HOW THINGS STAND

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I think it's time to work out another super(duper)-average - i.e. the average I.C. for each political party since I began recording interruption coefficients last June.
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So far 2194 interviews have been monitored.
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The bias against right-of-centre parties (and nationalists) remains clear and unequivocal:

UKIP (30) - 1.01
Conservatives (619) - 0.85
English Democrats (1) - 0.80
SNP (70) - 0.76
Sinn Fein (9) - 0.71
BNP (4) - 0.65
Plaid Cymru (11) - 0.65
DUP (10) - 0.62
Labour (1054) - 0.59
Liberal Democrats (333) - 0.44
Greens (16) - 0.26
TUV (2) 0.25
SDLP (3) - 0.20
UUP (2) - 0.15
Alliance (6) - 0.03
Respect (1) - 0
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So, a UKIP spokesman is four times more likely to be interrupted by a BBC interviewer than a Green. A Conservative is twice as likely to be interrupted by a BBC interviewer than a Lib Dem. Labour - the government of the country! - is questioned less toughly than Plaid Cymru.

JANUARY'S I.C.s - SUPER-AVERAGE I.C.s

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My favourite measure of bias across the Beeb is the super-average interruption coefficient - which is calculated very simply by adding up all the individual I.C.s for each party & then dividing them by the number of interviewed granted to each party that month. As with all statistics, the larger the sample, the better the result - and the more significant any differences (hence the increase of the I.C. to 2 decimal places).
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Here is how things worked out in January 2010. Guess who's top again?!

UKIP (5 interviews) - 1.56
DUP (4 interviews) - 1.26
SNP (6 interviews) - 0.95
Conservatives (75 interviews) - 0.91
Sinn Fein (6 interviews) - 0.82
Labour (134 interviews) - 0.61
Greens (2 interviews) - 0.60
Liberal Democrats (44 interviews) - 0.51
Independents (3 interviews) - 0.40
SDLP (2 interviews) - 0.30
TUV (2 interviews) - 0.25
Alliance (1 interview) - 0.00
Respect (1 interview) - 0.00

That very high average for UKIP, based on 6 interviews, leaps out straight off. It's very close to December's figure too (1.55), showing that there's a consistency to the BBC's hostility towards the party. The Democratic Unionist Party, propelled into the headlines by events, comes off second worse. The SNP continue to be ill-treated by the BBC and only slightly behind them come the Conservatives - again, significantly more likely to be interrupted by BBC interviewers than their Labour and Lib Dem counterparts, as shown here month after month after month. Left-wing bias at the BBC? Clearly.
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DECEMBER'S I.C.s - SUPER-AVERAGE I.C.s

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My favourite measure of bias across the Beeb is the super-average interruption coefficient - which is calculated very simply by adding up all the individual I.C.s for each party & then dividing them by the number of interviewed granted to each party that month. As with all statistics, the larger the sample, the better the result - and the more significant any differences (hence the increase of the I.C. to 2 decimal places).
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Here is how things worked out in December 09 - and it's the same old story!!!:
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UKIP (2 interviews) - 1.55
Conservatives (56 interviews) - 0.75
SNP (3 interviews) - 0.70
Labour (99 interviews) - 0.46
Liberal Democrats (33 interviews) - 0.34
Plaid Cymru (1 interview) - 0
Independent (2 interviews) - 0
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That very high average for UKIP, though based on just two interviews, leaps out straight off (and is not untypical), but then so does the fact that Conservative politicians are significantly more likely to be interrupted by BBC interviewers than Labour and Lib Dem ones - as shown here month after month after month. Left-wing bias at the BBC? Clearly.

NOVEMBER'S I.C.s - SUPER-AVERAGES FOR EACH PARTY

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My favourite measure of bias across the Beeb is the super-average interruption coefficient - which is calculated very simply by adding up all the individual I.C.s for each party & then dividing them by the number of interviewed granted to each party that month. As with all statistics, the larger the sample, the better the result (with the consequence that the Plaid figure, based on 2 interviews, is probably not typical!) - and more significant any differences (hence the increase of the I.C. to 2 decimal places).

