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The 'North West Tonight' studio tonight - and most nights

As Iraq and the world falls apart, what better time for another introspective post...and something about Hillsborough?...

When we started this blog I was absolutely determined to be as impartial and fair-minded as could be. I also meant to write in an uptight, scrupulous fashion - as free from the spirit of ranting as possible. 

Well, some of that spirit hopefully remains, but I've definitely slipped over time. 

Like subsidence, bias will always out itself, if it's there - whether it be my bias or the bias of a BBC reporter/presenter - and my biases have certainly been outing themselves over time. It wasn't meant to be that way though. (Ah well, it's Friday night. Who cares?)

In that new spirit, what do my biases make of the the whole 'Ed Miliband, Sun, Hillsborough, BBC' story?

Well, for those who missed it...

Ed - like Nick and Dave - posed with an edition of The Sun in order to promote England's 3% chance of winning the World Cup. Lots of Liverpudlians - including the local Labour mayor - took offence at that ('cos of Hillsborough), started jerking their arms about in a rather robotic fashion, ignoring the rational voices in their heads saying "Eh! Eh! Alright! Alright! Calm down! Calm down!", and instead began ranting at poor Ed. Ed then sort-of said "sorry". 

Oh, so many inner biases emerge here, potentially: I'm not keen on Ed Miliband. I'm not keen on BBC bias either. On Hillsborough though, like most non-Scouse Northerners [and, yes, I've discussed this quite widely], I'm absolutely sick to death of hearing about. It's as if little else exists up here and it's the only tragedy that has ever happened. Our local BBC news programme North West Tonight is absolutely obsessed with it (and if it isn't Hillsborough, it's opposition to fracking on that programme). That bias trumps everything else for me.

I know what to make of all this then and, interesting, everything I think about it is echoed and laid out pithily in the top-ranked comments on the brief-lived 'Have Your Say' thread on the BBC News website [and, yes, I was able to get beyond the fact that many of them can't ever spell Ed Miliband's name correctly]:

9. The BBC rustles my jimmies 8 HOURS AGO: We live in a 'take offence' culture. Anyone who says 'I am offended' is automatically assumed to be in the right, apologies must be issued and every avenue must be explored to make sure the 'offended' is treated like royalty. The only disgrace here is the complete nonsense that drives media like the BBC to report on such non-stories. +228

53. Comment Withdrawn 8 HOURS AGO: Is this story real? Am I dreaming this? We have war in Iraq again, a new cold war, the breakup of the UK, the European Union in tatters and our politicians and media choose "Milliband has the Sun" as something to report. Grow up the lot of you and do the jobs the rest of us are paying you to do. +166

55. onthebeach 8 HOURS AGO: Firstly, I don't see why any of the party leaders should be promoting a newspaper. Secondly, I don't see why the people of Liverpool think that politicians should take any notice of a vendetta they have against a particular newspaper. +146

70. Haggis Hunter 8 HOURS AGO: Dear BBC, once again I'll ask the question you never seem to allow...why on earth are you opening tripe like this up for comments and leaving the REAL stories closed, you know, the ones that are questionable at best?? +127

90. politicsofenvy 8 HOURS AGO: There are no shortage of BSkyB dishes on houses in Liverpool and why do all the big retailers in the centre of Liverpool still stock the Sun if everyone there is boycotting it? +119

131. therealist 8 HOURS AGO: I don't like Milliband but he has my sympathy with this one. Scousers seem to be over sensitive on this. Yes the Sun is a useless rag which made a terrible mistake - 25 years ago. It's apologised. If everyone held such an grudge forever everytime someone offends them we'll end up hating each other forever. +101

Comments are now closed on that thread. After just eight hours. The BBC moderators should, er, calm down.

The bedroom tax, multicultural Manchester, and the BBC

My local BBC news programme North West Tonight was in full-blown campaigning mode this evening, leading on the issue of the bedroom tax. 

The programme's introduction used the phrase 'bedroom tax' without qualification or implied inverted commas [saying, "A housing association promises that no one will be made homeless by the bedroom tax", accompanied by images of placards reading 'Axe the tax'], even though the government is adamant that it's not a tax and has complained about the BBC using its opponents' terminology without qualification. [So that showed 'em then!]

Ah, but the programme did later qualify it, saying "Critics call it the 'bedroom tax' and the fear is that it will push people into arrears, into court and onto the streets." [So that's all right then.]

Those fears dominated the following report though. 

We heard the views of campaigners and a housing association; we heard what protesters want; we heard about a woman who's facing eviction as a result of the 'bedroom tax'; and we heard from a disabled man who's in arrears and finding it hard to make ends meet because of the 'bedroom tax', and has "sentimental reasons" for keeping his spare room (members of his close family died in that room.)

