‘She wanted to tear up the rule book’

writes Anthony Reuben, a BBC Views Online Business Reporter, of the recently deceased Dame Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop, including this wonderfully astute observation: The very idea of a commercially run business being set up to benefit anyone other than shareholders was a new one. And I thought that any commercially run business sets out to benefit its customers through the provision of goods and services freely purchased. … Continue reading

Open thread – for comments of general Biased BBC interest:

Please use this thread for BBC-related comments and analysis. Please keep comments on other threads to the topic at hand. N.B. this is not (and never has been) an invitation for general off-topic comments, rants or use as a chat forum. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog. Please scroll down to find new topic-specific posts. Click through to read and contribute comments on this … Continue reading

McCann radio debate slammed

reports the Grauniad: Listeners outraged by a BBC Radio Five Live debate on Madeleine McCann forced the station to change a phone-vote on her disappearance. Victoria Derbyshire’s morning phone-in today asked listeners to vote on whether they still had sympathy for Madeleine’s parents Gerry and Kate after they were officially made suspects in the case by Portuguese police on Friday. Dozens of listeners contacted the programme to say they did … Continue reading

Catching up on some stuff from last week

, BBC Views Online reported that Conservatives Mercer and Bercow to advise Brown. Co-incidentally, of the seventeen paragraphs in an article about both politicians, BBC Views Online spent five paragraphs, in the middle of course, rehashing the ‘Mercer is a racist’ meme the BBC so gleefully promulgated back in March. One line would have been enough of a reminder, if it was needed at all, given that the original I … Continue reading

BBC Views Online: Facebook ‘costs businesses dear’

: According to employment law firm Peninsula, 233 million hours are lost every month as a result of employees “wasting time” on social networking. The study – based on a survey of 3,500 UK companies – concluded that businesses need to take firm action on the use of social networks at work. The Bivings Report: The BBC is invading Facebook: As of this posting, the British Broadcasting Corporation facebook network … Continue reading

Unsurging the surge. Surgemania.

“Not one call has been aired suggesting that there might, just might, be some improvement as a result of the surge. And that’s absolutely not because that’s the view that all callers to the programme have taken. I know that for a fact – because I called in to redress the balance. And have I been put on air? Of course not. It is thus an editorial decision to air … Continue reading

Re-thinking their position

Reflecting on the BBC’s current coverage of Iraq and the Petraeus report which is due today, I was led to have a nostalgic look at the much-missed LastNight’sBBCNEWS blog, which gave panoramas of Panorama and other BBC programmes during its existence. Here’s an interesting post. It reminded me of the old BBC line that the trouble with Iraq was “the Sunni insurgency… a nationalistic struggle against foreigners”. That was yesterday’s … Continue reading

It’s time to go a-comparing and a-contrasting again at Biased BBC:

Here are four recent news reports, reproduced in full. Can you spot the relevant fact omitted from one of them: First, BBC Views Online: Man in court faces terror charges A man has appeared in court accused of preparing acts of terrorism in his home town in South Yorkshire. Nicholas Roddis, of Reedham Drive, Bramley, Rotherham, appeared at London’s Old Bailey on Friday by video link from custody. The 22-year-old … Continue reading