A few years back I went to the London Barbican to watch Outfoxed, a documentary feature film that made the outrageous claim that Fox TV was rather to the Right in its coverage of political issues.
Astounding! The cinema audience laughed and wailed and expressed outrage at the channelÂ’s obvious political distortion. And in the morning, I imagine, those same people turned on their radio to listen to the Today programme confident that this was the undistorted truth free from bias and lies.
But while Fox has certainly influenced politics in the US, in terms of shifting the terms of cultural and political debate it is like Austin Powers to the BBCÂ’s James Bond.
The latest revelation to come out of the BBC is the guidance issued at the BBC editorial meeting suggesting that Abu Qatada, the Jordanian whom the British government is too gutless to deport, should not be described as an “extremist” because that would suggest a “value judgment”. |