Category Archives: Uncategorized

General BBC-related comment thread!

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Please use this thread for comments about the BBC’s current programming and activities. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog – scroll down for new topic-specific posts. N.B. This is not an invitation for general off-topic comments, rants or chit-chat. Thoughtful comments are encouraged. Comments may also be moderated. Any suggestions for stories that you might like covered would be appreciated! It’s your space, use it wisely.

No faults allowed

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Following the recent criticism of the BBC’s coverage of the US election, it’s worth mentioning this piece from yesterday’s Independent. It’s an interview with Peter Horrocks, head of news, and it’s classic Beebish. For anyone discomforted by the recent humility the Beeb’s been forced into over the Sach’s affair, Horrocks it the perfect tonic: he simply admits no criticism.

So, the cringe inducing interview with Gore Vidal: a highlight of the evening, says Horrocks. Political editor looking tipsy on screen? A very human moment. Dimleby past his prime? A very respected and experienced person, he says (somewhat dodging the question). Appalling graphics? Not at all.

So the Beeb’s perfect? Well, not quite: The BBC news executive admits that he was concerned by the lack of black faces in the BBC’s coverage on such a moment in history.

General BBC-related comment thread!

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Please use this thread for comments about the BBC’s current programming and activities. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog – scroll down for new topic-specific posts. N.B. This is not an invitation for general off-topic comments, rants or chit-chat. Thoughtful comments are encouraged. Comments may also be moderated. Any suggestions for stories that you might like covered would be appreciated! It’s your space, use it wisely.

Question Time Watch

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It’s that time of the week again. Fresh from victory in the US, Dimbleby and co. return to see if the power of positive thinking can sway the count following that even more important election, up in Fife. This week, someone accidentally invited UKIP’s Nigel Farage, so they’ve had to draft in two lefty commentators in the shape of Brian Eno and Bonnie Greer to ensure the requisite liberal majority. As ever, your views are important to us, so please leave your message in thread provided.

Post match analysis

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With the election finally over, let’s take a moment to review the Beeb’s coverage before we move on. This is possibly one for the train spotters, but it’s important not least because of the Beeb’s claim that individual examples of bias aren’t persuasive as they are trying to achieve balance over time. How the Beeb does so is anyone’s guess, as there’s no evidence they monitor it. However, let’s be radical: let’s assume they’re not lying. So let’s look at the coverage of the election (okay, from the moment Palin was selected) on Justin Webb’s blog. And let’s take with the treatment of Palin. To anticipate a few preliminary objections:

  • Why Webb? Well, he’s the North American Editor, so it seems reasonable.
  • Why the blog? I don’t think the Beeb’s going to let me have all the tapes of Webb’s broadcast coverage. And, frankly, I don’t want them. But not to worry: we know that the same rules regarding impartiality apply, so the blog entries should, if Webb’s doing his job, present a balanced and impartial view.
  • Why Palin? Webb’s blogged on her a lot, which means there’s a decent sample. And she’s someone on which there are significantly differing views, which we should therefore expect to see reflected in the coverage. As Webb puts it, she is immensely grating on those who do not like her, but immensely pleasing to those who do.

So let’s look at the balance:

As for Sarah Palin! Her creationist views are bound to become an issue (can you really have a president who denies basic truths about the world?)

So Webb’s coverage of Palin begins, and with characteristic style – ignoring the fact that, as the Beeb’s admitted, she’s not a creationist, and that she’s not running for president. I’m going to chalk that one up as a negative comment.

However, I’m going to exclude those comments that are neutral – and I’m using the term loosely. Comments such as these:

As well as these posts: on the pregnancy; agreeing she is not the new Eagleton; and his entry about lipstickgate.

So what’s that leave us with? Well, here are the postive comments, such as they are:

  • Palins Punches: I liked the parliamentary-style jabs at Obama and they have peppered the news coverage, though I still think she is skating on thin ice.
  • America’s Answer to Thatcher: with that quote about being grating or pleasing (I’m trying to be generous)
  • Two posts about Palin getting more cheers than McCain: Disappointment? and Regan, Clinton, W and Obama. These really seem like digs at McCain, but let’s give him the benefit of the doubt.
  • And an admission that She is not the harbinger of some dark witch-burning retreat into superstition and irrationality.

And on the negative side:

So, on balance, and over time, do you reckon that Webb thinks Palin would have: made a brilliant VP; been an awful one; or do those rules on impartiality and his professionalism make it just impossible to tell?

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.

Brand/Ross – Lesley Douglas Knew

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Brand/Ross – “Lesley Douglas knew”

On BBC radio news tonight – BBC DG Mark Thompson has stated that Radio 2 controller Lesley Douglas “was aware of the content” of the Brand show before it went out.

There seems to be a groundswell of support for Douglas from BBC insiders, who held her in high esteem – Thompson’s predecessor Greg Dyke described her departure in the Times as “arguably deeply unfair“. Perhaps this revelation is designed to explain why she had to go.

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Whay Manuelgate Matters

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Why Manuelgate matters

For all the distaste of the calls to Sachs there’s been some understandable frustration here that it’s this issue the public and papers have got upset about, rather than the constant bias.

This, though, would seem to suggest the result is the same – a lack of trust in the Beeb that can’t help but hit its unwarranted reputation as a impartial source of news:

The PoliticsHome Phi5000 Public Opinion Tracker, powered by YouGov, consists of a politically balanced panel of 5000 voters across the UK… [and] has tracked public perception of a variety of institutions on a daily basis. Since records began, the BBC has been the country’s best loved institution, with an average net approval rating of 30… The BBC’s approval rating, however, has plummeted this week as the Ross/Brand affair has dominated the media. In just four days, it has fallen a huge 24 points to only 6.

My favourite bit, though, bearing in mind the complaint that this has all been whipped up by the press, is this:

This places the BBC for the first time below ‘Broadsheet newspapers’

There’s also this, which will surprise no one: Among Conservative supporters (who initially had a lower opinion of the Corporation), the BBC now has a negative net rating (-3).

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Provocative And Original

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Provocative and Original

One of the lines I’ve been hearing a lot lately, in the wake of BrandRossSachsGate, aside from all the usual “It must never happen again – lessons have been learned” baloney one has come to expect from such furores, is the idea that the BBC must maintain its right to be “provocative and original”.

Which got me thinking… when was it ever? I mean, this is a station that won’t even repeat “It Ain’t Half Hot, Mum!” Indeed, the BBC is so uncutting edge you could rub your hands all over it for two hours without spilling any blood.

I suspect the supporters of this view also mean… “and good”. After all, trying to turn Ian Wright into a tv presenter was indeed both provocative and original. But when was this golden age? Or are we living in it now? Ross and Brand themselves don’t qualify as original BBCers, either. Ross was doing a Friday night tv chat show twenty five years ago. Brand started on MTV. So who do they mean?

Ricky Gervais? He was knocking around Virgin Radio and Channel Four before Aunty Beeb got her grubby mits on him.

Chris Morris? I’d say he was p and o ( and g ). But it’s fifteen years since he last appeared on the BBC.

So who are all these zany, extremist provocateurs who we all ought to cut some slack from time to time because they all make us all look at life in a new and edgy way? Chris Moyles? John Humphries? Brian Matthew? I’d love to know.

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Open Thread

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General BBC-related comment thread! Please use this thread for comments about the BBC’s current programming and activities. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog – scroll down for new topic-specific posts. N.B. This is not an invitation for general off-topic comments, rants or chit-chat. Thoughtful comments are encouraged. Comments may also be moderated. Any suggestions for stories that you might like covered would be appreciated! It’s your space, use it wisely.

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.