“Down to Earth” is how the BBC describes Governor Ibrahim Shekarau of Kano State, Nigeria, who has made his name by blocking polio vaccination in his jurisdiction, on the grounds that the vaccine is a Western plot to make Nigerian Muslim women infertile. As Robert Hinkley, in whose “Sporadic Chronicle” I found this story, points out, the BBC story is written in a way that displays an astonishing degree of … Continue reading →

posted to wrong blog. Easily done if you have two blogs on Blogger. Then on hasty second thoughts I deleted the whole thing. Don’t worry, you haven’t missed much, just me being wrong about US politics. Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

Sean Gabb of the Libertarian Alliance had the microphone pulled from him during a BBC debate a few days ago, as mentioned here by Ed Thomas on Feb 17 and Feb 19. You can listen here. Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

I watched BBC coverage of the awful bombings in Iraq. It was vivid and affecting. The viewer saw terrified crowds separating and re-forming – one minute arousing pity, when we saw a shot of market trolleys pushed into service to carry the wounded away or a glimpse of a man carrying a bloodied baby – and the next, horror, when a mob coalesced around an Iranian pilgrim and looked set … Continue reading →

: … don’t know what your position is on the whole Israel/Palestinian conflict, but anyway, this is a copy of a something I just sent to the BBC’s “feedback” section of their site. It’s regarding a factual inequality in TV reporting on the conflict. Here is what Jon said to the BBC: The last 2 nights (25 and 26 Feb, GMT+4) every BBC World News TV bulletin featured Orla Guerin’s … Continue reading →

, but also on-message left-leaning anti-war media organisations think as one. And the time-lag here between a report in the Sunday papers and a report on the BBC was?… nil. Funny how when the same newspaper and others have reported the scandal of Iraqi-oil-for-peace-activists the BBC has waited, and waited, and waited, and then reported a scandal… in France. This is not to mention the fact that this dilemma was … Continue reading →

Recently I criticised the BBC for its coverage of Robert Mugabe’s birthday party– and I suggested that it was part of a trend. Others disagreed. My view is that very often the BBC acts as though they are a court of law- seeing their job to present the unfolding evidence of history fairly. The trouble is that that often means twisting material to fit arbitrary (though satisfying) lines of justice. … Continue reading →

: the BBC finds more uses for licence-payer’s money by antagonising God and atheists in mind-numbing global television mallarkey. This excellent article in the Guardian rips it into such very fine shreds you won’t even feel tempted to see how bad it is and boost the viewing figures. Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

can be enhanced by reading the opinions of those you strongly disagree with. That’s why I looked into the Today Programme website to see what I could glean from their extended feature about Jenny Tonge (the LibDem former front-bencher who lost her job after demonstrating her ’empathy’ for suicide bombers, and then visited Israelis and Palestinians at the invitation of the Today Programme- producing an article on the main BBC … Continue reading →

. Nicholas Vance skewers Orla and Fergal. Plus… how Irish kebabs should be free or paid for voluntarily- a plan for reform at the BBC. Plus… will the Tories always get it wrong? Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.