Category Archives: Uncategorized

. Further evidence of the BBC’s failings when it comes to their much vaunted World coverage. This article at BBConline originally ran with a headline something like ‘Report Condemns Nigeria Human Rights’, or something very similar. Now the headline is ‘Nigeria ‘Upholding Human Rights’ ‘. So, great news story. I wonder if they’d run a similar one about the UK: ‘UK ‘Upholding Human Rights’ ‘? Sounds snappy, doesn’t it? On second thoughts, no, they’d never do that while we are allied to the USA and the Guantanamo Bay policy.

So why the ridiculous headline? Why the change? Well, if you read the opening of the story it looks like the BBC has been ‘favoured’ with a visit or a long phone call from ‘a Nigerian Presidential Advisor’. The Nigerian Embassy in London is an impressive, large-looking building quite near Charing Cross- probably to cope with the extensive links and large number of Nationals exchanged between the two countries (mainly in this direction, but then there’s the oil). I suspect that being on site in this way has enabled someone to pounce on the BBC, and the BBC, like an obliging guilt-ridden ex-colonial organisation, obediently rolled over. The article was changed from a critical one to an opportunity for President Obasanjo to get good PR and see off some critics. Nice one Beeb. Update. Notice how the critical report is merely the product of a ‘lobby group’- which is a phrase the Beeb normally reserves for pro-Fox Hunt or Pro-Jewish groups, in other words, for the outer darkness.
Update . The lobotomised critical article has disappeared from the Front Page of Beebonline. It has been replaced by this fawning little one. And all just before the Commonwealth States’ meeting this weekend. How simply super for the Nigerian Government, and how very impartial of the BBC.

The Plain English Campaign gave a gobbledegook award to Donald Rumsfeld the other day. If you are interested, I gave my plain opinion of the Plain English Campaign on my blog here. In this post I’d just like to point out, that of course the BBC zoomed in on this story like flies to honey. As usual, the Beeb did not waste any valuable sneering energy on actually examining Rumsfeld’s remarks to see if there might, after all, be something in them. And, as usual, they got the story slightly wrong in a characteristic direction. On Radio 4 News yesterday the announcer, revelling in it, hastened to say that George Bush and John Prestcott were runners up. No they weren’t. According to The Scotsman “the awards always attracted nominations for Mr Rumsfeld’s boss US President George Bush as well as British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott ” – i.e. the Great British Public, or the letter-to-the-editor-writing subdivision thereof neglect no opportunity to be smug. But even the Plain English Campaign, ignorant though it is of the complexities of either intelligence work or the philosophy of the limits of knowledge, can differentiate between a tendency to verbal slip-ups and the obfuscatory language that should be its main business. The BBC doesn’t seem to be able to. On occasion it might not care to – there is material for a dozen Golden Bull awards in this blog.

, this one’s for the diehard fan. What I mean is that there’s nothing new in it, and certainly not the polemical tone, but it makes some connections that might interest some people. Greg Dyke’s recent speech (see several posts below) was interesting for his suggestion that ‘the free marketers have got it wrong’. The Val Macqueen article I’ve linked to goes ballistic in response to Dyke’s superior tone, courtesy of Nicholas Vance.

. Another interesting move by the BBC in the War on Gilliganism. It’s exactly the kind of costly draconian measure I’d expect from an organisation that is more interested in self-preservation than reform. Update.Stephen Pollard tidies up a couple of stories for us.

. A gulf of epic proportions emerges between these two pieces by Fox and the BBC on Iran’s nuclear programme and the controversy surrounding it. No doubt Greg Dyke would take that as a sign of success, but after reading them I know which I find more convincing, and I know which gives me words from the horse’s mouth as opposed to a luke-warm second-hand mush of pandering UN-speak where the voice of the journalist and the politician are indistinguishable. Thanks to Dan in the comments below for pointing this out.

with the “British Bias Corporation” about their pathetic slant against President Bush’s linking of Iraq to the worldwide “war on terror”.

It was notable, too, that Mr Bush chose the “war on terror” as a major theme of his visit, linking Iraq to that worldwide war.

His advice to the Beeb: “read your own service” to discover that there really is a war out there, even in Britain.

