Long-term readers will recall that the BBC, for its landmark impartiality reports, called on Cardiff University to do its contents analyses.
We slammed Cardiff's surveys for sampling far too little output, and for limiting that even further to just parts of the Today programme over a single week - one-and-a-half-hours of the programme rather than the entire three hours.
Ah, well, we've got Ofcom now.
But, just as most of the Ofcom folk have had links to the BBC, so we now learn, Ofcom's own reports are drawing on content analyses from....
Yes, I know. You couldn't make it up.
And, yes, though they covered three weeks this time (still far from enough), they's still continuing to sample just parts of the Today programme rather than whole editions.
And this time it's even worse, because rather than examinng half of each edition they're they're looking at just one hour now of each three hour edition (and no Saturdays).
Why? Because it was "beyond their resources" to to do more! (I kid you not.)
Yes, I know. You still couldn't make it up.
I wouldn't ever automatically trust any findings they come up with.
I wouldn't ever automatically trust any findings they come up with.
Earlier today I was having a rant on the other thread about the various organisations I would like to see abolished: Ofcom was to the fore along with the Electoral Commission, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, the Office for Budget Responsiblity and the Supreme Court. All these organisations are elite job providers and unelected meddlers in politics.
ReplyDeleteThe public should be given effective ways of challenging the BBC on its Charter compliance. Ofcom is an irrelevance.
The EHRC is simply advancing the deadly notion of "group rights" that will eventually kill our democracy and bring huge unhappiness to one and all.
The Electoral Commission are a continental import. We previously relied on the common law and legislation to ensure free elections, and elections were much less corrupt 20 or 30 years ago. It is also clear that MPs like Jess Phillips want to use the EC to prevent democrats like Carl Benjamin from standing for election to public office.
The Supreme Court sees itself as a political power centre now, not an impartial arbiter. It could be abolished tomorrow and panels of High Court judges could replace it.
Give us a reminder of who does the actual proper surveys
ReplyDeleteIt's David Keighley's NewsWatch isn't it ?
http://news-watch.co.uk/monitoring-projects-and-reports/