I know it was just a throwaway remark, a quick joke to introduce a
comedy programme, but it exemplifies the pervasiveness of BBC bias
over a whole spectrum of political opinions.
If TV Licensing can back-date a household's license renewal to the day
after the previous licence expired, why can't I back-date a licence
refund to the day after I put my foot through the TV screen in disgust?
>I caught the beginning of his show, The Late Edition, on the end of my
> recording of The Genius Of Photography. He was sneering an opinion
> that it's a real shame Charleton Heston hasn't been killed by the
> wildfires in California, for the terrible sin of holding an opinion
> contrary to that of the BBC, on gun control.
I think you'll find it unlikely that 'the BBC' will have any opinion about
this issue. Young Brigstocke and/or the writers of the show may well have
opinions, however, which they are perfectly entitled to express.
Ian
this kind of sneer goes right through the panel games, such as news quiz
etc.
Gaz
It does and it's what makes them so funny.
Lee.
--
lee at w2designs dot co dot uk
http://www.w2designs.co.uk
Apple? Orange? Blackberry? Lemons.
Firstly, I'd like to make it perfectly clear that I am _not_ one of those
`ban all guns' people, and I have documentary evidence, if of a fairly subtle
nature, to prove it.
The sort of person that sees or hears something on some broadcast medium
and uses this to conclude that that entire broadcast medium's output is
in some sense tainted with a fundamental system of beliefs (with which
of course they are entirely at odds) that could possibly give rise to
whatever it was they saw or heard is... is... is an idiot.
--
SAm.
Brigstocke only survives on TV as he is part of the clique that produces
such shows for the BBC. Once they're out of favour he will vanish.
Brigstocke is just a tidy version of the pointless Russell Brand.
That sort of comment is typical of Brigstocke, he amounts to nothing
so he targets those he also thinks are nothing.
I remember a HIGNFY from a couple of years back when he got the
chance to host, he slipped in a comment that the original Band Aid
single was bad, well it was actually an excellent song and in 1985
it it had enormous impact and brought about much needed change.
Brigstocke is just a tosser.
Personally I agree with him.
Was it Columbine where following the massacre Heston pitched up and
called for less strict gun control so that the children and teachers
could carry automatic weapons?
You're the one making the accusation.
Why not gather the evidence yourself?
See also Ned Sherrin and Alan Coren---I wouldn't bank on him disappearing
any time soon.
> Brigstocke is just a tidy version of the pointless Russell Brand.
Marcus Brigstocke, harmless waste of space that he is, is still a god
compared to Russell Brand.
> That sort of comment is typical of Brigstocke, he amounts to nothing
> so he targets those he also thinks are nothing.
Whereas Melanie Phillips...?
> I remember a HIGNFY from a couple of years back when he got the
> chance to host, he slipped in a comment that the original Band Aid
> single was bad, well it was actually an excellent song
Shit. Shit then, shit now, just shit.
> and in 1985
> it had enormous impact and brought about much needed change.
No, it didn't. It had almost no measurable effect at all. Problems that
are continent-sized need continent-sized answers, not a pathetic collection
of wheedling and whingeing from bunch of egotistical wankers.
> Brigstocke is just a tosser.
Not quite as bad as that.
--
SAm.
Clue: Michael Moor is not an authoritative source of of truth.
Gaz
I don't know whether Marcus Brigstocke is a cunt or not. Charlton
"let's solve the gun massacres in American schools by throwing more
guns at the problem" Heston, on the other hand, most definitely is.
> Brigstocke is just a tosser.
Of course he is. He's successful, educated and talented - how could he be
anything but a tosser? *sigh*
Ian
You dont understand the nature of the gun in american society. The freedom
to legally own a gun is of paramount importance to a large body of people .
Guns have been a part of american society since its formation.
Gaz
There are plenty of succesful, educated and talented people who are
tossers
though.
Cheers
Jeff
thats an interesting point though, are they perfectly entitled to express them
via the BBC though ?
I think its what youd expect from Brigstocke, kind of level of humour he works
at. probably why I dont think he's funny in the least.
Aw
<http://www.commondreams.org/pressreleases/June98/060898a.htm>
<http://www.save-now.com/news/archives/Charlton-Heston-Gun-Controle.htm>
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/c/columbine_high_school/index.html?query=GUN%20CONTROL&field=des&match=exact>
Yes but through an early misunderstanding which cannot be undone.
