David Aaronovitch, in his final column for the Guardian, describes what happened when he, a left-winger, decided not to oppose the Iraq war. All of a sudden I began to experience the left from the outside. And the first thing that struck me was its capacity for smug certainty and uniformity of response. Look at the cartoonists, whose work trumps debate. You may have Blair the poodle, Blair with blood-stained … Continue reading →

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says that one of her correspondents tried sending similarly-worded posts referring to “racist/apartheid Israelis” and “racist/apartheid Palestinians” to a BBC messageboard in order to see which ones were removed. Since individuals are fallible, and different moderators will be on duty at different times, some inconsistency is to be expected. However there did seem to be a definite bias against Israel in the results. Click through to read and contribute comments … Continue reading →

Quick comment – one thing I did notice during the Beeb’s coverage of the election was that their trailers did at least refer to one of the choices being “who spends your money”… Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

Tim Blair has some choice quotes from an ABC interview with Phil Rees. Rees says: When I joined the BBC, by the way, 20 years ago now, it was assumed, it was a basic standard, that you adopted the idiom that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. And If you use terms like militants, insurgents, guerrillas, you are not saying these people are evil. The word ‘terror’ conjures … Continue reading →

asks the Children’s BBC website. This treatment is plenty better than it was the last time I posted about CBBC coverage of the subject. This time if you follow the list of links to related mini-stories you’ll see they explicitly give the pro-gun side a hearing! Still, it’s fairly pathetic that the article does not even mention the very different laws in different states. Handguns are practically illegal in some … Continue reading →

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 →