The day BBC died

This was originally a reply to another thread, but went way off topic. So I thought I may as well make it it’s own thread, since although this episode is already a bygone part of 21st century history, the dangers of its repercussions have been made all too apparent by Covid. When an institution demands mass trust, due to a long and well earned global reputation for journalistic integrity, then that thing can be a dangerous weapon if made to lie.

In the U.K. so many continue to support the utter, venal nonsense spouted by Boris Johnson, despite the alarm of scientists and politicians from home and abroad, simply because that alarm is unreported and what is reported continues to spin and misdirect events. The aim of this misreporting seems to be to prevent the public’s total loss of trust in this highly dysfunctional government. But trust in Boris Johnson is proving to be dangerously naive to those many millions who continue to trust all that their beloved BBC says about him; moreover, what it doesn’t say about him. This isn’t a sudden coup, or wartime privilege afforded Boris by the BBC. This absolute loss of journalistic integrity that’s been brought into sharp relief by Covid has been ongoing for almost 2 decades…

Since it’s inception the BBC mandate of truth to power has always been a slippery negotiation with the government de jour. governments have constantly pulled on the ‘in the national interest’ card in attempt to throttle journalistic endeavour that threatened the establishment. We’ll never know exactly how many times that worked and what truths known by the broadcasters were never told.

However, in 2003 this fine balance between truth and national interest became severely weighted in one direction and has remained so ever since.

As tensions were again ramping up in Iraq, BBC journalist Andrew Gillian did a piece using an unnamed source who revealed that the dossier put together to convince parliament to vote to join the US in invading Iraq was ‘sexed up’, by Blair and his chief advisor Alastair Campbell (for anyone who’s seen the BBC mockumentary series The Thick of It, the constantly enraged Malcolm Tucker was apparently based on Campbell)…

The accusation that Blair and Campbell had lied to parliament in order to invade another country threatened to bring down the government. If proven, Blair and Campbell may have faced criminal charges. The Blair camp was going crazy, trying to force the BBC - it’s then Director-General Greg Dyke into revealing the source. You have to stop here and ask why? If Blair knew the accusation to be false, then the source would be revealed in the forthcoming enquiry and accusation proven false. Surely an innocent PM would want this ASAP.

Finally, under immense pressure Dyke Revealed the source: one of the world’s top weapons inspectors, employed by the U.K. ministry of defence, Dr David Kelly. Kelly claimed that the report had been altered by Alistair Campbell to exaggerate Saddam’s capability to attack the U.K. within 45 minutes, using a giant gun Saddam had built in the dessert. It farcical, but parliament and the people, herded by the fear mongering Murdoch press had fallen for it and the invasion given the green light. Kelly was an eminently legitimate source and this revelation of lies absolutely damning to ‘Her Majesties Government’. This testimony never had a hope in hell of reaching an enquiry…

Soon after Dr David Kelly’s name hit the headlines the man was found dead in the woods, an incision in his wrist. This meant of course that he couldn’t testify and the BBC’s accusations came undone. On top of that the government and its tabloid sponsors ingeniously spun this death as the BBC’s fault for revealing their source. There was clamour to kill the BBC from every quarter - every favour to Blair’s camp (moreover, every favour to Rupert Murdoch, who, infamously was Blair’s kingmaker in 1997). Everywhere you looked, creatures were crawling out of the shadows to put the boot in, claiming the BBC should lose its public funding for lying about the government and causing Kelly’s death.

On ATS I don’t think I need to paint a picture of what was really unfolding here, but in short, as soon as those threatened by Kelly learned his identity he shows up dead. It’s hard not to put 2 and 2 together. Then in a devastating checkmate Kelly’s ‘suicide’ was used as leverage over the BBC - the one institution that if it desired, had the legitimacy to speak truth to power and threaten tptb. While the BBC was traditionally run by and part of the that establishment, it could also be a loose canon, as proven by reporter Andrew Guilligan and then chief Greg Dyke who stood by his claims. This was the establishment’s chance to dismantle that threat.

Henceforth the BBC fell into the lap of that increasingly dodgy Labour government, who did their upmost to keep a sword of Damocles hanging over it’s funding; FYI, almost everyone in the U.K. pays an enforced subscription - what amounts to a tax once a year to fund the bbc; I know that sounds bad, but historically being funded this way has given the broadcaster independence to report accurately without having to succumb the partisan desires of governments or advertisers. It was worth it to have an autonomous journalism.

