Saint Bono

The BBC's love for the sunglasses wearing U2 front man is well known. His political and environmental views are in line with BBC sentiments and so he gets an easy ride on the BBC. So I was intrigued to read at A Tangled Web that:

'Bono's anti-poverty foundation ONE is under pressure to explain its lavish salaries after it was revealed that only a small percentage of money it raises reaches the needy.

The non-profit organisation set up by the U2 frontman received almost £9.6m in donations in 2008 but handed out only £118,000 to good causes (1.2 per cent).

The figures published by the New York Post also show that £5.1m went towards paying salaries.'

If true, this fact would be astonishing and surely of interest to the BBC's many viewers, listeners and readers; but as of now I can find no report of this news on the BBC. Is Bono really that untouchable to the BBC.

This is not the first time that the shine has been taken off of Saint Bono, almost two years ago the news broke that U2 were avoiding tax by moving their publishing arm to Holland in 2006 as a result of the Irish Government capping tax-free earnings for artists at €250,000. U2 were one of the biggest beneficiaries of the royalties scheme. Now there is nothing illegal about U2 avoiding tax but bearing in mind Bono's predilection for campaigning for an end to world poverty, maybe using a scheme that in total meant that the Irish Exchequer was losing millions of euro might be considered crass.

If a right-wing author or politician had been caught legally avoiding taxation the BBC would be all over the story but when it is a favoured son of the left....

The BBC and their U2/Bono obsession

The BBC and their U2/Bono obsession just never fails to deliver. The BBC's third most important article on their website is that

'Bono has emergency spinal surgery, putting U2's upcoming concert dates, including Glastonbury, in jeopardy.'

This is important news? More important than the economy in free-fall, the Labour leadership wrangles, etc.? I think not.

However the BBC are obsessed by Bono, he's a living saint and of course Glastonbury is one of the great BBC staff outings.


UPDATE:
Beeb Bias Craig has posted a helpful comment looking at Sky News and ITN's news front pages that I repost here:

'Sky News has 'Mum admits killing her children in Spain, 'Royal Marine dies in Afghanistan blast', 'BA reveals record annual loss of £531m' and 'Outlaws gang leader jailed over drugs.' Bono doesn't feature anywhere on their homepage, despite their having dozens of stories there.

ITN has 'Massacre in Pakistan', 'BA's fighting talk', 'Cameron's veto hint', 'MI5 at terror inquest' and 'Statins doing damage'. Again, Bono isn't even mentioned.

As you say, what is it about the BBC and Bono? To be placed third (after 'Confessions over Spain killings' and 'No more powers to EU, says Cameron') is just unreal.'

What really happened to U2 pilot Gary Powers?

Ths Times has a fascinating article that explores various theories as to what happened 50 years ago today over Russia. Have a read, it's well worth it.