Monthly Archives: September 2004

– watching the BBC 10 O’Clock News just now the main story is the tragic and barbaric murder of Eugene Armstrong, one of the Americans kidnapped along with another American and a Briton in Baghdad recently. To their credit, the 10 O’Clock News (in the forms of Huw Edwards, Nicholas Witchell and another correspondent whose name escapes me) was unequivocal in describing this latest atrocity as a murder (all three reporters) and the people who did it as terrorists (Edwards). It is a welcome change from the insipid moral equivalence of terms like ‘killed’, ‘executed’, ‘militants’, etc., although I truly wish this had come about under other circumstances. I hope that other BBC news programmes and News Online follow suit.

is an interesting article in Saturday’s Times, about the conflict of interest for the BBC created by the Labour Party’s unsubtle scheduling of the Hartlepool by-election for the last day of their annual conference in Brighton:

Senior corporation figures had offered to balance coverage of the last day of Labours conference – the day of the poll – after the Tories complained, The Times understands.

But Liam Fox, the Tory co-chairman, rejected the deal and called instead for equal airtime for main opposition parties throughout both weeks of the Labour and Liberal Democrat conferences.

Dr Fox first wrote to the BBC this week, arguing that, under election legislation, broadcasters must devote the same time to the main parties in the run-up to a ballot.

He acknowledged that it was not a problem of the BBC’s making and is furious that Labour called the byelection for the last day of its conference – guaranteed to provide four days of solid media coverage of the party’s policies. The Tory conference is the following week.

As Michael Howard made his first visit to Hartlepool yesterday, Dr Fox released a letter thanking the BBC for some of its suggestions but calling for more concessions.

He wrote: “On the issue of live coverage of the conferences themselves, it is unacceptable that you do not plan any measures to build in comment by the other parties. There is thus no opportunity for those parties to offer their rightful response. It is essential that, throughout the Liberal Democrat and Labour Party conferences, there is balancing comment from the other main parties contesting Hartlepool.” Dr Fox called for an immediate response.

It will be interesting to see how this one pans out. Personally I think, in this instance, that the BBC should comply rigidly with the electoral law about equal airtime – it might teach the Labour Party not to be so transparently anti-democratic in future, given that the date of the by-election (and the cause of it, for that matter), were entirely within their control.

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 The people behind Radio Forth are hoping to be granted the new Scottish east coast license:

A COMMERCIAL broadcaster is promising to challenge the BBC’s “boring” and “leftish” current affairs coverage by launching a rival radio station.

Scottish Radio Holdings, which already owns a number of stations north of the Border, will apply to media regulator Ofcom this week for the new FM licence covering Edinburgh, Fife and Lothians.

It would be wonderful if we had an alternative to the Biased BBC here in Scotland. What’s extraordinary is this comment from the Beeb:

A spokesman for BBC Scotland said: “ Any suggestion that we are boring or leftish is complete rubbish.”

There again, they don’t really get it, do they? In the mind (sic) of the typical BBC operative anyone not a paid-up member of the Guardian-reading class must be some kind of deviant to the right of Genghis Khan or even George Bush.

Private Eye magazine’s regular Lookalikes feature this fortnight highlight’s the striking resemblance between Vladimir Putin and Andrew Marr of the BBC, rather in line with the observations of BBBC aficionados:

Sir,

Have you noticed the sinister similarities between these two?

I have heard that one has his roots in a subversive organisation involved in the dissemination of enemy propaganda. The other is a former head of the KGB.

Should we be warned about these double agent doubles?

Yours,

TOM HOYLE,

Leeds.

I think we know all about Andrew Marr, but was Vladimir Putin really head of the KGBBC? I think we should be told…

is a featured article in BBC News Online’s Magazine section, concerning the disturbing oppression of gay people in Jamaica. Taking this as inspiration for a new BBC News Online Magazine ‘Growing up in’ series, here are some suggestions for future instalments:

Growing up female in Iran – exposing the feudal oppression of girls and women, including cases like that of Atefeh Rajabi;

Growing up agnostic in Saudi Arabia – the problems faced by Saudi youngsters as they explore issues of faith;

Growing up unmutilated in Africa – investigating the problems and consequences of female genital mutilation common in some African societies;

Growing up malnourished in North Korea – a review of the widespread malnourishment and lack of basic necessities facing most North Koreans;

And so on. I’m sure BBBC readers will be able to supply many further examples of injustice and oppression of groups that could do with having the trusty News Online spotlight shone upon their plight. News Online – please feel free to adopt these suggestions without further ado!

How awful if we were to become distracted from concentrating our attention on the contents of fake documents! Here it is at last – the Beeb reports on those Bush memos.

A short excerpt to whet your appetite:

Later in the programme (8.31) there was an item about why John Kerry’s presidential campaign has gone pear-shaped. The assumption here was that, since no sentient individual could possibly support President Bush, and since therefore it was inconceivable that Kerry would not win the election, there had to be some extraordinary reason why Kerry was mysteriously doing so badly. The fact that he is a rubbish candidate who has demonstrated over and over again his flakiness, inconsistency, flip-floppery, lack of principle and general untrustworthiness was unsayable.

