Humble pie hard to swallow

A Daily Telegraph reader writes: Re: Humble pie hard to swallow Date: 24 January 2004 Sir – The BBC deserved to see its audience share fall away during the Panorama special, which amounted to a no-holds-barred internal examination of the role of the corporation (and others) in the matter that is the subject of the Hutton inquiry. It was both disingenuous and discourteous to broadcast this piece, no matter how … Continue reading

What a corker!

The Panorama show last night on the Hutton Enquiry was riveting viewing. The most interesting part was where the unbroadcast interview with Dr Kelly was shown: ‘INTERVIEWER (SYNC) Are they an immediate threat? DAVID KELLY (SYNC) Yes, they are. Even if they’re not actually filled and deployed today, the capability exists to get them filled and deployed within a matter of days and weeks, and so yes, they’re a real … Continue reading

‘Go it alone’ Bush

Democrats Slam ‘go it alone’ Bush. Umm, for a start, why did the BBC website give this top headline billing, many hours after Bush’s speech? At the same time yesterday evening on CNN, the headline was ‘Bush: ‘Stay The Course’ ‘- which may be hinting that Bush is a beleaguered President, but is not influencing the political momentum much either way. Meanwhile, the Democratic response was given a subheading at … Continue reading

See! See! Told you so. (Phew!)

The late Dr Kelly, reports the BBC with an audible sigh of relief, … said it would take Iraq “days or weeks” to deploy weapons of mass destruction. Whole days, eh? Sheesh, what’s all the fuss about then? No one cares about what happens days or weeks from now. His view, at odds with the claim Iraq could launch weapons in 45 minutes, is in a previously unbroadcast interview to … Continue reading

Truth or fiction?

Many complaints about the BBC’s sneering treatment of Christianity have been made. Meanwhile, in an article about the Hajj, this interesting line: ‘An estimated two million worshippers are expected at Mecca, where the prophet Ibrahim was told by Allah to build a shrine dedicated to him.’ I do not pretend to be an expert in Judaism or Islam, but I understand Ibrahim is the Islamic equivalent of Abraham. Whether in … Continue reading

Was Truman unpopular because of the atom bomb?

I don’t know if this one represents BBC bias or simply shows how little I know. Perhaps better-informed readers can tell me. Here’s the item: the answer to question 3 of this BBC quiz on the US presidency says: “President Truman had an 85% approval rating at the beginning of 1945, but that sank to a little over 30% after he ordered two atomic bombs to be dropped on Japan.” … Continue reading

In praise of the good government of savagery

. The BBC’s relativistic ‘impartiality’ explores the new depths available when you accomodate the Al Jazeera perspective, with this report of the Taleban’s drugs policy. We all know what sensitive and sensible civil administrators the Taleban were, so thank goodness the BBC have The Noble British Academic to rely on for this insightful appraisal. It does seem a bit coy, however, not to explain what having your face ‘blackened’ involved, … Continue reading