I suppose if this blog were to adopt an MP as our patron saint it would have to be Andrew Bridgen.
He's by far the most prolific, high-profile complainer about BBC bias in parliament.
If there's an article in the Telegraph or the Mail featuring MPs complaining about BBC bias Mr Bridgen is bound to be among them.
And I salute him for that.
The Telegraph reports today that Andrew Bridgen has now written to the BBC complaining that Newsnight and Today are "biassed (sic) towards the EU":
In the run up to the EU council, pro-EU voices heavily outweighed sceptical voices on Newsnight (which on two out of five nights in the week of the council was Nigel Farage).
Meanwhile Today continues to give greater prominence to pro-EU guests. The 6.15[am] business slot in particular has become an opportunity for a business leader to quickly claim that we must remain in the EU with little to no scrutiny behind the arguments for this.
Eurosceptic business leaders meanwhile are impugned for wanting to leave for either reducing workers’ rights or dodging the bonus cap.
You may have heard more of the BBC than me this week. Is this true about Today?
I will obviously have to investigate.
As for Newsnight, I will admit to being puzzled. I get the bet about...
In the run up to the EU council, pro-EU voices heavily outweighed sceptical voices on Newsnight
but I don't understand how the following bit in parentheses is meant to reinforce that point:
(which on two out of five nights in the week of the council was Nigel Farage).
...especially as my own survey of that week's Newsnight shows only one interview with Nigel Farage (though there may have been a brief clip of him in one of the week's reports).
How does Nigel Farage (allegedly) being on twice 'prove' that the BBC has a pro-EU bias?
My survey also shows (in the four days prior to the deal) a (roughly-speaking) 7:5 pro-Remain ratio.
That's a slight pro-Remain bias, but does it justify the words "heavily outweighed sceptical voices"?
I don't like being spun to by any side. Am I being spun to here?