The law was for the militia to bear arms in case of invasion along the
shores by the British not by the lunatic populace.
Then again, maybe it's a good idea to give everyone over the age of 3 a
firearm and tell them to fire away at anything that moves. Population
control by other means. Besides, they've all gone soft; they haven't
assassinated a president in years!
> There are plenty of succesful, educated and talented people who are
> tossers though.
I'm sure there are, just as there are people who automatically call anyone
who is successful, educated and talented a tosser because they are none of
those things! ;-)
Ian
Well, I'm succesful, educated, talented, rich, handsome and extremely
modest
(in fact I may be better at being modest than anyone else in the
world) so am I allowed to call him a tosser?
Cheers
Jeff
Hey! Leave our Ian alone!
> Well, I'm succesful, educated, talented, rich, handsome and extremely
> modest
> (in fact I may be better at being modest than anyone else in the
> world) so am I allowed to call him a tosser?
Absolutely! As long as you don't expect me to agree with you!
Ian
I don't think I've ever seen him.
http://www.offthekerb.co.uk/cmsc4ea.jpg
http://www.timeout.com/features/liveawards/img/marcusbrigstocke.jpg
Oh, he looks like he must be absolutely hilarious.
>> >this kind of sneer goes right through the panel games, such as news quiz
>> >etc.
>>
>> It does and it's what makes them so funny.
>
>Firstly, I'd like to make it perfectly clear that I am _not_ one of those
>`ban all guns' people, and I have documentary evidence, if of a fairly subtle
>nature, to prove it.
>
>The sort of person that sees or hears something on some broadcast medium
>and uses this to conclude that that entire broadcast medium's output is
>in some sense tainted with a fundamental system of beliefs (with which
>of course they are entirely at odds) that could possibly give rise to
>whatever it was they saw or heard is... is... is an idiot.
Agreed. There seem to be a lot of tin foil hat wearers around these
parts.
There are people out there who can make really sick humour with
political views that I disagree with, yet I respect them for being funny.
I understand the nature of the gun in American society perfectly well
thanks very much. It more easily enables nutters to go out and
massacre a whole bunch of innocent people time and time again because
the politicians are either too scared to take on the NRA or they're
members of the NRA themselves.
And nothing that anyone says will ever persuade me that Charlton "guns
don't kill people - people kill people" Heston isn't a cunt. Shite
actor too.
I'm not sure whether the picture accompanying this
http://www.irrmag.com/content/view/185/37/
is from one of his films or real life. Could be either.
His full-on rants on 'The Now Show' are evidence of his uncuntishness. And to
come up with the description of 'git wizard' for David Blaine deserves a
knighthood at least.
--
Halmyre
What in Swansea are going on here?!
> His full-on rants on 'The Now Show' are evidence of his uncuntishness. And
> to
> come up with the description of 'git wizard' for David Blaine deserves a
> knighthood at least.
On the other hand, his creation Giles Wemmbley Hogg is extremely crap and
unfunny.
Cheers
Jeff
I had got my right-wing zealots mixed slightly, it was the new president
of the NRA following the Virginia Tech shootings who blamed the rule
banning students carrying firearms for that massacre.
From the actual speech, not the MM version, given in response to the
Mayor of Denver requesting the NRA not come to a rally (following
Columbine):
"NRA members are in city hall, Fort Carson, NORAD, the Air Force
Academy and the Olympic Training Center. And yes, NRA members are surely
among the police and fire and SWAT team heroes who risked their lives to
rescue the students at Columbine.
Don't come here? We're already here. This community is our home.
Every community in America is our home. We are a 128-year-old fixture of
mainstream America. The Second Amendment ethic of lawful, responsible
firearm ownership spans the broadest cross section of American life
imaginable.
So, we have the same right as all other citizens to be here. To
help shoulder the grief and share our sorrow and to offer our
respectful, reassured voice to the national discourse that has erupted
around this tragedy."
"NRA members are, above all, Americans. That means that whatever
our differences, we are respectful of one another and we stand united,
especially in adversity."
Having lived in America for some time I think I understand the nature of
gun ownership. I also understand that there are more people murdered in
America per capita than in any other industrialised country and that the
limits for purchasing firearms are ludicrously lax.
Whilst in the states I spent some time living in Princeton which has to
be one of the most peaceful and charming places I have ever visited.
