Splashed on the front page of The Independent yesterday, was the figure 24,865. “Revealed: Iraq’s Civilian Death Toll”, read the headline. It was not alone. The BBC’s bulletins ran with the same figure, as did the Daily Mirror and The Guardian — derived, said the latter, from “a detailed study of the human cost of the conflict”. There is only one problem with the figure — not that you would … Continue reading →

UK multi-culturism under spotlight, by Roger Hardy, BBC “Islamic Affairs Analyst”, but didn’t have the energy to get stuck into it at the time. Thankfully, Dumbjon has been on the case, and has done a remarkably good demolition job, Beeb Bandwagon Hits Clue Tree, Reverses, Steers Round It, in his own inimitable style. The post below it is rather funny as well. Click through to read and contribute comments on … Continue reading →

Spot the difference between yesterday’s reports: BBC News: “Sir Edward, who took us into the Common Market…”; Sky News: “Sir Edward, who took us into the then Common Market…”; A hint, for those too young to remember the Common Market: it was another name for the EEC, the European Economic Community, which Britain voted to join in 1973. It ceased to exist when, without any further referendum, the EEC became … Continue reading →

in which he is quoted – Stop castrating the language, by Nick Cohen, continuing the theme that: A misguided obsession with objective reporting is undermining the BBC’s credibility as a news organisation. Cohen makes a number of excellent points, for example: “the relativist wisdom that ‘one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter’ is not as secure as the saloon-bar sages and BBC managers maintain” and “At the BBC and … Continue reading →

Via Norman Geras, news that we’re not the only ones. The trust that MPs had in the BBC has collapsed, with a majority of Conservatives and a large proportion of Labour members now believing that the corporation’s news coverage is biased. Four out of ten Labour MPs and two thirds of Tories told MORI, in research conducted for the BBC, they did not believe that it was “free from influence … Continue reading →

Bombs (sorry, blasts, as you term them) take lives – they do NOT ‘claim’ them (see News Online homepage and Turkish resort blast claims lives). Sky News’ online version, Deadly explosion on bus, is appropriately unequivocal. Unfortunately, the twerps presenting Sky News just now are also using the emollient ‘claim’ for the apparent murder and grievous injury of real people, all of whose lives mattered as much to them and … Continue reading →

Tom Leonard has followed up his article in the Telegraph yesterday (see post below) with an excellent article today, BBC language that Labour loves to hear, where he writes that: Within hours of the explosions, a memo was sent to senior editors on the main BBC news programmes from Helen Boaden, head of news. While she was aware “we are dancing on the head of a pin”, the BBC was … Continue reading →

as noted by commenters here. The story reports that: The BBC has re-edited some of its coverage of the London Underground and bus bombings to avoid labelling the perpetrators as “terrorists”, it was disclosed yesterday. Early reporting of the attacks on the BBC’s website spoke of terrorists but the same coverage was changed to describe the attackers simply as “bombers”. The BBC’s guidelines state that its credibility is undermined by … Continue reading →

mother of Anthony Fatayi-Williams, missing since last week’s terrorist attacks, gave a powerful and moving speech in London, broadcast in full on Sky News, also reproduced in full on their website. Afterwards, Sky News’ Ashish Joshi reported that Mrs. Fatayi-Williams “reserved most of her venom, most of her anger, for the terrorists”, yet on the BBC’s lamentable One O’Clock News bulletin, their short excerpt of Mrs. Fatayi-Williams was used mostly … Continue reading →

The BBC website gave full coverage to a vigil for the victims of the London bombs, organised by the Stop the War Coalition, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Muslim Association of Britain. According to the BBC, “it was Dr Assami Tamimi, of the Muslim Association of Britain, who drew the biggest response from the crowd.” The piece quotes Dr Tamimi as saying “Muslims also need to kill the … Continue reading →