Then, once tptb, the kingmakers decided it was time for an austerity wielding Tory government, this leverage over the BBC was passed on like a baton. Every appointment sinc of a new director-general has been a move towards bias. Now, during a Tory government it’s run an ex-Tory:

He was deputy chairman of the Hammersmith and Fulham Conservative party in the 1990s, raising questions about his ability to hold the Tory Government to account in his new role.

www.thenational.scot...

The BBC is now a hollowed out shell trading on a past reputation for journalistic integrity, but inside it’s little more than Orwell’s Ministry of Truth.

Case in point: the BBC recently did a 1 hour interview with ex-Boris Johnson chief advisors and brexit guru Dominic Cummings. His views are well known after his 7 hour testimony at a recent inquiry in which he more or less accused Boris of corporate manslaughter. They got their chief political anchor Laura Kuenssberg to do the interview. On face value that may seem logical, but she has long been very pro Tory and anti Labour in her reporting, so of course rather than follow up on the accusations, she instead spent most her time attacking Cummings….

…On the other hand we have the anchor of BBC late night in depth Newsnignt, Emily Maitlis. She’s often proven herself to be an astute challenger of BS, whatever the source — non-partisan. Surely she would’ve been the choice of a non-partisan Director-General to interview Cummings. Instead she’s faced rebukes from her boss for asking straightforward, journalistic questions about Boris Johnson’s mistakes throughout Covid that have led to so many unnecessary deaths; questions being screamed on social media, but silenced on the good old BBC by its ‘ex’-Tory boss.

Further reading into when the event that killed the BBC:

Timeline: the Gilligan affair

Do you remember what happened to David Kelly?

a reply to: McGinty
I wish journalistic integrity would make a comeback. The Govt. and TPTB has strangulated true journalism, it's almost on it death throes ..

sad

a reply to: McGinty

Great post mate , Bravo !
Back before government neutered it the BBC was a free source for truth and education but telling the truth about government and looking at the grubby contents inside the box cost it its Independence.

Remember this BBC Gem ?




Part 3 is the gold dust.

I do miss the old BBC.

originally posted by: thethirdsign
a reply to: McGinty
I wish journalistic integrity will make a comeback. The Govt. and TPTB has strangulated true journalism, it's almost on it death throes ..

sad

I think it of importance to add the role of the 'journalists' themselves. They had a profession once, or at least, the framework of one. It is now but a scruffy trade and much of that is the doing of those at the top of their trade. Integrity in that trade can only make a comeback when the journalists themselves make it come back.

Cheers

a reply to: thethirdsign

If its wishes we are after.

It might be nice if the BBC did not sponsor, support, shield, and enable dirty wrong'yin paedophiles for the better part of the companies existence.

Never mind the rest of the series of investigations, accusations and scandals they have been involved in or buried up to there neck.

a reply to: McGinty

Coincidentally found these on trees and lamp posts strolling to work last week.
Never a truer word.

originally posted by: andy06shake
a reply to: thethirdsign

If its wishes we are after.

It might be nice if the BBC did not sponsor, support, shield, and enable dirty wrong'yin paedophiles for the better part of the companies existence.

Never mind the rest of the series of investigations, accusations and scandals they have been involved in or buried up to there neck.

Jimmy Saville anyone?
After that bpmbshell the BBC should have been disbanded for its complicity.

a reply to: Cymru

Aye that one did not just tick the box Cymru.

He put the pen through the paper.

Soon after Dr David Kelly’s name hit the headlines the man was found dead in the woods, an incision in his wrist. This meant of course that he couldn’t testify and the BBC’s accusations came undone.

Ain't it the DARNDEST thing!

The same fate ("suicide by other") always seems to befall those with a story to tell, particularly if it implicates those at the top of government and the social hierarchy. Epstein. McAfee.

But it seems like tPTB have learned their lesson. When they want to suicide someone now, they incarcerate them first, THEN feign an old fashion prison hanging. Apparently, in their mind, the optics of a jail suicide are easier to sell.

I would say most news outlets the world over are but mouth pieces of their individual governments.. The CIA pays and sponsors editors and news people not just in the states but no telling where around the world. Just look at CNN if you want the proof or do a web search ... In their minds well structured propaganda can create any reality they desire..
The perception of truth is what matters not necessarily what truth is actually present.... Just look at some of the stories crammed down everyone's neck by the talking heads at the news networks that were later proven false and scripted. IMO the media is to busy being seen instead of providing meaningful content....

a reply to: McGinty

Thanks for the reminder and references about the whole Kelly affair.
I would argue the BBC has always been a propaganda tool of the establishment, it’s just another three letter agency only specifically for psychological operations/manipulation. Sure they did some genuine public services, delivering sport and nature programs etc.. but ultimately it was/is the British public who they are really programming.

