BBC – hoist on their own petard

Tim Davie, the BBC director General has resigned over criticism about biased reporting, most significantly splicing together footage about Trump which misrepresented what he actually said. Though Gaza and transgender biases were also an issue.

  BBC devotees are crying foul that he (and the Head of News)  were forced out by rightwing members of the BBC’s board (which will ultimately appoint the new director-general). Critics of the BBC say they have been penalized for their own mistakes.

 Astrologically two things could not be clearer. One is that the BBC for all its strengths is an insular, arrogant organization, bad at admitting and sorting out mistakes. Secondly that Term charts are the most helpful.

 In reverse order, Tim Davie took up office on 1 September 2020, which warned of an exceptionally testing five years to come with Mars in Aries square Saturn Pluto (Jupiter) in Capricorn.  The Solar Arc Pluto has moved to square the Mars exactly now which is usually train-hits-the-buffers time. Davie has had an unusually challenging term with the Huw Edwards scandal, Gary Lineker, Glastonbury ‘Death to the IDF’ footage not being removed etc etc. Mercury opposition Neptune would also not help when it came to mounting sensible defences to criticism, justified or otherwise.

 The BBC chart itself, 14 November 1922 6pm London, has a determined Scorpio Sun square an evasive Neptune so as an organization is unlikely to respond well to criticism. Even more so because of its Water Grand Trine of Pluto in Cancer trine Uranus trine Mercury in Scorpio. Water Grand Trines are creative and imaginative but can be detached from reality since they live in their own dream world. Made even more so in this case since there are no oppositions from the Grand Trine legs to channel the energy outwards.

   Plus an emphasized Mars in Aquarius which is opposition Neptune, trine Saturn, square Mercury and on one leg of a yod sextile Venus inconjunct Pluto.  In my experience Mars in Aquarius can be one of the trickier ones – its obstinacy and inherent intolerance magnified by its opinionated 9th house position. A Pluto focal point yod also has a tendency to misuse power.

  For all the inflated predictions that the BBC is finished there is little to show instantly that looks terminal. Indeed in 2026/27 tr Pluto square the 5th house Jupiter hints at a revival of confidence.  Towards the end of the decade looks a good deal more turbulent.

 Tim Davie, 25 April 1967 London, a stalwart Sun Taurus with a self-reliant Saturn in Aries has his Neptune in Scorpio conjunct the BBC’s Sun which does not suggest a robust grip on the organization. He may have his Solar Arc Uranus Pluto conjunct his Scorpio Moon at the moment for an upset though without a birth time it is not certain.  Oddly enough he is on his Jupiter Return, perhaps hinting at relief at no longer having to be carrying the burden – with no doubt lucrative offers for easier jobs to come.

  His Solar Return from this April has a pole-axing Mars opposition Pluto square Sun which seems descriptive.

  The BBC chart Solar Return also has Mars opposition Pluto and Sun opposition Uranus plus a yod onto Sun pointing to a fork in the road.

Two final thoughts – the Solar Returns are lucidly clear which I have not always found to be the case.

The BBC for whom I have a certain fondness really does have a talent for shooting themselves in the foot. Maybe shipwrecking Scheat on their Pisces South Node is another pointer. It was rattled by the recent Virgo Solar Eclipse which may have triggered the inherent obstinacy of triple Scorpio plus Mars in Aquarius plus unrealistic Water Grand Trine plus Neptune – into an unholy mess.

51 thoughts on “BBC – hoist on their own petard”

  1. My own feeling about the BBC is that yes they need to clean-house. But all news broadcasters do similar things. But his actions toward the BBC might have more to do with other things, especially as the clips concerned were only broadcast in the UK and were not for American consumption. Indeed, if he actually has a pirated video that has been illegally obtained, how can he present illegally obtained evidence in a court of law. Especially as he has broadcast it himself to all and sundry himself. Meaning that he is the one that has trashed his own reputation and broken the law to boot.

    But my gut feeling is that Trump is really annoyed with MI6 because they have refused him their Latin American intelligence. And that has more to do with the fact that Trump is ordering the obliteration of Venezuelans in international waters, meaning the Caribbean.

