Worrying London election reporting from BBC
Graham Sun Mar 16, 2008 at 10:04:23 PM GMT 
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Ken’s had some pretty poor reporting in sections of the London press so far, so it’s a bit of a worry that the BBC appears to be following with some dodgy coverage of Ken’s bid for re-election.
Take today’s interview of Ken by Adam Boulton on Sky. Ken repeated what he had said before – that bendy buses have been popular where they’ve been brought in, but they’re only needed on a few busy routes, so there’s no plan to extend it further.
This has now been followed up on the BBC as a u-turn story, saying he’s declared no more bendy buses. There were never going to be any more – but it’s linked under the headline “Mayor to dump bendy buses”.
Then there’s the reporting of the £100 million hole in Boris Johnson’s transport plan. It’s barely been covered on BBC news. A huge planning gaffe that independent experts have verified has gone virtually unnoticed on the beeb. That should have been a major election issue this week.
Indeed, the only reference that I can find to it is this article by Tim Donovan, where he’s doing his best to report it as six of one and half a dozen of the other – after a gratuitous reference to Lee Jasper to measure.
Tim Donovan does seem to be a particular problem . In the latest Politics Show, he had Iain Dale of all people presented as some kind of independent expert. Dale got a super soft interview as if he were a pundit, not a Tory activist and sometime parliamentary candidate.
I’m a big fan of the BBC, I really am, but some BBC staff do get it wrong from time to time. This is starting to look one of those cases. If that happens it’s serious. The BBC is probably the most trusted source of information in the race to decide one of the most important jobs in the country. That is too important for bias to get in the way.
Worrying London election reporting from BBC | 8 comments (8 topical)
Worrying London election reporting from BBC | 8 comments (8 topical)
