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Further to the posts below about the BBC’s erroneous reporting, they have at last quietly published an item, BBC apologises over Iraqi figures, on their hidden away Newswatch and Notes and Corrections pages (I don’t know why they have two slightly different ‘error correction’ pages).

They have also replaced the link on the Panorama pages to Iraq data ‘includes rebel deaths’ with the even more anodyne Iraq Health Ministry Figures. The difference between the two pages? The original page contains the “The BBC regrets mistakes in its published and broadcast reports” apology up front, the replacement page omits any form of apology and adds a lot of obfuscatory blather. Seems like today is another good day for burying bad news.

And the stealth edit? In my post below I mentioned how the BBC’s erroneous reports were destined to become established ‘facts’ (at least for ignorant journalists and leftie axe-grinders), citing an example already on the BBC itself – Killings hit run-up to Iraq vote, which included the statement “Casualty figures obtained by the BBC suggest coalition and Iraqi forces may be responsible for up to 60% of conflict-related civilian deaths in Iraq”. But lo, look again – that statement is no longer there – now you see it, now you don’t!

Once more Google’s cache confirms the BBC’s sleazy stealth editing – the same page, Killings hit run-up to Iraq vote, is there in Google’s cache, exactly the same except for the inclusion of the BBC’s egregious error in the cached copy, both with the same timestamp – Saturday, 29 January, 2005, 05:53 GMT. Shameful stealth editing dishonesty – yet again.

that has instead been exposed itself (as promptly reported here by B-BBC commenters 24hrs ago), it is notable how quiet the BBC has been in fessing up to such a monumental and dangerous cock-up.

They claimed, in the name of their World Affairs Editor, John “Liberator of Kabul” Simpson, that, coalition troops in Iraq are killing more Iraqis than the so-called insurgents are.

On the Panorama section of BBC News Online their page advertising the programme, available via Google’s cache BBC obtains Iraq casualty figures (courtesy of USSNeverdock), concentrated heavily on the claim about coalition deaths:

The data covers the period 1 July 2004 to 1 January 2005, and relates to all conflict-related civilian deaths and injuries recorded by Iraqi public hospitals. The figures exclude, where known, the deaths of insurgents.

The figures reveal that 3,274 Iraqi civilians were killed and 12,657 wounded in conflict-related violence during the period.

Of those deaths, 60% – 2,041 civilians – were killed by the coalition and Iraqi security forces. A further 8,542 were wounded by them.

Insurgent attacks claimed 1,233 lives, and wounded 4,115 people, during the same period.

Panorama interviewed US Ambassador John Negroponte shortly before it obtained the figures. He told reporter John Simpson:

“My impression is that the largest amount of civilian casualties definitely is a result of these indiscriminate car bombings.

But, as it turns out, the BBC’s interpretation of the figures was quite wrong – the figures include people killed by the so-called insurgents, yet the BBC attributed these deaths to the coalition, and then made their erroneous claim about the extent of deaths caused by coalition forces. Worse, according to Reuters, the BBC went ahead reporting these claims even after they were told that their interpretation of the figures was wrong:

Iraq’s health minister said the BBC misinterpreted the statistics it had received and had ignored statements from the ministry clarifying the figures. (Emphasis added).

As with the Bhopal hoax a few weeks back, this is a story that wouldn’t have got so far if the situation were reversed, if the claims were not about coalition caused deaths. A few basic questions and some pause for thought would have seen the story spiked long before it got on air – but, as with the Bhopal hoax, it seems that this is another story that matched what the BBC wanted to say – that was too good to check properly.

As you might imagine, this is a dangerous error to make – it gives support and encouragement to the fundamentalist head-hackers and Baathists who wish to tyrannise Iraq, as well as to home-grown stop-the-war moonbats. It’s the sort of error that risks becoming established fact, that becomes a cause-celebre against which all manner of atrocities can then be justified.

So how has the BBC made good their error, to prevent it from becoming established fact*? Have they broadcast on air apologies to correct their falsehood? Not that I’ve seen. Have they published an apology prominently on their website? Not that I’ve seen. Have they published an apology on their hidden away Newswatch or Notes and Corrections pages? Not that I’ve seen. So much for “NewsWatch will publish all mistakes of a serious nature across the BBC’s platforms – TV, radio and on the web“!

So, what have they done? Well, they’ve replaced the Panorama page (i.e. buried the evidence) mentioned above with the rather anodyne Iraq data ‘includes rebel deaths’, where “The BBC regrets mistakes in its published and broadcast reports” is as far as they go. And that, of course, is hidden away on their Panorama pages – not on their front page or even on their Middle East pages. Hardly open and honest. Michael Grade, the BBC’s Chairman seems to agree that the BBC has to be more honest and admit its mistakes and be less defensive about doing so. Well Michael, this story would be a good place to start.