Here are how things worked out in November 2009:
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Conservatives (95 interviews) - 0.86
SNP (15 interviews) - 0.81
UKIP (9 interviews) - 0.80
Labour (149 interviews) - 0.67
Liberal Democrats (39 interviews) - 0.48
Independents (3 interviews) - 0.27
Sinn Fein (2 interviews) - 0.15
Greens (4 interviews) - 0.13
Plaid Cymru (2 interviews) - 0

There you go. More empiral proof of the BBC's bias, albeit not so sharply etched as in other months. *

THE MOST SUPER OF ALL THE SUPER-AVERAGES

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So far, since beginning my survey in June this year, I've reviewed 1129 BBC interviews with UK politicians. This allows me to extend the super-average principle to all these interviews & get a single measure of bias for each political party for the last 5 months. (See my previous posts for all the thinking behind this!).
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The results are revealing - and not a little damning. Remember that the more interviews I've surveyed for each political party the firmer the evidence (so the figures for Labour, the Tories and the Liberal Democrats are very firm, and those for UKIP, the Greens and, above all, the SNP pretty compelling!). I think Lord Pearson will be very interested in which party is the most-interrupted of all!!:
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UKIP (12 interviews) - 0.90
Plaid Cymru (6 interviews) - 0.88
Conservatives (312 interviews) - 0.84
English Democrats (1 interview) - 0.8
SNP (39 interviews) - 0.76
Sinn Fein (2 interviews) - 0.75
BNP (4 interviews) - 0.65
Labour (557 interviews) - 0.57
Liberal Democrats (167 interviews) - 0.41
DUP (3 interviews) - 0.27
Greens (9 interviews) - 0.24
UUP (1 interview) - 0
Alliance (1 interview) - 0
SDLP (1 interview) - 0
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I think I'm on pretty safe ground in suspecting that many right-of-centre readers (and not a few nationalists, of every stripe) will have known already in their guts that these might be the sort of results that a scientific study of BBC interviews would produce. This provides objective proof for such gut feelings. I intend to carry on doing just what I've been doing all the way up to the general election - and, maybe, beyond.
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I will, as usual, be looking at each interviewer in turn over the coming days. Who will be a saint, and who a sinner? Who will be October's King (or Queen) of Bias?
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OCTOBER'S I.C.s - SUPER-AVERAGE I.C.s

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My favourite measure of bias across the Beeb is the super-average interruption coefficient - which is calculated very simply by adding up all the individual I.C.s for each party & then dividing them by the number of interviewed granted to each party that month. As with all statistics, the larger the sample, the better the result (with the consequence that the Sinn Fein figure, based on 2 interviews, is probably not typical!) - and more significant any differences (hence the increase of the I.C. to 2 decimal places).
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Here is how things worked out in October 09:
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Conservatives (124 interviews) - 0.87
Sinn Fein (2 interviews) - 0.75
SNP (11 interviews) - 0.65
UKIP (4 interviews) - 0.60
Labour (134 interviews) - 0.54
BNP (2 interviews) - 0.50
Greens (2 interviews) - 0.45
Liberal Democrats (32 interviews) - 0.37
Plaid Cymru (2 interviews) - 0.35
DUP (2 interviews) - 0.15
Alliance (1 interview) - 0
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Now here's some strong statistical evidence that the BBC, as a whole, is significantly more likely to interrupt a Conservative spokesman than a Labour spokesman, not to mention a Lib Dem.
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'SUPER STATISTICS' - THE KEY TO PROVING THAT THE BBC IS BIASED?

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It just dawned on me today that I could add up all the interruption coefficients accrued by each political party and work out an average I.C. - a 'super-average' - for that party across the BBC's output throughout July.

Now, a strong health warning is necessary here:

With all statistics, the larger the sample the better the result. If you ask one person in the street his opinion on something & then generalise from that you are, obviously, making a biiiiiiggg mistake (as Robert Peston might say). Similarly, if the average is based on just one interview (as in the BNP and Plaid Cymru examples featured below) or two (as in the case of UKIP) or even four (as with the Greens) or six (as with the SNP), the result is not to be taken toooo seriously - though with each increase the result becomes stronger. With a large sample (as for the Liberal Democrats), a larger sample (as for the Conservatives) or with a very large sample (as for the Labour Party), the results become much more convincing and revealing. I believe that the figures below are already of some importance in demonstrating the BBC's bias towards the Labour Party and (even more so) the Liberal Democrats and against the Conservative Party.

So, with those riders firmly borne in mind, here are the 'super-average' I.C.s for the BBC as a whole for July 2009:

Plaid Cymru - 2.3
UKIP - 1.7
BNP - 1.1
SNP - 1.0
Conservatives - 0.9
Labour - 0.5
Liberal Democrats - 0.3
Greens - 0.1

With each passing month these 'super-statistics' will become ever more telling. If such a trend is confirmed the BBC will be proved to be biased. Conversely, of course, if they are not it won't. Watch and see!