Monthly Archives: March 2006

So say the Civitas think-tank, in a report on a BBC ‘documentary‘ which turns out to be a bit of a travesty of the truth.

“A programme broadcast on 5 October 2005 called ‘Little Kinsey’ manifested such a distortion of its source material that we can no longer depend upon the integrity of the BBC’s factual programmes.”

‘Little Kinsey’ was part of the ‘Lost Decade’ season, focusing on issues relevant to the period 1945-55. Its central argument was that the restrained attitudes towards sexual activity which would have been considered as typical of the era were hypocritical, that men and women were commonly adulterous, that family life was frequently unhappy, that many men used prostitutes and that homosexual activity was common. In fact, the archive, now housed at the University of Sussex, showed no such thing: it showed a society in which most people were still very conservative in their attitudes. Nor do official statistics back up the lurid picture painted by the BBC.

The Civitas press release is here, the full report (pdf file) here.

doesn’t mean the Beeb will be at all interested, especially if it departs from the “torture” script.

Some Gitmo Prisoners Don’t Want to Go Home

Fearing militants or even their own governments, some prisoners at Guantanamo Bay from China, Saudi Arabia and other nations do not want to go home, according to transcripts of hearings at the U.S. prison in Cuba.

Uzbekistan, Yemen, Algeria and Syria are also among the countries to which detainees do not want to return. The inmates have told military tribunals that they or their families could be tortured or killed if they are sent back.

Could the BBC simply report this very straightforward story? We’ll see.

In this BBC story.

(In justice to the BBC, I’ve looked at the ONS site and I can’t actually find if there will be a category for the English. But if there isn’t, of course, that would be a story in itself – one you’d think a national broadcaster might want to cover.)

Hat-tip to Archduke in the comments.

UPDATE – England has arrived on the page after an intervention by commenter Pete_London – Drinking From Home has the ‘before’ and ‘after’ pages, stealth-edited in the best BBC tradition.

This morning’s Radio Four news headlines tell us that David Mills, husband of Labour Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, will learn soon whether he will face trial on corruption charges.

“Miss Jowell, who is separated from Mr Mills ….”

Well, yes. Since Saturday. Obviously no time for that little detail.

The Today programme page adequately describes the first item after the news at seven.

“Hear the latest news from Washington where the Bush administration has been embarrassed by the comments of its ambassador in Iraq.”

The story, an LA Times interview with the ambassador, is an assessment of the current situation in Iraq, and as such is an important story which the BBC are right to cover. But to the BBC its importance is entirely couched in terms of its potential to embarrass President Bush. I’m not at all sure this is responsible reporting – in fact it’s quite distasteful. Listening to the BBC, you get the impression that dead Iraqis only count when viewed in terms of their impact on Presidential poll ratings.

…doesn’t mean the Beeb has to agree. This “story” is bogus. President Bush, after all, was not slow to declare a state of emergency along the Gulf Coast. Mayor Nagin’s reaction to this “news” is laughable and hypocritical but the Beeb is happy to serve us New Orleans sludge.

Update: DFH, one of our B-BBC commenterati has two very helpful posts here and here. Auntie can’t get away with what she once did.