Try, Try and Try Again

Try, Try and Try Again

>> MONDAY, JUNE 28, 2010

The interminable legal wrangle over the non-release of the Balen report seems to hinge on whether it’s covered by an exemption from the FOI act on the grounds of being “for the purposes of journalism.” The argument over whether ‘for the purposes of’ is the same as ‘actual’ journalism seems like dancing on the head of a pin. Why does the BBC want to keep it secret? Surely it can only be because it harbours doubts about its own good practice at that time. In any case much water has passed under many bridges since the BBC commissioned the report from Malcolm Balen in 2004. It could be that they disagreed with the findings in the report and regretted commissioning it. It could be that the BBC did stealth change their policy in some way in accordance the with Balen’s findings, and hoped that would do. After the report they did create a new post. Middle East Editor. We all know what good that did. It could be that the report wasn’t particularly conclusive, in which case the BBC’s efforts to conceal it would be more propitious as a grievance we can complain about, Palestinian style, than a revelation of whatever bias was detected by Mr. Balen. There have been other detailed analyses of the BBC’s middle east coverage that have been ignored because they come from people who are regarded as having a vested interest. (Jews.) One of the things people are particularly incensed about is the amount of the licence fee that the BBC has squandered in concealing it, thus drawing inordinate attention to the whole fiasco as well as wasting our money. Pressure should be applied to the BBC to instigate a fresh report on the subject, framed in such a way that the outcome couldn’t be sheltered, either by the data protection act, an exclusion clause from the FOI act, or by or any silencing order devised by the likes of Carter Ruck. Steven Sugar hasn’t given up. He’s contemplating an appeal to the Supreme Court.

SUETONIUS AND GEORGE W BUSH

Only on the GOP-hating BBC can one listen to an item which seeks to compare Richard Nixon to Caligula and which is openly contemptuous of George W Bush - all dressed up as a homage to the Roman historian Suetonius. 7.25am on Today. What a load of garbage from the Beeb

3 LIONS ON A SHIRT...

Well, football may not be coming home after all these years of hurt but a humiliated English team IS! I was amazed to hear on the BBC Today programme this morning that the "weak coalition government" is to blame, it was just before 8am but can't find the link!

EU WORSHIP...

What is it with the BBC and the CERN particle collider? This bizarre report, by Katia Moskvitch, crows aggressively that this hugely expensive piece of boys' toys kit is about to become the best in the world and to outdo the dastardly rival in (boo! hiss!)the United States. It reads more like a partisan cub reporter's coverage of a footie match than a science feature. The reality is that our Katia is doing what the BBC does best: supporting the EU. She is cheering on the fact that CERN (the European Organisation for Nuclear Research) is an EU project, a monstrously expensive vanity project paid for by our cash, and only in existence because the EU Commission, like all dictatorships, desperately wants kudos irrespective of cost or need. And the BBC - the EU's equivalent of Pravda - willingly plays ball with the huge conceit. Since Hadron's launch it has given wholly disproportionate, adulatory news coverage to the project.