It is said of many a failing company that it was not just the occasional faults in their products that trashed their reputation but the arrogant and evasive way they dealt with complaints.
This BBC article says, twice, that terminations were made legal in the US by the 1973 court decision Roe v Wade. In other words it is factually wrong in a typical BBC way.
The American Expatriate spotted the mistake and complained. The response made by the BBC’s Louise O’Doherty was far more astonishing – and revealing – than the initial error.
I can assure you that factual accuracy is the essence of news reporting and the BBC aspires to the very highest standards of journalism but in many cases, particularly with breaking news stories, facts can be scarce or conflicting.
Nevertheless I do realise the frustration this supposed error must have caused.
Read the Expatriate’s response.
UPDATE: The BBC have now corrected the article in question, and state that the initial response to the question “will be raised as a training issue.”
Susan
Point taken, but at least Imran Khan isn’t British. Galloway is a member of parliament and he comes out with something like this.
“however your point has some merit, as the upcoming southern locations are aren’t in the “south east”:
march 9th : salisbury
…”
NB However Salisbury is ultra-Tory; Robert Key is a survivor of the Thatcher era (he was first elected in 1983), and Edward Heath retired here, and died here recently. The town centre actually has England flags in certain places, although I suspect this might just be for the tourists.
Point taken, but at least Imran Khan isn’t British.
Yep, but he’s supposed to be a model “moderate” Muslim.
But I agree, Galloway’s remarks were equally despicable.
Both comparisons represent the level of mental and moral retardation that the Beeb/al-Guardian crowd fervently hopes we all descend to someday.
PS regarding the posted topic (for a change) the Beeb might like to know that California passed the most liberal abortion law in the US (for the times) in the late-1960s (pre Roe v. Wade) — legislation that was signed into law by none other than the governor at the time, Ronald Wilson Reagan.
But, I guess unearthing those kinds of facts are just too difficult for the world’s best-funded “news” organization. Probably would have taken all of 10 minutes of Googling to find it.
Well Hitchen (P) was on fine form tonight on Channel 4. I meant to tape Despatches and forgot, the need to stuff my face shoving aside all other considerations. On the off chance that anyone taped it I’m prepared to do a deal.
Susan, the problem in the UK is that we are lead to believe that all US Republican Presidents are primates who cannot read let alone write, and if they can they are just crooked.
So the BBC itself, through its monitoring service, has taped those despicable words of George Galloway saying the cartoons are worse than 9/11 and 7/7. (And Imran Khan has spoken in similar vein)
Surely the BBC has latched on to a big story here – it should be splashing Galloway’s remarks across its front page. Is it ? Is it hell.
Bias by omission, as usual.
OT – front page…
(Text below is on the front page)
“Iran has begun using nuclear enrichment “cascades”, and is failing to co-operate with UN inspectors, they complain.”
“They complain”? who? WTF?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4756710.stm
just watched the 10 pm news.
i can happily say, there needs to be an inquiry into the way the BBC conducts itself.
The sequence of the news, is so conveniently politically motivated with the lead story of the day; Tessa Jowell being relegated to nearly 10:20 pm,
On ITV News at 10:30 its the first story, as it turns out she may now have had 5 other ‘loans’
i am concerned that a news broadcaster that claims impartiality consistently diverts the publics attention and tries almost to make out that Jowell is a victim? Give me a break, she knows full well what she is up to….and dare i say, she will go from cabinet kicking and screaming, but her little charade today will not hide the truth…
For the BBC to receive all that taxpayers money and be so poor, is unacceptable. ITV AND Channel 4 news have got it right..and they work off their own backs and are far more in tune with current affairs, and dont so blatantly follow a govt agenda…i think Paul Reynolds, Michael Grade and whoever else is out there, tell Tony we know what he’s up to ….. and it has got to end now…
re: Matt Frei/ Katrina the key phrase he said was area effected was: “similar to the size of britain’
finally we have that on the table. Although he did raise some points, the main undertone was one of why hasnt anything been done?
well, lets ask a simple question, how long does it take to build a 4 bed house? about a year i’d say give or take a bit?
now say you have to build 10 million homes, just a ball park figure, how long do you think that will take?
roads, infrastructure everything? its impossible, i really think the BBC should be investigating what next? i.e. if the area isnt re built where do the people go? do they build elsewhere,? how is it going to work?
it could take atleast 25 years to get everything up and running again? with the prospect of looming hurricanes no one in their right mind would re build there..its suicide..moreover politically irresponsible ..
anyway, you get the point…come on BBC let go of the political pressure and be yourself!