– or so it seems. On 25AUG04 (the week before the last bank holiday), News Online published a story with the needlessly emotive headline Refugee ‘robbed’ of Oxford place.

The story is about a Kosovan refugee, Vildane Berani. She came to the UK five or six years ago with her parents, went to school here and managed to gain an impressive six grade A results at A level. Not surprisingly, she was offered a much sought after place to study medicine at Oxford.

And where, then, is the ‘robbery’ therein? Oh yes, it’s that UK/EU citizens fees for Oxford are “around £1,125 a year”, whereas for non-UK/EU citizens the fees are “up to £30,000 for the first three years alone” and “The final three clinical years of her course could cost even more” and that “Ms Berani told the BBC there was “no way” her family could afford this”. Note the misleading comparison of one year’s UK/EU fees with three years of international fees.

This was the first and last story about Ms. Berani on BBC News Online, at least from my observation, and according to Google and News Online’s own search engine too.

And the good news, not covered by News Online? That was in The Times a few days later on 01SEP04, in a story entitled Girl forced out of Kosovo at gunpoint wins Oxford place*.

The Times reports that “her application to the Home Office for indefinite leave to remain in Britain had been granted” and that this “means that she effectively becomes a home student, with fees of £1,125”.

The Times also informs us that “Living on benefits, her family could not afford the fees” and that “her siblings applied to study at British universities but were told that they would have to repeat several years of study, so they returned to Kosovo”.

Thankfully, with such an expensive and privileged education in prospect, Ms. Berani is apparently “determined to give back something to the country which has effectively given her her freedom”. I’m pleased to hear it, I wish her well in her studies and, if her studies go well, success in serving the cause of medicine in the UK.

I wonder, though, 1) why News Online used such an emotive headline – clearly there was no ‘robbery’ involved – bureaucratic footdragging isn’t unusual when it comes to asylum applications; 2) why News Online missed out various details underscoring how well the UK has looked after Ms. Berani’s family since their arrival here; and 3) why News Online failed to report the happy resolution of Ms. Berani’s predicament.

Could it be that News Online’s version of the story reflects their world view, and that the full background and ultimately happy ending of the story doesn’t? Or are News Online just not very good at following and reporting the news?

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is unfolding at another media outlet (as this blog has noted here and here), the once respected CBS News. Andrew Sullivan explains how the curtain of ‘big media’ has been yanked by the many Totos of the blogosphere.

I have a feeling that the biggest news of last week had nothing to do with politics and everything to do with the media. We are in the middle of an insurgency against the occupation of the airwaves by that amorphous group called–in blogspeak–MSM, or mainstream media. And the latest direct hit has exploded in the illustrious offices of Dan Rather and CBS News.

Sullivan notes the kneejerk defensiveness of a media not used to having its facts under scrutiny, especially by rank amateurs!

What’s riveting has been the reaction of CBS. Like Howell Raines and the directors of the BBC before him, Dan Rather seems to believe that journalism is some kind of caste profession, a calling that no amateur blogger can aspire to….

Blogging’s comparative advantage has nothing to do with the alleged superior skills of bloggers or their higher intelligence, quicker wit, or more fabulous physiques. The blogosphere is a media improvement because the sheer number of blogs, and the speed of response, make errors hard to sustain for very long. The collective mind is also a corrective mind. Transparency is all. And the essence of journalistic trust is not simply the ability to get things right and to present views or ideas or facts clearly and entertainingly. It is also the capacity to admit error, suck it up, and correct what you’ve gotten wrong. Take it from me. I’ve both corrected and been corrected. When you screw up, it hurts. But in the long run, it’s a good hurt, because it takes you down a peg or two and reminds you what you’re supposed to be doing in the first place. Any journalist who starts mistaking himself for an oracle needs to be reminded who he is from time to time.

CBS News has failed on all these counts. It did shoddy reporting and then self-interestedly dug in against an avalanche of evidence against it. Rather can blather all he wants about the political motivation of some in the blogosphere–but what matters is not bias but accuracy. His attitude, moreover, has bordered on the contemptuous; and the blogosphere has chewed him up and spat him out. He has acted as if journalism is a privilege rather than a process; as if his long career makes his critics illegitimate; as if his good motives can make up for bad material. The original mistake was not a firable offense. But the digging in surely is. It seems to me that when a news anchor presents false information and then tries to cover up and deny his errors, he has ceased to be a journalist. I’d like to say that Dan Rather needs to resign from his profession. But, judging from the last few days, he already has.

It seems like we’ve been here before.

is a typically incisive posting by Laban Tall, concerning a namby-pamby Radio 4 Today programme report on (failures in) youth justice. Well worth a read, especially for the ‘happy’ ending.