Wednesday, 1 October 2008

Biased BBC
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Hugh #

'A Canadian Conservative Party speech-writer...'

Seasoned members of the BBC audience will know immediately from that introduction – with the political affiliation rammed to the forefront – thatthe following story will not reflect well on the Conservatives. Even they, though, might be surprised just how insignificant, and how old, the 'scandal' it reports is. However, for the trusty BBC team it is, of course,front page news.

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Hugh #

Compare and contrast

There's been much already written about the difference in treatment the BBC has shown to the Conservative and Labour conferences, and it is a real contrast. Even less arguable, though, is the extent of the coverage. Look at the website, where this is easiest to evaluate. By this stage in the Labour conference last week, and in fact earlier than that, there wasn't a single mention of the opposition parties on the politics page. Every one of the 40+ stories related to Labour - and most related to the conference. Now, with the Conservative conference ready to close, well less than half focus on them. And it's not just the bank bailouts: strip away the stories relating to that and there's still room for concerns about plans for 42 detention; the Ghurka's battle to stay in the UK; the millions of young in poverty; Afghan talks; observations on Lembit Opik's facebook page; and Cherie Blair's relief she didn't have to pose with Carla Bruni.

The point is not that these shouldn't be covered (well, apart from the one about Cherie Blair), but to illustrate just how over-the-top the BBC's enthusiasm and interest in Labour politics is and the extent to which this is never shared in its attitude to the official opposition.

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