My grandfather was born in 1901, joined the army under age to serve in the trenches of the First World War, then re-enlisted and by the age of 21 was discharged again having served in bloody theatres in both the North-West frontier (modern Pakistan) and Iraq. He was brought up in grinding poverty in the backstreets of the industrial West …
Is the BBC Biased?
The answer is that on one particular subject – the coverage of EU affairs – it most definitely is. For 15 long years, News-watch has been investigating. Our reports deploy the most robust analytical methodology and demonstrate that, for example, over the treatment of withdrawal from the EU, the Corporation’s coverage is outrageously limited and skewed. The latest report, focusing …
Kathy Gyngell: We need a road map on how to quit the EU. Don’t expect head-in-the-sand BBC to help
Photo by CJS*64 A man with a camera Why was I not at all surprised to read of the huge shortfall in EU spending of £259 billion pounds? Yes, the one to which, all of a sudden, Britain will be expected to contribute to some £34 billion? I am talking about that hole in the EU budget that the BBC has …
Hall’s BBC Executive Board Climate Change Links
Rona Fairhead, who David Cameron has parachuted in as new chairman of the BBC, is being grilled about her approach to the role by the Commons Culture and Sport Committee on Tuesday – and already questions of conflict of interest are being asked. A former chief executive of the Financial Times group, she still owns a tranche of shares in …
Bland Leading the Bland
Sir Christopher Bland, who chaired the BBC from 1996-2001 – when the hated John ’dalek’ Birt was director general – has waded into the discussion about who should become new Chairman of the BBC trustees. . According to the Guardian, he suggests that the current problem in finding a successor to Lord Patten, who was forced to resign as chairman …
Paxman ‘Shows BBC decline’
So, it’s good night from him, then. Jeremy Paxman has ended his marathon quarter century stint as presenter of BBC2’s Newsnight. Though he achieved some palpable hits – famously, his devastating interrogation of then home secretary Michael Howard – I think he never really delivered in his perceived role of Inquisitor General of the Corporation, a mantle he assumed from Sir Robin Day. …
BBC charter must not be renewed until pro-EU bias ends
Lord Pearson of Rannoch, initiated an hour’s debate in the House of Lords about biased BBC coverage of the EU. His main demand was that the BBC Charter is not renewed until the bias is rectified, and his key point that despite repeated assertions to the contrary the BBC simply does not cover the withdrawal perspective fairly or adequately. The …
Humphrys: ‘BBC Not Sceptical Enough on EU’
Update: Autonomous Mind has made an invaluable contribution following up John Humphrys’ remarks about EU coverage, reported in full below. The core of his story is that when questioned further on the BBC’s Feedback programme about the problems, Mr Humphrys added to his Radio Times interview by saying categorically that there had been systematic ‘bias by omission’ – essentially by ignoring key stories …
BBC ‘Pays double the rate for their taxis’
BBC staff have slammed their bosses for paying double the going rate for taxi journeys made at the licence fee payers’ expense. A story in the Daily Telegraph reveals that the Corporation pays £10m a year for over 350,000 journeys by staff and guests. To handle this business, the Corporation has a contracted supplier of taxis, which are booked through an internal website. …
A decision by BBC Trustees to reject a complaint about the BBC’s EU coverage was a ‘farce’
A decision by BBC Trustees to reject a complaint about the BBC’s EU coverage was a ‘farce’, leading Eurosceptic MPs Kate Hoey and Philip Hollobone have said. The complaint – based on research by Newswatch – centred on an edition of Newsnight last January which covered David Cameron’s decision to announce a radical overhaul of EU policy to include a referendum …