Partisan Reporting

The Beeb has long been regarded as ever so slightly left of centre. When all is said and done it is a nationalised industry. The Daily Mail has been criticising Auntie for this as long as I can remember and to be honest the Corporation's recent actions over Gaza and the DEC has done little to alter the impression.

Ironically, the BBC decided not to screen the DEC appeal because it feared that it could be regarded as biased reporting. By making this decision however, controversially it should be added, it has 'become the news' rather than being the body who reports on it. This conscious desire to distance itself from the Palastinians could be seen, by cynics, as tacit acceptance of hitherto partisan reporting. The Corporation has been criticised even more lately, however, with Gazans effectively 'ghettoized' and pummelled into submission by the military might of Israel (backed up by the US), who can blame them?

Nevertheless, the BBC has not done itself any favours by tying itself in knots over this issue. I think that it would have been better to show the appeal and then use opportunity afforded by Holocaust Memorial Day in order to restate the case for the existence of the state of Israel. Now that would have been balanced reporting...

President Obama

After the longest election campaign in history, Barack Obama was finally elected as the 44th President of the United States today. After blogging roughly a year ago that I believed it was all but over for him (the loss of the New Hampshire Primary seemed to hand the initiative back to Hillary Clinton), the Civil Rights ovement has finally come full circle. I feel so full of hyperbole that I'm feeling a little big speechless to be honest. I listened to the inauguration on Radio 4 in a gym car park in Royton (that's what I'll tell my grandkids). Uncharacteristically, Obama fluffed his lines (who can blame him!) before giving another flawless and rousing inaugural speech. The BBC news media correctly pointed out the almost regal air surrounding the day. Hmmmm. To best honest that's just about as much as I can manage :)

Balanced Broadcasting?

This is not the first time I have been angry at the media because of their unbalanced portrayal of disasters when it involves America. 18 months ago I ranted against the media for their coverage of forest fires in California merely on account of the fact it threatened the homes of some of the Hollywood rich and famous. This time disaster was averted and the media still went mad.

Now don't get me wrong, the safe landing of the US Airlines flight into the Hudson river was nothing short of a miracle. The captain deserves to be called a hero and commended for his professionalism. However, did we really need wall to wall coverage for nearly 72 hours? Plane crashes in other countries which result in fatalities numbering in the hundreds do not get nearly this much coverage. Forty Iraqis died in Baghdad in a suicide bombing the other week and it didn't even reach the news headlines.

America will be in the news for all the right reasons this week. It will inaugurate its first black president on Tuesday. I will watch this coverage with pride - the news media may go over the top but when something like this happens it doesn't quite seem to matter. At least we don't live IN America - according to the John Stewart show, the major networks tied themselves in knots contemplating what Sasha and Malia would be having for their school dinners now they have moved to Washington.