- The Cat

They also gave us Benny Hill, does that help [you hate the BBC]?

Hell, no! Benny Hill seemed to embody the American spirit more patriotically than your typical American Democrat.

I’d take a Benny Hill over a Harry Reid any day.

I was so flabbergasted, indeed morally outraged at the notion that I pay for this TV License (tax), that I told them I did not own a TV. They did not believe me and I was forced to “hide” my TV when they sent some clip-board wielding pinhead to my flat to check up on me.

I understand that the BBC has gotten quite sophisticated in their ability to sniff out unlicensed televisions. I believe they have surveillance vehicles that are actually able to detect televisions, that drive around all day long doing nothing but trying to detect unlicensed television sets.

Any Brits care to confirm or deny?

I want to hate the BBC; really, I do.

But they gave us Dr Who!

Kensington on July 12, 2007 at 10:15 PM

They also gave us Benny Hill, does that help?

I actually like New Who even more than Classic Who. Sure it’s a bit lefty, but the original series was, too. At least the new version is emotionally engaging.

Kensington on July 12, 2007 at 11:38 PM

I always preferred “Horton Hears a Who” myself, but I’m a Dr. Seuss fan.

On topic: The Queen should gather all of the BBC executives in a audience before her, loudly scream “Off with their heads!” and then hand them over to her royal guards.

They are a ‘government corporation’ a mutant cross between ‘NPR’ and Pravda, ideologically to left of Stalin

Janos Hunyadi on July 12, 2007 at 10:42 PM

And further, their programming sucks too.

When I’m in the UK, I just put the TV on SkyNews and leave it there.

A colour TV Licence costs £135.50 and a black and white licence costs £45.50

When I had to move to the U.K. for work years ago (late 1990s, thankfully repatriated back to the State), the TV Licensing Bureau sent me a letter saying that if I owned a TV I was required to pay for this sh-toopid License. When you pay for the license, you get some kind of cable box. The thing is that you only get “basic” TV stations (including the BBC. in fact, the TV License Bureau is run by the Beeb.)

I was so flabbergasted, indeed morally outraged at the notion that I pay for this TV License (tax), that I told them I did not own a TV. They did not believe me and I was forced to “hide” my TV when they sent some clip-board wielding pinhead to my flat to check up on me.

Over the course of my first six months in the UK, they continued to harass with correspondence demanding that I pay for the TV License, to which I always said “I don’t own a TV.” They finally gave up and left me alone.

For me, it wasn’t so much that the TVL was unaffordable. It was the principle of the whole situation. I refused to pay some compulsory tax for something which, in my view, I should not have to pay for.

Anyway, I did not have time to watch TV over there any way, and boy am I glad that not a single pence of my hard earned money went to subsidize those jackholes at the TV Licensing Bureau and the Beeb…

“Blue Peter” is a UK kids’ show. Get your minds out of the gutter.

(Anyone know what the contest irregularity that cost them a L50000 fine may have been?)

The Queen has endured much more than anyone realizes. (Unless there are those who actually read history nowadays!)

This phot-hog Annie-whatever sounds like a dragster to me. If this photo of the Queen is the one Annie actually took, it really sucks! Too much light on the one side of the Queen. Good Lord! I could take a much better picture and be more respectful!

Seriously, How can they produce, edit and broadcast something and then turn around and say they don’t know how it happened?

…well, they gave us the original Dr Who; but then they gave us the new Dr Who, too…

(no alliteration intended)

I actually like New Who even more than Classic Who. Sure it’s a bit lefty, but the original series was, too. At least the new version is emotionally engaging.

I want to hate the BBC; really, I do.

But they gave us Dr Who!

Kensington on July 12, 2007 at 10:15 PM

…well, they gave us the original Dr Who; but then they gave us the new Dr Who, too…

(no alliteration intended)

Effete, definition #2, by Wikipedia,

Marked by self-indulgence, triviality, or decadence: an effete group of self-professed intellectuals.

Is that not the Beeb to a T?

You left out the CBC. Our friends to the north aren’t immune either.

thedecider on July 12, 2007 at 10:38 PM

You mean the Communist Broadcast Corp. decider? I didn’t leave them out – just lumped them in with “most other media”. There are hardly exceptions to the pack. Agree though that the CBC, BBC int’l and CNN int’l are some of the worst. Of course not to forget the NYT, Reuters, the AP – heck, if we list, we’ll forget a bad one again. Regards,

Suddenly it is revealed to be deliberately manipulating its images to dupe the public. At a stroke, the trust it engenders has been shattered. And over the Queen, of all people!

If it transposes a picture sequence like this to sex up a story about the Queen by transmitting an outright falsehood, just think what it is doing in the Middle East.

BBC caught with pants down –Melanie Phillips