The fall-out from the BBC’s continuing campaign against the Iraq war is now spreading. Janet Daly has a splendid op-ed in today’s Daily Telegraph, making weirdly similar noises to those of us who wrung our hands over the Howell Raines’ abuse of power at the New York Times. Money quote:
[T]here is a question that needs an urgent answer: should the BBC, which has a virtual monopoly on serious news and current affairs coverage, the budget of a small country and enormous influence on the democratic process, be setting the parameters of reasonable political opinion in such a pre-determined and partial way?
Of course not. Meanwhile, a former BBC journalist and now member of the Blair government, Ben Bradshaw, has launched yet another attack on the BBC’s reporting techniques. The critical mass of criticism could soon prompt a Raines-like denouement. Stay posted.
GOOD NEWS ON AIDS: More drops in HIV infection rates and gonorrhea incidence among men who have sex with men in San Francisco. The “sub-Saharan” epidemic predicted in the New York Times only two years ago (and questioned in this space) still hasn’t happened.
SANCTIFYING RACHEL CORRIE: The young American woman killed by an Israeli bulldozer has now become an icon of some sorts. Oliver Kamm, an excellent new blogger based in London, has the goods on the factual distortions required.
The Dish 