…if not the story. As Natalie, Ed, Andrew and B-BBC commenters have noticed, bias by omission is an ingrained habit in Beebdom. For example, in this story on Bush and McCain, the BBC manages omit a developing story whilst misrepresenting the Republican party. He [John McCain] called a Republican campaign ad criticising Mr Kerry’s military service “dishonest and dishonourable” and urged the White House to condemn it. To begin with, … Continue reading →

I’ve been away. So I might have. But has the BBC reported the Swift Boats controversy at all? Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

The dispute about the terror warnings in the States rumbles on- despite the continuing emergence of plots and plans from the al-Qaeda hard drive treasure troves. This one is the best I’ve heard of so far– filmmakers take note (let’s hope it’ll only ever be a storyline). The BBC has made its position clear, and has reported largely on the political issue of whether the Republicans are trying to scare … Continue reading →

The parliamentary human rights committee today announced various conclusions they’ve reached on the detention without trial of foreign terror suspects in the UK. The crucial point to remember about the twelve foreign nationals currently detained under this legislation is that they are free to leave the UK at any time. They are people the UK government would ordinarily deport, but in these cases cannot, because, under our human rights legislation, … Continue reading →

I noticed today’s Telegraph with the headline ‘Terror Alert Based on ‘Plot’ Three Years Old’– and I thought (not for the first time), ‘the Telegraph are getting in on the act’. The point is that where the Beeb leads, others follow. Not that this is always the case. The Beeb’s fawning coverage of Sen. Kerry’s Convention was not imitated by all that many- which is a good job for the … Continue reading →

: Trevor Asserson and Cassie Williams of BBCWatch have produced a study of BBC documentary coverage of Israel entitled ‘The Documentary Campaign 2000-2004’. Norm Geras has read it and summarises. (Via Glenn, who is not surprised by their findings). Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

. Going back to what Natalie was saying about ‘scare-quotes’… I noticed Drudge and the BBC with the same story of the discovery of some of GWB’s military service payroll records. Drudge reported it it “Bush ‘destroyed’ Military records found”. The BBC reported it “Bush 1972 payroll records ‘found’”. Drudge was right, the BBC (typically) wrong- and suggestive. You see, what is called into question by the finding of these … Continue reading →

…if you’re the Beeb. Reactions to 9/11 report Of the nine statements on the 9-11 Report, one is by George Bush. All but one of the others is in some way critical of the Bush administration or a well-known Bush critic. With the exception of George W Bush and Senator Pat Roberts, every elected official quoted in this piece is rabidly anti-Bush. How is this in any way fair since … Continue reading →

Further to Natalie’s post on this subject, yesterday’s (Tuesday 20JUL04) BBC One O’Clock was the usual lightweight, right-on stuff. Stephen Sackur reported on the new session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. It was mostly filler – mention of the new Spanish something or other, the translation service, new member states, 480 language combinations, Tower of Babel (not a), etc., with the report closing as follows: “But not everyone finds … Continue reading →

As so often, the little instance of bias I am about to point out is so tiny and insignificant that I almost want to feed it some milk on my finger. The fun part is finding out how many brothers and sisters and cousins it has under the floorboards. In this article about UKIP MEP in row over working women we have (in the grey box): Independence and Democracy is … Continue reading →