As part of this blog's mission to inform, educate and entertain, here's Loondon Calling to explain the accompanying image:
Memorial to Benjamin Britten, Aldeburgh, proposed by Architect HT ‘Jim’ Cadbury Brown after Britten’s death, but never realised.
The story surrounding the memorial is interesting. It was envisaged as a huge hulk of wood, maybe driftwood washed up from some distant shore, standing on the beach with two holes in the top designed to sing out the two emphatic notes from Britten’s opera, Peter Grimes, when the wind blew fiercely enough through it to generate these eerie sounds. Like a huge organ pipe on the beach, it might play hauntingly to the residents of Aldeburgh. It would remind them of the mystery and uncertainty that lies out at sea, beyond the horizon. Sadly, this idea was never realised.
BBC Reality Check really gets my goat.
ReplyDeleteOnce again it has a topic trying to discredit Trump tweets.
The problem I have with their analysis it that the say "this is incorrect and that is wrong" and state an alternative. By my reckoning about 50% of the Realty Check statements are also unverified because don't quote a source for their counterclaim.
To me this makes it as fake as the figures or statements they are trying to discredit.
On the latest story, you are two thirds in before they give links to their sources. The first is the US Census bureau - fair enough I say.
The second and third are from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Loius - very odd, so it may lead me to presume that the researcher is just Googling for a fact. Dangerous I would have thought.
If they are going to run a team to counter fake news - at least be thorough, quote the sources and ensure all your facts and claims are verifiable. Amateurs.
If there were "4000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire" as the Beatles sang, then there must be 10,000 in Reality Check, BBC.
DeleteAs you say, they frequently make unverified claims of the "but studies have shown migrants are net contributors to the UK economy" type. Or in this case, "most economists agree that the US trade deficit in 2017 was $566bn (£410bn)". A claim we have to take on trust. And we know "most economists" are "mostly wrong" about "most things".
The BBC don't start with a Trump claim. They wait till he makes a factual mistake (his own fault admittedly but that's his style) and then fall upon the claim to demonstrate what an untrustworthy toad he is. They don't apply this method to Corbyn, Merkel or Macron claims.
But really, is 810 billion that different to 566 billion when it comes to the point Trump is making? Also, bear in mind loss of manufacturing equates with loss of tax revenue and an increase in welfare costs.
Is there no end to BBC sneering arrogance and immaturity?
ReplyDelete'This Sunday Radio Ulster is to broadcast a documentary [called 'Broke City' and presented by BBC News NI's business editor, John Campbell] which looks at why Northern Ireland's second city is "consistently at the bottom of the table on measurements like unemployment, incomes and investment".
However, on Friday he revealed the city council had expressed concern over the name.In a letter he posted on Twitter, the council said that while it welcomed the BBC highlighting issues around lack of investment and were confident it would be "well-balanced," they "had real and serious concerns over the title of the programme" and asked for the broadcaster to reconsider the title. We are disappointed the BBC would choose to use the term 'Broke City,'" it said. "And have serious concerns the impact it could potentially have on the really positive work we are doing to attract and retain investment." Mr Campbell said in a tweet: "Derry City Council are getting into the documentary naming game.
"It's 100% ridiculous," he added.'
In fact he posted a series of tweets pouring ever more scorn on the council and its concern:
https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/broke-city-derry-concerned-with-name-of-bbc-documentary-36689683.html
I suspect the documentary title may be the BBC's juvenile idea of a clever play on the term 'Stroke City' (meaning Derry / Londonderry) adopted by a NI radio station many years ago to avoid offending local sensibilities.
