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| Britain |
| Fury at BBC sabotage of Tory speech |
| 2005-04-24 |
| FURIOUS Tory chiefs have accused the BBC of trying to sabotage their election campaign by sending hecklers equipped with microphones to a meeting addressed by Michael Howard. The Conservatives have made an official complaint to the corporation after the hecklers - who were 'miked-up' by corporation technicians - were caught at a party event last week. The Tories accuse the BBC of a "premeditated" attempt to disrupt the meeting and say the corporation should not be involved in creating news. The BBC last night insisted the filming formed part of a programme on the history of heckling, but the revelation threatened to plunge the organisation into its biggest crisis since the David Kelly affair in 2003. The admission that hecklers were equipped with microphones for a programme that will be viewed before polling day on May 5 leaves the BBC open to allegations that staff showed political bias, in breach of corporation regulations. The row is over a local Tory party rally in Horwich, near Bolton, last Wednesday, at which Howard was the main speaker. Party officials became suspicious when they saw BBC cameras focused on hecklers rather than Howard. Checks on the hecklers - two men and a woman - revealed they were carrying hidden microphones. In a letter to Helen Boaden, the BBC's director of news, Guy Black, the Conservatives' director of communications, said that the "placed" hecklers shouted slogans that were "distracting and clearly hostile to the Conservative Party". The slogans included "Michael Howard is a liar", "you can't trust the Tories", and "you can only trust Tony Blair". Black's letter accuses the BBC of organising an event in order to "generate a false news story and dramatise coverage... intended to embarrass or ridicule the Conservative Party". The letter also claimed that people working for the BBC were guilty of "serious misconduct". His letter added: "It is entirely clear to me that the success of their presence required an element of performance on their behalf, and that this was a pre-meditated event intended to disrupt the course of Mr Howard's speech." A BBC insider said: "I can't believe they allowed someone to pull this kind of a stunt. When you think about all the other hoops the rest of us have to jump through in the name of fairness, this is a disgrace. There is going to be hell to pay over this." The BBC has claimed that the exercise was carried out as part of "a completely legitimate programme about the history and art of political heckling". The BBC added that it had "observed" meetings carried out by other political parties, but refused to say whether it had miked-up hecklers for meetings carried out by other parties. It has been claimed that none of Tony Blair's meetings was infiltrated or disrupted in the same way. The BBC's use of surreptitious recording devices is strictly limited by the corporation's rulebook, the Producer Guidelines. They lay down that plans to use hidden microphones must be approved by senior management within the BBC, and that it should only be used "as an investigative tool to explore matters which raise issues of serious anti-social or criminal behaviour". |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #20 RKB: I think there's a distinction. Many intelligent and decent people can be liberals and/or Democrat loyalists. They are only "leftists" to the extent that they are left of dead-center. However, real Leftists are all scum. Anyone who thinks Marx as anything of value to say, anyone uses phrases like "corporate media" or "false conscious" is probably of no value to the human race. |
| Posted by: Jackal 2005-04-24 10:34:48 PM |
| #19 Color me skeptical. Any credible links on this? |
| Posted by: thibaud (aka lex) 2005-04-24 9:44:14 PM |
| #18 Oh 3dc, they would have wished I had killed them. There are things much worse than death. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet 0â Doom 2005-04-24 9:27:48 PM |
| #17 3dc - Are you serious? They left him there to die? Barbaric. These people dare to look up from the sewers at the US and claim they are looking down. |
| Posted by: Laurence of the Rats 2005-04-24 9:27:19 PM |
| #16 In the mid-eightys I did a lot of work in London. On one trip all the Operating Room People (Drs etc..) walked out on strike. One kid was getting an open heart operation and they just let him bleed to death on the table. The Father understood the unions greivences just wished they could have saved his son first. I was stunned! If it had been my son I would have blown the lot of them to hell! If I wasn't able to I would have sold everything to buy hits to do the same. I could not believe what sheep they were. I never heard the BBC mention any murder charges! |
| Posted by: 3dc 2005-04-24 8:57:51 PM |
| #15 Especially considering the British propensity to apologize about everything and nothing in particular. The Tories are not the party of Margaret Thatcher anymore. She saved the UK from socialism, for a while, and joined Reagan to save Europe from the Soviet Union. But she had no worthy heirs. |
| Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) 2005-04-24 7:02:37 PM |
| #14 SPoD may be onto something... If the Brits weren't idiots, how come the Tories are just asking for an -apology-? |
