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.”
compare and contrast
world news headlines:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/default.stm
major lead stories are:
david irving
US settles lawsuit by 911 detainee
iraq bomb blasts
“global public opinion” on iraq
“love after the war” – sarajevo (huh?)
now, here’s RTE Ireland:
http://www.rte.ie/news/worldindex.html
lead stories are:
iraq bomb blasts
IAEA and Iran
50 die in central India bomb
Afghan prison riot
it’s obvious that the Irish broadcaster doesnt have an axe to grind regarding world news. its just reporting *the news*
the BBC by comparision does have an axe to grind.
Which house did Tessa Jowell fund with the £19.000 Housing Allowance she claimed as an MP ?
What is the BBC doing interviewing David Irving? The only news element of the story at the moment is the appeal by the Austrian authorities to increase his jail sentence. If I were charitable, I could say that – very untypically – the BBC wants to allow us peasants out here to know what all the fuss is about and make up our own minds. It therefore allows Irving to retail his unpleasant views at length and more or less unchallenged (Sancha Berg is not a historian – Professor Evans was given 30 seconds to counter Irving). Here is a man whose claims AS A HISTORIAN were comprehensively and definitively discredited in an English court. In the context of a programme devoted to the phenomenon of holocaust denial Irving’s contribution might be valuable if a little predictable. In the context of a news programme whose items (unless Mr Brown is being interviewed) are limited in time as well as content it serves little purpose aside from letting a man whose whole career has been marked by self-publicity getting a little more publicity. BTW when are we going to hear the Danish editor Mr Rose tell us – at length – about the cartoons?
Mike
Sorry – didn’t know context of your quote. Just goes to show the importance of context – something the BBC (and Jack Straw) tend to forget.
umbongo-> we’re dealing with AL-BBC here, towing the islamist line that laws on holocaust denial should be applied equally to drawing a cartoon of their 7th century “prophet”. thats why they are going on and on about Irving, when the rest of the world sees it as “yesterdays news”…
Any half-decent BBC controller would be sacking the editor of the Today prog.
http://website.lineone.net/~jbonno/greenpigs/pigday.htm
Special Celebration
Archduke,
True, but in this instance I’m glad they did go on about it.
There’s something extraordinary about the twelve-year-old daughter of a Holocaust denier carrying around a copy of ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’.
I’m rereading it now. She was much older than her years.
The BBC interview, in fairness, was anything but sympathetic to Irving.
Before you funny people out there start losing you minds, consider this. If any of you got out there to speak to ordinary people instead of basing you oppinions on BBC stereo-types, you might notice something.
Do not assume YOUNG people or people that dont own their homes are socialist/nazi nutters, like our current goverment.
This would be a serious mistake. The biggest victims of socialism are the young, the old, women, charities, parents, the poor,imigrants,men, and ethnic minorities. In short all of us.
The ONLY people that in the end benifit from socialism are POLITICIANS and those that report on what they never could acheive.
Either you beleive Big goverment works for the benifit of the people or you dont. It is generally that simple. Dont expect the BBC to tell anyone this as it is not in their interest.
In all the years I have been listening to politicians,I can not come up with one thing they have DONE that works. The only time that they do a GOOD thing for the people is when they deside to leave things alone. For example: Not owning peoples homes. Not having control over interest rates. Not running and owning nationised industries. Not controlling all the media. The list of things that the state is still controling and seriously cocking up you will have to write yourself. As it is so long, I would fall asleep compileing it.
OT
Sorry if this has already been pointed out but I was amazed by the BBC coverage of the poll carried out to gauge world opinion on the Iraq war.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4755706.stm
The poll finds that a large number of people across the world feel that the war has made terrorist attacks more likely. This provided the BBC with its primary angle.
However, the part of the poll which found that 74% of Iraqis supported the intervention was only mentioned in the penultimate paragraph of a 16-paragraph-long article.
The Guardian, of course, ignored that stat altogether but thats a different story.
gordon-bennet posted this link earlier:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4723320.stm
Michael Stone is mentioned in the article as having attacked a funeral. Just a funeral…? For some reason they neglect to point out it was an IRA funeral (for the Gibralter bombers) and at least one of the guys he killed was an IRA man.
