Britannia Radio

Biased BBC

Friday, October 03, 2008 David Vance # THE TROUBLE FOR SARAH. I have not watched the Palin/Biden debate yet, but I can only assume Palin has done very well indeed. The reason I say this is that listening to the BBC's coverage of this event on the Today programme this morning the entire tone was that Palin had not fouled up. Essentially the BBC line was that "gaffe-prone" Palin had managed to just about hold her own, though she wobbled "a bit" on climate change and Iraq. Biden was painted as having glided serenely through the debate. So, if we believe the BBC, instead of being a total train-wreck, Palin just about got through. Talk about raising and lowering expectations. The BBC, like their soul-mates in the Democrat Party, are scare senseless of the values Palin stand for and so they have spent the last several weeks mocking her. Meanwhile, back in the real world, I can but assume that Sarah walloped slow Joe. Comments: 16 (unread) - Biased BBC Home David Vance # POLITICISED POLICING. I am sure you will all have caught the BBC's faux outrage over the fact that Sir Ian Blair has resigned from his role as Metropolitan Police Commissioner. Yesterday, as the news was breaking, Red Ken was instantly brought on air on 5 live and allowed to retail the idea that Boris Johnson has made a terrible mistake by introducing...politics into policing. Over the past 24 hours, the BBC has provided a valuable platform for Labour and their placed stooges in which this idea of the Tories "politicising policing" has been repeated ad nauseum. We saw Jacqui Smith at it on QT last night and again this morning Sir Ian was painted as a metropolitan martyr to the evil Boris. The BBC know damn well that the role of Metropolitan Commissioner has been politicised for years - and that Labour has been to the fore in this regard. But when it's the LEFT calling the shots, if you'll pardon the expression in the context of Sir Ian, that's given a free pass. When it's the RIGHT, in the form of Boris, then BBC outrage is expressed and the position taken by Mr Johnson is misrepresented. If the people of London elect a Mayor to represent them, and if he expresses the common view in London that Sir Ian does not enjoy their confidence, what is the BBC's problem with this? It is that harsh fact that a Conservative can actually exercise POWER that so enrages them. That is why Boris is at the receiving end of BBC smearing in the past day. You can only imagine what it would be like if Cameron comes to power in 2010, a prospect the BBC are determined to ensure does not come about. Comments: 9 (unread) - Biased BBC Home Hugh # General BBC-related comment thread! Please use this for comments about current BBC programming and activities. N.B. This is not an invitation for off-topic comments, rants or chit-chat. Suggestions for stories would be appreciated! Comments may be moderated. Comments: 3 (unread) - Biased BBC Home Hugh # A question of balance Iain Dale has an amusing insight into how the Beeb "balances" the panel on Question Time. He reveals that UKIP's Nigel Farage was bumped off the panel in preference to the CBI's Richard Lambert, the former FT editor who famously got the newspaper to back Labour in the 1992 election (although he seems less keen on them now): So why don't you bump Janet Street Porter instead, pleaded Nigel, pointing out that he has many years experience of in the City of London. No, we can't do that, said the person from Question Time. "We need to keep our gender balance." Comments: 2 (unread) - Biased BBC Home Hugh # The great debate Just a quick one - My favourite part from the coverage of the Palin Biden debate so far has to be Webb's first thoughts on his live blog. He begins by criticising the choice of moderator, Obama fellow traveller Gwen Ifill, thus demonstrating an almost total lack of self-awareness. "What were they all thinking?" splutters the man who is tipped to take over Letter from America. Well, quite. Comments: 5 (unread) - Biased BBC Home Hugh # Yesterday, Today Of all the examples in the comments yesterday of the different treatment given to Cameron's speech at the Conservative Conference to Brown's at Labour's, perhaps the most simple and compelling for me was the running order on Radio 4's flagship, Today*. Following Brown's speech, the programme led with it as their first item and revisited it again in the prime 8.10am spot. And again just before 9am. Following Cameron's they ignored it entirely. It was a similar story with the web coverage, where Gordon's speech lingered prominently for an age to be followed by apointless puff piece to keep it in the headlines. Cameron's quickly disappeared to the bottom of the politics page. On the bright side, the bias is being noted. As Guido Fawkes points out, the UK's best-selling paper, the Sun, at one point had a pop at "the Labour-supporting BBC", before evidently thinking better of picking a fight with the country's most powerful and best resourced new group. And that possibly answers a question posed in the comment a fair bit yesterday: Why don't the Conservatives do anything about it? *Thanks to Snooze 24 Comments: 5 (unread) - Biased BBC Home Thursday, October 02, 2008