Monthly Archives: November 2008

The One campaign

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The BBC’s latest entry from their journalists following the US elections tells us far more about the BBC than it does about the campaign. Gavin Hewitt’s (following Obama- did we scare off Justin Webb?) is a long and lyrical piece including lines like the following:

“What I can attest to, however, is enthusiasm. The kind of enthusiasm that keeps you standing in a queue at a polling station in Franklin county in Ohio today for five hours. The enthusiasm that persuades you to bring your children with you on a beautiful autumn day to the polling station, knowing they will be bored.”

Matt Price meanwhile, following McCain (guess who the senior journalist is between Price and Hewitt so who got the short BBC straw) offers a terse little piece. Its BBC headline was promising- “breaking stereotypes” – so I assumed something a bit different from the usual snide comments. In fact it sets up a video which is pure Obama commercial. It accuses those who are against Obama of racism. It says McCain simply favours the rich. The BBC journalist who is supposed to cover McCain puts forward the argument for Obama from the mouth an apparent middle-American he’s come across. He claims it is “what this election is all about”.

Two BBC journalists, apparently balanced missions. One, and only the One’s, side of the story.

Update: Price video here. “I have a lot of friends that… they’re ignorant, they’re not going to vote for him because he’s black”. Oh yes, breaking stereotypes with the McCain campaign indeed

Consistent double standards

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She was fooled. She was duped. Sarah Palin gets the full unquotemarked treatment after listening politely to an imposter’s ramblings. I don’t know when it’s right to switch off a call in disgust, myself. Perhaps if the caller had made remarks about having sex with Palin’s daughter, eh? In the end Palin recognised instantly that she was talking to a radio DJ, and asked too quickly for the DJ’s own mind about their station’s listener call back facility (full audio, not on the BBC, here). The BBC meanwhile should know this only cheapens politics and public life, and that listening politely is a virtue not a vice. I can’t say I can fully defend Palin in this instance, but actually I don’t know what it must be like in her position with all the demands on her time, to be patient and polite and diplomatic in all manner of circumstances. What I do believe is that the BBC is selling this story with intemperate unqualified demeaning language which they would certainly not use of The One.

Another note about these consistent double standards- Martha Kearney rejoices herein a gotcha interview with George Osborne. She says, with a BBC hack’s usual mental rigour:

“What took me by surprise was George Osborne’s immediate admission that he had made a mistake.

I cannot recall the last time a politician did that (without being on the verge of resigning).”

Well let me help the dismal memory of this hackette out a bit- let me take you all the way back to, well, April, and to an obscure and unknown politician called Gordon Brown. I am sure he must have resigned after admitting mistakes? Otherwise we’d know that Martha Kearney’s memory was worth about as much as the BBC’s broadcasting standards and indeed their commitment to impartiality.

Sunday, bloody Sunday

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The Sundays bring another round of analysis of the story the Beeb would rather forget – Manuelgate. The Telegraph has two that are interesting: the story that the Tories are considering cutting its funding by £200 million – at least a step in the right direction; and this piece by Bruce Anderson, which makes entertaining reading.

One depressing aspect of it, though, is that he points out that the problem of bias has long been recognised, just never tackled:

When he was in charge, John Birt identified the problem. Many BBC employees socialised only with those who shared their views. They never met anyone who thought that Ronald Reagan was a good president.

He also encapsulates well the argument that may be keeping the Conservatives quiet:

[S]ome Tories see an electoral argument for caution, at least for the time being. The BBC is already hostile. How much more damage would it try to do if it decided that there was nothing to lose?

It seems to me, though, that many at the Beeb have already reached that conclusion.

The Beeb’s favourite paper, the Mail, though, has a more damaging piece, which may shock those relying on text messages to Radio One as a scientific sampling of youth attitudes: An overwhelming 71 per cent of 18 to 29-year-olds believe it was unacceptable for Brand and Ross to leave sexually explicit messages for Mr Sachs and 82 per cent of them think it was wrong for Brand to say that Mr Sachs was ‘thinking about killing himself’, it reports. It also finds support for the license fee is lowest among this demographic.

It’s not a big thing…

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But it is irritating that the Beeb consistently reports allegations against those it supports only after they’ve responded to them. So while Obama’s illegal aunt was making headlines in the Sun, Mail, Times, Guardian, Express and over on Channel 4 hours ago, the Beeb only reports once it can lead with Obama’s response: Obama Unaware of Illegal Aunt

A guide to speaking Beebish

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As a project for the weekend I’ve decided to make a start on the World’s first Beebish/English dictionary. My hope is it will eventually prove an invaluable tool for the audience to better understand the BBC’s news reports – or that I might be able to flog it to the Beeb as a training resource for bucket loads of cash.

I have a few entries below already, but I’d be grateful for suggestions of others* that should be included.

* with links if possible.