Wednesday, 11 January 2017

Contrasts



That gushing tribute to President Obama from Nick Bryant on tonight's News at Six was given precisely 3 minutes of prime airtime on BBC One. 

In contrast, Mark Carney's remarkable turnabout on Brexit (downgrading its "dangers" and upgrading optimism about the economy) received just less than 9 seconds.  

Given the BBC News at Six's extensive and uncritical coverage of Mr Carney's every dire warning about the "dangers" of Brexit in the run-up to the vote and in its immediate aftermath, this skimming-over of the Bank governor's turnabout surely speaks volumes about the BBC's news priorities.
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4 comments:

  1. David Preiser (USA)11 January 2017 at 21:32

    It's an especially uncomfortable topic for the RBC, as Carney's point was that the world's problems are a bigger danger to Europe than to the UK now. Which completely undermines Project Fear.

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  2. Anonymous11 January 2017 at 22:08

    Where's Kemal Ahmed when you need him?...sorry, don't need him.

    This time yesterday I couldn't stand Carney...now I am beginning to see there's an upside to Carney Chameleon! :) This is real punch to the Remain solar plexus...bit like Farage's false declaration of defeat at 10pm on 23rd June.

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  3. Clockworkorange11 January 2017 at 23:48

    This story is also hard to find on the Guardian website, although 4,500 BTL comments have found it.

    I used to wonder if this spinning and hiding of new was in my imagination. Not anymore.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12 January 2017 at 12:39

      Hiding is one of the most effective bias tools. The BBC can always claim "We did feature it" even if it is under the Tiddlywinks section in the South West England news page.

      Another clever one is the multiple headlines as you go to the story:

      "Trump Revelations Shock"

      "Trump is Schocked at CNN Revelations"

      The you read the story and it's "Trump has severely criticised CNN for publishing detailes of unconfirmed allegations of impropriety saying it is "shocking" they could do such a thing."
      (Followed up of course by paragraphs showing CNN was right and Trump was wrong, containing comments from people who are fanatically anti-Trump but aren't described as such.)


      As in so much of life it's all about creating the right mood music and ensure the preferred narrative prevails.

      Delete

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