That article makes John Campbell sound petulant if not downright rude. His Twitter feed is here:
Deletehttps://twitter.com/JP_Biz
Cliff Richard is suing the BBC over that raid on his flat. A preliminary court argument is about withholding or disclosing private information in evidence: Cliff Richard's QC: "This is the BBC holding itself up as the guardian of the public interest and saying the public is entitled to hear its full evidence." Quickly scrambling for the high ground, the BBC's man "said the passages should be aired in open court, adding that the open justice principle should apply." Ever noble and high minded in the cause of justice is our national broadcaster.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/bbc-wants-private-details-on-sir-cliff-aired-in-court-case-36685453.html
News you are unlikely to find on BBC News:
ReplyDelete"Australian diplomat whose tip prompted FBI’s Russia-probe has tie to Clintons"
http://thehill.com/376858-australian-diplomat-whose-tip-prompted-fbis-russia-probe-has-tie-to-clintons
Interesting. Mr Downer is now Australia's ambassador to the UK.
DeleteBenjamin Britten...hmmm...a friend of mine told me about the trawls he and his mate Piers made of London schools looking for "likely lads" who could hold a tune. David Hemmings was one - look him up on Wikipedia. My friend remembers them turning up at his school. A bit odd don't you think? If they wanted really good boy sopranos they could simply go to the many Cathedral choirs in the country.
ReplyDeleteThe David Hemings/Benjamin Britten story is intriguing in itself - See:
Deletehttps://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/the-end-of-innocence-481089.html
This is an edited extract from 'Britten's Children' by John Bridcut, published by Faber and Faber Ltd
Hemmings appears to hold no grudge. He appears to have entered into the quasi professional relationship with his yes open. Britten seems to have dropped him like a stone from the moment his treble voice failed - just as if a musical instrument had become flawed.
My reference to the Cadbury Brown memorial was intended as a means to share in his celebration of the qualities of Britten's music - nothing more.
... with his eyes open...
DeleteIndeed...if we were to judge people on current standards then virtually every notable artist of the last couple of hundred years would be cast into the outer darkness, same with virtually all notable composers (Vaughan Williams was a pest to the girls he taught) and a large number of writers of great merit (Philip Larkin for instance). It was merely an observation on my part, as he seems to be treated as a sacred monument himself by some. The idea behind the memorial was an interesting one.
DeleteLiving not far from Aldeburgh, I understand the reason local people opposed a monument to Britten was that he buggered off to America during the war.
ReplyDeleteDo like this site very much, but think that the BBC are much more sinister these days. Quiet desperation re the fact that the old pay for it-but they scorn that market and crave the youth instead. hence their endless output aimed at the millennials. But who don`t watch it-and leave us fuming at their gestures, lies and smarmy metrosexual groomings for Corbyn and Juncker. Know lots of people baling out on the BBC and its dog license. And i`ll be joining them, they are now beyond redemption. So thanks for continuing to point out how low they`ve become.
ReplyDeleteThanks Aisla, and I like to see you commenting here. I'm feeling quietly desperate about the BBC today too.
DeleteHardtalk is on the case: Why does migration frighten so many of us? https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csvpst
ReplyDeleteI presume they mean immigration. Never mind. It's just that global movement thing, of people and ideas. The BBC and Pakistani novelist Mohsin Hamid will set you straight, if not soothe your presumed fears.
I wonder how hard it is to talk about white, Christian ladies attempting just to visit but scaring horses from No. 10 to Calais UK Immigration.
DeleteTrump Derangement Syndrome seems to be working.
ReplyDeleteZurcher's tweets are becoming odder and odder.
Can anyone make sense of this one? -
https://twitter.com/awzurcher/status/972905821406400513
I really don't. What on earth is he on about?
DeleteIt must be TDS *then*.
Can anyone enlighten us? Also what do words within asterisks *mean*?
Secret code for 'The Russians are coming'? A cryptic crossword clue? Or meaningless babble? Your guess is as good as mine.
DeleteLarks. Clearly needs a *move* to rival colleague Katty's special way with single acronym headlines.
DeleteI persist in trying to get the BBC to explain quotes, 'quotes' and "quotes", so this looks like a new one to add.
Not news but opinion and analysis on the BBC website today using a disclaimer at the bottom of the page.
ReplyDeleteThis analysis piece was commissioned by the BBC from an expert working for an outside organisation.
Anyway this is about how voters may have changed their minds on Brexit. click here to read
I find this sinister on two counts, the increasing use of external content with a disclaimer to deal with contentious issues or strong opinion.
