This is an election like no other for the BBC. They have a mission. Two weeks ago, as is laid out here, Today presenter Nick Robinson effectively declared war on Brexit with his statement that the Corporation would henceforward work flat out to find the problems with Brexit, and not bring balanced coverage of the Leave perspective. Of which, more …
BBC Business News coverage of Brexit ‘continues Project Fear’
A report by News-watch into the BBC’s coverage on Brexit covering the six month period after the referendum vote has found overwhelmingly negativity about Britain leaving the EU – breaching the Corporations rules on impartiality. The report into the BBC flagship Today programme on Radio 4 found that of the 366 guest speakers who appeared in the Business News segment, 192 of them (52.5%) were negative about the impact of …
More BBC pro-EU bias in Farage ‘painting by numbers’ interview
Photo by Euro Realist Newsletter For 16 years, News-watch has been monitoring in interviews by the BBC of Ukip leader Nigel Farage. It’s the broadcasting equivalent of painting by numbers. With wearying predictability, each one has been essentially the same. Question one usually suggests they are racist by wanting immigration controls. Question two posits the party is a flash in …
Bias by Omission as Romania and Bulgaria Influx Rises
Happy New Year – it’s the anniversary of when, courtesy of the EU’s Free Movement of Peoples directive, restrictions were lifted on the numbers of Romanians and Bulgarians entering the UK. Latest figures released by the Oxford Migration Observatory show that 250,000 are now here and 47,000 arrived during 2014. That’s equivalent to a city the size of Wolverhampton – …
Clarkson – Yes, Immigration – No
The BBC – as News-watch posted yesterday here and here – doesn’t give a hoot about complaints about imbalance in its programmes when they relate to important issues such as immigration control. But if something to do with potential racist name-calling, well, no expense is spared and inquiries are launched, as is reported here in the BBC’s house journal, The …
Today Editor’s ‘Blackpool Rock’ Propaganda
Jamie Angus, the young editor of the BBC Radio 4 Today programme appointed to the role a year last May, has risen through the BBC ranks virtually without a trace. Aged 40, he’s already had stints as editor of sister programme World at One and as acting editor of Newsnight. He was parachuted into that role after the McAlpine libel …
BBC ‘non denial denial’ about Climate Change
All the President’s Men, the Woodward-Bernstein book on Watergate, contained the rather neat phrase a ‘non denial denial’ to describe the contortions and distortions of the truth that Nixon’s White House manufactured to deny that the body politic was infested with cheating, lying crooks. The latest utterance from the corridors of the BBC in what looks increasingly like a dictatorial …
Back to the future: the BBC’s attacks on EU withdrawal
Another European election and the BBC are in full cry again trying to find ways of showing that those who support withdrawal are racist. They have form, and it has been tracked in detail by News-watch. Their justification, of course, is that the party has ‘controversial’ policies that need probing. The latest story elevated to front page status is that …
Geert Wilders: the ‘maverick’ damned by BBC reporting
The Dutch politician Geert Wilders and his Freedom political party (PVV) stir up strong sentiments. He is renowned for his stance that Islam in his country is responsible for major social divisions and has lead to the radicalisation of young Muslims to the extent that they are joining terrorist organisations. Mr Wilders is also strongly against the EU and openly advocates departure. …
Today editor Jamie Angus: Voice of Prejudice?
Jamie Angus was appointed editor of Radio 4’s flagship Today programme almost a year ago, in May 2013. Monitoring by Newswatch has shown that a highlight of his tenure to date is that the programme devoted 83 minutes to items on Nelson Mandela on the day of his death – the highest total for any single topic since the introduction …