIME CHANGES EVERYTHING...

This was sent my way! Well worth a read...

"I assume you've noticed BBC outrage re the Student Loans Company. 
e.g. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-16854187

It reminds me of this story from 1993.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/bbc-helps-its-chief-to-avoid-tax-exclusive-birts-salary-paid-to-his-private-company-1475816.html

THE BIG QUESTION..

You can always count on the BBC to articulate the questions we are all thinking, right? For example...

Are US Muslims abandoning domes and minarets out of fear?

Then again, maybe not...

Question Time LiveBlog 2nd February 2012

Tonight Question Time comes from Southport.

David Dimbleby is joined by Southport by International Development Minister Alan Duncan, Shadow Justice Secretary and frequent Guido target Sadiq Khan, Labour ex-Minister Digby Jones, Emma Boon from the TaxPayers Alliance and Grange Hill writer Phil Redmond.

As with last week, please remember that humour is good, sarcasm is fine, biting wit is even better but direct threats of violence and disgusting language are not acceptable. We will not add such comments. Have fun - but be good now...

Your Moderators line-up consists of David Vance, David Mosque, TheEye and, hopefully, John Ward.

It's a 10:30pm kick off and we'll be staying open for This Week too. See you here later!

Taken For a Ride

Here’s a strange one. It puts me in an unusual position, and could look as though I’m about to defend religious fundamentalism. That’s not what I’m trying to do.
I had a message from someone who was offended by an item featured in the BBC World Service series “Outlook”.

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CZECH MATE

A B-BBC reader notes;

"The BBC claims here that the President, Prime Minister and people of the Czech Republic are all against the pact.

"The country's influential - and Eurosceptic - president, Vaclav Klaus, has already told Mr Necas he will not sign Czech accession to the fiscal compact. So even if the Czech prime minister wanted to join it (he doesn't), the president would not let him." "even if the Czech people were in favour of more budgetary oversight from Brussels (they are not), simply organising a referendum could take months, possibly years."

But then the BBC attributes the rejection to Mr Necas's Civic Democrats..

 "...who are, like Britain's Conservatives, deeply divided over Europe. Like the Tories, the Civic Democrats are plagued by a right-wing, viscerally Eurosceptic fringe."

I don't know if what they say about Czech politics is accurate or not, but I do know that opinion polls show a clear and consistent majority of Britons opposed to the EU. To the BBC however MPs who represent the majority constitute a plague and visceral fringe. The BBC's choice of phrasing tells you everything you need to know about where they are coming from on the EU issue. They don't seem to be at all aware that their blind obedience to the Brussels agenda shows that it is they who form the visceral fringe of opinion." 

SHREDDING FRED...

Ok, I think it is important to be fair and I have to say that I thought this discussion regarding the de-Knighting of Fred Goodwin was in fact pretty balanced. Michael Fallon was on the defensive and rightly so in my opinion and at least the BBC allowed Sir Jackie Stewart his say. Of course one could also see this as a convenient ruse to bash the Coalition using the subterfuge of feeling sorry for Goodwin when in fact the BBC has been to the fore in portraying him as the central villain in the piece - so absolving a certain Mr Gordon Brown.

HALF THE STORY...etc

Can you please look at this headline and this headline and discuss the difference! Quite remarkable and thanks to the B-BBC reader for drawing this to my attention.

OPEN THREAD

Shall we hang the bankers? Here's a new Open Thread for you....

A Date in Tunis

Wyre Davies is a nice chap. Like Eric Idle, Wyre always looks on the bright side of life. He was in Tunisia, happily soaking up the atmosphere of optimism surrounding the glorious Arab Spring and basking in the warm glow of the inclusive and moderate Islamism of Rachid Ghannouchi’s newly elected Ennahda party.

What a shame that Wyre had missed the joyous story of Ennahda’s first diplomatic move, their generous invitation to kindly Ismail Haniyeh. Wyre must have been so engrossed in excitement over the new democracy that he completely overlooked it. Unbeknownst to Wyre, the loveable Hamas leader had been greeted with wild enthusiasm by ecstatic crowds of Tunisians who pledged their undying support the Palestinian cause. The distant sounds of chanting “kick the Jews- it’s our religious duty,” “expel the Jews- it’s our religious duty,” and “kill the Jews- it’s our religious duty” proved but a teeny blip in the haze of optimism surrounding Wyre.