Reporter Jayne McCubbin then asked someone a question: "People aren't going to be happy with this."

Who did she put this too? Well, the caption read "Cllr Nick Peel, Bolton Council". 

Googling him revealed him to be a Labour Party councillor, so it was hardly surprising to find him replying, "Well, the only real solution to the bedroom tax is the repeal of the bedroom tax."

Then it was back to the protests, before Jayne finally give the opposing (government's) side - that it's unfair for those in private accommodation to be disadvantaged as opposed to those in public sector housing. She gave the government's side for all of twelve seconds. [That's BBC balance for you! - and who could find anything wrong with that?]

Then it was back to the protests and Chris Hobson of National Housing Federation talking of the "human cost" of the 'bedroom tax', homelessness and people struggling - things his organisation had warned the government about before. 

And with Chris's concerns ringing in our ears and being re-packaged for us by Jayne (presumably lest we'd sneezed a few seconds earlier when he was making them first time round), the report ended - the government and its bedroom tax well and truly pwned.

Still to cheer its viewers up after that tale of government-inspired woe, North West Tonight later gave us a good news 'And finally...'-style story to warm the cockles of our heart - a story which had the presenters almost purring with contentment. 

So what was this feel-good story? 

It was the multi-cultural good news about "Manchester's melting pot - the city in which it's claimed 200 languages are now being spoken".

Yep, researchers have found that over 200 foreign languages are now spoken in Manchester. 

The smiling presenters informed us that those researchers believe that fact makes the city "increasingly attractive to international business."

Reporter Stuart Flinders kept the good multicultural news coming:

"More than 200 languages are spoken, some known mostly in no more than a handful of villages on the other side of the world. This is proof if ever it were needed that Manchester now really is truly an international city."

"In some shops it's handy to have a range of languages available".

"Big business is interested in multi-lingual Manchester too."

An academic from Manchester University - one of the researchers behind the study - expressed his approval too, and Stuart told us that no other large UK city can "boast so many languages". There followed lots of happy, joking 'vox pops' celebrating their various languages.

As the report ended, the North West Tonight presenters turned to each other with wide-eyed amazement:

"Never would have imagined there were so many languages spoken!"

"No, no, it does show what an international city this has become!"

It's all right, everything is all right, the struggle is finished. I love smiling faces. I love multiculturalism. I've won the victory over myself. I love the BBC.

North West Tonight

My local BBC news programme North West Tonight tonight featured as one of its lead stories the visit of David Cameron to a mosque in Bolton, in the wake of the murder of Lee Rigby. 

The report, by the programme's political editor Arif Ansari, was introduced by the programme's presenters as being about the feelings of local Muslims in the wake of the "backlash" against them in the wake of the killing: "Some members of the community have criticised David Cameron for not speaking out more strongly."

Arif reported from outside a local mosque, talking to some local Muslims, including Rashid Mogradia, "who is involved in various local Islamic charities and communities", who "feels somewhat let down by the Prime Minister" and who duly criticised Mr Cameron. Arif then talked to Labour councillor Afzal Khan, who said he "didn't see any substance" to the PM's visit and strongly criticised him for his tardiness.

Surely someone from the mosque could have been found to welcome Mr Cameron's visit on camera? Or someone else found to make points which reflect points of view other than those of aggrieved Muslims?

Huh?

I was just watching North West Tonight on BBC One. Its political editor Arif Ansari presented the first of a three-part series on the history of the Militant Tendency, especially its role in Liverpool. There was an intriguing moment, however, when Arif said, 

"the Labour Party, which was pretty right-wing in the 60s and 70s." 

Right-wing compared to Militant maybe - and that's certainly how Militant themselves saw it - but actually "right-wing"? Really? When Labour had an 83% top rate tax and the commanding heights of the economy were in state hands? 

Shouldn't Arif have said, "the Labour Party, which Militant considered pretty right-wing in the 60s and 70s?"

Compare Labour in the 60s and 70s to Labour under Tony Blair, and surely it might be fairer to say that the Labour Party was pretty left-wing in the 60s and 70s?

Shilling against shale?

There were many complaints on various right-leaning blogs on Thursday (13 December) that the BBC was promoting an anti-fracking (hydraulic fracturing) agenda. There have been plenty of such complaints before. Fraser Nelson's Spectator column is fairly typical:

There was something odd about George Osborne offering tax breaks for fracking when it was still banned by another part of his government. The ban has been lifted and exploration can begin again in Lancashire, in what could be the most important piece of economic good news since the discovery of North Sea oil.

