“BBC News is the department of the BBC responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world’s largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output every day, as well as online news coverage at bbc.co.uk/news. The service maintains 44 foreign news bureaux and has correspondents in almost all the world’s 240 countries.” (BBC)
The BBC started broadcasting as the British Broadcasting Company in 1922. Its call sign became ‘London calling’ and London it was with its wealth of colonial wile and the stamp of its military. Reith, the seventh child of a Presbyterian minister, founded it. An Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Cosmo Lang told Reith: ‘Whoever holds your job is, or should be, the most influential man in the country.’ The illusion of democracy provided by the House of Commons and the Cabinet depends greatly on the all pervading influence of the BBC. There follow some examples among the multitude of ways the public mind is kept in ignorance or its prejudice massaged firmly.
Corporate Power: City of London
The most recent hot topic was the attempt of Pfizer to take over AstraZeneca, the British and Swedish pharmaceutical company. £69 billion was offered. The BBC was not alone in avoiding all mention of Pfizer’s recent criminal record and the record fines in the US. (2) It was right the discussion was about the potential loss of jobs and scientific expertise. However, if you were looking at a potential partner for your business this would surely put you off.
Wikipedia “In September 2009, Pfizer pleaded guilty to the illegal marketing of the arthritis drug Bextra for uses unapproved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and agreed to a $2.3 billion settlement, the largest health care fraud settlement at that time.[8] Pfizer also paid the U.S. government $1.3 billion in criminal fines related to the “off-label” marketing of Bextra, the largest monetary penalty ever rendered for any crime.[9] Called a repeat offender, this was Pfizer’s fourth such settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice in the previous ten years.[10][11]
An e-mail to Faisal Islam of C4 asking for this history to be included drew no response. In the amoral world of the media, this was of no importance.
The obscene size of bonuses paid to hundreds of traders etc in the city are described but the context is not. I wrote to the BBC’s Financial Correspondent saying the facts of fractional reserve banking were unknown to a large majority of British citizens. It would be good if he were to explain it. He replied in friendly fashion and said he would. He has not and there was no reply to a reminder. Thus the BBC listener and viewer are fuddled by the arcane stuff around ‘banking’ but the essence of the trickery and their part in funding the banks for this sleight of hand is withheld. The BBC and the other broadcast and print media are complicit in keeping people ignorant of the many swindles.
Ask Joseph Bloggs what the ‘leverage’ was in the city (total assets against total loans and investments – one simple definition) during the bursting of the bubble in 2008, and what it is now. What is leverage Joe asks? (3) Here Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, is saying he wants a ratio of 4%, better than the European Central Banks 3%. What UK tax payers are not told by the BBC and do not know is that the leverage is not different essentially from that existing when the bubble burst in 2008. Although the UK taxpayer bailed out four of these banks with £580 million, they are not made aware that collapse is as likely now as then. The taxpayer is told of the stellar bonuses and anger swells. But the underlying fault, which is fractional reserve banking, is hidden from him by the BBC and the MSM in general. The lumpen must lump it, and swallow the austerity with all social safety nets removed. All is headline ‘news’ and personalities getting in and out of limousines. Get in line! The message is ‘we are all in it together’!
Government Power
Democracy in this sceptred isle is illusory. The power is wielded by hidden hands. The retiring BBC Trust chairman, Lord Patten who was chairman of the Tory party plus much else is one pair. Incestuous structures like the Privy Council advise the Queen. The ‘Atlantic Alliance’, ethnic agglomeration and much else drive the machine, and mostly for war. These elements remain hidden because the BBC and others decide so. Ask the man or woman in the British street about the Privy Council. Few would even know of it but the barbaric ethnic cleansing of the Chagos Islands was twice given the stamp of approval by the archaic and evil Privy Council thus preventing the islanders from returning to their idyllic homeland. That these islands are leased by the UK to the US so that it might bomb around a large radius from Afghanistan to Somalia in projection of PNAC is unknown to many. Again the BBC stands guilty for public ignorance of the latter. The Privy Council is but one fragment of the illusion of British ‘democracy’.
