Friday, 24 October 2008

Biased BBC
Friday, October 24, 2008
Hugh #

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Laban #

Bad Racism, Good Racism

The BBC are worried about the Bradley effect.

The theory goes that some white voters tell opinion pollsters they will vote for a black candidate - but then, in the privacy of the polling booth, put their cross against a white candidate's name. And the fear among some supporters is that this could happen to Barack Obama on 4 November, when the country votes for its next president.

Now if it were true, it would indeed be sad. But what's this ?

Other polls, meanwhile, suggest that white Americans have steadily become less reluctant to vote for a black person in the last few decades. A recent Gallup poll suggested that 9% of Americans would be more likely to vote for Mr Obama because of his race, compared with only 6% who said they would be less likely to vote for him.

Brings a whole new meaning to 'less reluctant', doesn't it ?

You could use the Gallup evidence to write a BBC piece suggesting that McCain is the victim of white inverse racism. I wouldn't wait up for it though.

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Hugh #

Poetic justice

After the Beeb's efforts to keep the Osborne story going for as long as possible, it seems fitting that the accusations of bias against it don't seem to dying off quickly, despite the protests by both Steve Mawhinney and Nick Robinson.

The integrity of the BBC is coming under question for the way it has treated the case of the Russian billionaire and his British contacts. Hundreds of viewers are complaining of unbalanced reporting — and with good reason, begins The Sun's leader on it today, while the Mail records that Robert Peston has been inundated with complaints over his 'biased' coverage of Mr Osborne's dealings with Mr Deripaska. More than 100 viewers have accused him of 'twisting' facts and questioned why the corporation's business editor should be reporting on the story.

Even the Telegraph's chief leader writer has been prompted to comment on his blog (The BBC defends its hounding of George Osborne). He's not convinced by Mawhinney's explanation either:

[T]he idea of the Shadow Chancellor committing a crime is really big potatoes and would warrant the lashings of coverage devoted to it by the BBC. Just one problem. Soliciting a donation is not a crime, or a wrong-doing if it comes to that... A call to the Electoral Commission would have ascertained that. Why didn't the BBC make that call? Perhaps they did - and that's even more worrying.

All that, and it's Friday, with the weekend ahead! Have a good one.

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