BORDER TROUBLES?: On the BBC Weekend News this evening, the main item was hinged on that Vote Leave was wrong to suggest that the UK could not veto Turkey’s application to join the EU. At the end of the bulletin, reporter Chris Buckler presented a package which examined whether border controls would be introduce between Northern Ireland and the Republic …
Referendum Blog: May 21
BLATANT BIAS: Each daily BBC programme does not have to be balanced, due impartiality can be achieved over time. But who at the BBC is keeping check on these equations and where are their findings so that their version of ‘balance’ can be properly checked? Last night the main BBC1 bulletins were blatantly biased against the ‘leave’ side, confirming longer …
Referendum Blog: May 18
BBC HEZZA BIAS: It has already been shown conclusively that the BBC1 bulletin headlines over the past month have strongly favoured the ‘remain’ side in the EU debate. Last night, this bias continued with a vengeance. The eight-minute sequence after the headlines amounted to a sustained, deliberate attack on the ‘out’ case. Newsreader Huw Edwards introduced the item: The report …
Referendum Blog: May 17
NON-BIAS BIAS? With the BBC, the devil is often in the detail. And even when figures from the Corporation set out to be ‘unbiased’, they fail dismally. On Saturday, the Radio 4 Today programme lined up four of its most senior editors to analyse claims being made by the main two sides in the referendum debate. Broadly, this is what …
Referendum Blog: May 16
BBC BORIS BIAS: Was Boris Johnson wrong to refer to Hitler in a point about the history of attempts to unite Europe? Was what he said as controversial as was projected? Senior Labour figures Hilary Benn and Yvette Cooper certainly thought his mention was below the belt, and so did several figures in the Conservative ‘remain’ camp such as Lord …
Referendum Blog: May 15
On Thursday, BBC1’s main bulletins put heavy weight on the warning by Bank of England Governor Mark Carney that Brexit could lead to an economic downturn. On Friday night, similar importance and prominence was afforded to equally strong ‘remain’ advocacy by former Prime Minister John Major and Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund. BBC economics editor Kamal …
Referendum Blog: May 14
IMMIGRATION BIAS: The fourth Newsnight special about the EU referendum was on May 10 from inside the Boston Stump in Lincolnshire, the town’s affectionate name for its stunning parish church. The programme topic was immigration, and Boston was apparently chosen because it faces what Newsnight reporter Chris Cook claimed were ‘extreme’ pressures through a large influx of EU nationals. Was …
Referendum Blog: May 13
DOUBLE BIAS: Yesterday’s coverage by the BBC of stories related to the EU referendum showed deep bias against the Brexit case. On immigration there was bias by emission, and on economics there was bias by exaggeration and by not including the Brexit side sufficiently Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England, elected to warn – on the basis …
Referendum Blog: May 11
BENIGN EU?: At the heart of the BBC website’s EU coverage is a new animated feature by correspondent Damian Grammaticas that purports to give an objective two-minute overview of how the EU operates. This is the text of the feature in full: Where to begin unpicking how biased this is? The first overall point is that Grammticas avoids any mention …
Referendum Blog: May 9
WAR MONGERING?: Nick Robinson – for once – did a credible job this morning (9/5) in trying to pin down foreign secretary Philip Hammond over David Cameron’s dire warning that exiting the EU could endanger peace and security in Europe, with the continent at the mercy of ‘forces of nationalism’ – a claim that led in the Daily Mail (for …