Posted on 01/09/2005 9:44:17 PM PST by quidnunc
-snip-
Last week we were subjected to one of the most extraordinary examples of one-sided news management of modern times, as most of our media, led by the BBC, studiously ignored what was by far the most effective and dramatic response to Asia's tsunami disaster. A mighty task force of more than 20 US Navy ships, led by a vast nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the Abraham Lincoln, and equipped with nearly 90 helicopters, landing craft and hovercraft, were carrying out a round-the-clock relief operation, providing food, water and medical supplies to hundreds of thousands of survivors.
The BBC went out of its way not to report this. Only when one BBC reporter, Ben Brown, hitched a lift from one of the Abraham Lincoln's Sea Hawk helicopters to report from the Sumatran coast was there the faintest hint of the part that the Americans, aided by the Australian navy, were playing.
Instead the BBC's coverage was dominated by the self-important vapourings of a stream of politicians, led by the UN's Kofi Annan; the EU's "three-minute silence"; the public's amazing response to fund-raising appeals; and a Unicef-inspired scare story about orphaned children being targeted by sex traffickers. The overall effect was to turn the whole drama into a heart-tugging soap opera.
The real story of the week should thus have been the startling contrast between the impotence of the international organisations, the UN and the EU, and the remarkable efficiency of the US and Australian military on the ground. Here and there, news organisations have tried to report this, such as the Frankfurter Allgemeine in Germany, and even the China News Agency, not to mention various weblogs, such as the wonderfully outspoken Diplomad, run undercover by members of the US State Department, and our own www.eureferendum.blogspot.com. But when even Communist China's news agency tells us more about what is really going on than the BBC, we see just how strange the world has become.
One real lesson of this disaster, as of others before, is that all the international aid in the world is worthless unless one has the hardware and organisational know-how to deliver it. That is what the US and Australia have been showing, as the UN and the EU are powerless to do. But because, to the BBC, it is a case of "UN and EU good, US and military bad", the story is suppressed. The BBC's performance has become a national scandal.
-snip-
Of course, some media organisations supported the war in Iraq. But the anti-war mindset quickly came to dominate the debate, in my view largely because of the BBC, whose influence over the country — particularly over conservatively-minded people who tend to regard the Beeb as their secular church-cannot be over-estimated. The nature of that influence could be gauged very early on by the reaction during the war of the crew of the flagship Royal Navy carrier Ark Royal, whose crew turned off the BBC because of its relentless defeatism and negatively skewed reporting — which was so outrageous it even drew a protest from its own correspondent in the war zone.
(Melanie Phillips in Melanie Phillips Diary, December 27, 2004)
http://www.melaniephillips.com/articles/archives/limmud%20media.pdf
BBC = NPR
It looks like the BBC is to London what the CBS is to New York.
Liberal media types are the same the world over.
Except that BBC, unlike CBS, is financed with tax dollars.
Typical UK one-ups manship. It's all "Hate the Dear old USA" Id'n it Dearie? And if its the opinion of everyone, then ain't that Ducky Luv's?
If the Euros, including the Brits, are supposed to be so damn well educated, to the degree that they run rings around us red-neck Americans in academic performance tests, then why are they all so gullible and perpetually swallow all of the leftist bulls**t spewed out by their biased media so completely?
That is the question of the week! I agree. It is apparent a vast number of people worldwide do not possess critical thinking skills. For many on the left Government is their God and the liberal medial is the high Priest, spreading the evil lies of the left. The left is purely evil and possessed with absolute hatred of capitalism and individualism. The worship at the alter of government. I truly HATE them and wish they would all meet a horrible demise. They truly do the work of SATAN on earth. They are blind to God and reality.
bowzer 313, I'll tell you why (include Canada in this too)
I spend a lot of time on the continent...in Germanic speaking countries, and as I tell the natives, they should consolidate their press into one giant Pravda. It's not news, it's propaganda.
They don't have talk radio and there is little activity on the www. so they end up with an ignorant public. They spout the same cliches like a bunch of drones.
To espouse the conservative view is to be looked upon as a nut, but I enjoy ripping their premises to shreads, for which they are totally unprepared.
When you can't form an argument, because you've only heard one side of the story, it would be social suicide to challenge conventional propaganda. Better to sing with the choir. It's the psychology of the group at work.
'Don't mention the navy' is the BBC's line
Last week we were subjected to one of the most extraordinary examples of one-sided news management of modern times, as most of our media, led by the BBC, studiously ignored what was by far the most effective and dramatic response to Asia's tsunami disaster. A mighty task force of more than 20 US Navy ships, led by a vast nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the Abraham Lincoln, and equipped with nearly 90 helicopters, landing craft and hovercraft, were carrying out a round-the-clock relief operation, providing food, water and medical supplies to hundreds of thousands of survivors.
The BBC went out of its way not to report this. Only when one BBC reporter, Ben Brown, hitched a lift from one of the Abraham Lincoln's Sea Hawk helicopters to report from the Sumatran coast was there the faintest hint of the part that the Americans, aided by the Australian navy, were playing.
Instead the BBC's coverage was dominated by the self-important vapourings of a stream of politicians, led by the UN's Kofi Annan; the EU's "three-minute silence"; the public's amazing response to fund-raising appeals; and a Unicef-inspired scare story about orphaned children being targeted by sex traffickers. The overall effect was to turn the whole drama into a heart-tugging soap opera.
The real story of the week should thus have been the startling contrast between the impotence of the international organisations, the UN and the EU, and the remarkable efficiency of the US and Australian military on the ground. Here and there, news organisations have tried to report this, such as the Frankfurter Allgemeine in Germany, and even the China News Agency, not to mention various weblogs, such as the wonderfully outspoken Diplomad, run undercover by members of the US State Department, and our own www.eureferendum.blogspot.com. But when even Communist China's news agency tells us more about what is really going on than the BBC, we see just how strange the world has become.
One real lesson of this disaster, as of others before, is that all the international aid in the world is worthless unless one has the hardware and organisational know-how to deliver it. That is what the US and Australia have been showing, as the UN and the EU are powerless to do. But because, to the BBC, it is a case of "UN and EU good, US and military bad", the story is suppressed. The BBC's performance has become a national scandal.
Not quite. More like BBC = NPR + CBS's viewership.
Do I hear an "Amen, Brother"? No?
I'm not sure about the tax dollars - dollars are not the unit of currency in Britain - but every television set in Britain must pay a licensing fee of £121.00 annually. The government drives in vans with electronic detection equipment to find TV sets owners that haven't paid the fee. Over 1,000 unauthorized TV set are found every day. The penalty for failure to pay the fee is prosecution and a £1,000 fine.
Imagine jack-booted FCC thugs kicking in your door and demanding money for PBS, and you get the picture.
I can hardly believe what you've posted there, but I believe you're telling the truth.
Now that's gonna leave a mark.
That's cool. Folks tell me that all the time.
Here are a few more links about the Orwellian TV licensing fee system in Britain -
same thing in Norway.
I hear you have to wait six months to get a tooth filled, too. I guess I won't gripe the next time I have to fill a parking meter.
...and Germany.
I'm liking my First Amendment more and more...
When my parents were stationed in England a few decades ago, radios were taxed. In France, around the same time, windows were taxed.
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