Mourning the loss of impartiality on the BBC Like John Simpson, who this week leapt to the defence of BBC “impartiality”, I began my near 40-year broadcast career in BBC TV news. It was impartial then; it certainly isn’t now. I have seen my own visual material presented in an entirely different timeline, totally distorting the actual event that I witnessed, and at no time did the intellectually lazy journalists … Continue reading →

Pulling back from the fray for a moment, allow me to highlight two new blogs. Besides the interest in BBC bias that caused the authors to comment here, both have also have an interest in – I was about to say “foreign” languages, but had I done so certain members of my family would have told me rather firmly that the tongue of the Britons was spoken in these islands … Continue reading →

Ceefax, page 125 3/4 says (emphasis added): The Senate seat in Connecticut went to Joe Lieberman who stood as an independent on an anti-war platform after losing the Democratic primary. Wrong. Ned Lamont won in the Democratic primary because Lieberman’s support for the Iraq war was unpopular with the committed Democratic voters who make up the constituency for a Democratic primary. However with voters as a whole, the pro-war Lieberman … Continue reading →

Commenter “pounce” pointed out this story: Government hails Saddam verdict The UK government has welcomed the conviction by a Baghdad court of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein for crimes against humanity. In the story we hear the views of Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell, Home Secretary John Reid, Anas Altikriti, spokesman of the British Muslim Initiative, Scottish National Party leader … Continue reading →

Via Drinking from Home, via commenter Alan, this story of how the BBC ignored a massacre committed by Islamic Courts’ men in Somalia. I have been deeply suspicious of the BBC’s Somalia output for a while now: lots of spin about how the Islamic Courts were bringing the smack of firm Government. This report, “Taming Mogadishu” ,for example, describes how “restaurants are opening, business is booming – and people are … Continue reading →

Please use this thread for off-topic, but preferably BBC related, comments. Please keep comments on other threads to the topic at hand. N.B. this is not an invitation for general off-topic comments – our aim is to maintain order and clarity on the topic-specific threads. 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 … Continue reading →

Pounce comments: The BBC and a misleading story: Soldier silent over abuse photos A Territorial Army soldier who allegedly sold fake pictures showing British troops abusing Iraqis has refused to answer questions about them. Shouldn’t the headline read: Soldier silent over fake abuse photos I wonder why the BBC leads with such a headline? Here’s a post from Devil’s Kitchen (strong language warning) about the allegedly “terrifying” comments of UKIP’s … Continue reading →

K Havakoz writes: Found this today atlink “Polls revealed religion as a striking predictor of voting behaviour – the more often a voter attended church, the more likely they were to vote for President Bush, by a wide margin. That is not a good thing in a nation where more than 90% believe in God.” regards, K. Havakoz On similar lines, Will and others have pointed out a piece by … Continue reading →

included an appeal for help with the so-called ‘honour’ killing of Naziat Khan by her husband, Zafar Iqbal, who is thought to be on the run in Pakistan. Part of the appeal included a background piece about the nature of so-called ‘honour’ crimes in Britain’s minority communities, explaining that such backward attitudes pervade all ages, which was demonstrated with several vox pop clips of younger Asian British males expressing their … Continue reading →

included this one liner: “Two Palestinian women are killed in an Israeli siege at a mosque in Gaza” …which is a stunningly one-sided abridgement of the story. Turning to the World page on BBC Views Online for instance, we see a more accurate summary of events: Gaza women end mosque stand-off A siege at a Gaza mosque ends after the gunmen inside escape by mingling in a human shield of … Continue reading →