Are they really this obtuse? REALLY?

Currently on teh Beeb's news site:

THE GOVERNMENT IS DOING SOMETHING MORALLY REPUGNANT AND DEEPLY UNPOPULAR. Jesus, are they a bit slow or something?

Reasons to Hate Newsnight Review, Pt 94

I stopped watching Newsnight Review back when it was still called Newsnight Review*. I should've stopped when this was first broadcast but I let myself casually drop into it occasionally back when I still was capable of watching Newsnight itself without wanting to kick the screen in. So about 5 years ago.

Anyway, it came on last night when a DVD finished and I was subjected to the mutilated horror of it all for a minute or two. Couple of things:

1. Something called Clemency Burton-Hill is a fucking idiot.
2. Jesus Christ, SHUT THE FUCK UP ALL OF YOU. SHUT THE FUCK UP. WHENEVER YOU SPEAK IT'S LIKE DROWNING IN A LAKE OF SMUGNESS. I SINCERELY WANT YOU TO DIE.
   

To explain point (1), I refer you to the review of Tamara Drewe (a strip so incredibly dull I never successfully navigated a complete edition of when it was in the Graun's Review section. In fact it was probably the reason that I now open it at the back, read Doonesbury, then stick it in the recycling). Here is Clemency, looking like every annoying fucking Rah that I would see hanging around Hatfield at uni, apparently doing nothing whilst waiting to be appointed part of the Establishment when they graduated.

'Isn't it amazing to see the middle classes depicted on film like that, I mean, especially a UK Film Council-backed film? I mean we're talking about Shane Meadows later and they're much more likely to back a film like ... This is England, and I found that fascinating, though sort of rather uncomfortable as you say, kind of I might have that [inaudible due to scratching of absurd rah hairdo] I quite often see Jim Naughtie at literary festivals, I'm complicit in this as well.'

Yes, if there's one thing the British media needs more of, it's portrayal of the lives of the average ordinary member of the middle classes who live in Arcady-By-The-Waitrose. We just don't see enough of these people, do we? FUCK OFF.
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*It is apparently now called The Review Show.

Praise for t'Beeb

I love the World Service, but usually hate the Business Daily* programme, where all too often the main item is a bloke flogging his 'How to be a multi-millionaire' self-help book based on faecal patterns of great business leaders and suchlike. But today's had a piece on union density in call centres and an item on the decline in value of Tiger Woods' brand in which the journo finished with a quote from the Communist Manifesto.

I suspect this will be the highlight of my day.

All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind

seems quite apposite actually, especially if prefaced with a sentence incluing the phrases 'extra-marital affairs' and 'dropped from Accenture quicker than Billy Whizz on crack.' Which would have been perfect.

*Not on iPlayer but due to be repeated @ 19.40 GMT if that helps.

Umm, Hi.

I wonder where that charming young man's got to, you've been thinking. Without those mots justes, my day is simply not complete.

Well, sorry for not calling. I've been out a lot recently you see.

Doing what? Well, I'll tell you.

Firstly I've been working a lot of hours, which has a funny way of leaving you knackered.
Secondly I've been going to quite a lot of meetings recently (see previous posts). Last week I went down onto a picket as well, which was a great experience. If you've never been before (none of my previous employers have been enthusiastic about the concept of unions), you definitely should. It's a great chance to see the strike from the striker's point of view, you can offer a bit of moral and, if you've been passing the bucket round at work maybe financial, support; and it reminds you that whatever the BBC says is largely false - particularly this stitch-up job right here. Instead of all that, go here, or here, or here (and particularly this). Or just talk to your postie. As one guy said to us on Friday, the bosses think the customers are the corporate clients, but for posties it's all about the average person in their houses and flats. So why not pass the time of day with them when you see 'em?

The only upside is that it turns out Amazon haven't permanently cancelled their RM contract, so one day we may be able to speak again. In the words of an animated moose in an altogether different context, "now our consciences are clear and the healing can begin." Except for the conscience bit of course.

Then there was some personal stuff, which need not delay us here, and a bloody awful cold to round it off nicely.

In the meantime, we've had a Nazi on telly, which at least thoroughly vindicated the case for no platform.*

We've had the frankly bizarre idea that a war criminal would be a good symbol of the EU. Not that member nations don't have their fair share of guilt in that regard of course, it's just unusual to use barbarity as your actual mascot. It's all a bit, you know, urgh. Thank the lords that's all over.

We've had the Tories unveil stupid and vicious policies clearly aimed at launching a major assault on the concept of public service itself. Nothing new there of course, but the scale of some plans is quite breathtaking. And they're going to be in power next year apparently.