    His excuse being that they are smuggling Fentynol into the USA. But that drug is being smuggled from Mexico not Venezuela. What Venezuela has is an inordinate amount of desperate and starving peoples. So he is ordering people he considers illegal migrants to be killed. And MI6 are refusing to aid and abet him.

    In the 1960s and 1970s it was common fir the US Coastguard to shoot Cuban migrants in the sea or in their boats. And it was legal to do so, because it was in US waters.

    Obviously time have changed and such things in US waters have become illegal. I am assuming this because of Obama’s sanctuary cities and the change in Cuba’s relationship with America. And despite, the fact that what Trump has ordered the military to do in international waters is illegal, he obviously doesn’t care, as long as they don’t get to the United States waters, where his machinations are more discernable. I hear he has done the same to those from Trinidad and Tobago.

    In any case, he probably thinks by going after the BBC he can hurt MI5 and MI6 who have long been rumoured to operate out of the BBC and the BBC operates all over the world.. But whatever he thinks, he is trashing America’s reputation world wide. And it might be near impossible to repair it any time soon.

  2. Thanks Marjorie, and everyone’s comments are really thought provoking. The BBC response to the upheaval is a bit all over the place I think. The corporate instincts rush to defend or cover things up. Not helpful, and many of us are tired of this kind of behaviour across many ‘institutions’…..

    Looking at Martin Bashir’s explosive, duplicitous, and controversial interview with Princess Diana, 20 November 1995, I noticed the MC for the broadcast was 29 Pisces. The BBC natal South Node is 28 Pisces. The 1066 Moon (the public) is 29 Pisces square Uranus 28 Sagittarius.
    The autumn 29 Virgo Solar Eclipse would have activated these points, aided and abetted by tr Neptune in Pisces. Plus, as JB points out, Neptune is transiting fixed star Scheat in Pegasus.

    “Tied up with ‘malefics’, this could lead the native to lose his life in catastrophes, such as floods, shipwreck, mining accidents, airplane accidents, or maybe suicide. On the other hand, it is possible for a positive influence to emanate from Scheat, but only for some people, it can have a positive effect on their mental creativity, if these people are ready to receive such inflow.” [Fixed Stars and Their Interpretation, Elsbeth Ebertin, 1928, p.82.]

    • When Neptune is back at 1 Aries, it will still be in the Pegasus constellation, Neptune being Pegasus’ ‘father’ with the Medusa (Algol) his mother. The story of the constellation itself is interesting, particularly the Pegasus Syndrome I think:

      “As in the story, Bellerophon attempted to fly to Olympus (overreach his potential). He believed that Pegasus was subject to his will. However, it was Pegasus who made it to Olympus, while Bellerophon was tossed back to earth, lame and reproached by others. It is unwise to take any situation for granted as the ‘lesser’ person (or, in this case, beast) may be the very one to teach us the much needed lesson in humility. Pegasus is also indicative of a specific mission in life which the inquirer will always find the time and energy to pursue, although the path may be sewn with difficulties (the Chimaera) and limitations (Bellerophon’s doubt or arrogance). So, the Pegasus Syndrome is the seeming ability to “fly over any situation,” though the reverse may be a lesson in humility, being “taken down a peg,” as it were.” (Rich’s Pegopedia)

  4. I don’t understand why the Editor of Panorama hasn’t resigned. He’s responsible for the editorial content of the programme and getting it looked at by the BBC lawyers. Such basic journalistic stuff. We’re now left with so many unanswered questions. It’s not a BBC that I recognise from my 20 years there in the 90’s and 2000’s. But then again, I was around during the Martin Bashier era but I always thought that he was one bad apple.

  5. It probably slid under Trump’s team radar because the programme was not shown in the US. So as US courts have no jurisdiction and he’s out of time in the UK perhaps a few royals could be wheeled out again to placate him or more fittingly a Panorama special extolling his magnificence?

