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Who wouldnt do what Fiona told them?

please can she whisper "two minutes" in my ear every night!

Martha just a quick question. Do you have faith in this blogging medium or is this medium suited to blase comment?

Andrew (8),

I know what you're getting at but isn't one person's 'blasé comment' another's free speech?

At least these Newsnight blogs don't limit comments to 500 words so you can develop a more involved argument if you're driven to. Top marks to Newsnight for that.

I have to commend you on the artful way in which you have mastered reading the autocue, but no that’s not enough, apparently you have mastered the art of listening to and obeying Digital Dorothy. Maybe you could write up on your choices for lipstick next. I'm sure plenty of thought goes into that too. Nice and safe, and inoffensive, sums up the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ really, and the whole western media doesn't it, nice toe-the-line, never-question-the-status-quo news. I see so much talk of a liberal, left wing pro-Islamist media, I mean, surely, does anyone really believe the beeb is pro-Islamist? I mean, seriously, are this people paid to write this non-sense to give an appearance of liberal credibility to the beeb? I have not once seen a report about the middle east for example, where Israel wasn’t talked of as attacking terrorist strong holds, while the other side are always described as attacking cities or villages. Yet, the facts on the ground tell a different story – in the Lebanon conflict, there have been about 144 Israeli fatalities, of which 114 are soldiers, while on the Lebanese side, over a 1000 fatalities, mainly civilian!!!! The statistics are quite self explanatory. Palestinians live under an apartheid regime, subjected to the most dehumanising conditions, and Israel continues to arrogantly flout all manner of human rights and Geneva Convention rules. Yet, all the reporting suggests legitimate targeting of combat strongholds by Israel? I mean, please spare me, at least Fox news has a sense of humour about their insanity by calling their news fair and balanced!

Ref Karanja #8

As to what you consume from the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ (TV, Satellite/Cable, internet, radio) & how you access it - are you British? - in respect that perhaps your version of 'objectivity' esp on a issue of interest to you, is different than of a British audience standpoint & expectation.

Personally, I love the beeb & though I acknowledge that members of the liberal left & 'supposed' intelligentsia keep the beeb ticking over (passion & interest) they rather let their socialist slip show & lost objectivity in many instances during this conflict.

They ought to be very mindful about how much liberal news content they would get on a commercialised ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳, they should not undermine the common consensus about how the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ has been funded for 60+ years - clue look at ITV, Fox, Sky - the centre right dominates commercialised NCA broadcasting (though C4 News output & editorial direction increasing reads like The Indepedent, are they sharing same resources/source/people)

To a British audience, the beebs recent domestic coverage became bias ref Lebanese spat between Hezbullah & Israel. 1ST TIME ever I had to go purposely outside the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ to obtain balance & views on a story, because their was a complete lack of counterbalance.

ME domestic coverage by the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ TV (1 o'clock, 6 o'clock & 10 o'clock) was lamentable - same editing teams, personnel, sharing the same verbiage & footage?

NCA flagship programmes like Newsnight (TV) & Today (Radio 4) did not go down the same route, nor did News 24 (in the main) - thank god for several editing teams (suspect 'Birts' management consultants wanted far less & all singing from the same hymn sheet if nothing else than too keep costs down).

A couple of reporters went native & lost objectivity, but none to the extent than the late great - Fergal Keane (indulging in what some called 'pornography of grief') -

But as usual John Simpson & Jeremy Bowen maintain objectivity & cool heads in hot times.

³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ coverage since is notably different, back to normal objectivity - did anyone intervene?

Q. anyone know where Fergal Keane had gone - has he been rendered?

vikingar

I'm not sure I agree that John Simpson is objective. What I think he is is patronising to be honest and he's an apologist. He's always saying things like "these things happen in war" when some war crime has been committed.

i think the people of the middle east should have there say, we could be spending some of that cash there spending on killing the irak people on getting them set up and able to communicate with the rest of the world, which i understood was the idea at the start of this campaighn, there should be communications sites,internet, telephones, tv and news so we can understand these people and hear what they have to say, there is a few people in goverment making these decisions for the rest of the world when nobody is listening or able to hear the voices of the people that it really matters to, if we can hear them we might understand them and then we know know exactky what it is there people would like and how we can help them, connect them to the rest of the world and start communicating, lets face it it, either we can just keep shooting them to help with the population growth problem or we can do what it is we said we were going in there for and help them, have they got access to world news, the internet or other media, can they access the the internet and show us there web cams and tell us how we, ie the rest of the world can help there nation, all iv seen is our troops killing there people raiding there homes and taking away any rights they have,who can blame them for volunteering to fight for there country when we have stripped them of there rights and beliefs, i say get them communicated with the rest of the world! ther only way to world peace is is to want wont world peace, if this is what the world wants why is it getting worse. all nations must combine, discuss, listen and be give the others the same equal rights, isnt that what this country is supposed to be about, equall rights?????