Tonight I watched an old episode of “yes minister” The one about BBC corruption.
Margaret Thatchers favourite TV program. She believed it to be, very accurate and true to life. She encouraged Conservative MPs to watch it, to assist them in their dealings with the civil-service.
But if it was bad, when the goverment was continualy trying to save public money. Consider how much money they could all waste, when the goverment wants to throw away as much as possible.
I see that the goverment has thought of a new way to waste a bit more. They have been advertising on the commercial media and BBC advice on HOW NOT TO BE SCAMED.
No mention of local authority parking ticket fraud. BBCs Tele tax intimidation. Police speed camera entrapments. Council tax inprisonments. British troops dieing for a lie. Not a mention about how you can protect yourself from the biggest crooks of all.
Post clause 4 and trade union power, this goverment has only got one toy left to play with. YOUR LIVES
as it turns out she may now have had 5 other ‘loans’
Obviously Tessa Jowell is in a traditional household where she handles the ‘laundry’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Mills_%28lawyer%29
David Mills was a barrister who became a commercial solicitor in the 1980s.[2]
He is a fomer Labour councillor in the London borough of Camden, and like others involved in the London Labour party of the 1980s is close to the Blairite group of politicians and left leaning celebrities, to which his second wife, the British politician Tessa Jowell, belongs.
Remember the LA condo gym-bunny, Matt Wells? He who described Mayor Ray Nagin as “completely heroic”?
Well, now he has another piece about the man “who was criticised by some for his response to Katrina”!!!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4757502.stm
The BBC likes to imply that the coverage of David Irving’s case would only make him a martyr, and anyway, what about free speech?
Well this morning we had a special “Today from Landsberg Prison”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landsberg_prison
Mr Irving took a few minutes from penning “My Struggle” to communicate his important ideas to the Today listeners. So why did Today choose to give such coverage to the man, whose grip on facts and reason is about the same as your average flat earther?
Hmm, I note that the front pages of the Times, the Telegraph, even the Guardian contain news near the top about Tessa Jowell and her “not a bribe”. From memory they are third top, top and top of the page. The BBC website doesn’t even have a link to the story on their front page. Doesn’t this qualify as news?
On Today this morning we had Labour MPs voting against the Govt described as “rebels” and Conservative MPs voting against the Govt and the main body of the Conservative party as “right wingers”. A silly little point probably, but the drip, drip, drip of this is cumulative.
wow. the tessa jowell story really is getting buried.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
its on the front page of the times:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
the bribe has risen to £600,000 apparently
and its frontpage on the telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/portal/main.jhtml;jsessionid=JOU3M2MBHVNLLQFIQMGSFFWAVCBQWIV0?view=HOME&grid=P13&menuId=-1&menuItemId=-1&_requestid=105096
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Top story here too…
Not only is it being buried, it’s also being spun. According to the BBC:
“Ms Jowell, who has been given No 10’s backing, said: “I am absolutely happy everything has been done properly.”
‘Good minister’
The Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, says he is confident Ms Jowell has adhered to the ministerial code of conduct.
“She’s been a really good minister at every level. She should stay in her job,” he told BBC’s Politics Show.
And on Monday the prime minister’s official spokesman said Ms Jowell had Tony Blair’s full support.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4753914.stm
Bit different from the Telegraph’s line:
“Tessa Jowell was fighting to save her Cabinet job last night after Downing Street refused to confirm that Tony Blair believed she had abided by the code of conduct for ministers over a financial deal involving her London home.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=OTYWGIB3VXLC3QFIQMFSFGGAVCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/2006/02/28/njowell28.xml&sSheet=/portal/2006/02/28/ixportaltop.html
Which is right I wonder.
Bit different from the Guardian’s line too (yuck, I usually avoid that site!):
“Downing Street refused to give Tessa Jowell, the culture secretary, an instant clean bill of health yesterday in face of allegations that she and her husband, David Mills, paid off a mortgage on their London home with a £350,000 gift from the Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi.”
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour/story/0,,1719637,00.html
wow – this jowell story really is getting buried:
uk headlines – main page – no sign of it
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/default.stm
politics headlines – aha. found it – “other top stories”:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/default.stm
more relevations via the scotsman : its now 5 mortgages, one of which was paid off after 19 days:
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=306022006
The Jowell story does seem to be spectacularly absent from the BBC News pages but ironically “Public urged to report tax cheats” isn’t. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4755916.stm
Ironically, when it comes to shopping tax cheats “workmen in pub(s)” are fair game” but a “‘plumber’ hiding under a sink” is going too far.