Whilst there, a girl who I had become friends with announced that she
was off to buy a gun the next day. When I expressed horror at this and
explained that in the UK we do not tend to own guns (and indeed most
people go through life without ever seeing one except perhaps on a
policeman) she could not understand how we had not been reduced to an
anarchic mess with every woman being raped and the complete loss of
democracy. She refused to believe that the USA has the highest rape and
murder rate of any similar country (this was the 90's and it was
certainly true then) and that most other western nations manage quite
well without guns.
Now getting to your point as to understanding the nature of the gun in
America, the reason my friend and many others expressed such beliefs is
because of the huge political and media influence of the gun
manufacturers and organisations like the NRA. Essentially there are
billion spent every year on keeping Americans scared and maintaining the
mentality of the militia-man. There is still a genuine belief held by
many that it is only their guns that are keeping the New World Order at
bay, this is ironic given that the gun supporting Republicans have been
responsible for the worst erosion of civil liberties in several generations.
Would you tell the NAACP to not hold a pre arranged rally in a place where a
racial lyniching just took place?
Gaz
If the BBC is still a stickler for its fabled political neutality,
perhaps you'd like to inform us of the most recent example of the BBC
broadcasting *anything* portraying the NRA in a more favourable light?
Kiddie fucking was very important to the ancient Egyptian culture. Perhaps
their modern ancestors should have an exemption?
Why on earth would I need to do that? What would it change?
--
SAm.
Hmm the world according to Sam - must be OK if you agree with it. If you
don't well who cares?
I would argue that it did achieve something. At the time of Band Aid, 10
million people were starving. Along came Geldof and Band Aid, and fed them.
With the result that they survived, and bred. So 10 years later, come the
next drought, there were 20 million people starving. Nice one St Bob.
Steve
If it was in a (let's say) Korean neighborhood where a group of black
people had just lynched a Korean person, then yes.
Idiot. Or you know fine well what I mean, and you're just pretending.
Whose mind would be changed as a result? What, anywhere, would change
as a result? Why the fuck would I bother?
Melanie Phillips, for example, is on TV and radio all the time. She
never talks any hint of sense whatsoever, and she's there for her actual
opinions, and not in any sense intended as entertainment. The
occasional misdirected humorous aside from the likes of Brigstocke is
hardly fair and balanced compared to the outrageous ill-informed
dangerous drivel she puts out, time adter time after time.
The NRA, I submit, is funded perfectly well enough to put out its own
defence, if it wishes, and doesn't need me to do this on its behalf.
The fact that we do not have the NRA lobbying politically and in the
media anywhere around here suggests they don't care, and I don't blame
them, because what Marcus Brigstocke thinks of them and their chairman
is crashingly irrelevant.
Good enough?
--
SAm.
I'm not sure the NRA are part of the political spectrum in Britain.
I'm sure they do not go out of their way to treat Chavez, Castro, Howard
or the Kaczynski twins any differently than one another regardless of
some fairly large differences in political leaning and yet you don't
hear many dissenting voices when an anti-Mugabe programme is aired.
I believe it is in the reporting of British politics where the
neutrality has to exist with the possible exception of comedy shows
where the ruling party seems to take the brunt of the jokes.
The NRA is an American organisation. Why would the BBC have any policy
on them at all? They're not obliged to be neutral about American
sporting organisations, or whatever the fuck the gun-nuts club styles
itself as.
--
AH
http://grapes2dot0.blogspot.com
>Brigstocke only survives on TV as he is part of the clique that produces
>such shows for the BBC.
Well there's a penetrating fucking insight.
So you think production companies should be forced to employ people
they don't like and don't agree with? How exactly do you propose
tackling this dreadful bias against the NRA?
--
AH
http://grapes2dot0.blogspot.com
>On 26 Oct, 13:54, "Ian F." <wowfabgro...@googlemail.com> wrote:
>> "Jeff Lawrence" <jeff.lawren...@orange.nl> wrote in message
>>
>> news:1193397030.5...@57g2000hsv.googlegroups.com...
>>
>> > There are plenty of succesful, educated and talented people who are
>> > tossers though.
>>
>> I'm sure there are, just as there are people who automatically call anyone
>> who is successful, educated and talented a tosser because they are none of
>> those things! ;-)
>
>Well, I'm succesful, educated, talented, rich, handsome and extremely
>modest
>(in fact I may be better at being modest than anyone else in the
>world) so am I allowed to call him a tosser?