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A FORCE FOR GOOD

BBC World Service journalist Piers Scholfield asks a question about Super PACs:


What's "a force for good" in the eyes of a BBC World Service journalist? The link takes you to this article about a Vermont-based Super PAC called "Americans For a Better Tomorrow, Today". Here's what they stand for:

The group wants to highlight the issues and values brought into focus by the Occupy movement, including progressive tax policies, clean energy development, the protection of collective bargaining rights and a system that doesn’t routinely graduate college students with $100,000 of student loan debt.

Lefty values = force for good. The BBC's coverage of this year's presidential election is going to be a doozy, isn't it?

(Previously - Piers Scholfield, Green Party supporter)

Oh btw, remember Jude "I love him" Machin? She's still got it bad:

WHEN GOOD NEWS IS NO NEWS

The BBC really is the last bastion of defence for bloated Public Sector finances. Biased BBC contributor Alan notes;

'Public sector workers will be “dramatically” better off in retirement and receive significantly higher wages than those in the private sector.' 

Not so, suggests the BBC. 

Fascinating example of BBC deliberately down playing good news for the public sector employees and choosing words very carefully to give the facts but in a way that almost reverses their true meaning.

Regarding the IFS' latest report on pension reforms....

For the BBC the reforms reduce pensions and increase working life for all.....

'The government's latest public sector pension changes will make "little or no difference" to their long-term cost, an economic think-tank has said. However, it points out that the earlier decision to shift the inflation link for pension increases has substantially reduced costs and expectations.Unions point out that, overall, public workers must pay more and work longer. The report said that lower earners in the public sector were better protected that higher earners.'

Contrast that with the Telegraph's report in which it reveals public sector workers will not only get higher pensions than now but also get over 8% higher pay than their equivalents in the private sector...and that it is only higher paid workers in the public sector who will see a reduction in pensions.....

'Public sector workers will be “dramatically” better off in retirement and receive significantly higher wages than those in the private sector despite government attempts to scale back the generosity of their pay and pensions, ministers have been warned. The institute’s findings will call into question the widespread disruption caused by trade union protests over the treatment of public sector workers. “In general, lower earners in the public sector will actually get a more generous pension as a result of the recently announced reforms. That is, they will be able to retire at age 65 with a higher annual pension than they would receive under current arrangements. Conversely, higher earners are likely to lose out.” '

Of course this is the BBC in which a gloating Evan Davis tried to claim that RBS boss, Stephen Hester, refused his bonus because of Labour plans to have a Common's vote on the subject.....where was his proof of that decision making?....more likely it was Hester's wife who made him refuse it! Let's also not forget that Hester (who is overpaid like all these people) received over £4 million in 2008 and £6 million in 2009.....wasn't that when Labour was running things?...how soon they forget!

'Mr Hester's huge potential bonuses come on top of a total pay package of £35.54million since joining the bank in 2008. Brought in to turn the ailing bank around after a £45billion taxpayer bailout, Mr Hester was handed £4.99million in restricted shares, forgoing pay and bonuses. The next year, 2009, his pay package was worth £6.9million, and in 2010 that rose to £8.16million.'

NONE SO BLIND....

A Biased BBC reader observes;

"Sean Coughlan,BBC education correspondent, reporting here on the BBC web page today about a Twitter-linked session of the Education Select Committee: "... when Mr Gove was asked about a campaign against turning Downhills Primary School in north London into an academy, he accused the protesters of being linked to the Socialist Workers Party - and described them as the "enemies of promise".

Mr Coughlan interposes his own opinion about this exchange. He writes: "But when #AskGove responded, it was in the old-fashioned language of right and left, haranguing the Haringey campaigners."

On the BBC, Socialist Workers party argues; Mr Gove harangues; Gove acts like old-fashioned rightist when he argues back. SWP are just running a campaign.

Condemnation of Gove, but zero investigation by Mr Coughlan of the crux of this story, which any newsman should go after: is Mr Gove's complaint that the discussion, and genuine parents' views have been hi-jacked by the extreme left SWP, justifiable? "

THE RELENTLESS DRUMBEAT

Day in Day Out, some within the BBC produce a relentless drumbeat to accompany the narrative that the Coalition is wrong in everything that it does. Take these consecutive items ran on Today this morning. First up is the a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS)  which claims that the government's public sector pension reforms are unlikely to save money in the long term. It looks like we just have keep finding the unaffordable. Then comes the item that the government's plans for NHS reforms have damaged and destabilised services. So, leave the dysfunctional NHS alone. This monotonous criticism of everything that the Government tries to do must be joy to Labour but hardly the mark of a balanced broadcaster.