  6. Extraordinary that we have this fuss about a tweak or two to a speech from a man who is normally given uninterrupted airtime whenever he gets in front of a microphone by Sky News, BBC World (and far worse news sources) without a pause from experienced journalists to provide even a little context as his ramblings become progressively more incoherent and untruthful. The BBC has its faults, a certain smugness among them, but it also self-flagellates with an intensity even the most ascetically religious wouldn’t dream of. It is ballast against the commercial and political interests represented by almost every other news outlet and has produced much of the greatest news, drama, comedy and documentary TV of the age. We will regret it if we allow an authoritarian sociopath, supported by rampant corporate media, to finish it off – incidentally, perhaps we could have an astrological analysis of the White House’s media analysis dept and its inadequacies because I can’t help thinking that it would have viewed this documentary after it came out and presumably failed to pick up on the edit. Can we look astrologically at the many flaws of the likes of GB News, which seems to escape Ofcom censure at every turn, platforming the leader of Reform UK, the political party that the right wing seems determined to shoehorn into No 10, as one of its presenters through not being designated a news channel despite having the word in its station title. I despair.

    • Interesting post Nick88. I’d be interested to know how Trump makes the case for massive reputational damage when the White House Press Office and all his team seemed completely unaware of the Panorama programme….or watched it and didn’t question the content …. until now.

    • This has nothing to do with Donald Trump per se, it is about journalistic integrity. Whatever your political opinions. In this case (and others), the BBC has been shown to be untrustworthy, manipulative and untruthful. It will be a very long time before people feel they can fully trust BBC factual content again. Maybe they never will. This is a devastating place for any broadcaster to find itself.

        • Is that remark directed at me, JB? If so, I assure you I am about as far away from being a Trump supporter as it’s possible to be when we share a planet.

          • I agree…I think it will have done a lot of damage to their integrity.

            I’m fairly ambivalent about Trump but thought at the time of the BBC broadcast it seemed crass. Trump is good with the zeitgist and I didn’t think he would shoot himself in the foot so blatantly. Other broadcasters didn’t pile in onto the story so that was also telling.

      • There are two tragedies about this. One as you say untrustworthy reporting which some of us who knew the old BBC will tell you sadly has always been thus in patches. The BBC’s gravitas and moral worthiness is, I fear, a bit of a nonsense.
        The other tragedy is they handed Trump a prize on a plate which he absolutely does not deserve given the monstrous lies that come out of his mouth.
        They are idiots and should be jumped on hard – and not just the top level players. It is the ethos of the place that allows such goings on.

        • Well said, Marjorie.
          “The other tragedy is they handed Trump a prize on a plate which he absolutely does not deserve given the monstrous lies that come out of his mouth …”
          Precisely! It gives all the enemies of truthful reporting a stick to beat every BBC journalist with from now on in. The weight of whataboutery will be staggering.
          Personally, I’m growing awfully tired of hearing that ‘mistakes were made’. This was not a mistake. I’m a former journalist and I’ve worked for the BBC and there’s no way at all this deliberate attempt to subvert the truth of this story could have happened without direct editorial collusion. It’s impossible for this to have happened by mistake.

        • I completely agree, Marjorie. The Daily Telegraph is in an interesting situation here. As a result of their publication of the leaked memo uncovering the Trump incident they could land the British tax/BBC licence payers with massive legal costs. Is this the law of unintended consequences? Had they thought this through? More Neptune?

        • It is deeply ironic that BBC set up a Verify unit to promote the cause of serious journalism and then proceeded to engage in just the sort of tabloid manipulation of news channel content presentation which it was supposed to prevent. Worse it was on Panorama the BBC’s flagship news and current affairs show.It was not the first time that the program has had legal problems as there was a case involving allegations against MPs in the Thatcher government in the 1980s that had to be settled out of court. The BBCs Charter requires it to maintain a level of impartiality in news coverage with different sides of any story presented.

          The fact checking BBC Verify unit was launched on 22 September 2023. The chart Sun is at 1 Gemini so is currently facing upsets from the transit of Uranus. There is a natal fixed T Square with Jupiter at 1 Taurus, Pluto at 0 Aquarius and Mars at 1 Leo. The set up indicates plenty of room for conflict between individual desires and collective aspirations/needs getting manifested through a Jupiter in Taurus that would probably want material security, resources and stability above anything else.

