I'm a BBC person, and there was some good reporting over the election period, but I've been very disappointed overall, and found @CNNPolitics much better. The reason can be summed up by 'Balance'.
I've written about this before, but the BBC is confusing impartiality with the need to always 'balance' everything. It should be just telling the truth... and the truth is not the midpoint between a fact and a lie...
It also has an obsession with vox pops. Yesterday Jane O'Brien spoke to "Monica from Maryland" at a pro Trump demo in D.C. bbc.com/news/av/electi… . The exchange went like this:
Q: "Do you accept the result?"
M from M: "I don’t. There’s been a tremendous amount of fraud [untrue, unchallenged], based on what we’ve actually heard [untrue, unchallenged], and what we’ve learned from reputable sources [untrue, unchallenged]....
"There was no Republican oversight in a lot of the counting [lie, unchallenged], and there was no way possible some of those numbers could have gone up in the time frame that they did [untrue, unchallenged], so I’m very concerned about fraud."
Instead of challenging these lies and untruths, they were all just accepted at face value - treated as a legitimate opinions. They were not and are not - they are demonstrably wrong. Now, the BBC will say that over the course of their whole output it was made clear...
that President Trump had not produced evident to support his claims of fraud and the intro to the vox pop also makes that point. But sadly yet again a platform was given to people who repeat lies without being challenged. It's time to stop getting liars on to 'balance' facts.

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More from @Baghdaddi

9 Aug
Here's a thread about England I thought up while walking in Bavaria today. I got quite cross, despite seeing hundreds of butterflies, beautiful meadow flowers & Golden Eagles, and swimming in mountain streams and lakes.....
It was hot today (about 30 degrees) and I walked about 20 miles in the mountains close to the Austrian border. I'm English, but I have a right to be here because (by virtue of an Irish passport) I'm a European citizen.
Now, most English people have been deprived of this right because the likes of Dominic Cummings, Mark Francois - and let's face it - Vladimir Putin decided that it wasn't something English people should have. And by telling lies on an industrial scale...
Read 11 tweets
21 Apr
A thread about the cancellation of #Oktoberfest2020.
This is quite a signal from the Bavarian premier, Markus Söder. Cancelling the Oktoberfest is a big deal, but the health risks were found to outweigh the politics - and it feels like the right decision to me. 1/10
The Wies’n, as it’s known here, is such an important part of Munich’s cultural life that it’s influence is impossible to overstate. It begins in September, & concludes on the first Sunday of October (with occasional extentions for public holidays), & normally lasts 16 days 2/10
that's three weekends and the two weeks between. My partner, Munich born-and-bred, barely ever misses a day of this amazing folk festival, and since 2010, when I made my first visit, neither have I. 3/10
Read 10 tweets
26 Dec 19
This is the Wendelstein. It’s 1838m high, and is an hour away from Munich by public transport. I climbed it today (Boxing Day), and as I did so, I had some thoughts about British politics (THREAD)
The reason I’m here is because, as a citizen of the EU I have the *right* to live and work here. While my partner and daughter went skiing, I went walking in the heart of Europe, where we have the *right* to live together as a family…
Now, my fellow UK citizens voted to deprive me of those rights in the referendum of 2016. The British government will now take them away from me (just carry on looking at the pictures if you feel awkward) on …
Read 9 tweets
15 Apr 19
I worked for the BBC for 25 years often in dangerous places. I'm now ashamed of it. I've written to BBC Director General Tony Hall. My focus is on the Farage coverage last week, but it was all confirmed yesterday with the way Marr interviewed @DavidLammy . (Thread):
The way this works now is
1. Jacob Rees-Mogg quotes a German AfD fascist (a party that advocates shooting refugees).
2. JRM's supporters get the idea it's OK to be a fascist (as intended).
3. After row ensues (days later), JRM "apologises", an apology taken seriously by nobody.
4. Lammy calls it out, and gets interrupted by Marr saying JRM has "made it very clear he doesn't endorse the AfD".
5. Lammy gets flak for calling out the ERG's links to the far right.
Well, I stand in solidarity with @DavidLammy.
Read 4 tweets
6 Aug 18
I was bureau chief for the BBC in Baghdad between 2004-09, & I want to say something to the people knocking the BBC; but as an "unashamed" #Remainer, I want to say some things to the #BBC too (Thread 1/
I left the BBC in 2014 after a 25 year career. It was the only UK news organisation to maintain a presence in #Iraq for the entire period of Britain's involvement. I'm not citing myself as an outstanding exemplar of #BBC journalism... 2/12
But to give you an idea of the lengths we would go to, in 2006 when the Askari Shrine in Samara was blown up, & the de facto civil war began in earnest, we were lied to by the authorities about the numbers of dead... 3/12
Read 12 tweets

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