Do they know something that we don’t and does the concession extend to ‘market traders’?
I think I must have missed the moment when the whole “plumber” thing was explained. Any chance of a quick run down?
One of the things the BBC is *very good* at is ‘following’ stories. Other media outlets – the dead-tree and press agencies – generally do the hard miles and uncover the story.
The BBC then joins in with the rest of the rat-pack when it seems the story has ‘legs’ or is ‘important’. Then the corporation gets one of its ‘experts’ (like Matts Frei or Davis, or Jim Muir) to put some spin on the story.
Another story from the political pages I almost missed – “Will MP’s be banned from telling lies in public?” http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4488146.stm
I’m sorry, but I just don’t know where to start. Colour me boggled.
I’d like to propose the voting age is raised to 28 — and restriced to those who own property.
taol -> in other words, despite the £2 billion of funding for the BBC News, it basically plagarises news gathering by private sector companies.
jack -> restricting voting to property owners was in effect in Northern Ireland for about 50 years – and look how that turned out…
Any chance of an article on “Bears to be banned from shitting in woods” or even “Pope to renounce Catholicism”?
Mike, I also missed it, but I believe ‘plumber’ was the label the BBC put on someone who was either a terrorist or suspected of terrorist links and was coincidentally also a plumber. I’m sure one of our learned colleagues will be able to clarify the issue.
Anyway, it was a typical agonised BBC contortion to avoid calling a spade a spade when it comes to terror.
Hence the spate of ‘plumber’ jokes on this site.
nick robinson has noticed the tessa jowell bribe story:
spin spin spin spin – and more spin…
http://blogs.bbc.co.uk/nickrobinson/
the jowell story has “legs” – there’s now 178 related links on google news
http://www.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=UTF-8&q=tessa+jowell&btnG=Search+News
RE: JOWELL, She is finished. The sooner the Govt cast her off the better for them. Otherwise it will run on and on, and with the elections so close. TB would be wise to give her the boot.
That is probably the best she could hope for, a full investigation will no doubt uncover the ‘true’ extent of any dealings and who they ultimately lead to. Just because she received the cash, doesnt mean it wasnt then passed on again?
But there is no doubt there needs to be an investigation into the BBC here, because they have continually sought to hide this story. Whereas every other media owner has it as a main story.
I think it highlights 2 possible scenarios: (a) just how out of touch the BBC is or (b) how politically influenced the BBC is.
or i guess (C) both of the above…
Problem is with major incidents like this the BBC loses is credibility, which really you wouldnt expect from a broadcaster.
And now conveniently this is released:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4756706.stm
amazing stuff, anything to get the hungry pack of the scent. valid points raised i am just surprised by the timing of the report. Moreover, the fact that the govt has yet again done nothing to alleviate the problem. Clearly demonstrating that this is nothing more than a smoke screen for Jowell.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4756880.stm
Good to see Russia and Britain are closer than ever, who said Communism was dead?
This Worries me greatly..
All in all, the BBC needs to really start shaping up a bit and ditching this political interferance because it is so clear to see.
Have a good day.. 🙂
I’d like to propose the voting age is raised to 28 — and restriced to those who own property.
Jack Bauer | Homepage | 28.02.06 – 9:53 am | #
I reckon what they should do is weight people’s votes by their contribution to the exchequer. That way, all the welfare claimants would have negative votes – of course, you couldn’t tell them this or what would be the point?
“But there is no doubt there needs to be an investigation into the BBC here, because they have continually sought to hide this story. Whereas every other media owner has it as a main story.”
the Today program had it on in the prime slot of 08:42
in spite of that – its still buried on the bbc website.
From Ian Barnes “Russia” link:
“Advocating the violent overthrow of a sovereign state is unacceptable and we condemn these comments unreservedly,” he said.
Now, I am in general pro the Iraq war. I think we did the right thing and a good thing, although I do think that Mr Blair went about it in a strange fashion, it was a necessary evil imho. However, Mr Straw saying these words is somewhat hypocritical isn’t it? Surely that’s exactly what the US/UK did?
“I reckon what they should do is weight people’s votes by their contribution to the exchequer.”
done before. 1750s or thereabouts i believe – your vote was weighed by the area of land you had, as far as i recall.
jowell bribe still off the front page:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
instead we get a link to
“iraq makes terror more likely”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4755706.stm
man – they really are trying their best to smokescreen.
mike -> we’re talking about the “Man of Straw” here.
He’s programmed that way, by the Number 10 I.T. department
Eamonn,
Thanks for the info on Irving.