And the constant drip drip drip of anti brexit content, sowing the seeds of doubt in peoples minds. Once again the BBC is trying change or challenge opinion rather than simply reporting.
Yet another form of bias from the BBC - Commissioning to suit BBC narrative accompanied by a Disclaimer.
DeleteThis form of bias differs from Bias by Absorption, which was identified in the festive fifty, by virtue of the commissioning process - this is much more considered and deliberate. Absorption of another party's bias has an opportunist element.
DeleteI knew immediately who the expert would be as he is welded to the BBC but I didn't expect to find this on Strathclyde's website:
Delete"... Professor Curtice... has been a regular member of the BBC’s general and local election programmes’ production team since 1979." https://www.strath.ac.uk/research/subjects/politics/strathclydeacademicmadebritishacademyfellow/
The article clearly follows BBC key themes: divisive; worrying away at the result to see if the result or people will change; slanted selection of opinion to give parity between the actual PM and government and two former PMs - and no opposing opinion from other individuals. That's all those two are - individuals. Curtice has also been writing similar articles https://whatukthinks.org/eu/has-there-been-a-swing-against-brexit/, worrying away at whether there has been a swing against - loaded / narrative question.
Curious about the actual form questions in the surveys cited I had a gander and found one Survation question that raised my eyebrows:
•Do you prefer a ‘hard’ Brexit, leaving the single market and customs union, or a ‘soft’ Brexit, not leaving the single market and customs union.
To me that's loaded politicised jargon. Take out the unnecessary hard and soft and it would be more like a neutral question. That's just one question from one survey and I haven't reviewed the lot or formed any opinion of the general tenor of the questions but that one was a shocker.
https://whatukthinks.org/eu/questions/should-the-united-kingdom-remain-a-member-of-the-european-union-or-leave-the-european-union-asked-after-the-referendum/?notes#latest
I see there are comments below the articles but I haven't read them.
One degree of separation guest plus disclaimer means doubleplusgood deniability.
DeletePutin should try it.
As I've pointed out many times, you cannot be outside the EU and in the EU Single Market. The EU Commission make that clear on their website. The Single Market relates to the territory of the EU. Even Norway and Switzerland are not part of the Single Market. So anyone polling firm that suggests in a question that you can leave the EU and remain in the Single Market is promoting a lie and should not be taken seriously.
DeleteIs it just me or has anyone else noticed how the BBC use the phrase “May under pressure to take firm action” to further a narrative.
ReplyDeleteIn this case it is about the nerve agent story but it can be any topic or any person the BBC want to put in the dock.
I think it is an increasingly used trick to exert pressure when the BBC thinks more needs to be done.
Create the headline first then get researchers to call around asking the question “ do you think enough is being done to....” until you get one or two who agree then quote them in the story so that the assertion holds water. If you carefully select the people on the call list according to their beliefs, sympathies and politics I’ll bet not many calls need to be made before they get the right answer.
It’s pure propaganda like much of the BBC output.
Yes. Origins the same as the mysterious critics who say things.
DeleteAnd not far from W1A one might surmise.
Maybe they mean Simpo mouthing off?
Re the above Anonymous reference to Hardtalk...the subject of that programme Moshin Hamid is a very dangerous guy. We've let him into this country and given him citizenship, so he doesn't have to live in his native Pakistan...and he repays us by lobbying for our borders to be dissolved and for anyone to be allowed in from anywhere in the world - literally anyone out of the 6 billion plus people on the planet.
ReplyDeleteDon't believe me? Read this article:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/dec/10/mohsin-hamid-tribalism-exit-west-pakistan
He thinks it will be a good outcome if Europe's cities are turned into a succession of Rio de Janeiros...of course, Karachi will still be Karachi I guess since no one in their right minds will be moving there.
This is the sort of stuff that the Guardian - which also means the BBC - think is thought provoking, cutting edge and radical as opposed to being brain dead and/or dangerous, advocating self-harm and the creation of a dystopian nightmare in our green and pleasant land.
Matt Hancock wants the BBC to focus on fact checking. Why? They are useless at it.
