Jonathan Marcus wants us believe everything Human Rights Watch has to say about the “avoidable” deaths of civilians in Iraq. He seems happy to photocopy everything the HRW report has to say about American and Coalition tactics. Mr Marcus should read Steven den Beste’s devastating critique of HRW here before touting them as worthy of our trust. The trouble with the BBC approach is that HRW is a highly partisan, … Continue reading →

Somehow I don’t think a critical template was applied to this recent article about a conference in Geneva where the correspondent saw ‘vintage’ Robert Mugabe, whose speech ‘stood out’. As Natalie said about Ethiopia, to be fair the BBC do have some critical coverage- in this case some angles on how bad Mugabe’s Zimbabwe is. But why don’t they hold him to account personally, instead of permitting an article to … Continue reading →

reported a demonstration of about 200 former Iraqi army personnel in Basra today. They were protesting over what they said was the failure to pay them pensions over the last few months. They lit tyres and made plenty of noise. This incident made the headlines. Are the BBC in the business of mocking the thousands of people that marched against terrorism several days ago in Baghdad, without so much as … Continue reading →

: Dos and donts US ‘setback’ blah blah…( Do look out for them- they’re not too difficult to find if you’re a proper investigative journalist- a star, like say, Rageh, Caroline, Matt and Orla.) ‘the BBC’s Nick Childs (or another of our experts) at the Pentagon says the blank will make for red faces in Washington.’ (red faces- yes- ha ha- essential to cut them down to size with trivialising … Continue reading →

. West ‘risks new Ethiopia famine’ is the headline to this BBC story. Attracted, in a train-wreck sort of way, to the assumption that it’s the West risking a new Ethiopia famine rather than Ethiopia risking a new Ethiopia famine, I took a look. The article is a mouthpiece for the views of Dr Tewolde Egziabher, an Ethiopian government scientist, who says, no less than four times, that the private … Continue reading →

for Last Night’s BBC News. Read this blog. Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

. As Tim Blair reports, Iraq’s anti-terrorism demonstrations are ‘all over the internet’. Sadly, as well as missing out on coverage in newspapers, the demonstrations have somehow eluded our national broadcaster’s World edition website, renowned though the BBC is for its World Service. When you think of how they like to get the opinions of ‘real’ Iraqis, it’s strange they haven’t interviewed any of the marchers to see why they … Continue reading →

. There is a difference of opinion between BBC journalists John Simpson and Nick Gowing over the deaths of journalists in Iraq- and it’s worth noting. When Simpson says that any journalists not ’embedded’ with troops became ‘potential targets’, he does not mean that they were deliberately targeted. Nick Gowing does- he believes in an Orwellian kind of conspiracy to ‘take out’ journalistic opponents. No steps are taken to separate … Continue reading →

In this post left wing pro-Iraq-war blogger Harry Hatchet writes about John Pilger’s recent comments on the BBC. Harry writes: But the idea that the Radio Four’s Today programme was pro-war or even comparible to the flag-wrapped cheerleading of Fox News, is hard to take seriously. But then Pilger is capable of believing anything to convince himself of the rightness of his postures – he is, after all, the man … Continue reading →

…BBC doesn’t let the facts of its own story get in the way of a headline bemoaning American police racism… The headline: Cincinnati death blamed on police The exerpt: [The coroner, whose report is the focus of the story] added that the ruling should not be interpreted as implying inappropriate behaviour or the use of excessive force by police”. Note the photo of a crying relative at the bottom, next … Continue reading →