>Cheers
>Jeff
You also have a big knob and a lovely light tenor voice.
--
AH
http://grapes2dot0.blogspot.com
Because in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, the alternate
hypothesis holds that the BBC *never* broadcasts anything favourable
to the American pro-RKBA lobby, in marked contrast to their frequent
negative commentary on them.
Which shoots down your argument in flames.
How about a wacky sitcom, NRA And Me, about the fun to be had by three
brothers who join the NRA under the misunderstanding that it is the IRA.
The BBC has a duty to disseminate the law of the land, which works in a
distinctly different direction from that of gun-nuts in the US. The
`RKBA lobby' gives the distinct impression of being composed of a bunch
of total headcases. They are rich enough to lobby over here for
themselves, should they care to.
> Which shoots down your argument in flames.
My argument is that I could post all the evidence I cared to
indefinitely, and it wouldn't change the slightest thing in the mind of
anyone reading it. In order for you to shoot that argument down in
flames, you'd have to change your mind. On you go...
--
SAm.
Would that be the law of *this* land, in all its post-Dunblane
hysterical vote-grabbing, that the BBC are trying to project onto the
US? Or would it be the law of the land in question, as predicated on
the US Bill Of Rights?
> > Which shoots down your argument in flames.
>
> My argument is that I could post all the evidence I cared to
> indefinitely, and it wouldn't change the slightest thing in the mind of
> anyone reading it. In order for you to shoot that argument down in
> flames, you'd have to change your mind. On you go...
I'll do better than that. If you can point to just *one* instance this
month, in which BBC1, 2, 3 or 4 broadcast something genuinely
favourable to the US pro-RKBA lobby, I will concede the point and the
frame.
Never mind your opinion of the whole RKBA debate. I'm asking about the
BBC's commentary, and whether the bias I perceive therein is
stochastic or systematic.
Prove they haven't.
--
SAm.
If you're going to quote, get it right.
It may have achieved something, but that doesn't make in at excellent song.
It was dreadful.
Is that a reference to some beat combo?
Your total, absolute failure to provide a single piece of evidence
refuting my assertion that the BBC is systematically biased in certain
ways (of which their anti-RKBA slant is just one example) provides the
final piece of the jigsaw. The prosecution rests.
Your total, absolute failure to provide a single suggestion why the BBC
ought to have to offer support to a fantastically rich pressure group in
a completely different country... ...indicates that you don't even have
a case. Before you can complain about the BBC _not_ offering this
pressure group any support, you need to identify some reason why they
should. Come back when you have the beginnings of a case.
`The prosecution rests'. Pointless. You don't even have a hint of a
charge yet, let alone a case the BBC has to answer.
--
SAm.
>I don't know whether Marcus Brigstocke is a cunt or not. Charlton
>"let's solve the gun massacres in American schools by throwing more
>guns at the problem" Heston, on the other hand, most definitely is.
Quite like Heston on screen in fictional works; alas fucking hate it
when he does the "Cold dead had" mouthpiece malarky for an industry that
puts making money before the lives of people. Rather like Ronald Reagan
just because they are ill in later life, whether physical or mental,
doesn't wipe the slate clean of their views prior to that.
Graham
>You dont understand the nature of the gun in american society. The freedom
>to legally own a gun is of paramount importance to a large body of people .
>Guns have been a part of american society since its formation.
Well they were only of use after the introduction of the rifled barrel
in the mid-19th century prior to that it has been argued the bow and
arrow were far more accurate, but as with today they were seen as not
being "Modern" unlike the musket. So basing your popular mythology on a
proficiency with a device that you would have difficulty hitting the side
of a barn seems a tad stupid. Also the industrialisation of gun
production really only kicked during the and after the Civil War.
Graham
Brigstocke is a cunt, but not because of remarks like this. Charlton
Heston also seems to be a candidate for that moniker. But whilst
Walmart will sell you ammo for your rifle, but not a scissor sisters
CD that has rude words on it, you know how fucked up America is and
the likes of Heston and other loons at the NRA will prosper
You combine a pathetic strawman deflection with a blatent exclusion-of-
the-middle fallacy. I see no further reason to continue discussing
this with you.
Thank goodness for that. Your pointless attempts to render the NRA
relevant to real life were becoming ever dafter.
--
SAm.