Obvious omissions...

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Bit late to this but had a busy week! Apparently the BBC has shown bias by omission...OK, I'm not late to that obvious news - [edit] having been whinging about their news and political coverage online for at least 10 years, ranting about it generally (especially things like Question Time etc - post 911 programme was the last straw) for at least 20 years and not paying the TV Tax for 13 years but even I was surprised by the level of bias shown now that a referendum for our EU membership is approaching:

"Voices favouring Britain’s exit from the EU have tended to be under-represented on Radio 4’s Today Programme. From March 2004 to July 2015, there were 4,275 guest speakers on EU themes. Just 3% of these were explicitly in favour of Britain’s withdrawal from the EU"

...and over a third of that 3% was Nigel Farage dozens of times! News Watch does a good job of listing a few other daily 'crimes' by the BBC like bias by selection and bias by preferential presentation. I have added this site to my side-bar (rather than Links page) to keep up with its excellent outing of Spin Central and broadcasting arm of the Guardian that is the BBC. :-)

Obvious omissions...

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Bit late to this but had a busy week! Apparently the BBC has shown bias by omission...OK, I'm not late to that obvious news - [edit] having been whinging about their news and political coverage online for at least 10 years, ranting about it generally (especially things like Question Time etc - post 911 programme was the last straw) for at least 20 years and not paying the TV Tax for 13 years but even I was surprised by the level of bias shown now that a referendum for our EU membership is approaching:

"Voices favouring Britain’s exit from the EU have tended to be under-represented on Radio 4’s Today Programme. From March 2004 to July 2015, there were 4,275 guest speakers on EU themes. Just 3% of these were explicitly in favour of Britain’s withdrawal from the EU"

...and over a third of that 3% was Nigel Farage dozens of times! News Watch does a good job of listing a few other daily 'crimes' by the BBC like bias by selection and bias by preferential presentation. I have added this site to my side-bar (rather than Links page) to keep up with its excellent outing of Spin Central and broadcasting arm of the Guardian that is the BBC. :-)

Ominous oro outing...

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Just reading about what I mentioned a few years ago coming to the fore again: I wrote "If you have it, not on paper, if you have physical gold, hide it"...

"The same greedy disaster that has befallen the money market is happening to gold as well (and probably everything else) much as banks never have cash anywhere near the amount of money they lend, so too bullion banks hold only a tiny proportion of the gold they sell."

That was scary enough but the moment now seems to have arrived, maybe... ZeroHedge: "The Death Of The Gold Market", OK, so it's based on uno solo informe of ADMISI's Paul Mylchreest [Full 60 page Report: PDF] stating that the "'float' of physical gold in London (excluding gold owned by ETFs and central banks) has recently declined to +/- zero.". The ETFs mentioned [edit]: "Gold ETFs provide investors with exposure to gold by tracking the price changes of gold. This allows investors to profit from gold price changes without having to own the physical asset."...better if it is physical: if you own it you should be able touch it; put it under the cellar floor (and beware the gold-tungsten adultery). Just checked when I suggested buying big - Oro offers opportunity - 10 years exactly; after the initial jitters it's been all good. But moving will cost a fortune!

Ominous oro outing...

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Just reading about what I mentioned a few years ago coming to the fore again: I wrote "If you have it, not on paper, if you have physical gold, hide it"...

"The same greedy disaster that has befallen the money market is happening to gold as well (and probably everything else) much as banks never have cash anywhere near the amount of money they lend, so too bullion banks hold only a tiny proportion of the gold they sell."

That was scary enough but the moment now seems to have arrived, maybe... ZeroHedge: "The Death Of The Gold Market", OK, so it's based on uno solo informe of ADMISI's Paul Mylchreest [Full 60 page Report: PDF] stating that the "'float' of physical gold in London (excluding gold owned by ETFs and central banks) has recently declined to +/- zero.". The ETFs mentioned [edit]: "Gold ETFs provide investors with exposure to gold by tracking the price changes of gold. This allows investors to profit from gold price changes without having to own the physical asset."...better if it is physical: if you own it you should be able touch it; put it under the cellar floor (and beware the gold-tungsten adultery). Just checked when I suggested buying big - Oro offers opportunity - 10 years exactly; after the initial jitters it's been all good. But moving will cost a fortune!