Then the Mail had it's own Sachsgate, where widespread public outrage caused heads to roll at the highest level, sorry, I mean, the chair of the PCC's ethics committee, Paul Dacre, must have had to make some tough decisions over what action to take in the face of an unprecedented 25,000 complaints. Inaction was almost certainly the right ethical choice to make.

On the upside, there's been some good films out recently, I've got a talk coming up on Marx and Darwin that I hope should be reasonably interesting to anyone somewhat interested, and however debased and ridiculous our political discourse gets** at least there's always Americans.

Now I'm off to watch Generation Kill and listen to the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy.

What?

------------------------------------
*My favourite piece of shameless dishonesty by the way was 'I have not got a conviction for holocaust denial.' Quite right Nick, your conviction is for incitement to racial hatred, which shows you in a much better light.

**I'm thinking particularly of the now legendary HYSer who apparently unironically compared Nick Griffin to Atticus Finch. If there is such a thing as anti-genius, this is surely it.

Nazis on TV? Fuck Off!

Last week we found out that both the BBC and the government feel that it's perfectly acceptable to put Nazis on TV now. There's going to be a protest at the Beeb's Newcastle HQ on the 22nd and we're aiming to make it as big as possible. If you can get there, do. 5.30 Thursday the 22nd October.

And why not come along to this afterwards?

Last Words on Famous Death

I just found this - the Beeb's obit unit produces a sum-up of notable deaths every month. Here's a sample.

Flossie Lane was reputed to be Britain's oldest pub landlord and her Herefordshire hostelry was certainly one of the country's more unusual establishments. The Sun Inn at Leintwardine was one of Britain's last remaining parlour pubs where drink was served in what was effectively Flossie's own front room. Born in the pub in 1914 she took the licence over in the 1930s and remained in charge until her death. The licence only permitted her to sell beer, so no spirits were available, although she did agree to sell wine in her later years to reflect the changing taste of her clients. Jeremy Paxman once described the pub as his discovery of the year. "Flossie, the landlady, sits in the middle of the room, wearing a pair of surgical stockings. The only food is a pot of eggs, which Flossie pickled several moons ago." Flossie, who suffered from agoraphobia, was never known to have left the pub throughout her time there. She was also teetotal.

Among others who died in June were pop superstar and eternal child, Michael Jackson

This is the way obits should be done: I'd much rather read about the death of an agoraphobic pub landlady or a bloke off of the Navy Lark than Jacko who, it must be said, had kind of been quite well-known throughout his life and therefore whose obituary didn't really say much that anyone who was interested didn't already know.

Certainly not enough to merit an 8-page pull-out in the paper of record, anyways.

I'm slightly worried that what with the pull-outs, TV tributes, concerts, Newsnight specials and everything, that Jacko is not 9/11 but rather Pearl Harbor to Diana Spencer's Dunkirk. If we're not careful we could be witnessing the birth of a new Allied Power that declares all-out schmaltzkrieg on reality itself. If Jacko gets canonised I'm leaving this fucking continuum quicker than you can say 'Wesley Crusher'.

BBC Invites Arseholes to Spout Bullshit

Anyone who follows spEak You're bRanes on a regular basis will know that the BBC's Have Your Say site is a refuge for the reality-challenged at the best of times.

The Beeb appear to have decided that it isn't mental enough however, and have posted this invitation beneath their coverage of the BNP's victory:

Did you vote for the BNP? Is this the first time you voted for them? What influenced your decision to vote for the BNP? Tell us your thoughts by filling in the form below.

Stand by to repel wankers, captain!

I can just see the BNP's hardcore voters now, staring at the magic screen in wonder that the Zionist BBC has let them free to bash TEH TROOF ABOUT JOOS N ISLAMS into one of the more prestigious intertubes, trembling with excitement as they hesitantly begin negotiating the seemingly tiny keys on their keyboards* with their fists.

Cheers, Aunty.

*probably made by Marksist gayz to keep out the poor downtrodden whites of this ONCE GRATE CONTRIE

Update: I appear to have been hoist by my own petard, as I've been uploading the vids I make to You Tube so they'll sit properly in the blog column and not spill over the sides like they do if I embed them straight from xtranormal. However, this means that for the first time I've come into contact with YouTube commenters, who if anything make HYS look normal. I can only assume that YouTube is largely comprised of not very bright teenage boys.

Robin Hood: 5 Seconds Inside the Dome

Honestly, check out this week's episode and see if there isn't a scene that is taken EXACTLY from an episode of the Crystle Maze.



(about 6 min in)

(Yes, I know it's bloody awful, but recently I've been desperate for any moving images/sound combination to distract me from the tedium of work.)