* Too late – it’s already an established ‘fact’. Lee Moore points to this on the BBC: Killings hit run-up to Iraq vote (“Casualty figures obtained by the BBC suggest coalition and Iraqi forces may be responsible for up to 60% of conflict-related civilian deaths in Iraq”), while Mick points to this crap on MichaelMoore.con. Quelle surprise.

excessive sports coverage and irritating trailers for itself (“In America…”, aaargh…), I switched over to BBC News 24. Between 3 and 4am they reported “In Britain, the Conservative’s have launched their latest campaign poster on immigration”, voiced over a tight shot from below of Liam Fox up a ladder with a paste bucket – then back to the presenter, without actually showing a shot of the poster (which is why politicians do posters these days). This was quite in contrast to the blanket coverage of Labour’s new posters a couple of weeks ago. So, the ‘balanced’ BBC can claim they’ve covered the Conservative’s poster, even though they’ve treated the two main parties quite differently. Perhaps the BBC didn’t like the message on the poster – It’s not racist to impose limits on immigration. Yes, I expect that’s it – complete anathema to the BBC.

(from Blithering Bunny)

BBC News 24 says the militants “did their best” to stop the election. (“Best” not a great choice of words, really). 36 people were killed, which is appalling, but is little different than other bad days in Iraq. No rivers of blood. If that’s the terrorists’ “best”, then the terrorists lost.

Overall, BBC News was subdued, and slightly negative, but not particularly bad. Even they couldn’t edit out all the positive comments from the Iraqi people, and the military spokesmen.

There were some odd phrases, though – John Simpson said “Certainly not a victory for the insurgents”.

Well, no John. It wasn’t. I don’t suppose there’s any chance of “A victory for democracy” from you? I mean, do you think was it a draw?

BBC News on the web actually had the headline ‘Iraq election declared “success“‘, which looks positive, until you realize that the BBC isn’t calling it a success, they’re quoting other people who’ve called it a success.

That particular story ends with this plug:

You can watch John Simpson’s Panorama programme on the state of Iraq on BBC One on Sunday 30 January at 2215 GMT and on BBC World television on Saturday 5 February at 0810, 1210 and 2210 GMT.

This’ll be the Panorama program mentioned in the post below this one, then?

(I will applaud Simpson for his bravery, though – at one point he was looking in trouble with some gunmen in Baghdad. I don’t think anyone’s ever doubted the guy has guts. But hey, Fisk got beaten up – does that mean he’s right? If so, he’s denied that there will be a civil war in Iraq, says Tim Blair, who has an Iraq coverage as good as the BBC’s).

Reporter Caroline Hawley said “The Iraqis have spoken, but we don’t know what they said”. Well, we know part of what they said – it was “Up yours, left-wing Western media”.

P.S. “Head-to-Head” featured Melanie Phillips and David Aaronovitch – can’t complain too much about that! Although Sheena MacDonald managed to say “Are we getting too happy-clappy about all this?” Christ. The Iraqis get to vote for the first-time ever, and because her guests are understandably pleased about this, she wonders whether they’re being simple-minded optimistic fools? Don’t we even get one day to be happy about Iraq?

P.P.S. JohnInLondon in comments notes that the BBC was tagging reports with “First elections since Saddam”. There’s a BBC HARDtalk page here with this phrase.

(from Blithering Bunny)

Reuters says “BBC apologises for misinterpreting Iraqi death stats”

LONDON, Jan 29 (Reuters) – The BBC apologised on Saturday for erroneously reporting that U.S.-led and Iraqi forces may be responsible for the deaths of 60 percent of Iraqi civilians killed in conflict over the last six months.

The British broadcaster said on Friday in broadcasts and a news statement that its Panorama investigative show would air a report on Sunday citing “confidential” records from Iraq’s health ministry to support the contention.

Iraq’s health minister said the BBC misinterpreted the statistics it had received and had ignored statements from the ministry clarifying the figures.

“Today, the Iraqi Ministry of Health has issued a statement clarifying matters that were the subject of several conversations with the BBC before the report was published, and denying that this conclusion can be drawn from the figures relating to ‘military operations’,” the BBC said in a news statement on Saturday.

“The BBC regrets mistakes in its published and broadcast reports yesterday.”

A BBC spokesman said the statistics would not feature in the Panorama show on Sunday.

Via Slatts.

.

Sometimes, given a fair degree of exposure to the endless cycle of enquiries which Tony Blair’s governmental culture has tended to foster, which has spread to many areas of society, I wonder whether in addition to all the cultures of this and that which the enquiries, studies and panels identify, there is a culture of enquiries themselves.