So perhaps not exactly the quiet family affair sort of implied by “a funeral”?
Gary Powell
16 year olds are mental and moral infants. Ask your average 16 year old for a view on anything and you’ll get more sense from my neighbour’s cat. The proposal that only property owners should have the franchise is perfectly reasonable. Property is a tangible statement of your stake in the nation’s well-being and good order. If everything goes to tits then so does your stake. This fetish for including younger and younger people in everything (voting, buggery, sex, drugs …) only exists because they are tools to be manipulated. Give them the vote and it’s another group to be brought into politics, lavished with taxpayers money and made dependent on the state. The perverts and wierdoes of the Left just love getting their sweaty, damp paws on children and you can guarantee it’s always with bad intentions.
Bryan
“The BBC interview, in fairness, was anything but sympathetic to Irving”
I don’t want the BBC to be sympathetic or unsympathetic – just put the guy on the spot. Irving went effectively unchallenged by alledging (and I’m paraphrasing here):
1. Anne Frank’s book “proved” that Auchwitz was not an extermination camp
2. Hitler knew nothing of the extermination of the Jews, let alone being responsible
3. There was no overall extermination plan (per Wansee Conference)
4. The holocaust couldn’t have happened because of all the Jews that survived (where?) and anyway it was “only” 1 million or so
5. If the Germans were so efficient how did 60,000 (?) survive Auchwitz at the end of the war?
etc etc
The idea of Irving’s daughter with the Dairy of AF is a touching picture but so what?
On a less unpleasant but related theme, “Today” never puts Mr Brown on the spot. The obvious questions are rarely asked or, if asked, are never pursued. Whether or not “Today” is sympathetic to Mr Brown doesn’t really matter (although the deference shown is always offensive) he gets his point across effectively unchallenged as did David Irving.
“Sorry if this has already been pointed out but I was amazed by the BBC coverage of the poll carried out to gauge world opinion on the Iraq war.”
the bbc dont mention the sample size or the methodology.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4755706.stm
if you go to the globescan website you’ll find the answer – roughly 30,000 sampled. and in wonderful democracies like Saudi Arabia peoples opinions were surveyed face to face…
i kid you not.
“The proposal that only property owners should have the franchise is perfectly reasonable”
so its not – thats the state telling me that in order to parcipate in democracy i have use MY capital to buy into property. which is utterly ridiculous and an serious infringement of liberty and freedom.
well, if you want us to return back to some sort of medieval land based feudalism , bully to you.
me? i’ll stick with Thomas Paine, liberty and the American constitution and one man/one vote, thank you very much.
very important news from the Religious Policeman – Muslim offense level has been downgraded to condition yellow
http://muttawa.blogspot.com/
turns out that the Danish “apology” printed in Saudi newspapers was actually made up by the Saudis.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4753348.stm
The religion of the victim is stated loud and clear, but strangely the religious affiliation of the perpetrator/s are omitted. The BBC misleads by omission again?
so its not – thats the state telling me that in order to parcipate in democracy i have use MY capital to buy into property. which is utterly ridiculous and an serious infringement of liberty and freedom.
As opposed to the current situation, where millions with no job, no property and no tangible stake in future of this land can participate in democracy AND get their hands on my capital.
You’ll no doubt be aware that Thomas Paine argued that each age had the right to establish the appropriate political system for its needs. In that vein I’ll grant you your vote for every adult when the welfare state is dismantled.
Eamonn
“The suspected gang leader has been arrested in Ivory Coast. He allegedly said Halimi was picked because he was a Jew, and therefore presumed to be rich.”
Anyone care to hazard a guess whether the “therefore presumed to be rich” part was said by the suspected gang leader or has been added by the “reporter”?
“as opposed to the current situation, where millions with no job, no property and no tangible stake in future of this land can participate in democracy AND get their hands on my capital.”
oh right – so you’d rather the “plebs” didnt have a vote?
i quite like the swiss way of doing democracy though:
“Any citizen may challenge a law that has been passed by parliament. If he is able to gather 50,000 signatures against the law within 100 days, a national vote has to be scheduled where voters decide by a simple majority whether to accept or reject the law.”
http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,1719042,00.html
The BBC governors are proposing to introduce a people’s-court-style appeals process to head off criticism that some of their governance duties should be handed to Ofcom.…
The BBC surely don’t want that to happen.