ReplyDeleteChris Morris is at it again on Reality Check, pumping out the anti-Brexit bias.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-43372084?intlink_from_url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/cp7r8vgl2rgt/reality-check&link_location=live-reporting-story
You could write a 100 page dissertation on the bias in this article (a personal view full of subjective opinion, posing as a fact checking exercise). But here are a few points of concern:
1. The article relies on the analysis of the IFG (Institute for Government) which Morris presents as an impartial, objective "independent" body. Well go to the IFG website and take a look at its board. Looks like a Remain campaign meeting! - and the Chairman is Lord Sainsbury who donated a huge £2.3million to the Remain campaign!!!
2. The article begins with an assertion, not a question: "Thousands of extra civil servants are being employed to cope with the challenges posed by Brexit." The assertion is unattributed and so appears to be the view of Morris at the outset i.e. he has already committed himself to it.
3. The article contains other unsupported assertions eg
"Some of them have transferred from elsewhere in the civil service - but that means other jobs have to be filled or other work isn't being done."
How does Morris know? There may have been re-organisation or computerisation in those areas which means jobs do not have to be filled and the same work is being done in different ways.
I'll leave it there. BBC Reality Check should be re-named BBC Reality Tweak or BBC Reality Cheek or just "We Love the EU So Much".
That was on BBC1's News at Ten last night too:
DeleteSOPHIE RAWORTH: The cost of getting the civil service ready for Brexit is running into billions of pounds. Thousands of extra civil servants are being employed to cope with the challenges. New research suggests that in some key government departments, six years of austerity cuts have been reversed. Chris Morris from our Reality Check team explains.
CHRIS MORRIS: At the time of the EU referendum after years of austerity, the size of the civil service here in Westminster was at its smallest since the Second World War, and 20% smaller than it was when the coalition government took office in 2010. But now, in key departments dealing with Brexit, those staff reductions have largely been reversed. Two new departments have been created since the referendum, the Department for International Trade and the Department for Exiting the EU here in Downing Street. Between them, they have about 1,500 staff devoted exclusively to Brexit. The numbers are most striking, though, here at Defra. The Institute for Government says its headcount will have increased by 65% since the referendum. By the end of this month, it's due to have taken on an extra 1,200 people dealing exclusively with Brexit, including replacing the EU's Common Agriculture and Fisheries policy. Elsewhere, the Home Office is planning to have hired an extra 1,500 Brexit staff by September and Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs between 3,000 and 5,000 extra staff by this time next year. So, more people. And the Government has said it is committed to ensuring that the right skills and resources are available to deliver a successful Brexit. So how much is it all going to cost? Well, the Institute for Government thinks getting the civil service ready for Brexit could cost as much as £2 billion by the time we're due to leave the EU next year. And that's on top of the divorce bill with the EU, which the Government says will be £39 billion. It could be even higher. Chris Morris, BBC News.
What an appalling report - the grammar is all over the place so you can't even work out what it is he is claiming. It is surely irrelevant to the overall issue if new departments have increased in size...that is what happens...and in any case we haven't left the EU yet, so no one can make any claims on long term impact on Brexit on Civil Service numbers. For one thing, the UK does devote a lot of civil service time across all departments translating EU law into UK law. That burden should decrease substantially , if not completely, in the future.
DeleteYou'll notice how Morris carefully avoids talking about total numbers employed in th ecivil services. He only gives figures comparing 2016 with 2010. This makes me highly suspicious.
This article and his report could amount to one of the biggest fibs ever told about the Brexit process.
And his report is a further muddying of the waters about Reality Check's purpose isn't it? Reality Check is supposed to check claims made by non-BBC persons and organisations, not be a vehicle for making (highly dubious) claims which are then echoed in news reports by BBC staff!
Indeed. Chris Morris is one of the reasons I hardly listen to BBC anymore. He’s simply put , a licensed liar. Note the signature use of the phrase “up to” in “up to 2 billion”. Which means 2 billion is absolutely maximum.... lower range is .. zero... or less than zero!
