: Yesterday, there was a remarkable example of biased BBC reporting relating to the Hugo Chavez referendum. BBC World Service’s radio program on August 15th reported correctly that Chavez had likely won the referendum. They followed with commentary about how this result would undoubtedly not please Washington. To educate their audience about why Chavez might be unpopular with the Bush administration, did they turn to a member of the administration … Continue reading →

Some Have Remarked on this piece of trash masquerading as a feature on BBConline. Little surprise then that the centrepiece of that article is very jaded indeed. I found the gist of it described at this site, posted on July 1st. Oh, and Fayetteville, N.C., is a town with five cinemas, and 60,000 inhabitants. Only one of the cinemas showed Fahrenheit 9/11. Click through to read and contribute comments on … Continue reading →

Even a journalist as decidedly left-of-centre as Nick Cohen can write matter-of-factly of the BBC’s liberal bias: The liberal media treat al-Qaradawi’s views with tact and circumspection. BBC News Online barely mentions them, and instead describes al-Qaradawi as an “articulate preacher and a good communicator”. Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

“I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by the Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and have the president of the United States telling the American people that I was not there; the troops were not in Cambodia. I have that memory which is seared–seared–in me.” But he doesn’t say it any more. This official retraction, … Continue reading →

Yup. Scott Burgess’s title pretty well states the case. I do not subscribe to the argument that the BBC should resemble the nation as a whole. The nation as a whole is too varied, fickle, inconsistent and unclassifiable for that to work. The two issues he picks as examples of “broad liberalism”, support for the death penalty and support for not persecuting homosexuals, are, in their very different degrees of … Continue reading →

Just another day at BBC radio. Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

…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 →