, shown on BBC2 last Thursday, was one of a surfeit of humorous end-of-year review shows, this one being notable for its pimping of the official BBC world view. Described in the BBC’s own listings as “a light-hearted romp through the 50 Winners and Losers of 2004 from the world of entertainment”, the programme, presented by Dermot O’Leary, was mostly amusing, but, unsurprisingly, they managed to slip in a few … Continue reading →

* – the ever astute Michael Gove had an interesting opinion piece in The Times last week. Here’s a chunk to whet your appetite: The leftish bias in Radio 4’s content manifests itself subtly, yet insistently. Voices from the far Left such as Linda Smith and Jeremy Hardy are introduced on the News Quiz, or given their own shows, in a way which gives no clue to their political shading. … Continue reading →

– B-BBC commenter PJF notes the BBC’s treatment of the New Year messages from each of the UK’s three main political parties. PJF points out that Charles Kennedy’s Liberal Democrat Party new year message is reported, complete with fluffy quotes, but omitting the full text of the message for those interested in reading beyond what the BBC sees fit to selectively quote. The full text of CK’s speech is on … Continue reading →

Is it self-parody which drives the BBC (in a story about the growing power of blogs and the blessedly waning influence of MSM as news gatekeeper) to completely omit mention of Dan Rather’s cliffwalk to retirement at the hands of lowly pajamahadeen? Here are a few graphs from the story: The blogging movement has been building up for many years. Blogs in places like Iran have provided sources of information … Continue reading →

– 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.