DeleteI could also interpret that if thousands of civil servants are costing billions, then they are being paid Millions!!!
No they are not on BBC Talent salaries.
It’s complete horse poo and to add insult it’s dressed up as a reality check. Not for me liars.
Anthony...we care for you...
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/awzurcher/status/973440051131682816
Zurcher's Trump Derangement Syndrome is taking its toll on the man...he now finds Trump's use of upper case unbearable to his jangly, highly strung nervous state.
He's desperately hoping Trump's man will lose in a Congressional race in Pennsylvania - concentrating on the poll that puts the Trump man behind and ignoring the one that puts him ahead. Classic Trump Derangement Syndrome symptom - you'd think they would have learned from all the polling prior to Trump's election.
Zurcher in full flow over Tillerson. Ending his report with these three sentences.
DeleteMr Tillerson was reported to be astonished at how little Mr Trump grasped the basics of foreign policy.
The New York Times quoted sources as saying Mr Trump was irritated by Mr Tillerson's body language during meetings. Mr Tillerson was said to roll his eyes or slouch when he disagreed with the decisions of his boss.
Unsubstantiated and anonymous sources so just hearsay. It’s just lazy journalism but typical BBC fare for those with TDS.
The BBC could learn a thing or two from the employment culture in large organisations in the USA. It is taken to be a sign of stagnation within a company if there is no movement and no fresh faces. It means that the firm has nothing new to offer, and that there is a lack of incoming talent with new ideas (often gained as a result of several prior moves by the incomer). I'm sure that is the way that Donald T has routinely runs his businesses, and therefore he has no fear of people 'moving on' or 'being moved on'. It is a sign of strength not weakness. Oh that the BBC could watch and learn. Their stale faces indicate all too clearly what a stagnant pool of talent they have.
DeleteJon Sopel was virtually foaming at the mouth on BBC1 News at Six tonight whilst reporting on the Tillerson sacking. He focused on negatives about Trump and the brutal way he handled the sacking. Just another case of TDS rather than reporting the facts.
DeleteThere's virtually nothing on Radio 4 now that is not related to leftist PC multiculturalism. On Front Row it was all about the prime purpose of theatre: to provide sufficient work for disabled and other minority actors (what did those Greeks know eh? - catharsis? pfff! Shakespeare? He wasn't very disability aware was he?).
ReplyDeleteThen it was on to a bit of axe-grinding about privatised maintenance of prisons as though that actually explained the collapse of discipline in our prisons and resultant problems!
Earlier today, before I switched off, I heard a little bit of The Archers. Apparently the survival of many farms is now in the balance thanks to Brexit and the refusal of Brits to work in the fields. One had images of dust storms blasting parched land, starving rural labourers resting listlessly in the dirt, and aid packages marked "A Gift from the Much More Sensible People of the EU" being distributed to grateful supplicants.
I caught a fragment of The Archers at the weekend. Some very 'Radio 4' woman was delivering a lecture to someone else, hardly the conversational style of 'everyday country folk'.
DeleteThe whole lot should have been put on the pyre with Grace Archer long ago.
Today, Grace would have countermanded the cowardly white male Fire Chief, taken control of the fire engine and successfully led the whole village in dousing the flames, with the Mohammed Zabacek (the itinerant Albanian crop picxer whom everyone has gradually come to realise over the preceding months is a thoroughly magnificent human being) very much to the fore. That's how it is in Archerland these days. :)
DeleteFor those with sufficient endurance to still be watching the BBC drama Shetland, last night's episode showed us the way in which their own narrative can be fashioned to fit the most unlikely set of circumstances.
DeleteArrested whilst visiting Shetland was a white Norwegian far-right activist, who held a position as a detective in the Bergen police. The sub-plot, in which he was involved, concerned a planned attack upon a decommissioned Norwegian naval ship (with a patriotic name) being used to house Syrian refugees.
Anthony Zurcher seems to have lost it completely:
ReplyDelete"If the 2018 congressional mid-terms are a coming electoral tsunami in favour of the Democrats, Tuesday's Pennsylvania special election was the ocean water receding beyond the horizon. "
He's already declaring a Democratic victory in the November 2018 mid-terms! - 8 months ahead of time!!
