BBC admits bias

Background briefing. See also update.

Update: The Vatican has decided to 'filter' requests from the BBC in the light of the Sex Crimes and the Vatican programme. The Catholic Herald reports that 'all future requests from the BBC and independent television companies for Vatican press accreditation will now be scrutinised carefully.' Withholding press accreditation is one of the few ways in which the Vatican can directly punish specific journalists and organisations.

BBC claims the leaked 'Impartiality Seminar' was intended to be public, and was broadcast on the web. Can we see it again, then, Sue Lawley?

The BBC's new Robin Hood series leaves out Friar Tuck and refers to Maid Marian simply as 'Marian'. The BBC's Christianophobia strikes again.


Thanks to Valle Adurni for the reference to this story.

Key quote: '[At an 'impartiality' summit] executives were given a fictitious scenario in which they were asked to make a judgment. In the illustration, Jewish comedian Sasha Baron Cohen would participate in a studio program in which guests were allowed to symbolically throw in a garbage bin things they hated. What would you do, the executives were asked, if Cohen decided to throw kosher food, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bible and the Quran in the trash. Everything would be allowed, the executives said, except for the Quran, for fear of offending the British Muslim community.'

For the full story, see here for a US source, here for the Daily Mail.