Reading this article at BBConline one has to try to follow the tortuous logic of a journalist trying to justify after the event the BBC’s skewed approach to the news, in this case to ‘Questions of Murder’. As Dumbjon points out, the notion of challenging authority doesn’t apply when the BBC agrees with that authority- when, for example, the race-based news quota method is applied. Anthony Walker died, and that’s … Continue reading →

Peter Cunningham writes: “The following article on BBC online “US abortion rights in the balance?” ends with the sentence “And for many women with unwanted pregnancies in that southern state, little would change.” It is interesting that the author choose not to use the equivalent, “And for many unborn babies in California, little would change – they would continue to be killed.” Ritter pointed out this Newswatch article on the … Continue reading →

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 →

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.

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 →

[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 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.

“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 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 →