It's funny watching these Fake Media types clasp at one straw after another...He won't stand. He won't win the nomination. The polls are right - he won't win the election. He'll be assassinated before he takes office. The inauguration won't happen. His administration will collapse in chaos. Mueller will find him evidence of Russian collusion. He'll be impeached. Stormy Daniels will bring him down...
And now it's: "Republicans will be wiped out in the mid terms and he will be a lame duck President, so he won't win in 2020."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-43388150
What with tsunamis and oceans coming and going I'm all at sea with overblown watery metaphors. How much do we pay for this man's incoherent ramblings? Is that information in the public domain?
DeleteDon't think so. Probably on less than £150K but on the other hand there's so many of them, they all have plenty of time to write books, lecture, appear on TV and radio etc,to supplement their income.
DeleteHow to get from St.Patrick's Day and spring blossom to a litany of negativity and one of those 'clever' parting shots at Trump: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-43383272
ReplyDeleteIt's almost as if they have a template.
That's one heck of a parting shot:
Delete"Any possible announcement of a new US envoy to Northern Ireland may well make for some news at home, but it's unlikely to make waves in a Washington pre-occupied with the uniqueness of the Trump presidency."
A lot of BBC material crops up again and again, often as straight repeats on the same station but sometimes in other parts of the BBC empire as well.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, last week Woman's Hour on Radio 4 interviewed the founder of Black Lives Matter; it looks like exactly the same thing on the World Service Hard Talk at 3 o'clock this morning and to be repeated in the same place at 3pm today. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csvpw2
Hard Talk also appears on the TV from time to time. I'm not sure when or on which channel. I wouldn't be surprised to come across it.
I also heard Woman's Hour Radio 4 introducing an item about Ruth Ellis recently and I now see on the TV schedule for BBC Four what appears to be a series of episodes about Ruth Ellis.https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/schedules/bbcfour/20180313
And today BBC hero Sweeney is making the news on the BBC news website http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-43389032/how-russia-uses-propaganda-to-discredit-opponents
Later we will see and hear all about it on TV in Panorama so that's a handy plug for that programme.
So much BBC and so much cross-promotion of BBC agenda and preoccupations.
I think the most annoying thing is use of Radio 4 Feedback - supposedly the chance for the listeners to give their feedback - to promote various programmes and BBC personnel.
DeleteOh yes. They have so many avenues of promotion. I've just heard a plug on Radio 4 PM programme for John Sweeney on Panorama tonight at 7 30. We'll get a proper look at Mr Sweeney braving the Russian winter in his hat and duffel coat.
Delete'John Does Dachas' looks and sounds exciting from the trail.
DeleteMuch extra work in the edit suite with added son et lumiere, for added gravitas.
Panorama seems to be 'going large' on renowned beacon of free speech and democracy Russian authorities following a BBC crew around as they gather footage that the BBC can take home and make 'about right' in support of 'highly likely' claims by the PM, which seems her version of the BBC's 'well it is something they 'might have done'.
Thing is, as 'some critics are saying' :), the BBC does all this and more, especially its unique revenue collection arm, using police state bouncers on occasion, based on 'evidence' that seldom seems better than 'the BBC employee says they were doing stuff the BBC has managed to get made an offence, and how dare anyone question their word being their bond... and hefty commission'.
Some may say :) this is a tad worse for the supposed holder of power abuse to account, in the supposed cradle of democracy.
I'm surprised, from what I've seen about it so far, that John Sweeney is allowing himself to be made the centre of the story. That's so unlike him. He's usually such a self-effacing reporter.
DeleteSorry, I've swallowed too many sarcasm pills today.
To add: I've just noticed on looking at the World Service schedule for tonight that the Black Lives Matter feature is being repeated again tonight at 11. That's three goes in one day: 3 o'clock both morning and afternoon and 11 at night. Is this normal on the World Service or some kind of exception? Can't say I've noticed three-timers before but then I don't always pay attention. It's not obviously of great interest as it's all about American affairs. I think the same about programmes about the alt right. What's that? Something they have in American politics and I don't find it particularly interesting.