…The governors have put the proposals out to a public consultation. Interested parties have until March 24 to respond.
Switzerland is a Confederation………….Britain is a unitary state.
archduke
the problem with the whole who votes thing is that (just about) everyone votes with their own best interests at heart. People on welfare vote Labour because they’ll get more money from the government. The conservatives are more likely to make them work for it, so they vote Labour. Labour know this and so they do everything they can to increase the number of people reliant on them for a job or subsistence.
People who contribute to the tax pot generally tend to prefer lower taxes unless they’ve been hoodwinked by the government into believing that the government are more efficient spenders of money than we are. They are more likely to vote Conservative because it’s in their interests to do so. Consequently, for the Conservatives when in government they have a vested interest in as many people as possible becoming self sufficient and even affluent. It bolsters their vote base.
So, we have Labour trying to bring people down into dependence on the state and the Conservatives trying to get as many people as possible off dependence and into self sufficience.
Unfortunately, the people (in their infinite wisdom) have seen it fit to vote in the current government. When I suggest that the “plebs” shouldn’t be allowed to vote, it’s simply because I want the Conservatives to win. I want this because I think everyone will benefit from it, including me. My motives in my suggestion are therefore purely mercenary, for the reasons stated above.
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.
Pete_London | 27.02.06 – 10:12 pm | #
…………………….
The programme is scheduled to be repeated at 4.30am on Sunday.
mike -> i think you’ll find that the people who got labour into power were the middle classes – who are now enjoying plum jobs in the public sector – in those southern swing constituencies. the “plebs” barely bother to vote anyway.
and you’re leaving out the fundementally anti-democratic nature of the british electoral system – labour won a majority on only 35% of the vote. (on a turnout of 61%)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/constituencies/default.stm
anyways, back to the bbc
“bbc in Christian news item shocker!”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4754656.stm
Pete_London,
I favour 1 pound of tax, one vote (one entitlement, one less vote).
Nevil Shute had an interesting idea about voting. (See “In the Wet”.)
Everyone had 1 vote as per normal but could qualify for extra votes up to 7 in total.
Extra votes were given for being married for 25 years (good stable family person), gaining a degree (good education and therefore more intelligent and more likely to do the right thing), serving in the Armed Forces, etc. (from memory).
The seventh vote was rather like a knighthood.
One can argue about which qualifications should earn a vote but the basic principle that you give more votes to the people most closely resembling those who would form an ideal society seems attractive.
My own favourite scheme is that you get 1 vote for each £ of tax you pay.
Pete_London,
I favour 1 pound of tax, one vote (one entitlement, one less vote).
Rob Read | 28.02.06 – 2:49 pm | #
That should please Lakshmi Mittal and quiote a few Hedge Fund Managers
Rick,
Good. There’s an easy way to lower their influence under the above system!
Cut their tax.
Another expat yank taking the BBC to task over its biased coverage: http://expatyank.blogspot.com/2006/02/yet-another-poll-of-world.html
This time it’s a poll which actually contains good news for those who support the Afghan/Iraq war. The BBC has seen fit to ignore this and has given equal prominence to the views of people in Brazil and Argentina as to those of the Iraqi and Afghan peoples.
i got a reply from the Danish prime minister today.
thats brightened up my afternoon.
david h -> interesting blogspot. i like the way he turns the poll on its head at the end.
Cut their tax.
Rob Read | 28.02.06 – 3:17 pm | #
Gravatar
I don’t want to – I want Lakshmi Mittal to start paying Council Tax and proper tax instead of hiding it in offshore tax havens like David Mills
very interesting post over on drudge regarding Bush , Rove and the MSM
http://www.drudgereport.com/flash3wsb.htm
President Bush:
“I find it interesting that the old way of gathering the news is slowly but surely losing market share,” Bush said in an exclusive interview for the new book STRATEGERY.
“It’s interesting to watch these media conglomerates try to deal with the realities of a new kind of world.”
Rick,
Why punish them for their financial success?
Seems like they are paying and employing people. Why would anyone want to take money away from someone like that?
Rob Read
Because they are jealous and they don’t want them paying and employing people.