The really clever thing was to get the British public to pay for it, but then they got the British public to pay the majority of things that were later privatised and sold off to wealthy share holders.. such as British rail, British Gas, British steel, British telecom, for some reason electricity and water were divided into regions rather than being called British such as Thames water or Yorkshire water, or YEB Yorkshire Electricity Board. Regardless all the infrastructure was bought and paid for by the public, such as the Viaducts, the Reservoirs, the canal networks etc.. all this was bought up for a song when it was privatised, (literally robbing the purse of the public) just like they did in more recent times with the post office.

Yet here we are with the BBC and the NHS still owned and paid for by the public, or are they? Because they don’t seem to be working in the interests of the public in the upper management levels anymore. It looks a lot more like they are doing the bidding of some shadow globalist power implementing the same measures across the world.

Weather it’s bringing peace and freedom to the Middle East or terrorism and totalitarianism to the west, the UN doesn’t mean or do what so many think it does.
It’s all Orwellian reverse speak brought to you by the ministry of truth such as the BBC
(British Bull#ing Corporation)

originally posted by: McGinty
The BBC is now a hollowed out shell trading on a past reputation for journalistic integrity, but inside it’s little more than Orwell’s Ministry of Truth.

I was done with the BBC when the Doctor went transsexual. Not surprising that they'd follow up with something far more serious, such as gutting their journalism for the same reasons.

Said as an American who used to have a lot of respect for the BBC.

originally posted by: Cymru

originally posted by: andy06shake
a reply to: thethirdsign

If its wishes we are after.

It might be nice if the BBC did not sponsor, support, shield, and enable dirty wrong'yin paedophiles for the better part of the companies existence.

Never mind the rest of the series of investigations, accusations and scandals they have been involved in or buried up to there neck.

Jimmy Saville anyone?
After that bpmbshell the BBC should have been disbanded for its complicity.

Exactly.

The problem isn't so much that we see all this.

The problem is the amount of people who still see five fingers when the BBC holds up four.

a reply to: gb540

Been wary of anything the BEEB have saud for years but a female Dr was the last straw. Watered down woke B# with an agenda.
Can you imagine the backlash if Miss Marple became a dude???

a reply to: McGinty

Would recommend all of the John Pilger documentaries, The War You Don't See basically discusses the role of embedded journalists in Iraq and Afghanistan, says a lot about the BBC, vile organization

they're a paragon of integrity.

a reply to: gortex

Thanks, Gortex! Just happy it didn't come across as a Saturday morning rant (wouldn't be the first).

I've been a huge fan of Adam Curtis since first taking in the genius of Power of Nightmares. His stuff is always fanatically conceived and narrated, and of course eye opening. He cuts them himself - has a great ear for music always creating just the right tone, or juxtaposition to get his point across.

He's still doing it, but his docs now go straight to iPlayer and are no longer broadcast on terrestrial. My guess is that's exactly where tptb want him; keep him on the beeb where they can ensure that he's only preaching to the converted that have to seek him out, rather than letting him go altogether and risking him finding a larger audience on Channel 4.

Look him up on iPlayer - theres a quite a few on there, from the amazing The Trap (follow up to Power of Nightmares) through to the latest epic 6 parter 'Can't Get You Out Of My Head: An Emotional History of the Modern World'.

By coincidence i posted this in another thread just the other day...

Here’s all 3 parts of The Trap. Never been more relevant:

a reply to: andy06shake

A friend of mine appeared on the Jim'll Fix It Show back when we were kids in the late70s/early 80s. He didn't report anything untoward, but i heard that he later joined the police, so you never know

It's horrific that this was covered up for so long by the Beeb. To some extent i find the cover up even worse than the deeds. Saville obviously had serious mental issues which don't forgive the deeds, but do explain them. However, being in possession of your faculties and inexplicably deciding its ok to turn a blind eye in order to keep hold of you job is just about as low as it gets.

But we can't tar everyone in an organisation for the ghastly mistakes and misdeeds of a few (lets hope it's only a few). When the BBC journalists were called upon to stand up to a government attempting to fool the public into a phoney war, they stepped up to the plate. Well, they stepped up to it for a while, before giving up their source and that leading to his death.

a reply to: McGinty

Thanks for the videos McGinty , I remember watching the first one when I was properly down the rabbit hole but think I missed the other two , time for a refresher.