DeleteSound and then some. Gravitas I'm not sure. It's so bombastic and over the top someone there must be thinking he's Spielberg. Not so much epic as our man Sweeney hamming it up in the dramatic black hat and clothing and savouring every moment in the limelight. I'm half wanting Craig to put up a photo and half wanting not to feed his ego.
ReplyDeleteIs this Hanging Season at the BBC? First the Ruth Ellis case cropping up as a series and following it tonight, on BBC Four, The Story of Capital Punishment, in this case hanging, and should you have need of such a thing, "it provides an essential guide to a subject that still divides us." https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour
ReplyDeleteI made a complaint a little while ago to the BBC about the BBC News website leaving an article by John Pienaar that I considered to be anti Brexit being left on the website for an extended period of time.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42989884
... Theresa May kicks Brexit can down the road ....
Yes, it's still there today after five weeks. Here is the reply from the BBC complaints dept:
... 'Thank you for contacting us about the BBC News article titled "Theresa May kicks Brexit can down the road" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42989884)
We're sorry you feel that the article have been given over long exposure on the site. We note your view that the article is biased against Brexit, and we note you feel the article placing attempts to promote John Pienaar.
We would like to assure you that is certainly not the intention. BBC News online is a 24/7 operation and stories come and go regularly. The BBC News website provides for a wide range of news, features and information, offering a rich and varied selection for our readers.
We aim to cover the ongoing Brexit negotiations with due impartiality. This means we carry a wide range of views about the European Union from across the political spectrum on our output.
As with any story we cover, BBC News does not have an opinion on the European Union, or on the UK’s position within it. Instead we try to explain the different and sometimes complex issues affecting our audience during Brexit. Our aim is to give them the information they need in order to follow the process clearly.
We regularly hear from those who campaigned to leave the EU, and those who wished to remain.
It was not our intention to cause offence to any of our readers, however we are sorry to learn of your displeasure and would like to assure you that we value your feedback on this matter.
Your concerns have been forwarded directly to the news online teams on an internal report of audience feedback. These reports can be used to inform future broadcasting and policy decisions so please be assured that your complaint has been sent to the right people.
We do appreciate the time you have taken to raise this with us.'.
"As with any story we cover, BBC News does not have an opinion on the European Union, or on the UK’s position within it"
ReplyDeleteYou know when everyone from Treezer to all of W1A has a fit of the vapours when Vlad innocently says 'Who... moi?'. That.
Front page of today's 'Times' tells us France is not backing May over the Salisbury nerve gas attack & that Macron's spokesman has dismissed her actions as 'fantasy politics.' Assuming that the Times was right this morning, Macron must have had his mind changed by Merkel &, possibly, Trump. So why has the BBC not reported this? Well, it wouldn't do to give the impression that not all of our EU 'friends' love us, would it? Might damage the BBC's Remainiac thrust!
ReplyDeleteBlink and you'll have missed it - an article by Laura K on the BBC News website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-43424301
ReplyDelete' Spy row stokes Labour's foreign policy divisions'.
This article by LK has been relegated to an obscure part of the Home page - without a photo. At the same time, the leading headline with an earnest-looking Jeremy Corbyn is http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43424867
'Russian spy: Corbyn warns against 'hasty judgements'' complete with this information:
... Corbyn ally Labour MP Chris Williamson told BBC Two's Newsnight that "clearly it looks like the evidence points to Russia", but said the UK needs to "make sure we get our facts right" before "leaping into action".
He said his leader's approach was "not about being nice to Russia" but about taking "a statesman-like approach"....
There is no specific name attached to this article. How must Laura feel to have her opinion sidelined in this way?
Laura K must have had a word because her story ' Spy row stokes Labour's foreign policy divisions' has gained some prominence on the BBC News website Home page whereas the 'Corbyn warns against 'hasty judgements' story, after a brief period relegated to the Politics page, has now disappeared all together.
ReplyDelete