BBC Complaints: The link you need!

Saturday 10 April 2010

A TALE OF TWO PROPOSALS

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How are the two proposals outlined on last night's Newsnight - one Labour, one Conservative - getting on?
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Well, reading through this morning's coverage on the BBC's live election blog (well, from 8am to 2pm), it's fair to say that one is faring much better than the other - if the BBC is to be believed.
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And one of them in particular is the focus of the BBC's attention, as the first post of the day reveals:

0827: Good morning, and welcome to our coverage of day five of the general election campaign. It looks like people will have plenty to say about the Tories' plans to give four million married couples tax breaks.
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Let's compare and contrast the treatment each has received so far from this blog, counting the number of relevant posts:
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The Conservative proposal on married tax allowance
Conservative politicians (in favour!) - 1
Criticism from opposition politicians - 5
Supportive comments from opposition politicians - 0
Criticism from others (including tweets from the public) - 2
Support from others (including tweets from the public) -1
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Labour's 'Cadbury's Law'
Labour politicians (in favour!) - 1
Criticism from opposition politicians - 0
Supportive comments from opposition politicians - 1
Criticism from others - 0
Support from others - 1
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The criticism of the Conservatives contains many quotes, but the one tick in the Conservative politicians (in favour!) category is hardly a boon for the Tories:

0923: Shadow universities and skills secretary David Willetts denies the Tories are making "moral judgments" with their tax plans in an interview for BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

I've yet to listen to this interview, but did Mr Willetts say something positive about the proposal as well? I bet he did. If so, why then did the BBC not report that but chose to report the negative (a denial) instead?
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The bias remains outrageous.

5 comments:

  1. Just when you thought it couldn't get worse:

    1513 Sean Morton tweets: For the first time in the election everyone at work is talking about it. And they're all ripping the Tory married tax plan.Read Sean Morton's tweets

    You're invited to read Mr Morton's tweets.
    What you're not told (and what is not disclosed) is Mr Morton is a member of Progress (http://www.progressonline.org.uk/consultations/primetime/) and therefore a Labour party member. He's also an active supporter of Labour's Margaret Moran and her bid to win Glasgow East (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&viewas=0&gid=19519483665)

    Nothing like a bit of context. I've given up on hoping for balance. But it now seems even disclosures of interest are omitted.

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  2. One more tick in the 'Criticism of the Conservatives' box!!

    Off the subject of bias, there's another annoying thing about that blog today. They've been banging on all day about the Grand National. Who's broadcasting the Grand National? The BBC. It's supposed to be live election coverage, not one long advert.

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  3. They must have noticed the Labour red rose on Seanie boy's picture and the million over signs on his twitter site that show he's a Labour activist and yet 'mum's the word'...

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  4. Unless hell freezes over the Tories will be lucky to break double digits today on the propaganda blog. Mr Clegg will be happy today though.

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  5. Yes, they are nowhere near yet! Have the Conservatives all been struck down with flu today?

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