Sweden had a referendum today on whether to join the Euro. Voting was overshadowed by the murder of Anna Lindh, foreign minister and leading voice of the Yes campaign. The BBC had six quickie quotes from Swedes exiting the polls, clearly gathered before the result was known. How come five out of the six people whose views were quoted had voted Yes? The No campaign led the polls throughout, and in the end won.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see some hurried revision of this story. So, just for the record, the people quoted were Per Schonborg, Halldis Hag Andersson, Beatrice Janzon (the sole No), Jon Lagerberg, Annika Schwarts and Roger Charmete.
Hey, you’re quick. I was just about to send this very item to you. Considering the fact that the final vote favored the “no” voters by 14 percentage points, this is truly a disgusting display of bias on the part of the BBC. But then what would you expect of them? They suck. Very badly.
With reference to the above, I think that if the BBC made a point of explaing demographics in every, yes, every pole or survey it reports, we wouldn’t be misled. It sounded to me like all their reports were from proffessional, urban types, thus explaining the imbalance, for which the Beeb are responsible.
Interesting contrast here- The BBC has been very cautious in reporting the NO vote in Sweden. It says Sweden ‘turns back on Euro’ (interesting double meaning I s’pose). Plus ‘Euro camp fail to convince’. They also register the ‘resounding’ NO, although to me that seems a bit exaggerated for 56% No. All this seems to me a careful approach (for an organisation long accused of pro-EU bias), though I think it makes Swedes seem negative and Europhiles lacking in imagination- in other words, try harder, boys and girls.
Meanwhile, in Reuters, we find ‘Sweden and EU count cost of snub to Euro’, and ‘Sweden has paid an early price…with its currency falling’. We’d hammer the Beeb if they had headlines of that sort. It points out to me that generally the media has a bias on the question of the Euro, and that it’s generally pro. This makes the Beeb, even with its modest tone, potentially decisive in its tilting of the verbal pitch against opponents of the EU.
That said, it doesn’t seem that the cosy cabal in this country and across Europe is having it its own way yet. As the Beeb implies, they need to try harder. Funny how a moderate tone can still be cheerleading one side or the other. Worth pondering.
Small adjustment to the above comment: it was Reuters that used the term ‘resounding’, not the Beeb, who stick to ‘clear majority’- careful indeed. Still, the negative ‘turn their back’ and so on IS part of the Beeb approach, and to me DOES indicate a spin.