The BBC makes the very serious claim that the American government refuses to allow aid money to be spent on treating prostitutes suffering from AIDS. In fact it makes it twice. Here is the BBC story: Brazil turns down US Aids funds. It says: Washington says it is important not to promote prostitution, and does not want any of its funds to be spent on treating prostitutes. and Much of … Continue reading →

A commenter says he spotted and grabbed a screenshot of this. Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

Hat tip to Adam, who directed me to this link: BBC News Item or Death Race 2000 Remake? and added, “The Ministry of Truth springs to mind.” The reporter, BBC Bristol’s Chris Kelly, or someone else concerned with the preparation of the original version of this story, failed to spot that a certain claim made in the body of the story and supported by a quote is ridiculous to anyone … Continue reading →

by Justin Webb concerns the history of that curious American institution, the filibuster. Mention is made of Jimmy Stewart’s moving performance in Mr Smith goes to Washington. Mr Webb records with an indulgent smile the 87-year old Senator Robert Byrd (Democratic – West Virginia) reminiscing on the art of the filibuster: “And so when I filibustered 14 hours and 13 minutes in 1964 I never got off the germaneness of … Continue reading →

It was only a couple of days ago, and it was a story about Africa- but the UN’s renewed choice of Zimbabwe to sit on their human rights commission cannot be found in the Beeb’s Africa section. In fact it is difficult to find anywhere- and the relevant article is filed as an ‘Americas’ news item. Bizarre. It is considered an ‘Americas’ story because the US has been one of … Continue reading →

has come out today. The press release and quick summary is here. The full report is here. Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

The Daily Propaganda has analysed that election logo in detail. Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

Well, didn’t the BBC do a good job of selecting a representative audience of normal citizens to ask questions of Blair, Howard and Kennedy? And there I was thinking that the audience would be full of the BBC’s usual partisan, grimly self-righteous, ranting loons, shaking with rage and shouting out abuse. How wrong could I have been? And didn’t that man with the funny-coloured (NHS?) teeth who was in charge … Continue reading →

Slugger O’Toole notes that the BBC World Service describe the Ulster Unionists as ‘loyalist’ and the Democratic Unionists as ‘hardline loyalist’. The SDLP are ‘moderate nationalist’. Then there’s ‘republican Sinn Fein’. Good to see that the BBC know who the real hardliners are. A year ago the Today programme was describing the ‘gulf between republicans and unionist hard-liners’. By republicans they meant, of course, Sinn Fein/IRA. Click through to read … Continue reading →

I am rebuilding from memory an email I accidentally deleted. It doesn’t matter that I can’t remember the author’s name as he did not want it used. He pointed out this entry from the ‘Election Monitor’, the BBC’s campaign weblog: PM Tips By Mark Mardell Chief Political Correspondent POSTED: Thursday 21 April, 1610BST A tip from a colleague for getting rid of Labour canvassers. Just tell them: “I will give … Continue reading →