Richard North, giving his view of the recently published BBC-sponsored report on pro-EU bias within, highlighted one classic symptom of a modern enquiry in the report- which found no evidence of ‘deliberate bias’, as though the accusation demanded proof that the BBC’s view on the world had some origin in a dark and smoky (or smokeless, in Beebland) room- the ‘feels like’ clause:

‘ ”In essence it seems to be the result of a combination of factors including an institutional mindset, a tendency to polarise and over-simplify issues, a measure of ignorance of the EU on the part of some journalists and a failure to report issues which ought to be reported, perhaps out of a belief that they are not sufficiently entertaining. Whatever the cause in particular cases, the effect is the same for the outside world and feels like bias” (-quote from report)

We take issue with this. Intended or not, it does not feel like bias. It is bias and there is no comfort in knowing that some of it might be “mindset” – which we have long suspected.’

(italics, brackets and emboldenings mine)

‘A conspiracy to keep an important subject under wraps or a completely shambolic inefficiency, unprofessionalism and ignorance?‘

What a choice to be presented with by our national broadcaster! Or any broadcaster, indeed, whether you fund them through gritted teeth or not. Helen Szamuely raises the question through her vivid first hand account of trying to get a eurosceptical word in edgewise.
(ps. at the moment I seem to be channelling the EURef blog in my posts here, which is probably because Helen and Richard have turned a portion of their considerable knowledge and forensic abilities towards such a juicy europhile turkey as Aunty Beeb. Long may they continue to do so.)

According to our dear B-BBC commenters, this morning Radio 5 Live did a ‘text’ poll asking for people’s opinions on whether or not the UK should sign-up to the new EU constitution. The result of the poll was cheerily reported by the presenter as being 67% in favour of Britain signing up, with 33% against – which is, as anyone who reads the newspapers knows, almost the exact opposite of properly conducted polls.

Cheerily that is, until this bit:

And so far, the voting in our straw poll is as follows, 33% of you [intake of breath, long pause], uh, is this right? This is the wrong way, this is, er, opposite to what we were saying an hour ago, ah, I’m gonna just check those figures for you. Apparently, no, you don’t want to join 67% of you, and yes, 33%. Which, I have to admit, is absolutely opposite to what I reported to you about twenty minutes ago to Eric Forth, so we’ll clarify that for you, I do apologise, but a lot of people are saying that our unscientific vote isn’t fair because it’s skewed towards younger people who have mobile phones and are more likely to text us, so we’ll find out about what proper scientific polls say about the subject a bit later in the programme, although I do think that is ageist because my mum’s over fifty and she knows how to text.

The funny thing about this is how shocked the presenter was at her mistake. We all make mistakes from time to time, but her first, mistaken, interpretation was so at odds with known polling on this subject that surely she should have stopped and questioned that result, rather than stopping later to question the correct figures, especially as Eric Forth, when he was interviewed, pointed out just how far off beam the earlier (mistaken, unbeknownst to him) figures were…

As for her then going on to emphasise how unscientific the poll was, I don’t believe that this point would have been emphasised to this extent were the situation reversed.

Presumably the complaints about the ‘text’ nature of the poll, to which the presenter referred, were older listeners responding to the earlier figures being so far out from their perception of the state of public opinion, although as it turns out, the ‘text’ generation (cast me as a thirty- something techie fuddy-duddy who reckons ‘texts’ are poor value for money, at least in terms of bits-per-pence!) is, reassuringly, firmly against getting further embroiled in the EU too. It’s a pity Radio 5 Live isn’t so in tune with its audience.

Courtesy of commenter ‘Anonymous’, you can hear two excerpts from the above in this MP3 recording: http://upload4free.com/files/1810.mp3. Thank you Anonymous!

Caroline ‘Haw-Haw’ Hawley was in supremely miserable form on the BBC’s Six O’Clock News this evening, describing this morning’s loss of a US helicopter with thirty-one souls aboard as “A huge blow for the American military”, followed up by the programme presenter commenting that today was “A very bad day for the Americans”.

Whilst the loss of the thirty-one people on the helicopter is a tragedy for the US military, especially for the personnel and relatives involved, it is stretching it a long way to describe this tragic incident as “a huge blow” – it will have no bearing on the outcome of present events in Iraq – however much Haw-Hawley wishes it to.

(from Blithering Bunny)

Leftists think asylum’s a huge issue, right? The leftist press went crazy over Michael Howard’s immigration proposals, insisting a storm had been provoked, although most people barely raised an eyebrow. So it stands to reason that when the EU steps in and says that Britain has already handed control of asylum to the EU, this has got to be an even huger story. But guess what? The BBC somehow fails to even mention this. That’s right, it’s a non-story. It’s hard to believe this isn’t deliberate.

All the important decisions for this country are made in back rooms in Brussels. BBC News wants it to stay this way. There’s no need for you little people to go poking your nose in. Shoo! Back to work! Let us handle it!

I’m watching BBC News 24 host a debate on the EU Constitution (ie. a couple of minutes of pointless bickering). Lucy Powell, pro-European, just said that the Euroskeptics are fanatics. If she had more time, no doubt she’d have declared Euroskeptics xenophobic little Englanders.