Sweet Christ Have You Seen Newsnight Review?

The recession through literature:
Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged (swivel-eyed hate literature for the more mentalist sections of the ruling class)
Vince Cable's Booky Wook (pointless and point-missing 'neutral' analysis of a crisis that makes us all partisans).

What the fuck? Is this really the best choice that Newsnight wants to present us with?

Here's a few alternatives:

The Great Crash, 1929 - JK Galbraith

The Shock Doctrine - Naomi Klein

The Revolutionary Ideas of Karl Marx - Alex Callinicos

The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists - Robert Tressell

The Communist Manifesto - Marx and Engels

Armed Madhouse - Greg Palast

The Fountain at the Centre of the World - Robert Newman

A People's History of the World - Chris Harman

Guns, Germs and Steel - Jared Diamond

And if you must indulge in swivel-eyed cult leaders with a Messiah complex, try this one...
Matthew 19:16-28
Mark 6:24

Maybe someone reads this and would like to put a few recommendations of their own? What would you recommend to help get a grip on this blasted crisis?

BBC's DEC Controversy Just the Latest in a Long Line

According to Dr Suzanne Franks* in a letter to the Graun today,

The BBC did not in fact broadcast an appeal for Palestinian refugees in 1967 and incidentally nor did it broadcast one for Biafran victims the following year.

It seems that the Beeb has a long precedent for ignoring human suffering around the globe - although it's noticeable that the Palestinians keep getting the shitty end of the stick, but that if pressure is kept up long enough, the decision can be changed:

in 1982 ... the BBC turned down and then came under weeks of pressure and finally agreed to a DEC appeal for fighting in El Salvador and then later that year in the Lebanon war

This appears to be a rare event, however. Which only makes it more important to keep up the pressure on the BBC now. As Dr Franks says,

One can hardly make a parallel with Rwanda - since in 1994 it is unimaginable that anyone was concerned to argue the case for editorial balance on behalf of the Hutu militias! Similarly in the appeal for Kurdish victims in 1990 - there was no concern about balancing arguments in favour of a murdering Saddam Hussein.

So if there is a situation with a clear aggressor and total asymmetry between them and their victims the BBC usually changes it's mind or allows the appeal. Clearly then the Gaza appeal should have been broadcast (and given the miserableness of Mark Thompson's defence, I'm assuming he knows it too).

*Director of research, Centre for Journalism, University of Kent, it says.

Rare Foray Into Public Service Broadcasting

Partly I wanted to put up the DEC's film, which makes me a better news source than the BBC:



But also, I wanted to show you the lovely, lovely Tony Benn continuing to be his brilliant self:


By the way - for some sense of grim satisfaction you can check out the pasting Mark Thompson's been getting on his blog here. Really restores your faith in humanity.

Protest the BBC's DEC Decision

5.30 outside BBC North, Barack Road, Newcastle.

Called by Tyneside Stop The War Coalition and Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

I know I'll be there even if all I can do is cough at them. Please join us.

A Sea Change on the BBC?

Having just heard a roundtable on Newsnight in which Jeremy Paxman got a load of Journos together and asked them to give the Beeb a good kicking, I thought it might be worth my spelling out my views on the Beeb at the moment.

Yes, I'm deeply unhappy about the decision not to air the DEC campaign. The decision has been given such ludicrous justifications by the D-G that it is a transparently political decision.

I have also had reservations about the way that the BBC has framed the reporting of the Gaza invasion, not making it clear frequently enough what the wider context of the conflict is or that the Hamas government did not break the ceasefire or any of the other myriad details that spell out just how indefensible Israel's position is.

I also do not like the way that the BBC's reporting of demonstrations, particularly anti-war ones, are consistently underplayed, both in terms of numbers and in terms of portraying protesters in a negative light.

I also think that workers get a raw deal from the Beeb. In situations where there is a strike or imminent job losses, the opinions of workers are either not mentioned or are placed in the context of an inevitable process that they have no power or authority to change.

However.

I also think that the role of the BBC is essential. Reading the Media Guardian section on Mondays is always depressing, because their key correspondents are all in favour of greater market inroads into the Beeb's public service remit - recently calling for privatisation of Radio 1 and 2. Too many sections of the media are, like the rest of the capitalist class, clinging to the monetarist logic of the market even as it collapses all around them. Why? Well one reason is the continuing collapse of old formats like newspapers - as Charlie Brooker pointed out recently, because people are more and more turning elsewhere for their actual news, papers are becoming repositories for comment and opinion.

