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does the bbc support the countryside alliance?

pumpman | 17.09.2002 11:57

BBC gives massive coverage and map to the CA demo

whatever the rights ands wrongs of the CA demo, it is still a demo and yet the BBC is giving it unprecedented coverage including an online map. i wonder if they will give such coverage to the anti-war demo on the 28th SEPt and provide a map!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2231806.stm

pumpman

Comments

Hide the following 11 comments

Why bother?

17.09.2002 12:15

Of course they won't. They will also claim that the 28th Sept demo "attracted 15000 people". That's the figure they always use isn't it? And that is what is fundamentaly wrong with the way the anti-war protests are organized. No publicity, no 'action', same old speakers etc. It had occured to me to make people file through a gate so they could be counted by a group of people, including reps from the Beeb, just so the numbers are accurate. But no. It will be the samba band, a bunch of disgruntled Muslims from Birmingham in coaches, A school teacher with her class singing a little protest song, lots of ex-hippies with mobile phones, dogs, dope. You know what I'm saying- the usual ragbag affair that achieves NOTHING. Shame the public can't hear a recording I made last year (Oct 18th was it?) of a policeman laughing at the Beeb's 'official' figures. "More like double that" he says. I would have thought more like double even his estimate. One thing worth pointing out- the Beeb, The Sun et al all have internet 'feedback' email addresses. A few thousand emails letting them know what cunts they are could have SOME effect. Maybe.

muzikin

Selective Viewing

17.09.2002 14:05

Although helicopters are circling overhead and police cameramen (marksmen) are perched on tall buildings, they NEVER show an areal view of the size of the demo, with the front of the ANTI-WAR march arriving at Trafalgar Sq. before the end has left Hyde Park. Otherwise, more people would see the extent of the resistance and join in. The brain-dead sheep need led, so lead them to the truth, by example.

Ch4

bbc\ca alliance well known

17.09.2002 15:50

Just for the record, the bbc's relationship with the countryside alliance is well known. The previous chairman of the corp, Christopher Bland, was a known supporter and has been known to insist on biased proCA coverage in news, as reported in the Observer a few years ago.

Given that the board of governers, who are supposed to represent the people, are stuffed full of landed gentry and nouvea-riche, biased support for the CA is part of the territory here. I fully endorse calls to protest, but with a twat like G. Dyke in charge...I mean, this was the guy who apologised for the S11 special edition of Question Time, becausé it allowed freedom of speech to the anti-USgov parties present, and thus annoyed a few people. Twat.

stinkbomb

BBC news on 21 September and 28 Septembr

17.09.2002 16:02

21 September - Countryside campaigners mass in London in rural revolt (Front Page)
2.5 million people from across the UK amassed in Central London to deliver a damning verdict on the government's plans to outlaw torturing wild animals to death. All the people there are upstanding citizens representing all the good honest folk of the countryside, yes sir.

28 September - Tens of peace activists join up with a couple of Muslim fundamentalists to appease Iraqi dictator
Around 43 unfashionable hippies and Muslim scum held a small irrelevant rally chanting 'jihad' and 'make love not war' raising a smile on the faces of passing tourists and indifferent Londoners. The organisers claimed there were 200,000, but as the state media, we're only going to publish police lies.

Dan

Please DO bother

17.09.2002 17:42

Pumpman is absolutely right. The BBC's website, Radio 4, Radio London, and Radio 5 live have all carried what can only be called publicity for the CA march. Clearly the "right" to torture small animals carries more merit than opposition to the mechanised slaughter of people.

But muzikin, in asking "why bother", is suggesting we do precisley what Greg Dyke and Co. want - namely staying at home and trusting our government. Far more positive was his/her suggestion to complain to the BBC about their biased coverage.

It may feel like peeing in the wind, but an avalanche of complaints will surely register with the people at the top. And the same applies with local and national newspapers, who are also blowing the horn for the CA.

And muzikin, please try to make it on the 28th!

Auntie Beeb (no relation)

Ambridge resistance!

17.09.2002 19:57

Plenty of coverage on the Archers also,though Jill Archer is
the lone voice of resistance!
Turn the hounds on the hunt and get off our sreets!

radiohead

Why?

17.09.2002 20:28

As someone who was born and brought up in the countryside and who comes from a family of farmers, I really don't understand why so many people are willing to go to London for a march in support of fox hunting.

Fox hunting has little to do with rural life, least of all the jobs and lifestyle of the majority of rural people. Personally, I know of no-one who depends on hunting for a living. The only sign of fox hunting I have seen is when I was walking on land owned by Lord Braybrooke of Audley End, who had strung up about a dozen foxes by their necks in a clearing. This is the truth of fox hunting: it is a filthy sport pursued by the morally bankrupt rural gentry and their cohorts.

The main issues in the countryside concern over-development, lack of cheap housing and poor public services - the same issues that affect urban areas. The Countryside Alliance has little to say about these important issues - they only want their right to kill foxes.

The real reason I suspect for the amount of support given to the Countryside Alliance is the tide of shallow right-wing reactionary thinking that has swept affluent anti-socialist groups. This is spurred on by the right-wing press.

Don't think the Countryside Alliance is the face of rural Britain - it's the face of a backward-looking group of bigots.

Dan

Food as a Weapon

18.09.2002 11:19

The government has linked fox-hunting to farmer's grievances to discredit their cause. The countryside is being taken-over for more corporate exploitation, like all other aspects of natural living, (it's called 'bio-diversity') while they poison the livestock with BSC & F&M and contaminate agriculture with GMO's to destroy livelihoods. There has also been record-breaking flood damage to agriculture in dozens of countries. The transnationals wants totalitarian control of all food production, and hunger.

Scam

more on CA

18.09.2002 11:21

Try:

http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/pages/Countryside_Alliance.html

for more on who is behind the Countryside Alliance and their real objectives.

They're a front organisation bamboozling desperate country people for their own ends,and coincidentally further distracting the poor of both town and country from common interests by emphasising a notional divide.

laura

BUILD THE MOVEMENT!

18.09.2002 22:07

And yet even though they refuse to cover our protests, everybody in the country feels something is happening, and seems to know that there is an anti-war movement.

Everyone needs to just carry on building and building the anti-war/anti-capitalist movement.

Soon they won't be able to ignore it.

The anti-war motions at the TUC are already leading them to expect it. . .

ANTONIUS CLIFFUS JNR.

what about angling then?

20.09.2002 08:53

"Basically they are ideal traditional white Brits, heterosexual, beef eating, and conservative with a small 'c' even if they are progressive enough to vote Labour!"

This is part of the blurb for the anti-CA demo.

I don't know what's worse- the 'official' media, or this
offensive short-sighted farmer-phobic bollocks.

Listen pal, if fox hunting's so bad why aren't you and your mates protesting against angling?

The anti CA thing is just jealousy. People living in rancid, noisy cities getting the wrong idea completely about something of which they have no clue at all.