Where to go now that the BBC has proved unreliable.

[noriise]

quoted you here: http://mad-as-hell.tumblr.com/

 

[noriise]

Give me three better words for it... you can have six if you like.

The Situation

 

[camouflage]

I like the BBC and have always relied upon it for news about international issues. the BBC World Service is still good, probably because the UK politicians are not really aware of it.

However the reporting of the Gaza war has shown that the good old Beeb is cowed by the outcome of the Hutton report and is fearsome of offending the British Establishment/government of the day which has control of the license fee.

The Radio 4 Today programme is generally sound but does have a tendency to parrot the stories in the Mail of a morning, and use them as if they were original research when they are just mediated press statements from the government or other pressure group. The best bit is that they do live interviews with politicians and often set the political agenda of the day.

However on foreign affairs the BBC organisation seems to have prevented some of its excellent correspondents on the ground from broadcasting material that the British Government doesn't like. This explains the dreadful reporting of the Gaza war and also the lack of willingness to publicise the charity appeal for the DES.

In the light of the above, I am one of many people who are looking for alternative news services at least temporily until the BBC grows a backbone.

My suggestions for alternative news are as follows.

Go to Livestation.com. It gives you access to lots of English speaking television services. I use Aljazeera from that site quite often, but there also lots of European and for that matter Russian channels who put out programmes on the internet. Nasa television is also represented and quite interesting.

It just gives a more international and refreshing view of the news and puts Britain and its issues in a world a context.

It is not my intention to abandon the Beeb completely but to give it a chance to sort itself out so that I can return and use it again as a major source of information.

Aljazeera. Really, it is rather good. Think I'll start a thread actually...

 

[camouflage]

not to say leave it there mind, just that it's a good source in my opinion to add to your list of other news sources.

 

[noriise]

not to say leave it there mind, just that it's a good source in my opinion to add to your list of other news sources.

Although I hear the English and Arabic services are very different. (?)

 

[tangentlama]

lol - so whats the deal with memri?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/aug/12/worlddispatch.brianwhitaker

memri - they cherry pick misrepresentative quotes and then use them to justify a political stance, so not a charity, but a political bureau of sorts.
if you want a medley of middle eastern viewpoints without being told what to think, then try linktv.org's mosaic newscast - these are accurate translations of a wide range of middle eastern tv stations from israel to iran (and egypt too).
http://www.linktv.org/mosaic

debka - this is something that not even israeli intelligence take seriously.
i think it's run by two ex-journalists (note the ex) who were employed on Time magazine some years ago.
http://tonykaron.com/2007/08/11/debka-made-em-do-it

ynet - yediot aharonoth - it's got a range of opinion and news from israel and the jewish world. i guess it tends to the centre, but it has a range of opinion from right to left. i read it myself and there are some good writers and some bad writers as well as some good opinions that make you think 'ah sanity in this crazy world' and give you hope, and then there are some intractable, stubborn wingnut opinions that make you despair and think 'you're trying to force me to accompany you to the-hell-you-made in your badly-crafted handcart'

 

[London_Calling]

http://english.aljazeera.net/ - as a general, balanced, sensibly prioritised, journalistic news souce.

 

[elbows]

Butchers post is spot on.

The Iraq War was a good example of major differences o opinion within the elites and managerial classes. So the BBC was quite interesting to watch for a few years, but that era came to a bit of a sharp end with the David Kelly stuff. They were slapped back into line to an extent.

 

[shagnasty]

most countries have their own radio channels like detsche welle ,v.o.a radio moscow.but the world service had a good reputation .although it is called bbc world service it is funded differently i think that get a sum from the government.people like Mark Tully was a respested figure in the indian sub continent.so if you want respect as a broadcaster you have to earn .which fox news certainly has (right wing knee jerk pile of shite)