After denying his Holocaust denial while cringing at the prospect of jail, David Irving is now apparently denying the denial of his denial, reverting to his original Holocaust denial.
He’s obviously in denial. He’s also incredibly stupid to revert to his anti-Semitic stance while the appeal is pending. All that denial must have pickled the tiny brain he originally had.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer person.
I just listened to the ‘Today’ interview with Irving.
Fascinating stuff. The interviewer brought up something really politically incorrect for the BBC: she mentioned that Irving’s twelve-year-old daughter carries a copy of ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ around with her. When Irving made a weasel reply to this, which is not worth repeating, the interviewer pointed out that his daughter was making a statement against his Holocaust denial.
If this is true, that little girl is going to grow up to be quite some lady.
Ashley Pomeroy,
Are you any relation to William Pomeroy? I went to Bishop’s with him.
archduke, today prog may have had it main story at 0842, but most people have gone to work by then. come on old boy…the home page of the website should have it lead story..
get with it. it should have been main news at 10 last night, and it should be number 1 at lunchtime news today. but i bet it wont be, and we’ll be back here this afternoon, again…
@ mike, i think you make a very valid point…
basically straw is saying, dont insult my Russian Comrade Vladimir…
How come the BBC gives airtime to the nasty warped views of David Irving – no doubt claiming that this gives his sentence some “context” – while it still fears to publish a single one of the fairly innocuous Danish cartoons ?
Dhimmis. And hypocrites too. Their editors seem to have bananas for backbones.
Oops, sorry for the double post
____________
Mike,
The reason people use the word ‘plumber’ or ‘market trader’ is because of the BBC’s descriptions of terrorists/criminals.
They ensure that all negative news stories that feature muslims, do not refer to Islam/muslims. Instead they describe the person involved according to their occupation.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4553150.stm
Man convicted under Terrorism Act
A market trader has been found guilty under the Terrorism Act of having a gun and the address of a British soldier.
In the world of Al-Beeb, it isn’t relevant that this scumbag is a Muslim.
_______________
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/4534594.stm
Terrorism charge plumber remanded
A plumber charged with terrorism and firearms offences has been remanded in custody after appearing at London’s Old Bailey by video link.
Again, there is no mention of ‘Islam’ or ‘Muslim’ on this page.
___________
If the BBC had done this once, it could be seen as an ‘oversight’, but there appears to be an official BBC policy to only portray Muslims in a good light.
Have a look at the ‘Muslims in Europe’ page:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/europe/2005/muslims_in_europe/default.stm
A blogger gave that page a thorough fisking. I can’t remember who it was, but it’s worth a read if anybody else has the link.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4758188.stm
another good day to release bad news?
what’s the bet we’ll see govt ministers praising the forces? and the spin doctors jumping for joy? lets not forget Tessa Jowell.
then i’ll remind them of this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4756706.stm
perhaps if they had decent armour they’d be alive!!!
perhaps if the govt gave them decent kit they’d be alive?!!!
“archduke, today prog may have had it main story at 0842, but most people have gone to work by then. come on old boy…”
well. maybe. but if you’re commuting by car you would have heard it.
“the home page of the website should have it lead story..”
indeed. i totally agree. it smells of coverup.
grimer -> the fisking of that “muslims in europe” page is here:
http://awesternheart.blogspot.com/2006/01/balancing-balance.html
Mike
“Advocating the violent overthrow of a sovereign state is unacceptable and we condemn these comments unreservedly,” he said.
However, Mr Straw saying these words is somewhat hypocritical isn’t it? Surely that’s exactly what the US/UK did?”
US/UK overthrew the Saddam regime, they did not seek to dismantle Iraq and expel all Iraqis from the country. Hamas wishes to wipe out Israel and expel/exterminate all the Jewish occupants of the country. That, I think, is the difference.
Grimer
Thanks. I figured it would be something like that but wasn’t sure of the precise underpinnings. Now I do and while it’s a stretch to say I appreciate it, I certainly appreciate the imparting of knowledge.
c|_|
Umbongo
Straw was referring to a planned coup of Russia by Berezovsky. Nothing to do with Israel or Hamas. I was meaning that when the alliance invaded Iraq, they overthrew a sovereign state. Bit of a one rule for us and another for them. I should point out that I have no idea of the politics of Berezovsky or why he plans the overthrow of Putin, but I suspect that his aims are less than pure. I’m not passing judgement on him at all. Simply on Straw for his comment.
But Britain gave Berezhovsky asylum – and his former sidekick Abramovitch, reputedly Putin’s man now, is owner of some football club in London and quite a few politicians I should think