It is a year since I wrote a detailed post about my being banned by the BBC. At the time I wrote that article, I had genuinely forgotten that, during the last of my (once frequent) BBC News appearances, 10 Downing St had called and demanded I was taken off. I just came across this account, which I wrote at the time it happened.
(The point about vehicle excise duty is that at the time those British seamen were captured by Iran, they were officially in process of boarding a ship to do a customs check on vehicles it was carrying).
vehicle exile duty? should that read excise?
Don’t worry Craig I was banned by the BEEB 2 years ago for having the temerity to disagree with them over their adherence to their published programming remit (amongst other things). In fact they banned me and re-instated me about 3 times.
It seems to be a common knee-jerk response from those in control of Auntie’s output. I think they feel the best way to protect the old girl from anything out of they think is not quite the ticket is to lock it in a cupboard and hope it goes away.
Oddly enough, in my case and in the case of many other protesters I was involved with, they extended this ban across the whole of the BBC online and on Facebook and Twitter. And this was after we’d fought tooth and nail to try to save a radio station we all loved (at the time). Or maybe it was because of that.
Who knows?
Anyway I was thinking of printing a T-shirt for members of the banned club. Want one?
As a mere bystander it seemed obvious that something in the BBC( the last shred of integrity?) died at the time of the Gilligan story. Actually it is more accurate to say that the last shred of integrity was dragged out and stamped to death by Campbell, with the support of the other Nulab lowlife, who knew the game was up for Blair and his creepy acolytes, if the Gilligan story stood. Anyway it is interesting to have one’s impressions confirmed by someone much closer to the action. I wonder how many people who followed the story from beginning to end, regard the BBC as anything but a teem box. ( for the non-scots, that means empty and worthless.
The Banned Broadcasters Corporation, basically. You’re not alone by any means.
Which I’m almost glad about these days. If people like you started cropping up on the BBC too often, Craig, I might have to start taking their output seriously. I can do without that kind of confusion – much easier to regard them as NewSpeak and leave it at that.
Why don’t you ring AlJazeera?
I can never see the phrase ‘Banned by the BBC’ without involuntarily hearing it to the tune of ‘Born in the USA’…
Power, freedom of the media and the effectiveness of democracy exist in a relationship like Spreng’s Triangle. Let the power fall.
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http://mccabism.blogspot.com/2007/02/sprengs-triangle.html
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Jack, I can’t hear “Born in the USA” without thinking of Cheech’s (of Cheech and Chong) “Born in East L.A.”
“You looked a lot better on the radio”
That quip at the end of your account reminded me of a funny incident. I was working on an Oil Platform and a famous Scottish comedian was out doing a “show” for the guys.
After about an hour of listening to his routine, which most of us had heard before, he asked if anyone in the audience wanted to raise any topic.
A guy, who we called The Laird said “I’ve seen you on the television”. “Oh! Have you?”. “Yes, I prefer you on the telly”. “Why is that?” “‘Cos I can switch you off”.
That was the best laugh of the night.
That’s quite funny.
Bit of a badge of honour being banned by those tossers – over vehicle excise duty? Sheeesh – now if you shagged their mum?
Why would they want you on BBC, when they can have various people from Quilliams every five minutes??
But seriously, you must be doing something right..
Please feel free to sign…
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/16633
Craig wrote about Westfield Stratford recently. This is John Pilger’s take on it.
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War and shopping – the extremism that never speaks its name
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John Pilger
Published 22 September 2011
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The Westfield Stratford centre, backed by a former Israeli commando and touted as the future face of London by the likes of Boris Johnson, makes a mockery of the East End’s history of productive work.
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Looking for a bookshop that was no longer there, I walked instead into a labyrinth designed as a trap. Leaving became an illusion, rather like Alice once she had stepped through the Looking Glass. Walls of glass curved into concentric circles as one “store” merged into another: Armani Exchange with Dinky-Di Pies. Exits led to gauntlets of more “offers”. Seeking a guide, I bought a lousy pair of sunglasses. Anything to get out. It was a vision of hell. It was a Westfield mega mall.
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This happened in Sydney – where the Westfield empire began – in a “mall” not half as mega as the one that opened in Stratford, east London on 13 September. “Everything” is here, the architectural critic Jonathan Glancey reported, from Apple to Primark, McDonald’s and KFC to Krispy Kreme. There is a cinema with 17 screens and “luxurious VIP seats”, and a mega “luxury” bowling alley. Tracey Emin and Mary Portas lead the Westfield “cultural team”. A “24-hour lifestyle street” called the Arcade leads to the biggest casino in the land. This will be the only way into the 2012 Olympic Games for seven million people attending the athletics. The simple, grotesque message “buy me, buy me” will be London’s welcome to the world.
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/…
http://www.newstatesman.com/society/2011/09/westfield-stratford-pilger
@ Scotsfox
Probably the only way the old girl is going to be laid to rest in her wooden box, is by dismantling the corspe limb by limb. Sadly while she is still being force-fed by the populus, she’s still gonna get up on her hind legs and tell one and all she’s not finished yet. Eventually though a mercy killing will give rest to the old bitch and indeed to those who keep and feed her and endure the nagging and extravagant spending like Imelda Marcos on speed.
Parky Thought you were talking about Maggie until I checked Scotsfox’s link!
“The BBC has totally lost it since Gilligan, Dyke and Hussey were sacked for telling the truth about Iraqi WMD, and David Kelly was murdered.”
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Words of wisdom I just had to repeat.
The US congress on thursday lifted sanctions imposed against Uzbeki government in relation to mass killing in eastern city of Andijan in 2005. Well, Bush administration seems to have been much more pro human rights than the Obama one.
Media Lens editors –
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Yemen president makes surprise return
Posted by The Editors on September 23, 2011, 8:40 am
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‘Correspondents say his return raises the risk of all-out civil war.’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15030899
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And no calls from Obama, Cameron, Sarkozy et al for Saleh to step down. Have the West’s double standards ever been more blatant?
and another sardonic one from them –
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US drone kills 11 in southern Somalia
Posted by The Editors on September 23, 2011, 9:38 am
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Breaking news via PressTV. http://www.presstv.ir/detail/200718.html
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Headline coverage expected throughout the day on BBC lunchtime news, News at Six and News at Ten.
“And no calls from Obama, Cameron, Sarkozy et al for Saleh to step down.”
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Well, they want many foreign leaders to step down, but it would look silly to call them at once. It took months before they moved from Gaddafi to Assad. The time lag wasn’t for retaining current deals with the latter.
One of my favourite film about blacklisting is the film “The Front” directed by Martin Ritt and starring Woody Allen and Zero Mostel. Ritt, Mostel and other actors in the film were blacklisted in the 1950s.
Here’s a question: Are there any whistleblowers in the BBC, who would be willing to spill any “Black List” or censorship procedure, regarding those whom (like yourself) the Establishment might consider undesirable to appear on TV?