Wednesday, June 23, 2004

Ghetto for the Intellectually Malnourished

Some of you may have encountered a number of blogspots purportedly dealing with BBC bias. Among them the unimaginatively titled 'biased-bbc.blogspot. Like many such right wing cells, it dramatizes itself as some noble minority fighting a left-liberal establishment.

Now, you might think a recent report on the subject of BBC bias would arouse its interest and engagment. Instead, we get the following post:

'BBC biased towards Israel, says a recent study by the Glasgow University Media Group. That's that then. We pack up shop.'

Despite the clumsy irony, this statement speaks volumes. Why would a blog that is genuinely concerned with bias 'pack up shop' in response to a report on BBC bias? Well, see, its not their particular brand of bias is it? More bizarrely, the sure implication is that if teh BBC was biased toward Israel, the blog would be perfectly happy.

Of course, they have no genuine interest in BBC bias. What they do have an interest in is promoting a very obvious right-wing agenda under the disingenuous guise of a concern for ‘objectivity’. Anything outside a pro-conservative/ pro-republican line is vilified as a pathological deviation. What is also striking is the seeming unfamiliarity of any of their writers with elementary logic or the basic tools of media analysis. The whole enterprise is without rigour, humour or self-insight. Fortunately, it is also entirely without efficacy

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