(from Blithering Bunny) This excellent leader column from The Telegraph sums it all up really: Compare yesterday’s reports with those by the same commentators during South Africa’s first democratic election. Then, too, there were many technical problems: electors who were not properly registered, voter intimidation, long queues. But these things were set in their proper context, as the backdrop against which the moving drama of people casting their first ballots … Continue reading →

(from Blithering Bunny) Another example of the subtle bias at BBC News 24. In a report on the Balfour Beatty/Railtrack trial, the reporter made sure to get this comment from the prosecutors into the report: Mr Lissack also told the court the crash was a “catastrophe” which marked the beginning of the end of wholly privatised railways in Britain. This wasn’t particularly germane to the charge, but because it came … Continue reading →

Others have posted about use and abuse of casualty statistics on last night’s Panorama programme. It is odd that the BBC should reportedly promise not to broadcast what they then nevertheless did. The body of the programme was in keeping: emphatically-presented bad news for the coalition, about all the many obstacles to the coalition’s finding an exit strategy ‘to let them withdraw from Iraq in reasonably good order with at … Continue reading →

Further to the posts below about the BBC’s erroneous reporting, they have at last quietly published an item, BBC apologises over Iraqi figures, on their hidden away Newswatch and Notes and Corrections pages (I don’t know why they have two slightly different ‘error correction’ pages). They have also replaced the link on the Panorama pages to Iraq data ‘includes rebel deaths’ with the even more anodyne Iraq Health Ministry Figures. … Continue reading →

that has instead been exposed itself (as promptly reported here by B-BBC commenters 24hrs ago), it is notable how quiet the BBC has been in fessing up to such a monumental and dangerous cock-up. They claimed, in the name of their World Affairs Editor, John “Liberator of Kabul” Simpson, that, coalition troops in Iraq are killing more Iraqis than the so-called insurgents are. On the Panorama section of BBC News … Continue reading →

excessive sports coverage and irritating trailers for itself (“In America…”, aaargh…), I switched over to BBC News 24. Between 3 and 4am they reported “In Britain, the Conservative’s have launched their latest campaign poster on immigration”, voiced over a tight shot from below of Liam Fox up a ladder with a paste bucket – then back to the presenter, without actually showing a shot of the poster (which is why … Continue reading →

(from Blithering Bunny) BBC News 24 says the militants “did their best” to stop the election. (“Best” not a great choice of words, really). 36 people were killed, which is appalling, but is little different than other bad days in Iraq. No rivers of blood. If that’s the terrorists’ “best”, then the terrorists lost. Overall, BBC News was subdued, and slightly negative, but not particularly bad. Even they couldn’t edit … Continue reading →

(from Blithering Bunny) Reuters says “BBC apologises for misinterpreting Iraqi death stats” LONDON, Jan 29 (Reuters) – The BBC apologised on Saturday for erroneously reporting that U.S.-led and Iraqi forces may be responsible for the deaths of 60 percent of Iraqi civilians killed in conflict over the last six months. The British broadcaster said on Friday in broadcasts and a news statement that its Panorama investigative show would air a … Continue reading →

. Sometimes, given a fair degree of exposure to the endless cycle of enquiries which Tony Blair’s governmental culture has tended to foster, which has spread to many areas of society, I wonder whether in addition to all the cultures of this and that which the enquiries, studies and panels identify, there is a culture of enquiries themselves. Richard North, giving his view of the recently published BBC-sponsored report on … Continue reading →

‘A conspiracy to keep an important subject under wraps or a completely shambolic inefficiency, unprofessionalism and ignorance?‘ What a choice to be presented with by our national broadcaster! Or any broadcaster, indeed, whether you fund them through gritted teeth or not. Helen Szamuely raises the question through her vivid first hand account of trying to get a eurosceptical word in edgewise. (ps. at the moment I seem to be channelling … Continue reading →