But this doesn't explain why the BBC is so frequently attacked. The reason for that is good old-fashioned competition. The Beeb provides a public service and is still seen as a largely respectable source of information by the public. But more importantly, it delivers news in areas that the traditional dead-tree press are still trying to get into or have been struggling with: freeview, freesat, DAB, radio and t'interwebs. The Graun's attempts to pitch the marketisation of the Beeb, for example, are probably not unrelated to its ownership of Smooth Radio, Real Radio, Century Radio and Rock Radio. Much of it's coverage in recent months and years has been on the inability of commercial radio to outstrip the Beeb.

Of course, this is only a problem if you think that competition is inherently a good thing. I don't. The only important issue is whether or not a good public service is on offer. Whilst I would ideally [in my socialist utopia full of flowers and bunnies and liquid happiness] see a more bottom-up approach to the Beeb, decentralised and democratic especially for local affairs, for example, commercial radio suffers from the same problem that all private media have: their audience is not who they have to appeal to. Their paymasters are advertisers and audiences are the goods they sell. Consequently they do not operate in the public interest.

The BBC's paymasters however, are you and me, the great comrades that are the British public. That's why everyone who dribbles onto Have Your Say seems to think they own the BBC: we do. This is why I despair when people complain that the BBC puts on a show they don't like - the logical corollary of the following propositions:
(1) The BBC is there to deliver to the whole population of the UK
(2) It'd be a dull world if we all thought the same wouldn't it?*

is
(3) Not everyone is going to like everything that the BBC makes.

So I have no truck with the deeply suspect 'moral'** hysteria that occasionally sweeps through the dead-tree media and is reflected on our tellies. I have very specific objections to certain aspects of the Beeb's coverage of current affairs because it reflects the way that everyone thinks and feels about the world around them. But I don't want Songs of Praise taken off just because I'm an atheist. I know, it's an obvious line of reasoning, but when you're surrounded by this latest maelstrom and you hear newsreaders conflating the recent mercenary 'moral' panics with this issue I think it bears pointing out. And I'm sure I'm not alone in holding this or similar opinions, and I don't think it does anyone any favours to reduce this specific piece of poor decision making on the DEC issue to 'why can't the BBC do anything right?'

The BBC frequently does things right. Most of the time, in fact. It's science coverage, for example, is rarely anything like as ropey as the Sunday Times' or the Mail's. It produces a variety of programmes that appeal to lots of different people. Sometimes they even produce programmes that appeal to almost everyone except determined miserabilists who need to get out more (you know the show I mean). Sometimes it works better than others (Two Pints, for example). I really don't think there's some kind of breakdown occurring at the Beeb, rather that it is being put under pressure for all the reasons mentioned above. The DEC issue is to my mind a very specific case where it has made a seriously wrong decision and I have absolutely no problem with going to them tomorrow in person and with as many comrades as can be rounded up to tell them so.

But to conflate this with the I'm-Now-So-Old-My-Pussy-Is-Haunted-Gate Scandals is just ludicrous.

Ooh I feel better for that.

*Thanks Nan, I knew your wisdom would come in handy one of these days.
**If swearing is a moral issue at all. Which it clearly fucking isn't.

Mark Thompson Contracts Incomprehensibility, Absurdity

Just listening to Mark's flannelling and flailing on Today (that makes this liveblogging doesn't it? Oh, I'm so Web 2.0).

Highlight so far: the bit where he claims that the Beeb is helping the DEC campaign by covering the controversy. Would you like a helping of condescension with your hypocrisy sir?

Although that is being rapidly overtaken by his desperate attempts to avoid calling his audience too stupid to understand the difference between the news and an appeal.

Coming third is probably the bit where he says that the appeal will 'inevitably promote one perspective on the conflict' even though he has admitted that 'there is a great deal of suffering in Gaza'. What other perspective can he possibly be talking about?

All of the above easily outclass the bit where he says the Beeb can't be seen to endorse an appeal to help in a situation which is 'political with humanitarian consequences'. I guess the Beeb would never have broadcast an appeal over Darfur or the DRC then.

Absolutely Brilliant

Stop the War have occupied the Beeb's Scottish HQ.

Bravo! Just, bravo. Direct action we can all be proud of.

Over 150 supporters of Scottish Stop the War Coalition and Palestinian groups have occupied the BBC headquarters in Glasgow. They say they will not end their occupation until the BBC has reversed its decision not to broadcast an emergency aid appeal for Gaza. The protesters are demanding to meet with a senior representative of the BBC.

Edit:
In an unforgivable breach of blogiquette, I did not give a hat-tip to Lenin. Sorry.

Update:
Intriguingly the Beeb isn't covering this, and nor is the Graun, but Sky is. Wonder why? After all, Sky aren't showing the DEC's campaign either...

