Twitter From America

Twitter From America

>> MONDAY, NOVEMBER 08, 2010

Hey look, there's a shout-out to the Biased BBC massive from BBC Washington correspondent Iain Mackenzie :


Not so much "Reds", Iain, as partisan hacks.

Remember Obama's inauguration?


Or your views on Sarah Palin, Iain?


I'm yet to find an American-based BBC journalist betraying sympathies for the Republican Party. Plenty the other way, though. Funny that, eh?

One more thing Iain - why did you immediately delete those jokey tweets you posted in response to a complaint you had to deal with? Did somebody in a more senior position point out that it didn't look good to be so flippant? Still, nice for you that you're so confident about your job, especially in the current economic climate, that you find the idea of journalistic impartiality a bit of a joke.

IMPARCIALIDADE (pt2)

Tea Party-hating BBC Brazil correspondent Lucas Mendes opens his latest column with a word of thanks:

The Republican tsunami could have been worse for the Democrats. Thank you very much, Latino brothers.

They saved the Democratic Party leader, Harry Reid, Senate candidate for the State of Nevada, threatened by Sharon Angle, one of the most radical and least prepared candidate's Tea Party. Latinos have left home and 90% voted for Harry Reid.

So here we have a US-based BBC journalist thanking his fellow Latinos for voting Democrat and saving Harry Reid.

I drew attention to Mendes' Daily Kos-style rubbish last month, but it's clear from this latest offering that BBC editors are happy with his highly partisan output. I doubt they would be so relaxed with: "Well done, white brethren, Obama's old seat fell to the Republicans!"

It's not as if the BBC Latin America services can claim ignorance of BBC editorial guidelines. BBC Mundo, the Spanish language section, evenreproduced a blogpost by David Jordan, Director of Editorial Policy, when the new guidelines were published in October. If the BBC's defence is that Mendes is employed to provide opinion rather than objective journalism then the question is "Why?" followed by "Where's the alternative view?" - queries that shouldn't need to be made of an impartial broadcaster