BBC: Impartial, independent & trustworthy? Try looking at the evidence

The problem is that while BBC journalists may stand neutrally between the range of views presented, the range itself inevitably reflects their value judgements.

Consider an item on the Six O’Clock News of March 20, 2006. The BBC’s diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall declared solemnly: “There’s still bitter disagreement over invading Iraq. Was it justified or a disastrous miscalculation?”

Who could fail to see through the claim that Kendall was not offering an opinion?

The assertion that the alternative to the pro-war justification was to argue that the war was merely a “disastrous miscalculation” offered a deeply personal, and in fact outrageous, view. The anti-war movement has always argued that the war was not just a “miscalculation”, but a deliberate and criminal war of aggression. Would Kendall describe the Nazi Holocaust as a “disastrous miscalculation”? Were the 9/11 attacks on America a “misjudgement”?

(via Instapaper)