Thursday, 9 July 2009

TORYPHOBIA


The Labour Party has launched a crude, concerted attack on the Conservative Party's attitude to homosexuality, with ministers Ben Bradshaw, Chris Bryant and Angela Eagle leading the charge. The accusation is of 'homophobia'.

Surprise, surprise, the BBC is backing them up.

The BBC News Website today features an article on the government's defeat in the House of Lords over its attempt to overturn the "free speech" amendment to last year's Criminal Justice and Immigration Act, tabled by Conservative peer, Lord Waddington. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8142852.stm.

This sly article not only mentions that Lord Waddington is a "Tory peer" but goes on to call him "the former Conservative home secretary who tabled the amendment". That way readers know he's a Tory. The first slyness comes though with the two 'SEE ALSO' articles it then refers its readers to:

- Minister in Tory homophobia claim
- Tory anger over homophobia claim

This is a blatant dodge to tar Lord Waddington and the Conservatives with the taint of "homophobia".

The other slyness is revealed if you look beyond the BBC's reporting of the issue.
http://www.politics.co.uk/legislation/legal-and-constitutional/coroners-and-justice-bill-$1242083.htm. Guess what? The campaign to retain the amendment when the bill came back to the House of Commons was a cross-party one, led by a Labour MP, David Taylor. (You might remember Rowan Atkinson & Christopher Biggins backing the "free speech" amendment during this debate). Is Mr. Taylor "homophobic"? Is the Labour Party? Is Christopher Biggins?

Here are two classic kinds of BBC bias: Bias by insinuation and bias by omission.

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