news bulletin reported that Home Office Security Minister Tony McNulty had admitted that the government had made mistakes in the aftermath of the 7/7 terrorist atrocities in London, in particular that the Muslim Council of Britain should not have been treated as being representative of British Muslims.
The story was mentioned on Newsnight with greater brevity, and is featured, ‘Mistakes’ made over 7/7 reaction, on BBC Views Online (appearing on the quieter reaches of the Politics and London pages) – complete with all the usual BBC features – careful use of the ‘T’ word, people ‘killed’ rather than ‘murdered’ and so on.
What seems strange though is that this story, a big admission from the government, and a long-needed come-uppance for the pernicious Muslim Council of Britain, wasn’t reported on the main Ten O’Clock News bulletin itself. 7/7 was a major national and international event – surely this news item is deserving of wider dissemination than a couple of fleeting mentions on niche programmes?
N.B. I’ve tweaked this article – I mistakenly said “no use of the ‘T’ word” originally, a mistake that was online for a couple of hours. See comments for details.
Imagine the headline was:
‘Mistakes made by the Metropolitan Police over 7/7 reaction’ and imagine how high profile that story would be on the BBC.
Fom the BBC online article Andrew linked to : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7015154.stm
where McNulty says that no tougher security measures were warrented –
‘ Mr McNulty was praised by Shami Chakrabati, director of civil rights group Liberty, who said his words were “music to my ears”.
“The Angels are weeping in heaven tonight,” she added. ‘
I bet it set Barbera Plett off as well.
No balancing opinion offered of course.
Eh? Andrew that story you link to is liberally sprinkled with “terror” and “terrorism”, which T-word is missing?
that would be “Terrorist” David, as in “Muslim Terrorist”
At least the linked item mentions the killing of 52 people. Too often the reports state, e.g.
the 2005 attacks which killed 56 people
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6984268.stm
where the terrorists are included, without distinction, in the death toll.
David G: “Eh? Andrew that story you link to is liberally sprinkled with “terror” and “terrorism”, which T-word is missing?”
Ah well, yes, you have a point there David.
I stuck that bit in in passing in a hurry to briefly summarise Views Online’s coverage of the story – without being as careful to check it as I normally would be (must be still under the weather!).
What I should have said, and what I meant, was “careful use of the ‘T’ word” – i.e. to the BBC it was “7 July 2005 bomb attacks” rather than terror or terrorist attacks, carried out by suicide bombers rather than terrorists. But yes, different versions of the article do contain the ‘T’ word (in differing forms and quantities) – as preserved by News Sniffer.
News Sniffer also shows that the story was known to the BBC not later than 8.50pm too – which supports the main point of my post – why didn’t this small but important story get a mention on the main network news at ten?
I will correct the main post and will leave this comment here, rather than indulge in BBC style stealth editing or other evasive slipperiness.
Well done though! To mark this rare occasion you can have a free 12 month extension added to your Biased BBC subscription – as well as a free subscription for all of your BBC colleagues too! 🙂
Andrew,
Lol. Many thanks! We shall spend the saved money on a new course designed to improve staff awareness of first person shooter video games!
😉
David, should we expect these doubtless forthcoming improvements in BBC FPS video game reporting to correlate directly with the extent of your savings on Biased BBC subscriptions then? 🙂
David Gregory (BBC) | 27.09.07 – 2:59 pm |
So why do you think Shami Chakrabati’s rather subjective comments did not get balanced with an opposing veiw?
Why is Liberty discribed as a civil rights group rather than a left wing pressure group?
After all everyone is in favour of civil rights – who could object to civil rights? Liberty is extremely left wing but never gets called on it.
This is similar to the way Conservative ideas are painted as ‘right wing’ by the BBC but Labour ideas are ‘progressive’.
There is a widespread liberal embarrassment at work wrt 7/7, and a consequent reluctance to even mentiion it. It is precisely their policies that, over the years, led to the 52 deaths and 700+ injuries. Iraq played a part in the bombers motivation, but only a part. Mass immigration and multiculturalim made such an event inevitable. Eventually.
I’m reluctant to mention him, but 7/7 raises the awful possibility in the liberal mind that perhaps Enoch was right. Better to dismiss such toughts with a shudder and simply carry on as before wot.
Andrew
I can’t see that McNulty really said anything new.
Ruth Kelly was telling-off the MCB a year ago.
Since she announced her ‘re-balancing’….sometimes ‘re-calibration’ of the government’s relationship with the MCB (Oct 2006) this has been government policy and talked about dozens of times on the BBC and other media.
Here is an example of BBC reporter Dominic Casciani using ‘right-leaning’ back in January.
“What do young Muslims think? That is the issue at the heart of a comprehensive and nuanced poll from Policy Exchange, a right-leaning think tank.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6309979.stm
Also on a report about the profusion of quangos
“The report is published by the Efficiency in Government Unit – a joint effort by right of centre think tanks the Economic Research Council and the Centre for Policy Studies.”
This was at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4255709.stm
And Sir Alfred Sherman “…became a leader writer for The Daily Telegraph and in the 1970s became the first Director of the right wing think tank, the Centre for Policy Studies.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/lastword_01sept2006.shtml
And ” New Frontiers, a right wing think tank headed by Dominic Cummings, former strategy adviser to Iain Duncan Smith and ex-head of the anti-euro No Campaign.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3968183.stm
Amnesty and Liberty and in fact many charities must surely fit the bill as left wing.
By the same token, the BBC should accept a description of itself as left wing.
Barry Wood | 27.09.07 – 6:17 pm
A bit of an old chestnut this.
Here are plenty of examples of ‘left leaning’ IPPR, Fabian Society, Demos, New Policy Institute etc.
http://ww.google.co.uk/search?as_q=think+tank+&hl=en&num=10&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=left+leaning&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=news.bbc.co.uk&as_rights=&safe=images
Liberty of course speaks for us all. What with it’s 9000 members.
JR.
From your google link.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4760059.stm
But the previous anti-Conservative coalition had begun to break it up and so fear of voting Tory was disappearing.
Reported as a bad thing.
Of the top 10 links on your google search, 2 are from this year (3 total from the last 12 month period), and the oldest is 9 years ago. One of which is a report from the 2001 election.
Have the left leaning think tanks really been that quiet?
A book should be written on BBC language. “people ‘killed’ rather than ‘murdered’ and so on” – if you think this is bad, How about this gem from the Marcel Marceau obituary: “His father, however, was captured and sent by the invading Nazis to Auschwitz, where he died.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7009189.stm