. 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 →

The BBC recently reported a “Google Bomb” which linked the words “miserable failure” to a biography of Bush. Fair enough, it’s a story. However the BBC refer back to the famous “These weapons of mass destruction cannot be displayed” web page as an example of something similar. In this post the author of that page, who also happens to write the “Black Triangle” blog, says that the BBC misrepresented him. … Continue reading →

. According to a recent Guardian article about the Beeb’s plans to pay their journalists to keep their peace instead of blabbing in newspapers, Greg Dyke (aka Boss Hogg) believes that managing journalists is like ‘herding cats’. Spare a thought then for the military trying to look after, or look out for, journalists in a battle zone, or an ‘intifada’, especially when some decide that ’embedding’ is just not real … Continue reading →

, a number of people can see the implications of the Telegraph’s story yesterday. Of those, Tim Blair has gone to town on it very pleasingly- and on the journalistic standards which have brought us to this situation. Even if that Iraqi Colonel was wrong in the intelligence he gave, the fact remains that the ‘sexed up’ 45 minutes claim that was all there was left of Andrew Gilligan’s story … Continue reading →

. Here is an example of how the BBC’s thought processes continue to work. What would the news pages look like if they reported every university based ‘think tank’s’ report? Could they perhaps be trying to vindicate their own well known position on the justifications for war in Iraq? No mention is made of the political affiliations of this ‘think tank’. Glancing across the BBC’s Iraq ‘In depth’ page, I … Continue reading →