BBC Bringing 'Sophisticated' News to America

real clear politics ^ | June 06, 2006 | Gerard Baker

[driftless]

Another source of Brit leftist nonsense is The Economist. I was a subscriber some years back, but it has turned into a leftist advocacy rag from the articles I've perceive on its covers. Every issue I've glanced at for the past five years has stories about the awfulness of Bush and Blair and/or the impending economic collapse of the American economy. The last issue I saw had a picture of a bear with the accompanying question was Wall Street headed for a recession. The fact is that I've haven't seen any semi-optimistic cover stories on their rag for quite some time.

[driftless]

"mysteries...news"

ditto. I skip their "news" entirely. Unfortunately the Beeb also has too much junk programming despite the excellent mysteries and comedies. Why is their programming loaded up with Bargain Hunt or Cash in the Attic? Several times a week is acceptable, but it seems every day is filled with that those two borefests. More Father Ted, Benny Hill, and Midsomer Murders please.

[driftless]

"pretty dispiriting depressing"

Er, not necessarily. My English in-laws are fairly good-natured and optimistic. They do tend to be on the lib side of the political spectrum though. Two in-laws broached the subject of global warming to me without my prompting it. In separate individual instances they started yammering away about the "weird" weather. They apparently believe everything they've read or heard about it from the Beeb and other sources.

[wayne_b24]

yeah, just like pbs, they should stick to real quality programming (full of hilarious, pompous, goober-headed brits!) ... my hero, last of the summer wine, as time goes by, waiting for god (diana trent, my wife's favorite evil genuis), keeping up appearances (oh no, it's the bucket woman!), open all hours, fresh fields (not french!), good neighbors, and the vicar of dibley.

[Jameison]

"Rupert Murdochs news international owns fox and they compete worldwide with the BBC. Obviously RM wants to stop the BBC before it appears on your radar. "

Yes Murdoch's News International owns Fox News, but the point is, the BBC has been on PBS for ages, and hardly anyone watches it.
It's not like the BBC is not here.
Its just so insignificant, that it simply doesn't even appear on any charts of news that I know.

Extract:

"The truth is that during the war many Americans turned away from the BBC. Fox's Zimmerman provided me with authoritative Nielsen stats that show BBC-America's primetime audience falling from 93,000 households in February to 88,000 in March. At the same time, the audience for Fox nearly doubled from 1.7 million to 3.2 million.

Americans weren't the only ones to drift away from the BBC. Krugman Truth Squad member Matthew Hoy reminded us on his blog, Hoystory.com, that the "crew of the British aircraft carrier Ark Royal turned off the BBC and switched to Rupert Murdoch's Sky News." That's right, the same Rupert Murdoch whose News Corporation owns Fox. Hoy continued: "According to a 'senior rating' on the Ark Royal: 'The BBC always takes the Iraqis' side. It reports what they say as gospel but when it comes to us it questions and doubts everything the British and Americans are reporting. A lot of people on board are very unhappy.'" "


Americans can recognize British BS when they see one. We don't need RM to tell us not to watch the British BS Corporation anti-American propaganda trying to pass off as news.

[Jameison]

"No, I mean sophisticated like people who may not like the BBC, but are smart enough to know when Rupert Murdoch has told one of his lackies to put the boot in to further his own empire. "

Nope.
Like I said in my previous post, Americans are smart enough to see anti-American propaganda and BS from the British when they see one.
We don't need anyone to tell us that.
We have eyes and ears.

[Jameison]

Link for previous post:

http://www.nationalreview.com/nrof_luskin/luskin051403.asp

[Jameison]

"They apparently believe everything they've read or heard about it from the Beeb and other sources."

Unfortunately they do.

[Jameison]

"France was by far the major colonizer in Africa, followed by Belgium, Holland and the UK"

France was # 1, yes.
But Holland and Belgium bigger African colonizers than Britain?
I don't think so.
Correct me if I am wrong, but as far as I know, Belgium's colonies in Africa consisted in the main of The Congo/Zaire.
Holland colonized certain parts of Ghana (mainly in the South West), but the British drove them out.