          • @Hugh Fowler. Really fascinating analysis of BBC Verify, Hugh. Many thanks for your thoughtful input. Definitely something to chew over.

        • The BBC Royal Charter was issued on 1st January 1927 when the original British Broadcasting Company founded in 1922 was superseded. Its chart has Pluto at 14 Cancer opposition Sun 9 Capricorn. This triggers the Cancer/Capricorn axis in both the 1066 and 1801 charts for Britain. Given this resonance I think it unlikely that the BBC will either be disappearing from national life anytime soon or ceasing to be a focus of political attention. Interesting that the BBC Charter Mars at 8 Taurus lies so close to the UKs troublesome 1801 Mars at 11 Taurus. The Saturn/Moon conjunction at 3 Sagittarius possibly indicates the BBCs slightly paternalistic and condescending attitude (Saturn in Sagittarius) to the population (Moon) who make up its audience. It perhaps explains “Auntie’s” rather irritating tendency to dish out moral lectures to its audience on every subject from politics to public health. This it is a characteristic it shares with that other great British establishment body the NHS.

        • BBC Panorama was first broadcast at 8.15 pm on 11 November 1953 so its chart was also about to receive a solar return when this current controversy occurred. The Panorama natal chart has its Ascendant at 22 Cancer and Uranus at 23 Cancer in the 1st House. The latter trines Mercury at 25 Scorpio in the 5th House of entertainment and squares Neptune at 24 Libra in the Fourth House. This would perhaps explain why in the pursuit of producing a program that would encourage an audience to watch the makers might lose focus and become prey to the temptation to sensationalise. The Neptune in Libra square the nodes would possibly find it easy to present evidence in a manner blurring the evidence to support the overall program storyline. The audience represented by the Moon in the 6th House at 18 Capricorn might not then be getting a truly accurate or balanced ( Libra) picture of the story that was being reported.

          • @Hugh, any astrological parallels to previous journalistic crises/distortions, such as the Martin Bashir interview of Princess Diana?

            This mess particularly grieves me as I’ve come to rely on both the BBC and especially The Guardian since Trump has corrupted most formerly reliable US news sources.

      • The point is that this is about journalistic integrity, not a particular political point of view. I thought my comment was perfectly clear on that, but apparently not.

    • @Nick88. This was not ‘a tweak or two to a speech’. Two separate pieces of a speech spoken *50 minutes apart* were spliced together to make it appear as one continuous statement, giving a very misleading impression of what was said that day. And is he really given ‘uninterrupted airtime whenever he gets in front of a microphone’, on UK media? When have the BBC ever played Trump speeches in their entirety? Frankly, I wish they would! Then the weird, surreal, rambling incoherence of the man would be plain for all to hear, but alas, all we get – all there is time for – are soundbites.
      I’m no fan of Trump but being pro or anti the man is not the point. This is *very* bad journalism, and it’s played right into Trump’s sticky little hands. He will make sure this will run and run, that no one ever forgets. The reckoning is going to be incredibly difficult for journos everywhere, but especially at the BBC.
      Sorry for all the non-astro talk but I do feel too many people are missing the point here, and the point is a very serious one for news media everywhere.

      • I agree….

        If the BBC had been serious they could have dsiplayed a ticker tape saying editted from a 50 minute speech and their bases would have been covered.

      • @Gilly, I’m a still-working freelance journalist in the US and have seen massive layoffs in all sectors of journalism. While I’m not familiar with the current state of journalism in the UK, I suspect the situation is similar.

        Without excusing the journalistic malpractice, I wonder if part of the editing sloppiness was staff cutbacks, particularly of editors, who might have caught the questionable editing?

        I know that at my local paper for which I freelance, all the copyeditors are gone and I frequently find sloppy errors in major newspapers and their websites that never would have shown up before the massive downsizing of reporting and editorial staff.

        • Regrettably no – it was more the obsession with ratings since the BBC has always been under pressure being publicly funded. That is not excuse. But there have been similar stories maybe not hundreds but some from way back when – arrogant and insular is the BBC’s achilles heel.