| Posted by: someone 2005-04-24 6:38:49 PM |
| #13 Tony It appears the left is the UK from where I sit. Not one person tries to stop the BBC other than bitch very little about it by appearances. They point out their bad acts, say don't do it again, and move on. Nothing has changed. The whole affair that led to Dr. Kelly's suicide was swept under the rug, made to appear as the government had done something wrong, not the actual fact that the BBC had. The BBC still is holding to this story. The lie is still being repeated to this day, Blair and the intelligence agency are held responsible for the acts of a BBC reporter, who gave up his source, who was apparently a fragile personality (and quite frankly wrong as hell), who killed himself. Most of the UK believes that lie. Millions pour out in the street to protest a just war and do nothing about the lies of the BBC. They agree with them. They are happy to fund the world wide reach of this anti-US propaganda machine. That is my vision of a typical resident of the UK. It could be I am just fed with the constant, daily attacks on my country from the UK media and some UK politicians too. The Labor back benches are against the war on terror and against the USA. The Liberal Democrats are against the WoT and USA. The Tories are very loud against the WoT and the USA right now. The UK justice system will not extradite to the US at all it appears, even when we are dealing with mass murders, because they might get death sentence. If you want to see what I see as the typical view given of the average person in the UK. Please read the US specific comments from the UK. That is my view of the majority of typical UK citizens. Tell me I as a US citizen have no reason to feel as I do? It appears that people in the UK are on a different planet no matter where you turn for news. Here is a quote and it and it's plenty long "Its annual budget is approximately $10 billion (x{20AC}7.5 billion, £5 billion) [1](http://www.circom-regional.org/crdocs/report-regpubTV-2003.pdf), and it rivals that of NASA. It is greater than the gross domestic product of more than half the world's nations and ranks behind the budgets of only the twelve governments of the wealthiest nations on the planet." It's from here. It has to be deduced that the typical UK citizen supports and approves of BBC anti-US stories and ehat is quite franklly a propaganda operation. It's getting good value for it's money as the BBC is relied on world wide for "unbiased news." When was the last time anyone was heard publicly in the UK being taken serious issue with the BBC when they question the classing of murders and cold blooded terrorists as "insurgents and militants." Who in the UK questions the propaganda that is international in reach that is against the war on terror, and against the US? I have had no exposure to any UK web logs to my knowledge. Only the very few folks I see posting here are whom I have seen on the web that actually support the WoT. All the folks I have seen posting otherwise are very negative on my country and the WoT. As far as UK publications I can only visit those that are open to free access. There are not many I have found. I don't even visit the tabloids they are usually factually challenged. Reasoned arguments don't work with the left. This is the typical cycle. Reasonable person gives un-refuted facts. Leftist brings up bullshit, outright lies, obfuscation, partial facts. Assumes superior attitude about their person, ideas and morality. Reasonable person again brings up facts. Leftist brings up bullshit, outright lies, obfuscation, partial facts and starts personal attacks. Attacks all persons who hold Reasonable Persons point of view as sick, criminal and less than human. Expresses superior nature about their person and ideas and morality. Reasonable person brings up facts Leftist brings up bullshit, outright lies, obfuscation, partial facts and starts vicious personal attacks. Expresses superior nature about their person and ideas and morality. Attacks all persons who hold Reasonable Persons point of view as sick, criminal and less than human. Question Reasonable persons mental fitness. Leftist brings in arguments not related to question at hand. Assumes superior attitude about their person, ideas and morality. Reasonable person brings up facts. Wash, rinse, repeat. We may be running out of time for arguments. There is a socio-religious movement out there that wants to wipe out our collective western civilization. Sorry for going on so long and the disjointed nature of my argument but this is a rant and, it is Rantburg. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet 0â Doom 2005-04-24 6:09:36 PM |
| #12 Couldn't agree more, .com, both about the precipice and about the Swifties. And Phil_b, yeah - this is (gulp) a more critical year than most people outside of places like RB realize. |
| Posted by: too true 2005-04-24 5:24:43 PM |
