Politic Blunder Boycotts BBC

Long-time readers will remember that I have had my problems with the BBC news service in the past. The kinds of stories they choose to cover venture dangerously close to tabloidism, as does their treatment of more serious issues. 

The issue of the Disasters Emergency Committee ad not being aired reaches another level, though. As many of you will have heard, the BBC chose not to air an ad by the DEC asking for donations to provide blankets and other basic supplies to the victims of the recent Gaza conflict. The BBC have aired many DEC ads before for other crises, but have refused to air this one for fear of "giving the public the impression that the BBC was taking sides in an ongoing conflict" (in the words of BBC head Mark Thompson, an overweeningly arrogant ignoramus).

That this is a ridiculous stance to take is obvious. The DEC is a humanitarian organisation composed of such members as the Red Cross, World Vision, and Oxfam, and the ad is distinctly non-political. By not showing the ad, it is the BBC that is taking an explicitly political stance, in that they are concerned that Hamas might possibly benefit from schools being built in the areas they control. 

For these and other reasons, Politic Blunder will be boycotting all BBC news sources for exactly one year, at which point it will be subject to review. This means that I won't be visiting any BBC websites, and I will not intentionally watch any BBC televised programming. 

If any of you want to donate to the DEC for Gaza relief, go to this website: DEC

Alternatively, the address is:

DEC Gaza Crisis

PO Box 999

London EC3A 3AA

If you want to read the infuriating text of Mark Thompson's attempt to justify his "moral cowardice" (in Bill Bailey's apt words), go here.

If you want to see a haplessly retarded BBC newsreader trying to justify a decision she's too stupid to have an opinion on to aged British socialist Tony Benn, go here.