John Sentamu

became Archbishop of York on November 30. This report by the BBC’s Religious Affairs Correspondent, Robert Pigott, describes his enthronement. It touches on his political views: “He denounced the war in Iraq and demonstrated against it. He criticised racism in the police after being stopped and searched eight times during six years as a bishop in London. “He said of the Church itself that it was socially glued together by … Continue reading

BBC News Online’s front page prominently featured this important

news for most of Tuesday: Bottom boost Testing out the pants that give you a bottom to rival Jennifer Lopez It’s reassuring that News Online are getting to the bottom of some stories – it’s a pity though that others, such as this one, Christian doctor ‘was forced out’, seem to pass the BBC by. Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

Just a wee blogule

about BBC editorialising within news items (a habit I often notice and fail to raise consistently owing largely to time constraints). Having reported that Mr Green had been cleared of ‘inciting hatred against homosexuals’, the BBC went on to say ‘He has shown little regret for his comments when addressing the media. He has also said his comments referred to a homosexual lifestyle, rather than individuals.’ Remind me, what was … Continue reading

And they say the age of deferential interviewing is dead.

[I wrote most of this post on Thursday 24th. Unfortunately I did not have time until today to dot the i’s and cross the t’s and post it.] Deference was alive and well when James Naughtie interviewed Joe Wilson on Radio Four this morning. Naughtie started risibly by describing Valerie Plame as a “deep cover” agent – clearly he had no idea what the phrase meant. I laughed out loud, … Continue reading

Biased BBC on BBC Newsnight last night:

Biased BBC in the background of a Paul Mason Newsnight report about ‘Web 2.0’, online companies that are making serious cash, with B-BBC, co-incidentally or not, on screen as he mentions the possibility of people seizing back control from large corporations. View via Newsnight’s pages until Monday night (B-BBC is 15’15”-18″ in). Thanks to commenter SiN. Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

Liz Pike, BBC News 24, 2.21pm today:

“Well for those of you wanting more news on the weather, I’m sorry, but for obvious reasons we need to spend more time on the George Best story. Police in Cornwall have set up a Gold Control, and for those of you like me who didn’t know what that was, it’s a special incident control room…” Oh dear. The passing of George Best is noteworthy, but the reality of Hundreds … Continue reading

BBC News Online reports that

BBC defends ‘digital face’ trails, following four hundred complaints about them. They write: The BBC has defended its adverts for digital TV following criticism from viewers who found them frightening. Is that an official admission that these ‘trails’ are actually adverts? In common with many telly-taxpayers, I’m sick of the amount of advertising the BBC has loaded onto BBC1 and BBC2 over the last few years. It used to be … Continue reading

Missing in action: Brussels publishes list of the first pan-European crimes

– has anyone seen or heard anything of this important story on the BBC? Anthony Browne, reports: BRUSSELS unveiled detailed proposals yesterday that would for the first time create a body of pan-European criminal law and force member states to punish citizens who transgress it. … The ruling means that for the first time in legal history, a British government and Parliament will no longer have the sovereign right to … Continue reading

Joined-up narratives: A comparison

Imagine if the BBC created a page entitled The Struggle Against Aids. Imagine if then they included copious stories about linkages between Aids and homosexuality. Imagine if then they took an opportunity to frame a story about rising Aids cases alongside one about indecent and criminal homosexual behaviour, and alongside someone influential’s unmediated and copiously quoted opinion that Aids was linked to homosexual bad behavour. Well, that’s just imagination, isn’t … Continue reading