comments about a BBC story on the ‘danger’ of referenda. Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

Now that Sambrook has done his sandbagging and Greg has put his finger in the Dyke, Andrew Gilligan is pressed by Lord Hutton on the meaning of “Absolutely yes“. It must be hard for the mighty Beeb to have this story cycling in and out around the globe. Now the ‘storm surge’ approaches as even traditional BBC allies advocate greater accountability. Quite a storm. Click through to read and contribute … Continue reading →

Over on Transport BlogI’ve made some comments on a BBC article comparing railways then and now. The list of omissions and apparent inaccuracies is staggering. Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

in this BBC quiz about Islam. Perhaps that has led me to look kindly on it. It’s very much the BBC view, but I accept a certain delicacy is necessary here. In several cases I gave the answer I knew they wanted while maintaining reservations. Jihad certainly can mean interior struggle -but the non-PC “holy war” translation is enthusastically accepted by many Muslims. That figure for the projected US Muslim … Continue reading →

As Raj noticed, I tried to dodge getting all the B-BBC bias letters for a bit, because of other commitments. What I think I’ll do is every now and then make a post like this one that invites anyone who wishes to tell the world about examples of bias they have seen. Of course it’s impractical for us to track them all down and check the details; this is a … Continue reading →

writes (originally a comment to the post below): I’m writing as someone who in general believed the BBC to be biased over the war but otherwise find most complaints of bias petty. The BBC Breakfast news today had a piece on hunting today just before 8am. First there was a prefilmed piece which was presumably put together by the BBC. You heard 2 anti hunt protestors putting forward their point … Continue reading →

says that only when we lose the BBC will we realise what we have lost. Not so. I know perfectly well I will miss this blog. Come the glorious day all the B-BBC posters will feel some of the emptiness that must have touched Carl Bernstein’s soul when he realised that, truly, he no longer had Nixon to kick around any more. With Othello we will bid farewell to the … Continue reading →

The theme of Tom Carver’s advocacy piece seems to be his wish that Americans would be as distrustful of George as Brits are of Tony. Here’s how the teaser on the front page reads (at the time of writing)– “Case for war: Why has Bush escaped anger facing Blair over intelligence on Iraq?” And here’s the caption (at the time of writing) under President Bush giving the State of the … Continue reading →

BBC reporter Stuart Hughes has my sympathy and best wishes for recovery from his landmine injury in Iraq. I’m not very sympathetic, however, toward the BBCi editors who insist on pushing an opinion piece disguised as ‘news’. It may be an analysis but news it ain’t! Hughes writes: The United States is at the centre of the debate over landmines. The US remains the largest donor to mine clearance projects, … Continue reading →

Sweden had a referendum today on whether to join the Euro. Voting was overshadowed by the murder of Anna Lindh, foreign minister and leading voice of the Yes campaign. The BBC had six quickie quotes from Swedes exiting the polls, clearly gathered before the result was known. How come five out of the six people whose views were quoted had voted Yes? The No campaign led the polls throughout, and … Continue reading →