Referendum Blog: May 29

Referendum Blog: May 29

NORTHERN IRELAND BIAS: On Friday’s Today programme (May 27), Mishal Husain presented three packages from Northern Ireland about the possible impact of Brexit. In the first she interviewed two Irish farmers – one for ‘remain’ and one for ‘out’- who…
Refrendum Blog: May 28

Refrendum Blog: May 28

THE DOG THAT DIDN’T BARK? A poster published by the pressure group Operation Black Vote (OBV) showing a skinhead thug intimidating a sari-wearing immigrant – and aimed, say OBV, at encouraging ethnic turnout in the EU referendum – has been strongly…
Referendum Blog: May 27

Referendum Blog: May 27

CURRYING EU FAVOUR?: Both Newsnight on Wednesday night and Today on Thursday morning presented what might be called pre-emptive pieces in their  EU referendum coverage. ‘ Both carried items about the immigration statistics due to be published  during the course…
Referendum Blog: May 26

Referendum Blog: May 26

BREAKFAST  BIAS: BBC1’s Breakfast programme examined, with glitzy but highly misleading graphics, the UK’s  contribution to the EU budget. The peg for the analysis is a claim by Brexit campaigners that membership of the EU cost the UK £350 million…
Referendum Blog: May 24

Referendum Blog: May 24

NEWSNIGHT BREXIT HELL?  When it comes to impartiality, which planet does Newsnight  – the BBC’s television news and current affairs flagship programme – inhabit? Over the past six weeks the programme has run six separately-themed referendum specials, a marathon six…
Referendum Blog: May 23

Referendum Blog: May 23

FAIR’S FAIR?: With bias, the devil is often in the detail. A sharp-eared listener noticed on his rather congested drive back from London to his home in County Durham that on Radio 4’s PM  BBC correspondents were doing some alleged…