Britannia Radio

Biased BBC

Thursday, October 23, 2008 Hugh # Attack as the best form of defence The Beeb's editor of political news, Steve Mawhinney, has posted on the Editor's Blog to defend the coverage of Osborne. There has, as he puts it,been a particular accusation from some complainants [read "almost all"]that we did too much on the allegations against George Osborne and not enough on those against Lord Mandelson. You won't be surprised by what follows, which sticks closely to the Editors Blog template: "There have been some suggestions that the BBC [insert criticism or straw man here]. I disagree because [insert excuse here(optional)]." What is remarkable, though, is how weak this excuse is, resting as it does on two entirely false propositions: First, that there was a specific allegation of wrongdoing - indeed possible law-breaking against Osborne. That's not true. It was pretty clear from the get go that whatever his other failings, Osborne had not broken the law. Also, as Casisus notes, he seems to invent an entirely new allegation - that Osborne talked about ways to secretly channel that donation to the party. At their worst the allegations never suggested this. It seems extraordinary that the Beeb's political editor defends the corporation against accusations of over-egging the Osborne story by going further than any in doing the same thing himself. Needless to say, from the comments it doesn't look like he's winning many people over. Comments: 8 (unread) - Biased BBC Home ed thomas # Refreshing new BBC reporting style: It's not often I praise the BBC, but can I say how refreshing it was to read the comment made by the BBC's Matthew Price about the following events from Barack Obama's campaigning? Here's the vid, followed by the text (I have made some minor adaptions for this site's purposes). The original item is here. "This has now happened too many times not to mention it. Barack Obama lost it again today. Today, the autocue went down. Now yes, Barack Obama doesn't like the autocue, he's not particularly good at reading from it. And yes, it is hard to speak flawlessly for 20 minutes or so to a crowd of thousands. And yes, the campaign trail is grueling, he must be tired, I don't know how he does it. And yes, he's up against one of the best orators the modern world has seen. BUT, surely he should be able to busk the emotional appeal about a young boy in need of healthcare, the part that he should speak from the heart if the teleprompter goes down? As the Republican pollster Frank Luntz put it in an interview recently (less charitably than me): "Stevie Wonder reads the teleprompter better than Barack Obama." Today Barack Obama stumbled, repeated phrases, read from the page, then looked up to the screen and re-read them. Maybe I'm being unfair, but this is a man who is running for the top job in the country, one of the most important jobs in the world. Does his inability to think on his feet, to go off the page, count against him? This is his pitch to the US electorate about why they should vote for him. Surely he should be able to deliver it without notes? Frankly today, I cringed when he stumbled, and felt embarrassed for him." Comments: 21 (unread) - Biased BBC Home