Having said that, there are some essentials that I think should come from taxation – armed forces and emergency services spring to mind – and I think everyone should pay their share. It’s difficult with someone like Mittal who would just leave if we tried to tax him, so surely it’s better to have his investment and not his tax money than not his investment and not his tax money.
Mike,
That’s why you should levy tax on the price of defending the property in the country, not on fining people for being productive.
The proposal that only property owners should have the franchise is perfectly reasonable. Property is a tangible statement of your stake in the nation’s well-being and good order.
That is frankly nonsense. What about those people who can’t afford to own property because they are taxed so bloody much? Or those of us who (like me) have had to forgo any prospect of a career because we have to care for elderly/disabled relatives? I don’t contribute anything in taxes, but that’s not my choice. I’m as entitled to my vote as you are to yours – I and people like me definitely contribute to society, albeit not in a monetary way.
AnonymousRemember 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”!!!
Actually this one appears to be written by someone called Matt Davis — the BBC seems to be over-abundant with “Matts” these days. (Perhaps “Matt” is nowadays a nickname for “Mohammad”? — okay cheap shot, I admit it.)
I saw some pics of Marti Gras revellers in New Orleans yesterday – they were wearing T-shirts that read: “Drink Until Mayor Nagin Starts to Make Sense.”
I lived in Taiwan for a couple of years. I paid 6% tax (yes, that’s right 6%)
That paid for:
Defence
Roads
Trains
Education
Fire Brigade
Police
Admin, etc
It didn’t pay for:
Health Care (I paid £30 a month and my employer paid £60)
Wellfair State (people rely on charity and family)
Elderly care, etc
I’m not suggesting their system was perfect. If a child has lukemia and the family have no health care, then the child would reliant on charity. however, their work ethic is far greater than the UK’s. People earn less than the UK, but it is a lot cheaper than here. I’m still not used to ‘Rip-off Britain’.
Why isn’t the British government willing to learn from other nations? Our system is clearly not ‘the best in the world’, so why blindly stumble on with the same tired policies?
Living abroad has made me realise what is wrong with the UK. With millions of young people travelling the world, how come things just continue to stagnate?
Susan,
“To oblivion and beyond!” Then for the revellers.
Hope they have a good time.
“Why isn’t the British government willing to learn from other nations?”
because its arrogant. the first-past-the-post voting system means that britain is just an elected dictatorship. and dictatorships, by nature, are arrogant.
I would suggest that the authoritarian streak drummed into certain public school types has gone cancerous.
And now for an outbreak of irony.
PM have just broadcast Ken Livingstone stating (as close a quote as memory serves) “For too long opposition to Israel has wrongly branded as anti-semitism….”
From the man who brands anyone of a political stripe anywhere to the right of himself as a Nazi?
“I would suggest that the authoritarian streak drummed into certain public school types has gone cancerous”
indeed. you’re probably right there , and its endemic within the Whitehall mandarins, who quite frequently behave as if the Empire was still around.
Pete of London
I never suggested giving 16 year olds the vote. However I would like to explane WHY democracy works even if big goverment does not.
Wiser heads than yours in the past have made the correct assesment that goverment can only rule over the people if all adults participate in the election of it. This was at first to stop revolutions. Then to stop having to scrape up women off the race track.
Democracy does not always give you the result that you or me would like, but frankly thats just TUFF.
However when the Conservative party does finally get its act together, I hope you will join me, in making sure that the murderous amount of anti-Tory goverment propergander, we have been sujected to in the past is stopped, and stopped for the good of everyone.
The Tories got lazy and still are. They forgot to counter false media assertions, when in power, and we are ALL now paying the price. However I fully endorse the policy of “sounding like the Labour Party”, as the problem with the BBC/media has now gone far to far.
Votes at 16?
As regards criminal offences these kids are officially juveniles, they cannot appear before an adult court until they have attained their 17th birthday.
People mature at different rates and adolescence can last until age 25.
i agree Gary. they *have* to sound like Labour or else they’ll get massacred by the Beeb.
Pete of London
After 18 years remember of a Tory goverment we went from bancrupcy to prosperity. During only 9 years of a Labour one we have gone from prosperity to slow and painfull national suicide. We have also lost many many of our individual liberties. Do you really think you are the only one to notice this?