Our uneven handed BBC!

I complained to the BBC about their interview on the Andrew Marr programme. This is the reply I received. I am not in the least surprised.

Dear Mr Garrard 

Many thanks for getting in touch about The Andrew Marr Show broadcast on Sunday 13 November 2016.

The programme had several prominent items to reflect Remembrance Sunday, as well as an interview with the leader of France’s Front National party, Marine Le Pen MEP.

Andrew acknowledged beforehand that some viewers may have found the timing or content distasteful, but he also fully explained the context and rationale for the interview with Ms Le Pen as follows:

"Now, today we are remembering the fallen, particularly of two World Wars, and we are doing so in a context of a world which feels particularly unstable, even dangerous. Our greatest ally - the United States - has been going through great political change, but what of our other great wartime ally, France? 

Since Donald Trump's victory, anything seems possible, and in France they're asking whether Marine Le Pen - the highly controversial leader of the right wing, nationalistic French National Front - will become their next President. She's polling strongly - at least 6 million voters so far - and most predict that she will reach the final round this spring. Now, if she won that would be a huge and significant moment for Europe - Marine Le Pen is hostile to Brussels, she's against NATO, she's against free trade, and she's a vehement supporter of Russia's Vladimir Putin.

Now, I know this morning some people are offended and upset that I have been to interview Marine Le Pen, and that we are showing this interview on Remembrance Sunday. I understand that, but I would say this: Le Pen could - under some circumstances - become the next French President in the spring. This week in the immediate aftermath of the Trump victory, she's declared that the whole world has changed and that her brand of politics is on the march. What does that mean?

In the end, we are a news programme and I don't think the best way to honour the fallen is to fail to report on the next big challenge to western security..."

Many thanks once again for taking the time to get in touch. We acknowledge your personal views on the interview and its timing, but we hope our reply helps to clarify our approach and why we felt it important to hear from Marine Le Pen MEP here. 

Kind Regards

BBC Complaints Team
www.bbc.co.uk/complaints

I think what really grieves me is that they give a disproportional amount of airtime to minority extreme right wing groups, and, never to extreme left wing groups. The BBC is biased heavily towards the right and as a consequence a morally bankrupt organisation.

And here’s the news

I happen to think all life is sacred. And, even though it is a word that has its origins in the religious I don’t mean sacred in a religious way. I just believe life to be the most important thing. In fact really it is the only thing!

Unfortunately as far as the gospel according to the British news media is concerned there are British lives and then there are the lives of Johnny foreigner; the former taking president over the latter. It never fails to irritate me how our media reports the loss of life in wars and other disasters. X amount of Britons dying will be conveyed in suitably sombre and sympathetic tones. Any death of those from other nationalities will be delivered almost off the cuff and in a very matter of fact way.

I’ve no doubt that the same happens in other countries.

But isn’t that wrong?

Anti-American sentiment

The occasional visitor to my blog might be forgiven for thinking that my odd rantettes about American language mean that I’m in some way anti-American. I would like to emphatically state that I am most certainly not!  

For the record:

• I work for an American owned company
• I have nothing against American people
• I’m not against American culture – I listen to American music. I watch American films and sometimes American television programmes. I like an amount of American art.

What I don’t like is American imperialism both political and cultural. It’s their arrogance in thinking that their language, culture and beliefs are über alles. That infuriates me. It’s an arrogance born out of insularity. Unfortunately the impact that American cultural imperialism has over here is amplified by stupid British people, who use Americanisms because they don’t know any better, or worse still because they think that it is somehow fashionable or clever. And, it’s a situation made even worse by what was and still should be the bastion of British culture and language, Auntie Beeb. Sadly the BBC seems to love Americanisms. As a consequence we are doomed!

Stewart Lee to guest edit R4's Today tomorrow

Just a reminder that the clever, astute and very funny comedian Stewart Lee is to guest edit the Today Programme on New Year’s Eve.

Stewart Lee chats to Oliver Cromwell

Stewart Lee chats to Oliver Cromwell about Christmas:

The man who temporarily freed us from the tyranny of monarchy would have been horrified at what Christmas has become. He would no doubt also have been horrified at our stupidity in retaining a monarchy.

