Titillating it may be, but the BBC’s reporting on Cuba’s centenarians here strikes me as downright dishonest. Scott produced an excellent post on this earlier, last month in fact. The BBC, it seems, has a policy of presenting Cuba as a first world country, at least in matters of health. Talk about stretching the fabric of reality. Notice how the information is filtered through a)A state social health program and … Continue reading →

… wails John Humphrys (RealAudio) on the Today programme. This blog isn’t a place to discuss gun control. Nor American culture. Nor Islamic culture, come to that. But there does seem to be a pattern here. When a few Americans do bad things, be it at Columbine or Abu Ghraib, the question is always asked – what does this tell us about U.S. society and culture ? Not so for … Continue reading →

Have a look at this fascinating Alistair Burnett BBC blog discussion of the terminology “so-called war on terror” at the BBC. I see this formulation not as qualification, but denigration- and I think with good reason The prompt for this came from a Newsbusters post. We have dealt with it before Also, I wonder how balanced the BBC would consider Dennis Boyles? In what I would consider not a coincidence, … 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 →

“Some critics suggest …” This report on a church organisation helping out women who are the victims of sex trafficers: A ‘tiny drop in the ocean’ It contains a completely unneccessary comment about “some critics suggest that if the homes are run by the Church there is a chance its beliefs will be imposed on victims around issues such as abortion.” without identifying the critics. It’s a nasty and snide … Continue reading →

Oh really, Thomas Buch-Andersen of the BBC. Then why is the Guardian explaining: “How one of the biggest rows of modern times helped Danish exports to prosper”??? (hat-tip DFH) Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

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 →

informed us that John Prescott said “sorry” for letting people down. They must have been watching a different John Prescott speech than the one he made at the Labour Party Conference in Manchester – because that John Prescott only apologised to the Labour Party, not the electorate at large. Later in the bulletin, they reported on the move of Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond from a hospital in Leeds to … Continue reading →

the judge named in the blackmail case that finished at the Old Bailey yesterday was referred to as Ilyas Khan and Mr. Khan. Curiously, other news outlets, including the BBC Ten O’Clock News, used the judge’s full name – Mohammed Ilyas Khan. Doubtless the Six’s omission was for lack of space. Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

Could the main Radio Four news headline be that “London’s busiest jail is overrun with cockroaches and rats”. Not only that, but apparently officers didn’t always treat the inmates with respect – some of them apparently considering themselves to be a cut above the inmates. How judgemental can you get ? You can’t say our national broadcaster doesn’t have its finger on the concerns of the average Briton. Click through … Continue reading →