Obvious 'opposition'...

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Via Reuters: "This phenomenon is called negative partisanship"... ..."If we were trying to maximize the effect, we couldn't have found better nominees than Trump and Clinton." You got that right.



"It's going to get very, very negative"... order the popcorn.

Obvious 'opposition'...

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Via Reuters: "This phenomenon is called negative partisanship"... ..."If we were trying to maximize the effect, we couldn't have found better nominees than Trump and Clinton." You got that right.

"It's going to get very, very negative"... order the popcorn.

Obama obsessing over Obama...

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Like him, love him, hate him or indifferent, the following Politico article [LINK] on Obama communications is worth a read (OK, you need to have an interest!): 'The Selling of Obama',

"When Obama himself has been asked about his administration's failures, he's harped on communication failures, and it’s been a consistent theme inside his White House. "Our policies are so awesome," he quipped to a few aides after a 2011 Roosevelt Room meeting. "Why can’t you guys do a better job selling them?" I interviewed more than two dozen current and former administration officials for this article, and at least a dozen told me some version of the internal joke that every problem in Obamaworld is a communications problem."

I've never thought much of him, the gross partisan bias offered by 99% of the US/UK MSM (especially the BBC this side of the water) made me suspicious and 'anti' from the word go. Nothing since has changed my opinion. Hailed as the Great Communicator I was unable to listen to more than a few sentences from Obama before switching off; what Politico calls the "president’s Spock-like, no-drama persona has also complicated his efforts to connect with the public" was exacerbated by his droning boring voice with constant drawn out pauses making it hard to pay attention. He's not alone, the modern political norm, designed to create an impression of gravitas, I imagine, is as highly overrated and overused as it is unsuccessful in its aim.



"He sees himself as a storyteller as well as a policymaker, and by his own admission, he hasn’t always told a persuasive story."...[face-palm]



Also of interest in the same vein: a great info-graphic (scroll down a bit) of make-up of the WH press lobby: 21% registered DEM (as against only 8% REP) but 86% of them think Clinton will be next POTUS.

Obama obsessing over Obama...

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Like him, love him, hate him or indifferent, the following Politico article [LINK] on Obama communications is worth a read (OK, you need to have an interest!): 'The Selling of Obama',

"When Obama himself has been asked about his administration's failures, he's harped on communication failures, and it’s been a consistent theme inside his White House. "Our policies are so awesome," he quipped to a few aides after a 2011 Roosevelt Room meeting. "Why can’t you guys do a better job selling them?" I interviewed more than two dozen current and former administration officials for this article, and at least a dozen told me some version of the internal joke that every problem in Obamaworld is a communications problem."

I've never thought much of him, the gross partisan bias offered by 99% of the US/UK MSM (especially the BBC this side of the water) made me suspicious and 'anti' from the word go. Nothing since has changed my opinion. Hailed as the Great Communicator I was unable to listen to more than a few sentences from Obama before switching off; what Politico calls the "president’s Spock-like, no-drama persona has also complicated his efforts to connect with the public" was exacerbated by his droning boring voice with constant drawn out pauses making it hard to pay attention. He's not alone, the modern political norm, designed to create an impression of gravitas, I imagine, is as highly overrated and overused as it is unsuccessful in its aim.

"He sees himself as a storyteller as well as a policymaker, and by his own admission, he hasn’t always told a persuasive story."...[face-palm]

Also of interest in the same vein: a great info-graphic (scroll down a bit) of make-up of the WH press lobby: 21% registered DEM (as against only 8% REP) but 86% of them think Clinton will be next POTUS.