"Comedian Stewart Lee, who will be guest editing the Today programme on New Year's Eve, brought puritan Oliver Cromwell back to life to find out whether he is as disproving of modern Christmas shopping as he was when he was Lord Protector."

The knob Clarkson

We must thank Jeremy Clarkson. Not for his utterances but for awakening the spirit of right-minded people. Thousands complained to the BBC and Twitter went ballistic. This has to be good. The left need to learn from this. To win the hearts and minds of the majority we need to convey our reasoned arguments via every means possible, and in great numbers. We need to speak to the masses as if as one voice.

Knocking the BBC

I don’t like knocking the BBC. It’s something that those on the right are very accomplished at in their uniquely subversive, sinister and destructive way. In my opinion the BBC tries very hard to remain impartial. But I do think that they sensationalise and trivialise the news in a way that lowers standards to a form of LCD* that smacks of blatant dumbing down. They also act as unwitting pawns in the war of oppression waged by the wealthy.

The BBC trivialises

Game shows and reality TV programmes are not news. If you want to know what news is I suggest you watch Al Jazeera. Local news mainly seems to focus on ‘how can we put a local angle on national or international news however tenuous the link?’ or ‘human interest’ stories which are of absolutely no interest to normal human beings.

The BBC sensationalises

I’m going to use this definition of ‘sensationalism’: describes the act of foregoing accuracy or dignity in order to capture headlines or public attention.

It is often quite subtle but the BBC is sensationalist. Instead of just challenging they will use ridiculous angles that are not really there or are straight from the black propaganda machine of the Tory press. Please BBC, challenge in an intelligent way; a way that sticks with facts rather than emotions, a way in which you have thought about how you challenge, rather than taking the easy/lazy option. Please stop treating us like children.

 

*lowest common denominator

Stewart Lee to guest edit R4's Today

It would seem that the clever, astute and very funny comedian Stewart Lee is to guest edit the Today Programme on New Year’s Eve; a date for your diaries folks.

English and Americanisms

I don’t have a lot of time for nationalists or patriots. They are indeed scoundrels. I’m not even sure I subscribe to the notion of land ownership or territory. Obviously in terms of governance a defined area or jurisdiction is pretty essential but I do think that the majority of people who reside in these islands are far too hung up on national identity. I suppose I consider myself English. I have a great love of the English language (despite my often poor use of it as this blog testifies) and our culture, even though in reality both are so nebulous that they prove near impossible to quantify. But that is the great thing about Englishness it doesn’t really exist. English people and their culture is a dynamic cocktail, an ever changing melting pot of culture and ethnicity. This is not a new phenomena, it’s been like that for centuries, if not millennia. There can never be a pure pedigree English person, it is a genetic impossibility. There is no measurement of Englishness. Over the centuries the land mass known as England has been populated by people from across the world. With them has come language and culture which we’ve absorbed. England’s motto should be ‘adopt, adapt and improve’ and I think that’s what makes this such a good place to live. We are not rigid; we are open to new ideas. This helps us to prosper both financially and culturally. Being open minded and accommodating has brought us tremendous benefits over the years. I hope we never lose it. In evolutionary terms the key to survival is to constantly widen the gene pool.