The British public were enjoined to vote in the recent local government and EU elections. The turnout was 34%. The 66% who did not turn out did so from mixtures of inertia, from the knowledge that promises made before election to power were seldom kept and from loathing of the present political gang. The election was ‘won’ by the UK Independence Party, leader Nigel Farage an ex-banker! In spite of vilification of him and some of his loose cannons by the MSM he won out
by speaking in an ordinary and often amusing way. His directness was appealing; the EU project is dead he said. The BBC, with the MSM in general, gave a full account of this victory but the failure of 66% to vote was not given prominence. That is because it calls into question the present parliamentary and local democracy. It has to be ‘steady as she goes’. The chance of revolution, so small in the UK, must not be alluded to. Real power in the proletariat to change things radically must be given no wind.
For government to have power over the plebs, it must have power over the media. The main avenue is obvious – choose your friend and choose your cipher. My Lord Coe ran fast and he makes money. (4)
Coe’s combination of strong Tory credentials and a reputation burnished by the success of the London 2012 Olympic Games have catapulted him into the position of front-runner to succeed Lord Patten.
Coe is said to have the firm support of David Cameron, who will ultimately be responsible for ratifying the appointment, according to ITV News political editor Tom Bradby…
The kite is flown and Coe will be breasting the finishing tape ‘ere long.
With the safe pairs of hands at the helm, it is vital to have the broadcasting professionals in the galley cooking the dishes. The garnish must be good on the eye and tasty. The BBC is good at that.
That the insides are poisonous for those many minds is not obvious. John Humphrys is a most senior journalist who leads the so called ‘flagship’ programme, Today. It is on from 6 to 9 am each day and it catches the ‘drive to work’ listeners, and many in bed and bathroom. It is the premier propaganda programme. It covers all ‘news’ and comment. A good amount of megawattage is spent
telling us that OUR NHS is so bad that people might conclude it is not worth having. A ‘Syrian’ rebel leader was on recently. At one point, Humphrys said words similar to ‘we have to get rid of/depose Assad’. Some days later a doctor was describing death and injury from alleged Syrian government chlorine attacks. His voice was disguised to add to the menace of the story. At the end Humphrys said ‘A good man’.
There must be good connections between the face of power and the MSM. There is a media unit in Downing Street which I was told once had about 200 staff. You can imagine the upper ranks are on first name terms with the editors, and especially those of the BBC. ‘Announcements’ will often be preened and readied for a time which suits best. A famous example was ‘It’s now a very good day to get out anything we want to bury. Councillors’ expenses ?’ Jo Moore (5) 9/11 was the ‘good day’. The many psychopaths in Westminster are promoted shamelessly by the BBC, and Blair in particular. This short article by me shows how an announcement by him on Ghaddafi’s disarmament of alleged WMD was planned in advance. (6) It was, however, inserted into the Friday 10pm ‘News’ as a ‘surprise’ without any mention of it in the headlines. The message was repeated twice in the half hour. Afterwards, his co-conspirator and fellow psychopath G Bush came on ‘News’night to spout the same message. War criminal Blair is often to be seen on the BBC in transit from one gold mine to another. Just as the badly injured road casualty is referred for rehabilitation, Blair is whisked along to Broadcasting House.
The Monarchy
Bloody intrigue might be less evident in the ‘modern’ era but they are still at it. The Queen is stroked consistently by the BBC; the two strokers are Hunt and Witchell. The sycophancy is excruciating but it works, especially among the ladies and the WI. The royals’ wield the sword at the knighting of stars like Jimmy Savile. All is velvet and modest pride. The honours system flourishes au Royaume-Uni. It harms it beyond imagining. The royals’ part in endless war, which is the BBC’s central mission, is demonstrated at Remembrance Sunday when they all come in war uniforms replete with medals (7) Only the Queen is in mufti and she, instead, used to wear her military kit at the Trooping of the Colour riding side saddle. The Beeb helps the fawning. All the drilled bearskins, the regimental bands and the golden carriage are promoted by the Corporation and thus is the absolute necessity for endless and aggressive war ingrained in receptive minds. The stage management of these spectacles is superb, and for a reason.
