I copied down by hand one of today’s Ceefax stories, currently running in the world news digest page 142 (page 2 out of 6). I had to wait for it to cycle round to the right page twice because I couldn’t write fast enough. After all that I found that the entire Ceefax story was merely the first four paragraphs of this web page. Dispute hits UN rights watchdog A … Continue reading →

says the Sunday Times. THE BBC is to be forced to promote British citizenship and a sense of community under a new royal charter to be unveiled this week.It will redefine the purpose of the BBC, entrusting it with a far wider brief than its established mission to “inform, educate and entertain”. You might think that I’d be cheering. I don’t know what the opinion of my co-bloggers will be … Continue reading →

Until today, that is. To BBC Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen, Hamas are now “Islamist nationalists”. Jews living in the West Bank ? Well, frankly, some of them are ‘fanatical’. Nothing like a sense of proportion, is there ? Hat-tip – MN Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

A Michael Taylor, in the comments to the previous post, on the BBC. It’s not Paul Reynolds in disguise, is it ? The agenda-setting is tedious for those who don’t share their world-view, but where it’s accompanied by the hard slog of good journalism – Channel 4 News for example – you agree to disagree and wish them well on their way. The problem with the BBC is not just … Continue reading →

So say the Civitas think-tank, in a report on a BBC ‘documentary‘ which turns out to be a bit of a travesty of the truth. “A programme broadcast on 5 October 2005 called ‘Little Kinsey’ manifested such a distortion of its source material that we can no longer depend upon the integrity of the BBC’s factual programmes.” ‘Little Kinsey’ was part of the ‘Lost Decade’ season, focusing on issues relevant … Continue reading →

doesn’t mean the Beeb will be at all interested, especially if it departs from the “torture” script. Some Gitmo Prisoners Don’t Want to Go Home Fearing militants or even their own governments, some prisoners at Guantanamo Bay from China, Saudi Arabia and other nations do not want to go home, according to transcripts of hearings at the U.S. prison in Cuba. Uzbekistan, Yemen, Algeria and Syria are also among the … Continue reading →

In this BBC story. (In justice to the BBC, I’ve looked at the ONS site and I can’t actually find if there will be a category for the English. But if there isn’t, of course, that would be a story in itself – one you’d think a national broadcaster might want to cover.) Hat-tip to Archduke in the comments. UPDATE – England has arrived on the page after an intervention … Continue reading →

This morning’s Radio Four news headlines tell us that David Mills, husband of Labour Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, will learn soon whether he will face trial on corruption charges. “Miss Jowell, who is separated from Mr Mills ….” Well, yes. Since Saturday. Obviously no time for that little detail. The Today programme page adequately describes the first item after the news at seven. “Hear the latest news from Washington where … Continue reading →

…doesn’t mean the Beeb has to agree. This “story” is bogus. President Bush, after all, was not slow to declare a state of emergency along the Gulf Coast. Mayor Nagin’s reaction to this “news” is laughable and hypocritical but the Beeb is happy to serve us New Orleans sludge. Update: DFH, one of our B-BBC commenterati has two very helpful posts here and here. Auntie can’t get away with what … Continue reading →

Both Expat Yank (hat tip: David H in comments) and Eamonn Fitzgerald’s Rainy Day spotted something odd about the reporting of a recent BBC poll on Iraq. Hello? Three-quarters of the tyrant’s former subjects are thrilled that the old monster is behind bars, but the BBC buries the fact at the very end of the report on its own poll. Talk of selectivity! Talk of bias! Click through to read … Continue reading →