Mark Thompson defines impartiality
Look at this bastard, January 2009:
BBC boss Mark Thompson has again defended the decision [not to broadcast a charity appeal for Gaza], saying it would jeopardise the BBC’s impartiality.
Look at this bastard, November 2005:
[D]irector general, Mark Thompson, has recently returned from Jerusalem, where he held a face-to-face meeting with the hardine Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Although the diplomatic visit was not publicised on these shores, it has been seized upon in Israel as evidence that Thompson, who took office in 2004, intends to build bridges with the country’s political class.
Posted on January 26th, 2009 at 3:13pm under Culture, media and sport
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• 11 Comments |
Plan to blog about this later, but I was gobsmacked to hear him on Today this morning saying that he didn’t thing the DEC appeal was biased but that he couldn’t broadcast it because of the ‘perception’ of partiality. In other words, impartiality is whatever Melanie Phillips says it is on any given day.
Thompson got his head kicked in by Humphries, and he’s been past his best for a long time. Still not to worry, the Beeb can now bask in the moral high ground of impartiality along with News International (aka Fox and Star). You couldn’t make it up.
I think it’s time for action. This Mark Thompson, by not showing the Gaza film, is siding with Israel. That maybe his personal choice but not at all acceptable to me. Check out his ‘Common Purpose’ credentials too. Supported by Michael Lyons, go check his credibility, this man must be prevented from spending anymore of my money. This is a pro-Israel scam in the name of impartiality.
It’s time to stop paying the tv tax
It’s time to stop paying the tv tax
No it isn’t. Because the BBC is a publicly-funded organisation Thompson has to explain himself in public and is subject to pressure from the public and their political representatives in whose name he and his organisation act. Nobody at Sky, for instance, is in the same position.
I think this may actually be a cunning ploy. The Beeb get to say how impartial they are – and the DEC gets more publicity than the actual appeal would. It’s been on every single BBC bulletin for a start.
It’s the “corporate cringe” John Sweeney talked about after the fallout from the Hutton Report
So afraid is the BBC now of being targetted by the Mail and its cohorts, that its management will actually do something like this for fear of being seen as impartial.
Thompson – who sliced Channel Four to ribbons, gutted the Current Affairs of the BBC, pulled apart his butt cheeks to Hutton and will no doubt received a nice bit of ermine for tearing the heart and soul out of White City.
Git.
BBC, dead and buried IMHO.
Mark Thompson is Jewish…
It might explain something, I read somewhere that his wife is connected to Israel aswell
@ Henry North London
He’s Catholic not Jewish.
This has nothing to do with Thompson’s religion and everything to do with fact that he’s a wanker.
This decision has everything to do with Thompson’s religious beliefs. His wife is a Zionist and he is a devout Catholic.
It has long been taken for granted that religious convictions are a good thing when recruiting people into top jobs. It supposedly shows the person to be thoughtful and to have a moral conscience.
It is crucial that this viewpoint is challenged.
Religious people are partial by definition.
Almost nightly during the three weeks of the assault on Gaza I heard statements broadcast by the BBC from people (Israeli spokespersons) arguing that I should have no sympathy for the Palestinians under attack in Gaza. They deserved it. They had elected a nasty bunch of people as their government. It was due to circumstances that they were themselves responsible for. And somehow, it was added, even if the ordinary Palestinians weren’t responsible then the nasty people that they elected should be held accountable for the civilian deaths as these nasties had been hiding among the civilians and shooting rockets at Israel.
This is the “impartiality” that the BBC defends. An impartiality that doesn’t distinguish properly between civilians and combatants. An impartiality that gives daily voice to Israeli fears and concerns but seldom voices those of ordinary Palestinian victims. Thompson disgusts me.