PAUL MASON: For years, Paul Mason was the economics correspondent/editor of Newsnight. He was part of a team lead by the programme’s ex-Guardian editor, Ian Katz, and News-watch has assembled over the years evidence that pro-EU slant has been a serious problem, especially, for example, on the day that David Cameron announced that the EU referendum would take place (back …
Referendum Blog: April 5
EX-PAT BIAS BBC2’s Newsnight examined last night opinion about Brexit among ex-pats in the Costa Del Sol. Reporter Sekunder Kermani had drawn the short straw of being sent to sunny Malaga…and he made it clear that most Brits there were deeply worried about exit. He assembled from his contributors and his own comments a long list of reasons: pensions being …
Referendum Blog: April 4
INGLORIOUS ISOLATION: All this week, Radio 4 is carrying after World at One a series called Inglorious Isolation: A European’s History of Britain. In each 15-minute programme, a prominent ‘European’ is giving a view about the impact of the UK on his or her own culture. First off the block today is Italian architect Francesco da Mosta – and it’s …
Radio 4 World Tonight investigation finds more BBC pro-EU bias
A News-watch investigation into one of the BBC’s flagship news programmes has found it to be heavily biased in favour of Britain remaining in the EU. Twenty consecutive editions of the programme – one of the main ‘hard news’ formats on the BBC – between February 22 and March 19 were surveyed. The main finding was that staunchly pro-EU figures …
Referendum Blog: April 3
MARR BIAS? Today’s edition of the Andrew Marr Show on BBC1 leaned firmly towards the ‘remain’ side. Three guests – former BBC economics editor Stephanie Flanders, business secretary Sajid David and actor Jeremy Irons – all were given the opportunity to declare they favoured ‘remain’ and advanced without challenge from Marr their detailed reasons for doing so. Alison Pearson was …
News-watch Launches EU Referendum Blog
This new service will track on a regular basis programme items that seem to be biased towards the pro-EU side. The observations are not the result of detailed analysis. Rather, they are pointers based on News-watch’s experience in tracking the BBC over many years, and on past BBC performance. If you spot BBC bias, do let us know. You can …