Newsnight - 'What's the story' and 'Who's in the dock?'

Though I've given up on closely watching Newsnight, it might still be interesting to keep a weekly eye on what subjects it chooses to cover. Any patterns of bias that emerge over time will then be easier to spot. 

So here's what they covered last week:

Monday 3/2/2014

1. Allegations that a former UKIP spokesman ran a kidnap gang in Pakistan

2. Michael Gove's education reforms

3. Police misbehaviour over Hillsborough

4. Tributes to the actor Philip Seymour Hoffman.

5. Will Self on heroin.

Tuesday 4/2/2014

1. Why is the Conservative Party's membership falling through the floor?

2. The Conservative Party's links to the former UKIP spokesman said to have run a kidnap gang in Pakistan

3. Scarlett Johansson, SodaStream, Oxfam and Jewish settlements 

4. The London Tube strike. Interview with Bob Crow

5. A fisherman castaway at sea for 13 months

6. Fuse ODG - a British-Ghanain rapper. How we should see Africa 

Wednesday 5/2/2014

1. The U.N. accuses the Vatican of turning a blind eye to child abuse in the Catholic Church

2. Why the N.H.S. budget is being cut after all

3. Plans to teach computer coding skills more widely in schools

4. Al-Jazeera journalists being held in prison in Egypt

5. The sacking of Kevin Pieterson from the England cricket team

6. Conservative plans to change the law over strikes

Thursday 6/2/2014

1. David Cameron calls on Scotland to stick with the UK

2. The fall of public trust in the police in the wake of recent scandals

3. The terror threat to the Sochi Olympics

4. A controversial cancer campaign by a charity

5. Can you love the art but abhor the artist? - David Aaronovitch

6. The lack of women in British science

Friday 7/2/2014

1. Flooding in Somerset

2. Interview with Dieudonné 

3. A Conservative (Rory Stewart) calls on Scotland to stick with the UK

4. The opening ceremony of the Sochi Olympics. Interview with Putin critic, Orlando Figes

That answers one of Charles Moore's two questions about bias - 'What is the story?'. 

As for the other question, 'Who is in the dock?', well, last week it was:

UKIP - Michael Gove - the police - The Conservative Party - UKIP/The Conservative Party - SodaStream, Oxfam & Israel - Bob Crow - The Roman Catholic Church - the government & UK politicians more generally - the Egyptian authorities - the England cricket authorities - Conservative anti-strike proposals - David Cameron - the police - the Russian authorities/Dagestani terrorists - a cancer charity - unpleasant artists - the male science establishment - various authorities in the UK (over flooding) - Dieudonné - the Conservative Party in Scotland - Putin.

...most of which reads like a Radio 4 comedian's weekly hit-list.