So I work five days a week, one of my days off is spent doing whatever I like. Yesterday I built a flat pack sideboard with drawers and everything! My second day off is spent planning a snarky post, analysing something I disagree with. I don’t have to look very far, to be honest I usually have a dozen posts from UKIP, BNP or EDL’s website to pick from.
Today I’m picking up on the latest post on the EDL, posted Sunday the 26th October 2014 at 7pm. About a headline from 2005 that suits their agenda this week.
On their website the date is blurred for no apparent reason however I have found the non censored original version of that picture:
Let’s take a good look at exactly what the article was saying. I have had difficulty finding the complete original article as it is almost ten years old however the nature of front page articles tends to make all its points in the headline of bold-print first sentence, knowing that most people won’t read past that anyway. So here’s what it was about: The BBC broadcasted an episode of Questions of security in which it was perceived the audience was made up largely of Muslims. This was therefore seen as giving bias to the Muslim community and failing “to offer a balanced view on the danger posed by Islamic extremists”. The BBC bosses “admitted they deliberately set out to give Muslims a louder voice in the debate” according to the article. I did a little research on this episode of QOS and found an article on the BBC’s own website which stated that only 15% of the audience were in fact Muslims, the reason people thought this figure was higher is because there were “Christian, Hindu, Sikh, African Caribbean, English, Irish, Kashmiri and Turkish” people in the audience, but the viewers simply looked at the colour of their skin and assumed they knew their beliefs…a reoccurring theme!
So here is what EDL had to say; now for the sake of time I’m not going to correct grammar. As per usual they will harp back to the First World War to get the patriotic pillocks frightened and angry:
Soon after war broke out in 1914, the British government realised that this new war would have many fronts. One of these fronts was public opinion – without the support of the people there was no way to win the war. This was the beginning of government-funded propaganda and in 1914, according to the records; the government spent £1,444 (about £100,000 by today’s values) on leaflets, posters, speeches and other media to promote their cause. The government, through its Ministry of Information, kept tight control of the press all through the first war, only reluctantly loosening its hold when it was forced to.
Right, they haven’t made a single worthwhile point yet so I have nothing to say yet.
During World War 2,
while the rest of the world was experiencing the questionable talents of Goebbels and Stalin controlling public opinion through direct manipulation of the press, the BBC’s power as a propaganda machine was polished to perfection. It has, for example, been only recently that some of the myths of those years have been exploded such as the myth of the nation binding together in the face of the enemy (while looting after air raids was extremely common and crime flourished).
Back before immigrants ran our country there were riots?!?!?! Really?!?!?! To give credit where it is due that is a new point that you have never admitted to before.
As a form of disclaimer we are about to step into the unpleasant world of media coverage, a complicated machine controlled by faceless people with money as their main priority. To quote a wonderful song “The press prays for whichever headline’s worse” we all know this is true. So always ask yourself what the motivation is behind press coverage, and the subsequent EDL coverage.
Skipping forward a number of years, under ITV and political pressure, the BBC was forced to accept that it was not able to both govern and regulate itself at the same time. The result was the formation of the BBC Trust to:
“… ensure that the BBC gives information about, and increases understanding of, the world through accurate and impartial news … “
Most people would have looked at this and seen it as a positive.
Since those days, unfortunately, BBC bias has become such an acknowledged fact that it is almost surprising when the press make such a fuss when it is publicly exposed. According to a 2013 report:
The 2013 report that the blogger goes on to quote is an article on the Mail Online. The article was prompted by the Lee Rigby murder, and its main point is that the coverage wasn’t anti-Islamic enough.
“it is ‘common practice’ for the BBC to give a platform to multiple pro-immigration spokesmen with no dissenting voices.”
By dissenting voices I’m guessing they mean Nick Griffin or Nigel Farage?
“Between 1997 and 2013, of the hundreds of immigration news reports … in literally just a handful have anti-immigration voices not been outnumbered.”
Can’t they see that is a fair representation of the Britain they adore? Racists are often outnumbered. Also the Lee Rigby murder had nothing to do with immigration, the only reason the fascists latch on to this point is to promote the idea that if no Muslims were allowed in the UK, no mentally unstable people would behead people on the street.
“… [it] ‘downplays’ violence by Islamists while being happy to criticise Christianity and report on the activities of other violent extremists.”
None of these quotes are backed up with examples.
In an BBC Online article on ‘Migrant Myths’ published in 2002, the idea of the ‘scrounging, bogus asylum seeker’ was called a ‘misconception’ and opponents (including the EDL of course) of mass immigration were guilty of ‘racism, political opportunism, misinformation, media mischief-making and sheer cowardice’.
That is because these are facts that can be backed up with evidence.
As the researcher, Ed West, said: “… a feature like this – which presents only one side of the argument – is propaganda.”
To quote Jay Z “That’s the pot calling the kettle sneaky”.
Recalling another of the BBC’s charter statements:
“… [the BBC] Trust must, amongst other things, seek to ensure that the BBC: (a) reflects and strengthens cultural identities … (b) promotes awareness of different cultures and alternative viewpoints, through content that reflects the lives of different people and different communities within the UK. “
This is a great idea, shame it’s not being implemented in any way.
We have a few questions for the BBC. We have seen your coverage of immigrant communities. We have watched your programmes about Islamic religion, history and “culture”, we have watched you justify your EU subsidies by spreading your pro-EU viewpoints … but what about OUR cultural identity? What about OUR viewpoints? What about OUR lives and OUR communities within the UK?
Our cultural identity is represented by overpaid, morally bankrupted footballers. Our viewpoints are blurted out by people like Jeremy Clarkson. Our lives played out as endless sob stories on ‘talent’ shows. Our communities documented in TOWIE.
At a time when the Prime Minister, the Secretary for State and the Secretary for Education are all struggling to identify ‘British values’, we would have thought that the BBC would have jumped at the opportunity to contribute positively to defining what it means to be British. But the BBC are nowhere to be seen. The BBC have let the British down again.
I will name my firstborn ihatemuslims if you can concisely identify British values to me, or what you think they should be. I’ll give £10 to each member of the EDL who can write one A4 page of anything without racist remarks or spelling mistakes.
The BBC lied to us during the World Wars in the interests of protecting us from the enemy. The BBC lied to us all through the Cold War in the interests of protecting us from foreign ideologies. The BBC is lying to us now in the war against Islam, except that now the BBC is protecting the enemy and concealing the foreign ideology that is attempting to destroy us and our way of life.
Just so we’re clear, you’re ok with the first two though?
Before we wind up with heir last pointless quote I would like to say that anyone can apply to be on any show with the broadcasting regulations, and if you feel your far right leaders aren’t getting enough air time take it to the BBC trust. Which I doubt they’ve done, feeling they should be able to skip the queue for some reason. Even if they do all this, and publish the paperwork on their websites for us to view that is still no excuse to blame ethnic minorities, blame the rich white men who control the news.
As the great American writer Mark Twain wrote:
“There are laws to protect the freedom of the press’s speech, but none that are worth anything to protect the people from the press.”
He also wrote this: “The English are mentioned in the Bible. Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth.” So I think you better start acting a bit meeker my dear!
EDL article: http://www.englishdefenceleague.org/bbc-bias/
BBC show article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/newswatch/ifs/hi/newsid_4730000/newsid_4735500/4735515.stm
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