The British on the other hand, had Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Kenya, Uganda , Tanzania, South Africa, etc etc.
British was the # 2 colonizer and # 1 beneficiary (from South Africa's mineral riches) from the colonization of Africa

[Jameison]

"You don't even chew before you swallow Murdochs nonsense do you? Here's a link from an independent investigation of how Fox lied about what Andrew Gilligan said and refused to correct their lies: "

Yeah?
Here's the link about how the BBC and Andrew Giligan, lied, and lied, and kept right on lying about American troops when the Iraq war started.

http://www.nationalreview.com/nr_comment/nr_comment072903.asp

Extract:
"Saturday, April 5: this will be the day most people will remember as the day when the journalistic standards of the World Service committed suicide. The BBC's bad day in Baghdad started early: A column of U.S. soldiers had entered southwestern Baghdad just after daybreak. The soldiers — in tanks and armored personnel carriers — drove through the city for several kilometers encountering only sporadic resistance. Near the university, the column turned left, drove out of the capital and parked at the international airport, which was already securely in American hands. In Qatar, the Coalition command center announced the incursion, saying that elements of the 3rd Infantry had gone into the center of Baghdad. At first, the maneuver was reported as a grab for urban territory. Later, more accurate reports, however, said that it was a demonstration by the U.S. that it could and would enter Baghdad at will.

Cut to: Andrew Gilligan, the BBC's man in downtown Baghdad. "I'm in the center of Baghdad," said a very dubious Gilligan, "and I don't see anything...But then the Americans have a history of making these premature announcements." Gilligan was referring to a military communiqué from Qatar the day before saying the Americans had taken control of most of Baghdad's airport. When that happened, Gilligan had told World Service listeners that he was there, at the airport — but the Americans weren't. Gilligan inferred that the Americans were lying. An hour or two later, a different BBC correspondent pointed out that Gilligan wasn't at the airport, actually. He was nearby — but apparently far enough away that the other correspondent felt it necessary to mention that he didn't really know if Gilligan was around, but that no matter what Gilligan had seen or not seen, the airport was firmly and obviously in American hands.
.............................................................

I turned off the TV, had a cup of coffee with my friend, and returned home. After a half hour or so — call me crazy — I once again tuned into the World Service. By now, I wasn't so much interested in how the war was going. I knew American troops weren't trapped anywhere. But the BBC had trapped itself in a big hole, and I wanted to see how they'd get out of it."

[<1/1,000,000th%]

A few years ago the former boss of the BBC attacked American television news for too slavishly following the government line.

Sounds like they've never seen TV news in the US.

Maybe he said this while Clinton was President.

[NZerFromHK]

This is all perspective. The foreign MSMs are consistently leftist, while the US counterparts fawn on whoever the "fashionable" Democrat of the day supports.

Suppose, Hillary Clinton says she would militarily attack Iran once she goes into the White House. The CNN, New York Slimes, and ABC (US one) will cheer, while the BBC, Le Monde, and Der Spiegel will jeer.

[NZerFromHK]

Who needs the Beeb when it is just the NPR or the CBC without the North American 'twangs'?

[<1/1,000,000th%]

What is HK?

[Lazamataz]

BBC Bringing 'Sophisticated' News to America

They misspelled "Fistikated".

[Canard]

"The British armed forces don't want the BBC broadcasting to their troops in wartime. That tells me all I need to know about which side they're on."

It might do if it were true, but it's not. Actually, the armed forces facilitate the piping of British TV, including BBC channels to forces where possible. You're probably referring to one incident on one naval ship that was reported where the crew had the Sky News feed substituted for the BBC news feed, which was partially in response to a BBC story about an incident involving the ship that the crew felt portrayed them unfairly.

[LexBaird]

Perhaps they meant to say "so Fisk-icated".

[billbears]

Excellent. I only get the BBC for half an hour on BBC America every evening. Just hope my cable provider decides to carry it.