Biased BBC reader Kate Smurthwaite

has written BBC Warning Service – Round-up for Pregnant Women on her blog, drawing attention to a laundry-list of BBC warnings (also known as scare stories) for pregnant women – the usual stuff: watch out for this, do this, don’t do that, etc. etc. Pregnant women aren’t the only people who need to beware of the incessant scaremongering and social engineering promulgated by the many idle hands at BBC Views … Continue reading

BBC2 this evening showed the first of a seven part series, British Film Forever

, with tonight’s episode, Guns, Gangsters, and Getaways: The Story of the British Crime Thriller, described in Radio Times as follows: There are some tremendous thrillers here – Brighton Rock, Mona Lisa, Get Carter – but I hope you’ve seen them all, because if you haven’t, there’s little point in hiring the DVDs. Crucial plot details and endings are all given away. Even actual closing scenes (Get Carter) are fully … Continue reading

Crisis-prone BBC needs management clear-out writes Jeff Randall

, former BBC Business Editor in today’s Daily Telegraph. Here are some highlights, first, Randall on the culture of the BBC: In a commercial organisation, these undesirables would be driven out by market forces. The yardstick of success and failure provided by profit and loss is a visible reminder of whether you are winning or losing. When results are poor, or mistakes are made, heads roll. A line is drawn … Continue reading

Stupid, and rather evil…

This BBC article: “Obesity ‘contagious’, experts say” Imagine what the kids in the playground might make of it, if they knew (and some certainly would) the meaning of the word “contagious”? Looking at this definition, only meanings one, two and three could be relevant in a medical context. The BBC’s report about fatties and whether they have the lurgy is totally irresponsible. Bonus points for anyone who can find the … Continue reading

Following up on the grotesque Simon Fanshawe/BBC

conflict of interest from yesterday, Biased BBC reader ‘Al the Hat’ coments: A few weeks ago, Radio 5 Live had an extensive discussion on who should replace Michael Vaughan as captain of the England one day cricket team. Guest and former England cricketer Alec Stewart made a long and considered argument in favour of Paul Collingwood, without feeling the need to tell us that he is, in fact, Collingwood’s agent. … Continue reading

On Saturday Anonanon commented

On Saturday Anonanon commented: On this morning’s Breakfast “writer and broadcaster” Simon Fanshawe used his post-7am newspaper review to make overtly pro-Labour, anti-SNP and anti-Tory comments. When Iain Dale does the papers for the BBC his Tory party affiliation is mentioned without fail, but Fanshawe’s Labour activism is ignored. In fact, when it comes to declaring his interests Fanshawe seems to have been granted immunity by his long-time employer [the … Continue reading

Biased BBC commenter Tom Atkins commented

this afternoon about a BBC News Twenty-Bore reporter asking: “What have you got to say about reports that people are selling bottled water AT A PROFIT from the side of the road?” Which is of course shocking – shocking that the Beeboids should make such an assumption – how are they to know what the costs are of providing bottled-water at the side of the road? Perhaps those selling bottled … Continue reading

What more could they get wrong?

(this post in large part thanks to commenter “cheesed off”) In a short article about a woman called Zoobia Hussein, the BBC get just about everything wrong that could be got wrong. What were they trying to do with this report? For a start, Zoobia Hussein is described appearing in court in her niqab (or “full veil” as the BBC report it). In fact she finally submitted to showing her … 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

It gets worse for the BBC and for Newsnight. Scotland’s Sunday Herald

reports that BBC apologises in row over ‘mistake’ in SNP survey: THE BBC has suffered another credibility blow after admitting that it made up a Newsnight survey suggesting that most of Britain and Scotland’s leading businesses were not in favour of independence. Presenter Jeremy Paxman had told SNP leader Alex Salmond that ‘not one’ of 50 firms, made up of 25 in Britain and 25 north of the border, supported … Continue reading