may, as Damien Thompson pointed out, tread warily when it comes to investigating radical Islamists, leaving that sort of thing to Channel Four. But you can’t fault them when it comes to keeping tabs on the SS Historical Re-enactment Menace. Nothing like a finely honed sense of priorities. It surely can’t be long before the Second Battle Group turn up in an episode of Casualty. Click through to read and … Continue reading →

at the Edinburgh International Televison Festival is available in full here on the Newsnight website. Here’s a great line to be going on with: I have to say that it seems to me things haven’t been much helped by they way they’ve been handled. We’ve had the preposterous spectacle of some of the most senior figures in broadcasting running around like maiden aunts who’ve walked in on some teenage party, … Continue reading →

an article defending the BBC in today’s Guardian. A commentator in the Guardian’s comments section sums it up well: Partnership… standards… interaction… percentages… engage… conversation… culture… value… colleagues… Now, back to the studio. Most of the comments, from Guardian readers remember, have been hostile. For example: What a load of guff. It’s not your stupid phone-ins and naff prizes which are the problem – it’s your political bias and the … Continue reading →

– you know, the one that the BBC did so much to promote in advance with daily mentions on BBC Views Online, complete with directions to the site (though stopping short of “and it’s handy for those coming by air too – just look for the BBC helicopter above the camp!” – though that wouldn’t have been out of character), I was surprised that we didn’t see this prominent banner … Continue reading →

has joked at the Edinburgh Festival that: Everyone at CBBC is either gay or childless and don’t like kids. …before going on to say: Still, at least we’re better than Palestinian children’s TV, which gets kids to sing songs about AK-47 rifles. …which is interesting, because for some strange reason the BBC always seems to be looking the other way when Middle Eastern broadcasters spew hatred about other people and … Continue reading →

, invites us to send a message to the TV industry on the BBC Editors blog for the mediagrauniad Edinburgh International TV Junket Festival this weekend (though Peter missed out the mediagrauniad bit for some reason). Biased BBC reader Rockall tried to send a message, but was yet another victim of the BBC’s apparently buggy comment submission process. Knowing how keenly Newsnight follow Biased BBC, here’s Rockall’s comment for Peter: … Continue reading →

, reckons that Truth is the first Casualty at the BBC, as he weighs into the debate about the BBC’s decision to change a Casualty episode depicting an attack by an Islamist terrorist into an animal rights attack: I’m only surprised that they didn’t rule that the bus station bombing in Casualty should be carried out by “militants” linked to UKIP, demanding a referendum on the European Constitution. Turning to … Continue reading →

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 →

, Associate Editor of The Times, reckons We’re to blame for BBC bias. It’s an interesting, and hopefully wry, take on the causes of the BBC’s cultural mentality. Here’s the key part: If Zimbardo is right, then the political slant of BBC reports is not the result (or at least, not mainly the result) of the disposition of the BBC’s reporters. It comes about because of the role they see … Continue reading →

linking to the Telegraph’s editorial Terror victims are BBC licence-payers, too, the Telegraph has more coverage of the BBC drops Casualty suicide bomb plotline story that has been discussed in the comments here. Lord Tebbit is quoted: People were perfectly free during the violence in Northern Ireland to produce dramas about terrorism for which presumably they might have been accused of stereotyping IRA terrorists or even suggesting that all Catholics … Continue reading →