BBC reports on blogs..including TAE
A busy night tonight, so not much time to talk about it, but Paul Reynolds has done an article about blogs in the UK. The article is interesting, quite reasonable, and both mentions and quotes TAE. Take a look.
26 Comments:
shouldn't you blog be: TAEWIOBTBBC.
...who is obsessed by...
doesn't quite trip off the tongue, but more honest.
Anon: Well someone has to keep an eye on the buggers and its working as evidenced by Paul Reynold's article. You DID read it right?
Greetings from Las Vegas! Major media outlets are in dire need of checks and balances...even the Beeb.
I find that distance and stereotypes go hand-in-hand, so it's merely amusing when I hear an off-kilter portrayal of Americans on BBC World Service. Don't we - when we even acknowledge their existance - do the same when discussing other nations?
These are strange times, indeed. As long as civil communication prevails, though, we have a chance at understanding.
Later...
Anony-mouse, what does it matter to you what one person blogs about? It's a free country (well almost). TAE can blog about whatever he jolly well chooses!
Scott, I just got on here at 8 PM EST (before CSI goes on) and saw from Biased BBC that they and you were mentioned, on the BBC's site no less!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/4696668.stm
Congrats!
Simon Lazarus
"Joobo"
"America is often portrayed as an ignorant, unsophisticated sort of place, full of bible bashers and ruled to a dangerous extent by trashy television, superstition and religious bigotry, a place lacking in respect for evidence based knowledge. I know that is how it is portrayed because I have done my bit to paint that picture..." I dont see why you put this at the top of yr website. It seems that if Justin Webb admits to it then he must have his reasons. The fact is is that we can plainly see for ourselves that America has all of the above. Your East and West Coasts may be different but you lot are so busy buying big ol cars and being rampant consumers with little or no care about polluting the environment and the plight of your fellow men in Africa that you have allowed the greedy corrupt republican party to totally rule your country. You lot allowed Kennedy and MLK to be shot, you allowed lynchings, you had apartheid up until the 60s and still have not redressed the balance. Your foriegn policy has been absolutely scandalous for decades and your media is totally corrupted by its reliance on big business for advertising. You have pulled the wool over your own peoples eyes for so long that they hardly know what goes on in the world. Your ridiculous patriotism and self regard and greed has meant that you are blind to the fact that we live on the same planet and share the same air and are all brothers and sisters. You have done nothing to prevent the mass proliferation of arms amongst your own communities and around the world. You preach violence and consumption. You have got a crazy streak of religious fundamentalism yourselves as evedenced by 'creationalism' and 'natural design' and your military is crap and too gung ho. Your main exports like Macdonalds and Coke are actually polluting the Worlds health too so get a grip. Look inwards before you critise the rest of the World. All of what Justin Webb says is patently obvious to the rest of the World and the fact that there are parts of your country that are different is a moot point. You allow that big mid section of your country to vote in the corrupt republicans time and time again.
Anonymous said 'you allow that big mid section of your country to vote ...'
How dare you? You are rightly rebuked?
blimey...even I don't think they're that bad !
To be frank I knew very little about all the BBC bias before visiting TAE and the biased BBC blogspot besides issues showing from reading new York times in parallel. I have spent a little bit over an hour looking at your entries... so my knowledge about you is rather limited and I cannot yet make a value judgment.
However there is one question lurking in my mind every time I see "revolutionaries" like yourself at work: What is the alternative? What is the less biased comprehensive news source that can be used by people that cannot spend half of their day looking up news online? Chances are that there is no answer to this question. Indeed, maybe beeb is biased one way, but what harm does that do? Would you really advocated full objectivity in cases like reporting on Darfour? Isn't there an ethical standard that makes media reporters be BIASED in order to get a certain point across (that at times may be called "agenda")?
I think you are doing a great service to the BBC, holding your blogspot, by providing them with that hunter-like-cold-breath in the back of their head, that prevents them to become more of a CNN, or a FOX (of course, because those are private, their situation is completely different.)
And finally the biggest question I have: have you considered dropping the revolutionary attitude, that criticizes, without proposing VIABLE alternatives, and embracing a more reformist one, that is consistent with the surrounding reality?
(A couple of days ago, somewhere in the heart of what someone called the chunk of hick-states between the two coasts, I saw a tiny sign: "stop bitching. start a revolution." the ensuing question is, are you sure, your revolution will do any better?)
nate
Nate,
You ask some legitimate questions. I will try to answer them in a post on the main page soon.
SC
O lord,
Lets all thank the BBC for bringing are, attention to the TAE. And give us all the strength to remember that all media has an agenda. And I have seen in person the incompetence, combined with arrogance of the BBC, so please help them with there humility issues. And I have seen them telling politicians what to say and how to say it word for word. So please lord, just give us a better organisation.
Lots of love
Noorali
P.S. loved your work on the sea but it’s a little too salty for me is there something u could do about that?
The person who said the following needs to remember that in the UK we are not that much better.
Anonymous said...
