Everybody who frequents this site will know that the BBC has spent lashings of our telly tax on legal fees to safeguard the secrecy of a report they themselves commissioned. The subject was their coverage of the Middle East, and the question was: is the BBC biased against Israel?The legal battle took many twists and turns, and Steven Sugar, who steadfastly fought for the release of the Balen report, very … Continue reading
A so-called “investigative” scoop in the Daily Telegraph suggesting that the BBC is involved in the organisation of COMplus, an international group that supports climate change alarmism, has also caused ripples in the blogsphere. Richard North and WUWT have followed up. I’m totally in favour of enterprising, sceptical journalism, but I’m afraid on this occasion, the Telegraph is more than a year behind. I filed this story (based on research … Continue reading
This is a Guest Post By esteemed commenter Chuffer.______________________________________ What you missed by not watching News24 at 11 o’clock, Easter Sunday….Dramatic Intro Music. Nicholas Owen: This is BBC News; the headlines at 11 o’clock.Video: grainy film of a Syrian funeral.Owen: The Liberal Democrats launch a stinging attack on the [confused pause] campaign to change our voting system.(Video ends – cut back to frowning and confused-looking Owen.) They accuse the ‘No’ … Continue reading
Back by popular demand (would that Martin were too!): What’s getting up your trunk about the BBC today? Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.
Today‘s Evan Davis and BBC political correspondent Louise Stewart had a lot of fun at the expense of David Cameron and Nick Clegg this morning over their disagreement over internships. They returned to the subject later, after which Evan talked to Gus Baker. The Today website describes Gus as “a student and co-founder of pressure group Intern Aware.” Evan Davis described him in similar terms on the programme. Mr Baker … Continue reading
A guest post by Hippiepooter: If I was an anti-Semitic despot desperately trying to cling to power and I wanted to give an interview with pliant Western journalists to make propaganda, I know that Jeremy Bowen would be at the top of my list. It came as no surprise to me that Mr Bowen was one of the three journalists that Colonel Gaddafi chose to interview him. This said, in … Continue reading
Certain think tanks, pressure groups, unions, associations (etc) can pretty much rely on the BBC to report their press releases, reports and studies. Articles appear daily on the BBC website devoted to such things. Others are not so lucky, having their reports ignored – or, if not ignored, marginalised or criticised. There’s an article on the website at the moment that, rather unusually, considers two separate reports from different organisations. … Continue reading
Getting back into the swing of things, I thought I’d monitor the New Channel’s coverage of the AV referendum campaign on Tuesday. On that day at least (I can’t vouch for any of the others), it seemed scrupulously balanced – balanced number of guests, exactly the same length of interview (well three seconds difference!) for the pro- and anti- spokespersonages, appropriate questions to each side, same number of interruptions, and … Continue reading
If you use the BBC News website’s ‘Search’ function, as many do, you’ll find that broad categories have a right-hand section where BBC editors recommend sites ‘elsewhere on the web’ for readers to investigate. Some of these (usually links to newspapers or news agencies) are regularly updated. Others are much more permanent choices, staying up for several months. The three examples below have been the editor’s choice for over half … Continue reading
There’s nothing that BBC greenies like better than to make us feel bad. It’s glorious spring weather and it’s a holiday, but David Shukman is at pains to warn us that our enjoyment should be limited…and that our unpleasant polluting habits like driving cars and should be reined in. The eco-bogey this time is smog, that nasty, indeterminate stuff (fully of menacing green-creed stuff like PM10s) that will kill us … Continue reading