  8. I have a certain fondness for the Beeb too and particularly BBC radio, despite the organisation’s hamfisted, bungling ways. Anyway, how many people/institutions/businesses, etc are being sued by Trump now? The list is getting ever longer I know that.

    • A few weeks back he sued the Dept of Justice for $230M. He really is just grifting for any money he can get out of anyone and I bet he hasn’t paid E Jean Carroll her $83M yet. I can’t help but think how sad his Saturn-Venus in Cancer placement is. I bet he’s always last to the bar as we used to say.

      • Absolutely GD. I think of that Venus/Saturn as an indicator of his wounds. No amount of validation is ever enough. He always has to be ‘the best’. Must be exhausting!

        • I have always loved BBC Radio more than the BBC TV output. I’m wondering whether next August’s 20 Leo Solar Eclipse on the BBC swampy Neptune and IC might be significant. It is also conjunct DJT’s East Point in Leo – adding more Leo to his projected image in the world, and conjunct the UK’s legislative Saturn in Leo. Since he is constantly threatening to sue people as a lifestyle choice, it is very hard to take him seriously on this.

      • It is his way of making cuts in government spending. Which I guess doesn’t need Congress’s consent. By the way I am joking, but maybe it is not so far off the mark.

  9. The spliced-together quotes from a speech made by Trump in January 2021 was allegedly put together by a production company, October Films, employed by the BBC’s Panorama programme and called “Trump: A Second Chance?” It was broadcast a week before last year’s Presidential election. Strange that this has only just come to the notice of Trump’s team. The Daily Telegraph, no fan of the BBC, has now published a leaked memo drawing attention to this and other issues and, as a result, Trump is threatening to sue the British Broadcasting Corporation for over $1billion. As Marjorie says…an unholy mess …and another previously respected British institution (e.g. the Church of England, the Post Office) found to be duplicitous.

    • The Slander and libel laws in the UK are pretty stringent, you have to take legal action within 1 year. As the panorama show went out a week before the election the time has already expired.

      • Trump is suing in Florida, not the UK, probably because he’s sees a more friendly judicial climate. I sure hope the BBC doesn’t cave to his shakedown and doesn’t settle with him. My understanding from US legal experts is that under US Iaw he has a pretty weak case.

        • That makes no sense! The alleged slander occurred in the UK, a court in Florida has no jurisdiction. I for one would be livid if the BBC cave and settle given its license fee payers money tha funds the BBC.

  10. I’m currently discussing my latest solar returns with X’s Grok.

    It’s all Surprisingly insightful. I know people don’t always visit them, but for me they’re usually worth at least a look. Teflon Tim and the BBC should’ve peaked at theirs…

      • Noooo no lol. I not going to dare ask it about current events – or Elon. Grok is a bit more upfront than other AI.

        I just pick out important, notable SR chart details and it does its thing. My next SR chart has some heavyweight, intense aspects, so it’s been a help with decoding / integrating them.

        • For what it’s worth, Robert Hand applies precession to Solar Returns*, which makes sense. He also casts them for the place of birth, not one’s current location.
          *Source: youtube ‘Pioneers of Astrology’ video with Deborah Houlding.

          • Sadly, I’m one of those folks that doesn’t get to leave my hometown too much. So my SRs are usually set to the same place!

            Not every SR is investigation worthy for me. But the last three of mine have been notable for sure. I started asking Grok as a joke.

            If I had Tim’s Mars opposition Pluto square Sun in my SR I would 100% investigate. Timings of those aspects to the year’s transits, any highlighted houses, aspects to the natal chart – everything

  12. Rectification by Animodar(Ptolemy) states…”Consider consider Tim Davis’s previous
    lunation, a Full Moon in Taurus. Take the Light, above the horizon, i.e. Sun in Taurus..
    Which planet has rules Sun Taurus or has most dignities in that sign…answer
    Venus. Venus is closer to MC than Asc. Put the degree of Venus as Tim’s MC, i.e
    11Ge51…computer will adjust Tim’s Asc.”
    This rectification method is called
    The Triutine of Hermes. Tim’s rectified chart with current biwheel in next post.

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