| #11 One thing is perfectly clear: we, the West, are on the precipice. There are sane people who are currently out of power / authority in several Western countries - the UK and Germany being prominent examples. The US was so damned close to doing the same in 2000 and, again, in 2004 that it's breathtaking. Clinton was so self-absorbed in his own libido that he didn't concentrate on the Tranzi job as well as he might have. His 3 major fuckups, there were many others, were to waste the Peace Dividend, damned-near decimate the US Military, and completely drop the ball on terrorism - setting us up for 9/11. All of which are treasonable offenses to my mind. Gore? Kerry? Holy shit! On first blush it's hard to believe it could get worse than Clinton here, but the Moonbats have no bottom - as evidenced by these two cretins and the current congressional leadership of the Dhimmis. As with WW II where we were saved by radar, sonar, Bletchley Park, Enigma, Magic, the 8th AF, the Manhatten Project, and a very few other successes in the uber-critical class, this is now and will remain a close-run thing for a long long time, IMHO. I believe the US is divided in roughly 3 parts: approx 40%-45% solid "I get it" supporters of freedom, 30%-35% utter Looney Leftists, and the swing voters - the 20%-30% who vote their "gut feeling" and require the outting of the wanker LLL candidates. We owe the Swift Boat Vets who exposed Skeery for the fake hero / traitor that he really is a huge debt for their bravery to stand up in the face of the MSM tirades and lies. John O'Neill and his fellow highly-decorated comrades are bona-fide American heroes who stood up, twice, to defend America, IMHO. Ironically, they come from the Vitenam era, an unmitigated failure of US Foreign Policy and a blinding success of the subversion of American youth and a newly suborned and, now, thoroughly discredited media. Crunch time is here - and it seems it will be a continuous state for long after I'm gone. Islamists, Socialists, Tranzis, Scams, ChiComs. Interesting times. Perilous times. Treacherous times. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-04-24 5:20:14 PM |
| #10 Hard decisions tend to get made in bad times. We are heading into a period of (unprecedented) economic turbulence. I anticipate the world will look significantly different in 12 months time. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2005-04-24 5:17:25 PM |
| #9 "Dave - Just imagine how much louder that sound would be, if we tip over." Exactly, which is why I'm not having a good time watching their antics: we're probably next. One metric I sometimes use to gauge how bad I actually "feel" things are, is to imagine what my reaction would be if I were to wake up tomorrow morning to find some Army captain reading the news on CNN and explaining that prominent Leftists in the media, Hollywood, the universities, etc. were being rounded up and put in camps, that everyone should stay calm and go about their normal business, and that the military government would restore civilian control as soon as it was deemed safe to do so, and so forth. What would your reaction be? For most of my life, my own reaction to such a thing would have been sheer, utter horror. Even now, I'd be "alarmed" and "concerned". But I tell ya, things won't have to get a whole lot worse than they are, before my reaction would become, "About fucking time! Where can I volunteer?" "If I'm lucky, I'll die before we tip -- or get to participate in a second civil war that the moonbats start." They've started it. More precisely, they've resumed it: it actually started back in the 60's, but had the gas temporarily let out of it when Nixon resigned and we bugged out of Vietnam. But I'm starting to suspect that it's about to resume. |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2005-04-24 4:36:15 PM |
| #8 SPoD - where are you getting your information from regarding the UK? The BBC? You believe *them*? The tabloids? Mirror? left-wing, low circulation, The Grauniad? ultra-leftist, feel they should run the country and looow circulation, The Independant - it's not. Then we've got The Sun, The Daily Mail and The Daily Express - all royalty, stuff Europe, totally support the troops, send back all asylum seekers and what tattoo has Beckham got this week (ok, that's the Sun). Blogs are a pretty good place to get good info. on the UK though - Samizdata.net for instance. Opinion polls show the Tories as having something like 33% of the vote, and a lot of people are very pissed off at the BBC over this. It looks like the Socialists will win, but it will be a phyrric victory - Blair will be fatally weakened, unable to push through the reforms in the NHS and elsewhere that are sorely needed because the backbenchers in his own party won't let him. The Tories will lick their wounds and come back in 2009-10 with some policies that will mean more to the populace than a few billion in tax cuts (things like a flat-tax for instance). Will I still be here then? Dunno, but there's only so much erosion of civil liberties, EU subversion and Socialist bollox a person can stand. We're a complex country, same as the States, looking at one aspect will show you the moonbat tendency sure, but defining the average citizen of the UK is as elusive as the average American or Frenchman. One thing I've learnt over the last three (four?) years of coming to Rantburg is that there are a lot of people, regardless of what country they come from, who I feel a resonance with. People such as TGA, Fred, .com, OP, JFM, Seafarious, Bulldog and many more. I don't agree with everyone of course - AK and Murat for example...That tells me that the fundamentals are not restricted to the residents of one country, but are found in many different people (I knew that, but it's good to have confirmation). Leftism is found everywhere (unfortunately) - the way to defeat it is with reasoned arguments, not to diss whole countries. |