Pro-Israeli Propaganda
The BBC’s bias in favour of the entity needs no definition. It is outrageous. A good deal of the correspondence on the excellent Media Lens web site is to do with this. (8) The editors are David Edwards and David Cromwell. There is vigour, knowledge and scepticism in the postings. A recent example of egregious bias was in a BBC Panorama programme, ‘Death in the Med’. The programme presenter was Jane Corben. She has form. The focus was on the assassination of 9 ‘activists’ on the Mavi Marmara, which was on its way with other boats to break the blockade of Gaza peacefully. A tenth man, who has been in a coma since, has died recently. There was no question that these men were ‘targeted’ by the entity’s commandos who had abseiled down from helicopters. These valiant men had descriptions and photos of their victims. Furkan Doğan, who intended to study medicine and who was an US citizen, suffered this according to a Turkish pathologist –
An autopsy revealed he had suffered five gunshot wounds, to the nose, back, back of the head, left leg, and left ankle, at a distance of 45 centimeters. He was shot when he was filming the events in the ship. (Wikipedia)
There were strong protests to the BBC. It is no surprise to find that The Editorial Standards Committee of the BBC Trust found that ‘the programme overall was accurate and impartial’ but it upheld 3 out of 51 complaints. I have written at least 100 letters over 13 years to the BBC or to individual journalists. Most were in sharp but detailed criticism. The BBC gave no inch but the stance of at least one journalist softened. Its prejudice in favour of this one entity is reflected elsewhere in the world but less often. Those like Chavez and Castro who stood for the oppressed were denigrated. The powerful, the friends like the Saudis, are sanctified. The repression, torture and killing of those who resist in Bahrain are not reported in detail or depth by the BBC, nor is the presence there of Saudi forces, with British police and US military officers. Nation does not Speak Truth to Nation.
* The word ‘Israel’ is not used because it implies statehood. It is not a state. Its borders are not defined, it has rejected almost all SC and UNGA resolutions, it commits crimes against the peace and crimes against the native people who were driven from their land and thus their living by terrorism and force of superior arms.
The Promotion of Endless War
I have alluded to the prime part played by the BBC in this. It is consistent in its neglect of the UN Charter and the Nuremberg Principles. It does not refer to the laws of war going back to the Hague Conventions at the end of the C19. It always takes the side of the western aggressor. It will not have told its captive audience that our transatlantic ‘ally’ has bombed 29 countries since WW2 and usually with the direct help of UK forces or intelligence – as in Cambodia.
The examples of bias for blood, shredding and tears are legion. Recently, Kevin Connolly who is skilled with many other BBC journalists in the art of propaganda, has been reporting from Baghdad. He told of the number of humans killed by car bombs in April in the lead up to the elections. The violence was sectarian in origin he said. Of course he made no mention of the most draconian sanctions from 1991 to 2003. Those millions who rely on ‘Nation shall Speak Truth to Nation’ have never been told there was no sectarian rift between Sunni and Shia in Hussein’s Iraq; one would marry the other without comment. And there were no car bombs in his Iraq. The picture painted by the BBC and so many western outlets is that this very violent chaos is about the Arab and inbuilt within Islam. Do not tell the people that Iraq was pluralist, largely secular and educated. Mr Connolly does know the terrible killing and maiming is down to the coalition of the willing led by the US and its rabid poodle, but stays stuhm. The division he describes was triggered deliberately by Luciferans like Paul Bremer, the ‘viceroy’. Disbanding the Iraqi army was one such stroke. After Iraq, the Beeb joined in the demonisation of Muammar Ghaddafi, and after him Dr Bashar Assad.
The BBC: Conclusion
The power and reach of ‘Aunty’ BBC is supreme. Its intentions remain ostensibly ‘to educate, inform and entertain.’ It can educate well and it entertains a lot. As to the latter, it stimulated sexual appetites world wide with Celebrity Come Dancing. A recent series ‘Call the Midwife’ was very popular; it captured the love of caring and the spirit of OUR NHS very well. This is beguiling. How could a broadcaster lie,and lie in every hour and on the other hand commission a series which was very well written and acted, and which had a very strong moral base. This is how trust is engendered and the brand made sterling silver.
Political clout gives power to the BBC by the appointment of its trust chairman. The status quo is ensured by the ‘great and the good’ who join that board. The Director General, formerly Thompson and now Hall, run and steer this complex and essentially clever workforce. (9) Who decides to blacken the Husseins, Ghaddafis and Assad on the way to annihilation against all law? I suspect the majority of successful applicants for posts as editors and journalists come from Oxbridge and universities like Exeter, the same places where MI5 and 6 recruit. Their conservatism is obvious and their compliance certain. Some will stand away like the BBC journalist Hugh Sykes whose humanity is obvious, but most toe the pro-Western, pro-NATO, pro-Zionist line. Pensions likely play a part.