I like Americans, I like aspects of their culture and I’ve very much enjoyed the small amount of the USA that I’ve seen. I don’t much care for their foreign policy, their cultural imperialism, their gun-control laws, the way they treat many of their citizens at the lower end of the economic scale and the fact that they still have the death penalty is totally despicable. I work for an American owned company, who as capitalist organisations go is an okay employer. My American colleagues tend to be very nice people if not always worldly-wise, and so very few of them seem to have passports. Many have trouble accepting that we (in the UK) don’t celebrate Thanksgiving or have the 4th of July off. I know it’s wrong to make generalisations but much of the time Americans are very culturally insular. Why is it that when books, films, records etc travel from the UK to the USA deference to their version of English needs to be observed but when the traffic is in the other direction it doesn’t matter a jot. It is presumed that American-English will do. I think that it is the pure arrogance of it that irritates me. The attitude that their ways are right and everybody else’s ways are wrong. This BBC News article about how Americanisms (is that an Americanism?) irritate many of us was quite interesting. With plenty I could identify with. I’m sure there are very many reasons why Americanisms irritate so many of us. Some of it will be misguided nationalism, some of it will be racist, and some will believe that anything other than the fictitious ‘Queens English’ is a travesty, but as far as I’m concerned it’s about reducing our capacity to communicate. I have already acknowledged that English is forever evolving. I like the fact that we have regional language differences as well as the international differences (which include African, Antipodean, Canadian and US - apologies for those I’ve missed out). It makes for interesting listening and reading when we have all these variations. What really concerns me is that instead of absorbing new words from various sources we just adopt American-English wholesale, so that we end up with one homogenised language. A language based on inaccuracies. After all American-English does have the tendency to be rather Neanderthal, relying as it does on the lowest common denominator approach. If it works for them that’s fine, but I think it’s very lazy when the English adopt these neo-words and phrases. My fear is that if the change from English to American carries on exponentially we will end up just grunting at each other in a return to our prehistoric past. Some people have commented on Twitter in a rather pompous fashion that they think it’s rude of us to be irritated by Americanisms. Others just don’t understand what the fuss is about and that we should just embrace their language like ‘loving Big Brother’. I fear these sorts of people are quite shallow and really haven’t thought things through. Having vented my spleen I do accept that inevitably we will end up all speaking American-English but that’s no reason to give in quietly. The longer we can retain at least a modicum of sophistication in our language the more enjoyable life will be.

Going back to the BBC article, two Americanisms that really irritate are ‘can I get’ and ‘9/11’. This is because their technical inaccuracies offend my pedantry. I’ve ranted about ‘can I get’ before so I won’t repeat myself. I feel a rant coming on about ‘9/11’ so watch this space.

The video everyone is talking about

A jewel to protect

All sorts of people are getting very excited over the BNP being invited onto Question Time by the BBC, and unnecessarily so in my opinion. I feel so lucky that I am able to blog. Okay what I write could usually be considered to be a load of old rubbish, but at least there is nobody telling me what rubbish I can or can’t write. As long as it’s not libellous etc. etc. my blogging is censorship free.

I value that freedom, as do I value the freedom to vote. This is why I don’t agree with those that think that the BNP should not be on the telly tonight. I abhor the BNP. They are scum. But denying them access to the media, when they have legitimately won elections is tantamount to fascism. Ban the BNP and you are no better than they are!

The whole point of democracy is reasoned argument. If you lose sight of that and just want to shout someone down because you don’t agree with them then you are on a slippery slope. Only morons vote for them, but in a democracy everyone gets the vote, even morons.

I’m not sure I can be arsed to stay up and watch Question Time tonight, but if Nick Griffin’s appearance give the left a bit of focus, and galvanises them into delivering a more coherent message, then it has to be good.

Discuss.

Gordon isn't a moron

Seeing Gordon Brown on the Andrew Marr show this morning made me realise what an asset we have in our prime minister. I didn't much care necessarily for many of the policies of Tony Blair and I certainly didn't care for the spin or the celebrity persona, but I do thank him for delivering us from conservative immorality and government. I feel much happier that we have someone who's strong and unflappable like Gordon running the country now. He came across very well this morning as someone is determined to do the right thing and to continue with socially just policies. He’s not flash, he’s not smarmy, and he cares about this country and all the people that live here. I think this last week has proven that the current economic problems are not of his making, but with him at the helm I firmly believe that we are better placed to come out of this with less pain than if the Tories were in charge. I lived under too many Tory administrations where they just piss away the economy, give loads of dosh to their cronies, and make the working people that suffer. We don’t need the return of spin; we have a good prime minister, let’s not desert him now!

Badly mismanaged

Over the last week I’ve heard the phrase ‘badly mismanaged’ used twice on the BBC. Once on Radio 4 of all places, and once on the East Anglian news programme Look East. Standards continue to fall at Auntie!

If something is well managed then it could be said to have been ‘badly mismanaged’. I don’t think that this is what each reporter meant to say on either occasion. What they should have said was either ‘mismanaged’ or ‘badly managed’.

It is little wonder that western civilisation is going down the proverbial plug hole when standards at the Beeb are slipping like this!