But listening to the BBC reports this morning, it’s striking how the corporation already seems to be against it. Fracking has begun, it says. And the two things is listeners need to know about fracking? That it has been accused of polluting water in America and causing earth tremors. The upside, especially for Blackpool and its environs, was not mentioned.

Over at Biased BBC you can read comments like:

Excellent article in The Spectator showing just how little regard the BBC has for the country and society in the pursuit of its own agenda. I’m just glad the government finally had the guts to start developing this form of energy. It could solve more than one problem in the world. 
and
Today I learned the BBC is worried about Fracking and the fact that there will be in one experts opinion no major impact on gas supplies even though we sit on hugh amounts of of shale gas.
and
Beeboids increase their devious anti-fracking campaigning. Beeboids are determined to stop, by fair means or foul apparently, the development of shale gas in Britain.
and
Yes, but, uncle beeb hates “fracking” and is totally against it being done in the UK 

Was Fraser Nelson basing this criticism on watching the BBC News Channel that morning? Or from listening to Today on Radio 4? I didn't watch the News Channel that day and there's no 'listen again' facility to check if the BBC's reporting did come across as being against fracking. What, though, of Today? That can be listened to again. Did it strike an anti-fracking stance? And what of the rest of the day's reporting? It's time to check it out and judge for myself.

Before I begin, I'll lay my own cards on the table. I'm pro-fracking. I hold high hopes for it. We, as a country, need it to be a success.

Having so confessed, I will now try to put my own biases on the issue to one side and see what happens. This post will be through-composed, so Lord knows where it will lead me conclusions-wise. 

Today, 13 December

Listening through Today's coverage just now has been quite eye-opening. The second and third hours of the programme began with segments on the issue. The second hour got under way with a John Humphrys interview with Alastair Fraser, Professor of Petroleum Geoscience at Imperial College, London. You can hear it at the 7.09 slot here. 

It was a good-natured and interesting interview, but what was so interesting (from a bias-hunter's perspective) was the questioning by John H. For all the world, it sounded to me as if he was actively steering Prof. Fraser in a pro-fracking direction - the exact opposite of what many in favour of fracking are alleging against the BBC. 

John Humphrys began the interview by asking, "Professor Fraser, just deal with  the safety bit first. When we talk about earthquakes, they are really tiny?"

Prof. Fraser agreed that they were "very small". "Micro-earthquakes" called them. 

"It's like a bus driving past?", John asked.

"Absolutely", replied Prof. Fraser. 

"Right, shouldn't worry about that," said John decisively. "What about polluting the water?"

Prof. Fraser said we can worry a little bit more about that, but it's down to good or bad drilling practice. A good regulatory framework is required. The UK has been regulating oil and gas for some 60 years...

"Without any big problems," John interrupted. 

"Without any major problems," agreed the professor. There was Piper Alpha though...

"No, no, but I mean in terms of polluting water...", John interrupted again.

"No major problems there", Prof. Fraser agreed. 

"So, again, that's controllable?", John asked.

"Yes," Prof. Fraser replied. 

They then talked about the amount of gas we could have in the UK. Prof. Fraser said that it was hard to be sure but it seems that onshore gas could a fifth or a quarter of what we've had offshore....

"But still very significant?," John asked/stated.

"Yes, absolutely", agreed Prof. Fraser. It won't dramatically effort our export markets but it will have an effect on the energy that comes into our homes. It may not lower the price but it will stop us having to rely on imported gas and give us more control over the price in that case...

"And that is very important?", John asked/stated. 

"I think it's important. I hope your listeners feel it's important as well."

"Right, but what we won't have is what they've had in the United States, where the gas price has dropped like a stone?", said John. 

"My goodness, it's incredible..", began Prof. Fraser. 

John sounded as if he shared his guest's amazement. "Wow!" he said soon after. 

Please listen to the interview to judge for yourself, but you can surely see from all this that John Humphrys could not, in any way, shape or form, be fairly or accurately accused of asking questions from an anti-fracking stance. Quite the reverse, in fact. It sounded much more as if he was actually promoting fracking rather than criticising it. His questions were framed almost entirely from a similar standpoint to that of, say, Fraser Nelson. 

Now, this could just be good old-fashioned devil's advocate questioning of the kind BBC interviewers might well put to an anti-fracking guest. Questioning from a pro-fracking stance would be entirely justified in such circumstances. Except that Professor Fraser clearly isn't against fracking. 

How John Humphrys conducted the interviews during the 8.10 segment should clarify the matter then.