| Posted by: Tony (UK) 2005-04-24 4:24:09 PM |
| #7 Dave - Just imagine how much louder that sound would be, if we tip over. The 1.5% margin, last time, is a tiny thing when you realize that we're the last bastion against Joe's OWG, which I prefer to call TFI - Total Fucking Insanity. One thing I was never trained in is How To Be Helpless - And Enjoy It - the proper Dhimmi attitude and inaction I guess the Moonbats are teaching our children these days - so this waiting around for the other shoe to drop is uncomfortable as hell. [rant] I know who they are, where they are, and what to do. I'd hate to wait till it's too late. A joke that floated around was that Oscar Wilde's last words were, "Either this wallpaper goes, or I do." Not true, of course, but it illustrates an aspect of my current mindset. I want hardcore action to end the insanity - while it can still be ended. Sorta like the vultures sitting on the branch of a dead tree. One looks over at the other and sez something like, "Fuck this waiting. I want to go out and kill something." I'm at the stage where I want the waiting to end to find out if the insidious internal moonbattery will succeed in undermining our Republic and turning it into a Socialist enclave for the likes of Soros, the BBC, and Nancy Pelosi. I am ready to force the issue, though I am not threatening violence, just action to stem the tide, such as the Senate Nuclear option. Sigh. If I'm lucky, I'll die before we tip -- or get to participate in a second civil war that the moonbats start. Those seem to be my only "positive" options. [/rant] On the lighter side of it, check out this and this at Curmudgeonly & Skeptical, heh, Terpsboy is on a roll. Hell, the entire content today is classic Terpsboy - NSFW, but it's Sunday, so not many are working. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-04-24 3:58:04 PM |
| #6 Agreed. Sad thing is, though, they're not really a whole lot worse over there than we are here. Sometimes I feel we're teetering precariously on the edge which they've just gone over; and I'm not looking forward to hearing that *SPLAT* when they hit bottom. |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2005-04-24 3:27:04 PM |
| #5 As a child of the 1960's I can tell you from first hand observation that the people who drive and lead the left are devoid of morality. Their only worry is about getting caught. If they don't believe they will be caught or, they can deny and obfuscate, they will do anything to further their ends. The communist/socialist world they desire drives every act. This isn't an exception, it's their everyday behavior. It's no surprise that the media here or in the UK is totally infiltrated by this movement or, that it acts the way is does. Think about it, the BBC is where most of the UK and some parts of the world get their news. It's the perfect target of the communist/socialist movement. The ranks of âjournalistsâ and law offices are full of these false fronted underminers of democracy. It's too bad the people of the UK are to timid and spineless to do anything about this. They hardly have the the will to even piss and moan any more, let alone act. What is a laugh is the image of the UK that I get in a strong way from the BBC and other UK publications. That image is that the average citizen of the UK is a passive moonbat or totally detached from reality. The average citizen of the UK finds this kind of activity OK as long as it's the evil Torries who are on the receiving end. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet 0â Doom 2005-04-24 3:22:16 PM |
| #4 "Not everyone on the left buys into ends-justifies-means - Joe Lieberman comes to mind as a counterexample." But people like Lieberman are in awfully short supply these days, far too short for him to serve very well as a counterexample. I used to be a Democrat; until I switched parties a couple years ago, I'd been one for over thirty years. But after seeing the dishonesty, stupidity, insanity, sneakiness and sheer malevolence coming out of that crowd in the last few years, I will never vote for another one of those bastards so long as I live. |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2005-04-24 1:47:46 PM |
| #3 While I understand the sentiment, that's a bit overly broad to be fair, I think. Not everyone on the left buys into ends-justifies-means - Joe Lieberman comes to mind as a counterexample. And of course there's Karl Rove on the right, who did just enough in the way of shady campaign practices earlier on to have provoked outright paranoia in many today. |
| Posted by: rkb 2005-04-24 1:08:57 PM |
| #2 This kind of thing no longer shocks me. They're Leftists. Leftists are inherently dishonest. They lie. They cheat. That's not only what they do, it's who they are. The only part that still burns my cork is knowing that they've been doing it all along, and for the first forty years of my life I was too damn ignorant to realize it. |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2005-04-24 12:54:44 PM |
| #1 Multiple executives at CBS News are kicking themselves, asking "why didn't WE think of this!" |
| Posted by: Steve White 2005-04-24 12:47:08 PM |