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Tuesday, 7 October 2008

BBC unbiased political coverage

The BBC UK politics homepage is as unbiased as ever. The top news story is that
"Brown critic 'ends hostilities' - One of Gordon Brown's leading critics, backbench MP George Howarth, says his campaign for a Labour leadership contest is over"
This gives the BBC a chance to have as subsidiary articles:
"Who's who in new cabinet,
No time for a novice, says Brown and PM defiant over leadership talk"
The second of these articles is a report of Gordon Brown's speech to the Labour Conference some weeks back and the third is from just prior to the same conference. Presumably there will be some positive coverage of David Cameron's conference speech (a week later) still on the site, we will see...

The next two stories are:
"UK Chancellor Alistair Darling EU finance chiefs in crisis talks - EU finance ministers are set to discuss increasing the guarantees for bank savings accounts in global crisis talks."

and

"Nick Clegg Lib Dem EU rebels win back jobs - Three Lib Dem MPs who quit the front bench over the EU referendum have won back jobs in a minor reshuffle."
One Labour government story and one minor Lib Dem story.

Next comes the "Video and Audio news"

"Voter panel Cameron speech: Voter panel reaction

Boris bashes 'cyborg' Arnie


Peter Mandelson The comeback kid?: Mandelson's moments

Cameron 'will work with the government'"
The voter panel story is a David Cameron is not that popular story, the Boris story is "fluff", the Mandleson story is worth having on the site and the last story is of the "Cameron has no policies, look even he supports labour" type.

The "FEATURES, VIEWS, ANALYSIS" section has three Labour related stories:
"Tony Blair and Andrew Adonis End of an era - Mike Baker's take on the moving of Lord Adonis

BBC political editor Nick Robinson Nick Robinson - 42 days is dead - defeat by three figure margin?

Andy Burnham (courtesy of Steve Baker) Northern soul - The music minister on his heroes and his plans"
The last being "fluff"


So we move on to the "MORE FROM POLITICS" section (my comments after the - in each case):

"Kidney op Mandelson back at work - Labour
MPs' concerns at Diploma options - General
Academy fears on Adonis reshuffle - Labour/General
PM 'warned not to force 42 days' - Labour/General
Lower drink-drive limit rejected - General
Sex laws are 'unfair to teachers' - General
No job for Cruddas in reshuffle - Labour
Government facing fuel court case - Labour/General
Darling pledges more bank action - Labour
Blair advised Mandelson on return - Labour
'No precedent set' over Blair row - Labour
Brown continues cabinet reshuffle - Labour
Bank aid may be needed - Cameron - Conservative
McConnell post averts by-election - Labour

How about the "OTHER TOP STORIES" - same basis:
2012 to be 'cosier' than Beijing - General
Smith orders police race review - Labour/General
By-elections 'happen too quickly' - General with a Labour reason
UK 'needs tougher climate target' - General
Markets need morals, says Brown - Labour
Glenrothes by-election date set - Labour
Clark made shadow energy minister - Conservative


Equality of coverage? Lack of bias? Denying the Conservatives the oxygen of publicity?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I understand what your saying. However, the Labour party is in Government. They will generate more stories and get more coverage than the opposition simply there stories have more qudos. Brown making a law or a speech is more signficant than Cameron at a press talk for example. This has been the case for the Conservatives when they were in power.