SMEARING UKIP

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UKIP have been complaining for some time about the BBC's attempts to link them in the public's mind with the BNP.
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Hippiepooter has brought to my attention some examples of this, both from BBC political correspondent Brian Wheeler. The first comes from his review of the BNP's latest party election broadcast:

The UK Independence Party must have thought it had cornered the market in the anti-politics vote with its "sod the lot, vote UKIP" poster.

But in this election broadcast, BNP leader Nick Griffin goes further still, urging people to use their vote to "get your own back" on the entire political class.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/election_2010/8647630.stm

His second comes from a review of UKIP's latest party election broadcast (and a very snide piece of reporting it is too):
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The theme of the broadcast is "straight talking" - like the BNP in their broadcast, Ukip are starting from the premise that the public now think all mainstream politicians are liars and crooks.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/election_2010/8651489.stm
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And I can add Mark Easton to the list of smearers:

The big three Westminster parties have tended to brush to one side the point that lots of our inward migration comes from the EU and none of their policies would do anything about that. Only UKIP and the BNP would withdraw from the European Union, a prerequisite for restricting Poles, Latvians and Lithuanians from coming to work in Britain.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markeaston/2010/04/immigration_by_numbers.html

And now BoBs on the latest B-BBC open thread has picked up on possibly the worst of the lot. As he notes, "The ever helpful BBC informs us that the BNP and UKIP are basically the same party ... WTF". It begins:
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Two parties who have entered the Westminster election race in the hope of winning their first seats are the British National Party and the UK Independence Party.
Central to both organisations is the notion of being British, however that has often led to the BNP being accused of racism and UKIP being accused of being anti-European.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/election_2010/scotland/8653809.stm
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The worst case I know of this came during an edition of The Politics Show courtesy of Jon Sopel. Sorry for doing this, but I'll have to quote myself here at some length:
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Short extracts from interviews with each of the candidates for the leadership of UKIP followed. I would love to know how long the actual interviews lasted from which these crumbs were drawn and what questions were asked. Here the focus, initially, was firmly on immigration - and Sopel had the clear aim of painted UKIP as a far-right party analogous to the BNP.
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First came Gerard Batten MEP. He said that immigration should be reduced to a trickle and that Sharia Law is unacceptable in this country. An unhappy-looking Sopel said "I'm sure that Nick Griffin wouldn't disagree with anything you've just said."
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Next came front-runner Lord Pearson, who Sopel clearly had in his sights. He was labelled a "former Tory" (boo!) and "old Etonian" (boo!), and a "field sports campaigner" (boo!)" and as the man who invited Geert Wilders to the Houses of Parliament (boo!). Wearing a sour expression, Sopel asked him "So is there a danger you could be confused, UKIP and the BNP?" When the lord answered (slowly), Sopey interrupted and twisted his words: "Are you saying that there's a fine line between UKIP and the BNP?" The over-polite peer should have replied "No, you twit, of course not - and, unless you're thick, you know I didn't."
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The mere councillor came next, Alan Wood - "chairman of Fittleton Parish council", a man who "breeds spaniels". "Do you respect Lord Pearson?" asked Sopel. "No I don't", replied Mr Wood. "Are you saying that if he's elected people will think you're too close to the BNP?", asked Sopel. "Yes", replied Mr Wood. Job done for Sopel!
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Next up was Mike Nattrass MEP. He was labelled a "former member of the right-wing New Britain"(boo!). 'Right-wing' is usually BBC code for a fascist nut. Mr Nattrass is absolutely no such thing, but how are BBC viewers to know that the 'right-wing' New Britain was not a fascist organisation, like the BNP? This is a low subliminal smear. *
http://beebbiascraig.blogspot.com/2009/11/ukip-get-full-sopel-treatment.html
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I think we should all be on the alert for more examples of this.
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P.S. Here's another: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/politics_show/regions/west_midlands/8578858.stm
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And another from Stephanie Flanders:
The UK Independence Party and the British National Party also often focus on the economic impact of immigration: on wages, productivity and jobs.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/parties_and_issues/8634469.stm

FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS

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Aha! The BBC are rattled & have had to rush out a new article to cover-up the outrageous bias of an earlier one. You may recall the piece that so outraged Jonathan Isaby of ConservativeHome, which found that all of the six people BBC reporter Sarah Bell spoke to in Richmond were intending to vote (enthusiastically) for the Liberal Democrats in the wake of Nick Clegg's performance on the TV.
http://beebbiascraig.blogspot.com/2010/04/vote-for-susan-kramer-says-bbc.html
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Well, the BBC must have had some complaints they obviously couldn't ignore about this. So another BBC reporter Brian Wheeler was rushed back to Richmond to do a proper job and file a bullet-proof report.
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He refers to Sarah's astonishingly biased article & tries to pretend that, though she was right a couple of days ago, things have changed dramatically since then & now people there have a variety of voting intentions (Pull the other one Brian):

A few days ago my colleague Sarah Bell travelled to the Lib Dem marginal seat of Richmond in South London, where she found widespread enthusiasm for the party, in the wake of the televised debate.

I returned there on Sunday to find out if the mood had changed in this crucial swing seat, which the Conservatives must take if they are going to form the next government, now that people have had a chance to reflect on the debate and read in greater detail about the party's policies.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8628650.stm
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He adds:
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As always, it is worth pointing out that this was a highly unscientific exercise.
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Well, Sarah didn't point that out in her propaganda piece, which is why Mr Wheeler had to re-do her work! She should stick to her day job - writing up what Gordon Brown says about Conservative cuts and what David Cameron says about ties for the BBC's live election blog.

COMPARE AND CONTRAST

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On Thursday, when the BBC went mad about Lord Ashcroft again, The World at One relagated news about the BA strike to second place in its news bulletin in favour of the Lord Ashcroft story. In third place came the latest government borrowing figures, which reached a new record high. Nothing was going to get in the way of the BBC's mission that day and the programme then spent many minutes discussing Lord Ashcroft.
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Today, when Labour are in the mire, the news bulletin of its sister programme The World This Weekend's news bulletin was led by the BA strike - though only some remarks of Tony Woodley of Unite. Next on today's bulletin came Alistair Darling's comments about VAT, followed by a former senior army commander's important call for changes to the Ministry of Defence. In fourth place came the Labour's 'cash for influence' story. The programme thereafter ignored the Labour scandal, prefering to report from 'Derry' on the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, spending a good ten minutes on it.

UPDATE. David Preiser, on the Biased BBC blogsite, has spotted this article by BBC political correspondent Brian Wheeler (who's a new one on me) on the BBC News website. It's as clear an example of the BBC playing down a story as you could ever hope to get, and it manages to get in some digs at the Conservatives for good measure:

Politicians on all sides have been falling over each other to say how "shocked" and "appalled" they are about claims former Labour ministers have been offering to influence government policy for cash.

Stephen Byers said he had overplayed his influence to an undercover reporter
With an election weeks away, they know just how bad this sort of stuff looks to voters already reeling from last year's expenses scandal.

And although it might be Labour MPs in the spotlight today, they also know that stories about alleged "sleaze" tarnish the entire political class. The Conservatives, when they were in power, also had their share of lobbying scandals.
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And the clamour by lobbyists to sign up former politicians and advisers with links to the Conservative Party, in anticipation of Tory victory in the general election, suggests it is not about to go away any time soon.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8578788.stm