The Guardian's report on President Macron's visit to Calais goes begins:
Emmanuel Macron has vowed there would never be another large refugee camp in Calais and warned those people remaining in the area who hope to reach Britain that they were at a “dead end”.
The French president also accused certain organisations of lying about police brutality and encouraging people to remain in Calais and attempt the crossing to the United Kingdom.
The Telegraph's report on the same story begins:
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, vowed there would be no return of the so-called "jungle" migrant camp in Calais on Tuesday, as he urged Theresa May to take on greater responsibility for the refugee crisis.
Speaking in an aircraft hangar in Calais, Mr Macron said: "In no case will we allow another jungle here . . . all is being done so that the illegal passage [from Calais to Dover] is not possible."
He also attacked "certain organisations" for spreading "lies" - referring to volunteers and charities accused of encouraging migrants to enter Britain illegally, and of fabricating claims of police brutality against them.
Such groups were "far too great in number" and were "harmful to our collective effectiveness," Mr Macron said.
The Times (online) tonight includes the following lead headline:
The striking thing when you read the BBC's report on the story is that M. Macron's sharply critical comments about those NGOs, activists and charity workers - groups and individuals who have featured so often, so sympathetically and so uncritically in BBC programmes and reports over the years advancing the migrants' cause - criticisms which both the Guardian and the Telegraph and The Times make central to their reports, are simply not being reported by the BBC News website.
The striking thing when you read the BBC's report on the story is that M. Macron's sharply critical comments about those NGOs, activists and charity workers - groups and individuals who have featured so often, so sympathetically and so uncritically in BBC programmes and reports over the years advancing the migrants' cause - criticisms which both the Guardian and the Telegraph and The Times make central to their reports, are simply not being reported by the BBC News website.
Why is the BBC failing to report these criticisms, when even the Guardian thinks they are an important part of what President Macron said today?
The BBC is outdoing the Guardian here - and not for the first time.
Now, it might have been possible to just dismiss this as sloppy reporting on the BBC's part were it not for the fact that, to make matters even worse, the BBC report does (repeatedly) note the criticisms made by such of people against President Macron for being too "hard line" on immigration!
Now, it might have been possible to just dismiss this as sloppy reporting on the BBC's part were it not for the fact that, to make matters even worse, the BBC report does (repeatedly) note the criticisms made by such of people against President Macron for being too "hard line" on immigration!
That suggests outright bias to me - and something approaching activism.
The BBC's bias on issues like this is blinding it to the need to report things in full and without spin. (Nothing new there of course).
