NOVANEWS
by Stephen Lendman
On February 11, the London Independent headlined, “BBC to issue global apology for documentaries that broke rules,” saying:
“….(P)rograms were made by third-party in pay of governments and firms.”
In other words, they were propaganda, not legitimate news and information. More on the scandal below.
Throughout its history, BBC’s been an imperial tool. It replicates the worst of America’s major media, its NPR/PBS managed news operations, and Qatar controlled Al Jazeera on major world and national issues.
Reliability’s not its mandate. Owned, operated and controlled by Britain, government officials appoint its management. Nothing fundamentally changed from 1922 inception to today. Only technology’s different, not BBC’s state controlled message.
It’s pro-government, pro-imperial, pro-war, pro-Israel, pro-corporate, and anti-populist. Deception triumphs over truth. Step over the line and get fired.
In 2003, correspondent Andrew Gilligan, Chairman Gavyn Davies, and Director-General Greg Dyke got the boot because Gilligan reported government officials “sexed up” WMD documents, knowing they were false.
In other words, fake information, in league with Washington, promoted war on Iraq. Exposing it got Gilligan and top management axed. New bosses replaced former ones. Seamlessly it was back to business as usual, producing propaganda instead of truth and full disclosure.
In March 2011, the London Guardian headlined, “BBC World Service to sign funding deal with US State Department,” saying:
BBC will “receive a ‘significant’ sum of money from the US government to help (circumvent) the blocking of TV and internet services in countries including Iran and China,” as well as develop early warning software to more easily detect jamming.
At the time, BBC’s Jim Egan said software would help “monitor dips in traffic which act as an early warning of jamming, and can be more effective than relying on people contacting us and telling us they cannot access the services.”
Proxy servers are also used to misdirect web site blockers to countries other than where broadcasts emanate.
Egan left unexplained why foreign blocking occurs: namely, to prevent state-sponsored propaganda vilifying targeted regimes. Funding buys influence. According to Institute of Economic Affairs director Mark Littlewood:
“The minute you actually start taking the money, there is bound to be a certain element of ‘he who pays the piper calls the tune.’ It is a strange arrangement, and I would worry that the more complicated we make (BBC), the less pure its message can be.”
Of course, BBC’s tainted and disreputable, not pure. Its state controlled message serves wealth and power. EU Parliament member Gerard Batten once called it “institutionally politically biased, certainly in favour of things like the European Union, mass immigration, and a whole other ‘politically correct’ ideas that I think it peddles to the public.”
He added that the “sponsorship of any news and current affairs TV programs (is prohibited) across the EU. Now it would appear then, that if the US State Department is going to fund BBC that would appear to be in breach of the directive.”
BBC’s Latest Scandal
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London Independent investigation learned how BBC’s paid nominal fees of as little as one British pound for programming produced by Britain’s FactBased Communications (FBC Media).
It calls itself “a European-based media and entertainment group specializing in television format creation, production and distribution.”
Its activities include “current affairs content for television and airlines plus original TV format creation and quality production for the UK and international television markets in the business, economy, entertainment, sport and factual genres, as well as FBC’s international sales, sponsorship and distribution of syndicated programmes.”
The spotlight is on the relationship between FBC Media — the British publicity firm led by media giant Alan Friedman (picture) and former CNN reporter John Defterios …