. Reading Greg Dyke’s speech in New York recently (see below posts), it seemed that I was hearing about a magical Kingdom, let us call it ‘Beebland’, where the journalists have such integrity that balanced coverage in the public interest, er, magically prevails. I wonder, do the people of Scotland agree, after the ‘coverage’ of the ‘building’ of their monumental folly, the new Scottish Parliament building? Many, many questions arise from this story that the Boss of Beebland is clearly too complacent to answer. Update. I thought it would be civil to link from here to the Boss of Beebland’s recent speech. Also, for anyone who doesn’t know, the Scottish Parliament building has proved to be a bit more costly that predicted and is a tad controversial in those parts.

This needs remarking on, even just for the sound byte we’ve all thought but rarely heard spoken by a public figure:

“Getting the BBC to admit it is wrong is like squeezing blood from a stone.” – Ben Bradshaw, former Beeb journalist and [current UK Government] Fisheries Minister.

I wonder whether the Government will let the BBC off the hook when the Charter renewal discussions begin? Maybe they are just enjoying making the Beeb squirm for a change, or Greg Dyke (Boss Hogg to his friends) do some work.

Many thanks to Nigel Holland who brought this to light in the thread below.

The poet Benjamin Zephaniah Says NO to OBEs- especially in the light of the Iraq war. Yes, that’s right- but he also took the air-time on Channel Four News last night to praise the BBC World Service because they had changed their name from the BBC Empire Service. So, apparently the leopard can change its spots. It’s all in a name.

I would never seek to defend a certain old British hegemony, whereby dirty deals were done with local dignitaries to gain soldiery or to nullify opposition. There is an area though where the British do retain a degree of hegemony, as do the French: that is in World News provision. In my last post I criticised the uncritical approach taken to the story of Internet fraud in Nigeria. In my view each story should stand reasonably well on its own legs. We’ve made similar comments about coverage of another legatee of colonialism: Mahathir Mohammed former Prime Minister of Malaysia. Cosying up to strong men seems to be a habit that BBC (Empire) World service and its relations at BBConline have not shaken. They would appear to prefer to tear strips off limited-term western politicians- you know, the ones who will risk their lives for a photo shoot. Honestly Benjamin, are you still a sucker for the real Empire punch? When the BBC extends the olive branch of ‘impartiality’ to these countries, who gets the warm rosy glow? And who gets the scoops?

in some respects, and incredibly nuanced (ie. sophisticated) in others. Yet another example here of where essentially the Beeb are harrying the US over operations in Iraq. They recently reported the fall in attacks on US troops, masked carefully by a headline about increased attacks on Iraqis (see Tues ‘Different Tactics’). Now they report a denial by the US that extra troops are needed for a worsening security situation in Iraq- but who asked the question? Who said attacks ON US TROOPS were ‘unabating’? Surely not the Beeb, because they knew very well from their own findings that US troops in themselves were finding life easier in recent times. If that doesn’t trip the reader into assuming the worst for the US, there’s always the ‘isolated US’ argument which follows it.

Now cut to a different story, about Internet fraud (no less) in Nigeria. There are so many interesting angles on this that the Beeb misses- not least the comical one that the 419 fraud is so unbelievably simple yet apparently catches so many Westerners (you’ve probably received one of these- I know I have- and binned it). The serious one is that apparently Nigeria is so poor (despite oil earnings) that this fraud is a significant national earner. Another would be the irony of Nigeria’s ruling class cracking down on fraud in the light off the above fact. All goes sailing by, and we’re as ignorant about real Nigeria as ever- and misled over goings on in Iraq. Looking round for alternative sources of African News, I was not overwhelmed with the choice. Is this an argument in favour of the Beeb? The best of a bad lot? Or is it an argument for reform to create more competitive British news providers? Here’s one place anyway (not that I give it my blessing). Update– Having explored my own link I do bless it, kind of. Update2.Readers of the Beeb article will notice links to Nigerian corruption stories (good)- these are just simply too understated to be taken seriously in my opinion (bad). Update3.Maybe my ‘dullness’, maybe slippery language (suit yourself), but the ‘unabating onslaught’ referred to in the Beeb report is reportedly on ‘coalition targets’ rather than US Soldiers as I implied.