"America is often portrayed as an ignorant, unsophisticated sort of place, full of bible bashers and ruled to a dangerous extent by trashy television, superstition and religious bigotry, a place lacking in respect for evidence based knowledge. I know that is how it is portrayed because I have done my bit to paint that picture..." I dont see why you put this at the top of yr website. It seems that if Justin Webb admits to it then he must have his reasons. The fact is is that we can plainly see for ourselves that America has all of the above. Your East and West Coasts may be different but you lot are so busy buying big ol cars and being rampant consumers with little or no care about polluting the environment and the plight of your fellow men in Africa that you have allowed the greedy corrupt republican party to totally rule your country. You lot allowed Kennedy and MLK to be shot, you allowed lynchings, you had apartheid up until the 60s and still have not redressed the balance. Your foriegn policy has been absolutely scandalous for decades and your media is totally corrupted by its reliance on big business for advertising. You have pulled the wool over your own peoples eyes for so long that they hardly know what goes on in the world. Your ridiculous patriotism and self regard and greed has meant that you are blind to the fact that we live on the same planet and share the same air and are all brothers and sisters. You have done nothing to prevent the mass proliferation of arms amongst your own communities and around the world. You preach violence and consumption. You have got a crazy streak of religious fundamentalism yourselves as evedenced by 'creationalism' and 'natural design' and your military is crap and too gung ho. Your main exports like Macdonalds and Coke are actually polluting the Worlds health too so get a grip. Look inwards before you critise the rest of the World. All of what Justin Webb says is patently obvious to the rest of the World and the fact that there are parts of your country that are different is a moot point. You allow that big mid section of your country to vote in the corrupt republicans time and time again.
You allow that big mid section of your country to vote in the corrupt republicans time and time again
Marvellous but who is 'anonymous'?
2-1 on: John Kerry/Al Gore
Evens: Ted Kennedy
3-1: Barbara Boxer
6-1 Cindy Sheehan/Harry Reid
You're so widely read nowadays Scott.:)
Quick follow up...
The last sentence in the Reynolds article reads...
The MSM should concentrate on what it can do - explain, analyze and verify.
I read a Jeremy Bowen interview with the Hamas leader yesterday. While the aticle itself was not particularly noteworthy it did start me wondering how many permanent or fly-in journalists the BBC bave covering the M.E.
Not long after another thought came by which was of that number how many are fluent in Arabic and Hebrew?
While not envisaging a deep cover journo operating in the heart of Gaza City which admittedly would carry some risk even for a BBC journo, I did rather wonder quite how much background needs to go through an interpreter - newspapers, Arabic radio/TV stations, wall posters etc and the Israeli equivalent before the BBC man or woman is able to see it in a form feasible for them to explain, analyze and verify.
If I get a reply from the BBC on the number of fluent correspondents I'll let you know.
I never thought I would write a sentence like this but ... if you hate it so much here, why don't you go home?
I am a Brit who loves America, has close American friends and finds Americans among the most sophisticated and intelligent people I have met. And I am also aware that MANY patriotic Americans do not themselves admire the Bush government.
Furthermore, I have lived in several countries in my lifetime and have always tried to understand the cultures I have found myself in and to treat my host country with some respect. May I suggest you might be happier and less obsessed if you tried this?
Or am I just being another "snooty European?"
You're not being a 'snooty European' but just rather silly. If, as you seem to be suggesting, that it's only possible that Brits may criticize the BBC then as a Brit, I gave up on the service they provide ages ago due to the inaccuracies, bias and distortions; a whole web community has sprung up looking at such errors. TAE, USS Neverdock, Biased BBC, formerly Last Night's 10 o'clock news etc. have all emerged as a response to irritation at what is meant to be an impartial service.
Anna,
Must someone like the BBC in order to like living in Britain? I hope not. I've lived here for 7 years and I very much enjoy my life in the UK (as I say in profile). But I do have a problem with the BBC, both philosophically (the fact that it is financed by the government) and practically (it's biased coverage, particularly with regard to America).
It is wrong to conflate criticism of the BBC with criticism of British life.
SC
Why is the BBC being financed by the government/taxpayer any more problematical than CNBC by General Electric etc ?
Again, poll after poll shows the BBC to be enormously popular amongst those who pay: the British.
speaking of biased.......
"both philosophically (the fact that it is financed by the government)"
Scott - you are a banker right?
Anon 1 -
When GE finances CNBC, no one is being forced by law to do it. You don't like what CNBC says and don't want to support it? Dump your shares and get out.
When the government taxes people to fund the BBC, people have no choice. You don't like what the BBC says and don't want to support it? Too bad. Live with it.
That is the difference.
SC
Anon 2 -
Not sure what you find to be biased. It is a fact that, unlike any other news/entertainment provider, the BBC is funded by force of law.
Yes, I am a banker.
SC
"Dump your shares and get out."
Not everyone is a broker, move outside your social circle a bit Scott.
There is no perfect news organisation, on the grounds that the owners will always want to influence; however the BBC has a history of challenging the incumbent British government, and that is a GOOD THING.
Show me one US news organisation who had the balls to challenge Bush on WMD before his ratings began to slide. None. It was all bloggers and overseas papers.
GE, Sony, Fox et al will NEVER be contrarian, and I'm sure you know that.
Anon 2 here
Scott - I'm taking a guess that you are perhaps an investment banker? Any chance that you could tell me who GE's biggest client is?
Anon -
It has nothing to do with my social circle (most of which thinks the BBC is just peachy, BTW) or the notion of a "perfect" news organization. Nor does it have anything to do with the BBC's history of challenging the government.
As I said at the beginning, my objection is a philosophical one. The government has no business forcing people to finance a particular news organization, particularly when a) there are plenty of sources of news without doing so and b) the one they choose to force people to finance promotes particular political agendas (which is pretty much inevitable.)
SC
Anon 2 -
Why does it matter?
SC
The British love the BBC, so do many many other countries. Way better than anything the USA has to offer,I suggest sorting out your own mess before attacking the great great BBC.
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