h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Now this should cause a few heart problems?...

Consider this timeline...

Thursday 23rd January 10pm. BBC 2

At the end of last weeks HORIZON I'm sure that there was a publicity spot for the next weeks show... on the subject of "Dirty Radioactive Bombs"

then

According to http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2711645.stm

dated Friday 31st January

"British Officials said on Thursday [Presumably the 30th Jan.] Bin Laden had gained the Expertise and possibly the materials to build a crude radioactive bomb"

and

"...evidence which they claim shows that al-Qaeda has been trying to assemble radioactive material to build a so-called dirty bomb."

So, the BBC schedule a programme on dirty bombs and then, on the day of its transmission the Government come up with "evidence" saying that OBL and his cronies are actually building the thing...

Does this strike anyone else as being a little too much of a coincidence?

The "evidence" was leaked to the BBC (or at least that was the impression I got from the breakfast news this morning)...so it sounds to me more like the BBC held on to the evidence while Horizon made the show and then released it with enough time to get some publicity for the show...I would imagine that either the show is based around some of the evidence or that the shows makers came across the evidence while making the show

The problem with that was the programme was on yesterday evening and the news reports seem to have appeared today! A little too late for publicity for the BBC, but perfect timing for Tony Blair

hmmm

*wanders off for a rethink*

What! Surely you are not suggesting that the British Government may be indulging in propaganda through its wholly owned media company.
I doubt the fact that the Government were last week discussing re-examining the BBC's licence has had any bearing on editorial policy.

My my! you're even more cynical than I am Dr.M

It was still the same pap that horizon usually turn out these days

There seemed to be quite a lot of influence from the us production company - "this would be easy here in the US - and the UK" and although the bomber in the fictional scenario was never shown he was wrapping his radioactive material in a newspaper with (I think) arabic script. Hmmmm. There was also some stuff about an american who was supposedly paid by OBL to build a dirty bomb in the us.

And the visuals had more shots than necessary of well-known London landmarks (Hint to US audience, this is England, see, there is tower bridge).

I don't think it was a 'special' programme though - I don't think was knocked together in the last week or so to fit with Tony's latest wheeze - although where it was scheduled in the series may have changed for propaganda purposes I suppose...

I'll agree with that, it definitely didn't seem to have been put together at the last minute (and you're not alone in thinking that horizon is going downhill rapidly nowadays)...

But that leaves the other possibility open...

Was 'Tony's latest wheeze' thrown together at the last moment just as added justification for a future attack on Iraq?

The timing does smell some what piscine. It seems highly likely that there was some collusion to ensure that both pieces of information came out at the same time. i.e. HM Gov. had some info on dirty bombs (wasn't there a guy arrested in the US in the middle of last year to do with this?) and the BBC had an upcoming program on the subject, due to it being on peoples minds. It wouldn't take much to arrang ethe two at the same time, especially as the BBC publishes schedules well in advance.

The guy arrested in the US was mentioned in the programme.

So the conspiracy theory here isn't that the govt is manipulating the BBC to show propaganda at appropriate times, but that the govt line is being influenced by what was on telly last night?

*ponders the ramifications on govt policy of Cat Slater's unwanted pregnancy*

That's about it... the BBC plans a piece of sensationalistic programming and the government jumps on the bandwagon screaming 'al-qaeda'... which the BBC then publishes as a follow up.

Is the 'evidence' produced just another excuse, justifying to the British public, the governments current aggresive policies?

Hmmm, maybe it is actually the Beeb pulling the government strings but trying to make it look like the government pulling the Beeb's strings. Have the italics finally staged their coup?

The thing is if you watch enough of the new realted BBC programmes you can get a balance of the views however they are sometimes hard to discern. And most of the population doesn't sit through question time Politics Daily or Newsnight.

Indeed, there was one on not so long ago "Seven Ways to Topple Saddam" or something which seemed very anti war to me. Oh and there is somewthing on BBC Four tonight on a guy travelling to all the "Axis of Evil" countries to see what they are like. Really fancy giving that a go.

I take it some of you will remember the "Your NHS" special last year, with its intensely placatory tone, the elimination by phone vote to see what were the 'important' issues to be dealt with (as opposed to the ones which could clearly be forgotten about, because they didn't make the top 5) and the unctuous Blair interview at the end?

Auntie Beeb, a government tool? Nah.

Actually that Axis Of Evil thing is going to look at the humans not hte politicians in the countries names by Bush and is therefore intended to but a human face on those we may end up bombing.

Oh the joys of working the late shift a chatching previews on daytime during the week.

If the BBC produces its programming purely at the behest of the government I'm not sure how Holidays in the Axis of Evil ever got shown. It was on on consecutive evenings this week on BBC4. The presenter (Ben Anderson I think) took tours (ostensibly to view archeological sites) in Bush's 'Axis of Evil' countries and did his upmost to speak to ordinary people about their country's regime. Sadly this was not too easy as in the various countries visited, ordinary people were not much in evidence (either because the tour group were kept separate from the general populace, or seemingly because people were afraid to offer any other opinion than favourable to a foreigner).

It appears that in all of the countries named by Bush (except Cuba which seems pretty pro-american all things considered) the US is reviled, with the UK (especially Blair) seen as a US puppet. US foreign policy caused the biggest negative reactions from the interviewees but the most alarming thing was that, the terrorist threat we are currently being made aware of is seen as deserved and equal to that which is sanctioned by the west and perpetrated by the Israelis agains the Palestinians. The interesting thing about the programme is that you could really see why the interviewees felt that way.

It is a shame that this has only been shown on digital TV. A wider terrestrial audience should have the chance to see this.

I'm more of the opinion that the government is producing evidence to fit a BBC programme... The programme came first, the report on Al-qaeda later...

The Holidays in the Axis of Evil series is due to be screened on BBC2 in early February... you can all catch it then if you so desire... I think I will be...

There has been interesting timing of shows here in US too. The content in established shows are changing also.

The daily shows occaissionally mention how they are doing their patriotic duty to do _____. They are not always smiling about it. As soon as the economy went down here, there has been a lot of selling and reviewing of expensive products on the newsy shows. There is not a live show available that does not do it. It was present before, has escalated.

There is a womens daytime show here that has *had* to have the religious right appear and speak about "pro-life" and other issues. In the history of the show its in direct conflict with their previous views and guests.

The entertainment industry has always been propagandized more in times of war. New *policies* here are present and obviously escalating. There has been distress over the fact that people are now on the internet more than watching TV and reading traditional papers.