Update Updated:
Switching to Sky News to see what's what, I saw Samantha Morton make a very strong and unexpected statement. Apparently, during Children in Need, Lenny Henry made a funny joke. This is pretty unprecedented, as anyone who's seen his Premier Travel Inn adverts will know. Or of course, anyone who's seen him in anything ever. Chef, anyone?

Samantha also said something about not working for the Beeb ever again unless they changed their minds, but I wasn't really paying attention after that bombshell, as you can imagine.

Updated Update Updated:
I take it all back - it was mentioned in passing at 6:35 am on the Today show...

Just in Case Anyone's Missed This - Beeb and DEC

I know I'm well behind the curve here, as you can get the story from any of these excellent news nodes:
Socialist Unity
Septicisle
Enemies of Reason
Lenin's Tomb
Beau Bo d'Or
Stop the War
Tony Benn
and of course weirdly, the BBC.

Anyway, for anyone who did miss - this apart from wondering where you've been living, in a chinese pipe? - here's roughly what's happened:

Palestinians who've had their hospitals, schools, universities and UN aid buildings reduced to rubble, who've suffered the loss of 1,400 of their fellow countrymen, women and children and trying to treat 5,400 wounded. People who've seen their medical workers attacked. People who in their hundreds of thousands have no access to drinking water and food, and most of whom do not have a stable electricity supply, apparently don't constitute 'humans' enough to have their situation called a 'humanitarian crisis'.

The Disasters and Emergency Committee wanted the Beeb to carry adverts launching an appeal for Gaza, and the Beeb said that it wouldn't because it might be seen as biased. The other networks promptly used this as an excuse not to carry it either.

Presumably, in order for the Beeb to carry the ads, Hamas will need to inflict a comparable level of damage on Israel. (Note, comparing population figures for Israel to those in Gaza, I estimate that Hamas would have to kill around 6,500 Israelis and injure 25,000. Current civilian casualties in Israel from Hamas stand at 3. Time to get busy with the rockets I'm afraid, if you want any money for reconstruction!).

It is interesting to note that even the government, who have actually supplied some of the weaponry that made this disaster possible, have criticised the Beeb on this one.

Anyway, please protest to the Beeb about this. 03700 100 222.
Update: or here http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/complaints_stage1.shtml

Update updated:
Here's my polite, almost wheedling complaint...

There is no case to answer over issues of 'balance' - this is about the alleviation of human suffering, pure and simple. Indeed the logical corollary of your alleged concern for balance here would be to encourage a proportionate crisis in Israel, given that you are unwilling to support attempts to help the men, women and children who are suffering in Gaza. The deprivation and kiling of Israelis would be the only way to restore 'balance' here, and as I can't believe that is the BBC's policy, I equally can't believe that the BBC will not throw its weight behind the judgement of 13 humanitarian agencies but stand by whilst people die. Please rectify this situation immediately and reverse your decision.

There are other harmful consequences of this decision. Your reluctance to follow the only honourable course of action in this has given other networks pause and further reduced exposure of the DEC's campaign. This is a wrong decision and I refuse to believe that the BBC's management are not aware of it, especially given Mark Thompson's flannelly response to criticism.

I never thought I would see the day when I sided with the Daily Mail and the other private sector rivals who would see the BBC castrated, but this is ludicrous decision with potentially catastrophic consequences for the Palestinian people and I must repeat: please reconsider your decision.

I want to complain regarding the BBC's refusal to carry the DEC's Gaza campaign. Given the suffering of the people in Gaza (84% of the population have no access to a secure supply of food, for example) and the dire state that the recent Israeli onslaught has left the already fragile infrastructure in the Gaza strip, it is clear that this constitutes a humanitarian crisis of the gravest kind.

Updated Update Updated:
I have now received a meaningless boilerplate from the Beeb. Cheers the Beeb. Oh wait, actually, fuck you.

This Week's Protests

On Wednesday evening there was one outside the local BBC studios about biased coverage - not a bad crowd (although my reliance on the mobile for pictures is a problem in the dark):






Then there was one at Monument yesterday. A sit-down protest was held that was quite good. There was also music - it was quite lively, really.

Local Protest - BBC

Continuing my new blogging theme of all Gaza, all the time, there's a couple of local protests in addition to the one a week Friday against Miliband.

First up, there's a protest against the pro-Israel bias in the Beeb's coverage this Thursday, the 15th. There's been a fair bit of interest from some Newcastle Uni students so it's hoped that we can have a march starting from the campus at 5.00. The main demo will be at 5.30 outside the Beeb's offices.