– BBC1’s late evening news programme last night covered the Indian Ocean earthquake tragedy extensively, including efforts to raise funds, supplies and assistance for those affected. There was an interesting, arguably characteristic, contrast in the coverage of fund-raising efforts – in Ben Brown’s report on Kofi Annan and Colin Powell speaking at the UN (broadcast live on Sky News earlier), the clip of Colin Powell was cut as short as … Continue reading →

Oh dear, oh dear. On the evening and throughout the night of Tuesday December 28th/29th, two days after the tragedy of an enormous natural disaster in the Indian Ocean, can you guess what important world-changing news made the 3rd lead story on the UK edition of the BBC News Online home page? Extended Indian Ocean tragedy coverage? No. Indian Ocean fundraising efforts perhaps? No. Row over escaped prisoner figures maybe? … Continue reading →

Views on Donald Rumsfeld are doubtless strongly held, but only in certain quarters are they fully settled. The BBC presents a round up of bad news for Donald with one of those emotionalised and opportunistic items basically whining that, at the end of the day, he ‘just doesn’t care’. It is, I suppose, Christmas- so a present was in order for the Secretary, which should sink in by about Christmas … Continue reading →

In an instant millisecond twinkle-of-an-eye kind of way the ever predictable Beeb comes through when the pot calls the kettle ‘black’. One piece of advice for Mark Gregory: listen to your own programmes before writing stuff like this. US politicians have often accused the UN of incompetence and, perhaps, corruption in its handling of the oil-for-food programme, a scheme to alleviate Iraqi suffering under sanctions before the war. Now the … Continue reading →

I advise reading Jonathan Lockhart’s entertaining post before responding to that question: ‘The show ended with a discussion of Tony Blair’s dress sense. Michael Portillo observed that Blair had never been particularly stylish and had taken to wearing light ties to match his light shirts, 1970s style. “Ouch, you bitch!” proclaimed Diane Abbott. So ended another edition of the top-flight BBC politics show.’ Click through to read and contribute comments … Continue reading →

. Nicholas Vance, in a must-read post, has that suggestion for the good of the BBC. Sad to say that the only reason they’re going through the rigmarole of job cuts is to guarantee their specially favoured status as recipients of the telly-tax in the current review of the the BBC’s charter. Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

As various prior posts about ‘The Power Of Nightmares’ have listed its various propaganda tricks, I will say no more here than that their contempt is justified. If the producer of ‘The Power Of Nightmares’ ever wanted to learn how to make a documentary series with a somewhat better ratio of fact to slanted comment, they could do worse than look at ‘Empire Warriors’. Its producer may have the same … Continue reading →

: the BBC reports on Rumsfeld’s ‘grilling’ (BBC’s word, unscarequoted) in Kuwait. We are informed that Rumsfeld’s ‘voice broke as he delivered prepared comments’, and that the question asked of Rumsfeld ‘brought cheers from some 2,000 fellow soldiers’ (having seen the incident relayed on BBCWorld, cut most unflatteringly for the Secretary- which I judged from comparison with CNN-, I can say it did not at all sound like 2000 voices, … Continue reading →

Children’s BBC is shocked and traumatised. Children as young as 10 are on their way to becoming addicted to shopping, according to a new report. A thousand girls and boys were asked about their shopping habits and eight out of 10 in the 10-12 age-group said they enjoy shopping. But the same number admitted they buy things they don’t need, in the survey by the National Consumer Council. The horror! … Continue reading →

Last time I remarked that Paul Reynolds was ‘wordy’ but ‘slanted’ in his journalism as he rode to the rescue of St. Koffi. There’s no doubt he’s a champion arse-coverer. One of the notable things about the BBC’s website coverage is how individual articles are biased internally, while the general context of journalism (which few people appreciate) can be used to excuse a particular bias. For instance, Reynold’s latest offering … Continue reading →