Craig Murray, erstwhile HM ambassador to Uzbekistan, is noted for his courage in telling HMG in 2002 that Britain was complicit in the most heinous torture in that country. His has been the only voice about these crimes. He has continued to use his high intelligence to investigate the sewers of our land. A vote in Scotland on whether it should be independent of England is due later this year. It is not surprising that the BBC should help the No vote just a little because the ‘coalition government’ are strongly opposed to devolution. He has written on the Acanchi PR firm which is promoting VNB – Vote No Borders. Craig says “But what cannot be forgiven is the BBC’s extraordinary promotion of VNB as a genuine grassroots organization – in total just under 150 minutes were devoted to showing Gavin Esler’s puff piece on the BBC News Channel, not to mention at least 20 minutes on other BBC news programmes.” (10) That is our BBC. The ‘truth’ bit, is pumped at our cost northwards to the nation of the Scots.
What can be done to straighten our BBC? Even the detail is rigged by clever linguists whom Orwell would recognise. Invasions with tanks and helicopter cover into the remnants of Palestine are ‘incursions’. During the first 15 minutes of bombardment by the entity after 11am 27 December 2008, 215 persons were annihilated by thermobaric missiles. Many were children changing shifts at school. But others were graduating policemen. These were not brought to Allah in police stations, but in ‘security compounds’. This is the shallow cunning.
Very prominent BBC ‘entertainers’ have been accused or found guilty of the sexual abuse of children. The most evil was SIR Jimmy Savile. He was a big and very peculiar fish. In fact he made the circle. He was very familiar with the royals, Madame Thatcher (he stayed at the country retreat for PMs – Chequers) and the Royal Marines whom he lionised. He has damaged hundreds of young people. He escaped the law by death. One other BBC type has been jailed, and two more are being tried. Savile, who also entered hospitals, mortuaries and children homes, ‘worked’ for the BBC for many years. His most vile proclivities were surely common knowledge at the Corporation? But that is denied and this Teflon TV kingdom has managed, along with the NHS hospitals, to kick Saville’s black corpse into the long grass with multiple inquiries, British style.
John Pilger has subjected our media, and especially the BBC, to withering analysis in superb English. Type ‘BBC’ on the search engine of his web site and it produces dozens of links. The last article – “The accessories to war crimes are those paid to keep the record straight” 8th February 2014 must be read. (11) With great economy and the best words he summarises the arguments within my effort here. He quotes Carne Ross, formerly of that gilded palace of cunning liars, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office –
“Yes, I agree,” he replied. “I feel ashamed about it…” He described how the Foreign Office manipulated a willing media. “We would control access to the foreign secretary as a form of reward to journalists. If they were critical, we would not give them the goodies of trips around the world. We would feed them factoids of sanitised intelligence, or we’d freeze them out.” Quite so.
A revolution of the British mind, leading to overwhelming public pressure, is required to demolish the BBC. Its beating of the war drums for the massive bombardment and invasion of Iraq requires that its life be taken from it just as its propaganda was central to the destruction of a nation and over one million lives.
David Halpin FRCS is a retired orthopaedic and trauma surgeon who pleaded with others for an inquest into the unnatural death of Dr David Kelly. He has heard the cries in Palestine and joined the people there. He fights for OUR NHS.
Notes
(1) http://www.globalresearch.ca/masters-of-black-propaganda-the-bbc-is-barrel-bombing-night-and-day/5383051
(2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pfizer
(3) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/10475735/George-Osborne-tells-BoE-to-review-bank-leverage-ratios.html
(4) http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/may/28/lord-coe-bbc-trust-chair-role-david-cameron-lord-patten-boris-johnson
(5) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo_Moore
(6) http://dhalpin.infoaction.org.uk/7-articles/political/46-the-blair-broadcasting-corporation
(7) http://dhalpin.infoaction.org.uk/7-articles/political/21-remembrance-and-hypocrisy
(8) http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/
(9) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_BBC_newsreaders_and_reporters
(10) http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2014/05/the-acanchi-effect/
(11) http://johnpilger.com/articles/the-accessories-to-war-crimes-are-those-paid-to-keep-the-record-straight
