Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Spot The Difference

Between the BBC report and the Thames Valley Police report of a distressing crime.

The crime is depressing - the liberal self-censorship even more so.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Were they white racists by perchance? Or just black. The omission is so obvious in BBC reports. And I wonder who makes the decision, on licence-fee payer's money, to leave out information "in the interests of racial harmony"?

Anonymous said...

The BBC will put a description up of the attackers - in about three days, having given them a sporting chance to get away. They are oppressed victims, after all.

Anonymous said...

All of this liberal self-censorship is just wasted. If I hear a report of a crime like this but no description of the attackers is given, I just automatically assume this means the perps are 'ethnics' of some sort.

Serf said...

Moriarty hits the nail on the head.

If the BBC self censors all the time we will all start to assume that all criminals are minorities.

Anonymous said...

The BBC’s censorship is so consistent and predictable that if ‘White’ Christian’ or ‘Conservative’ is not mentioned; it is safe to assume the perpetrator is of ethnic minority, Muslim and Labour.

Apply this to all its ‘News’ broadcasts and you will never go wrong.

Anonymous said...

Eric, your Viking avatar has a very prominent crotch bulge.

Anonymous said...

I think he'll have to change his name to Erik.

Brituncula said...

Not necessarily entirely the beeb's fault. The Press Complaints Commission say: "Details of an individual's race, colour, religion, sexual orientation, physical or mental illness or disability must be avoided unless genuinely relevant to the story." Which obviously has the unfortunate effects other people have pointed out.

Anonymous said...

Brituncula, you might want to check this link on the Beeb, took me about 30 seconds to find:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/4755124.stm

Check out the descriptions of the attackers. Are you going to call the PCC or shall I?

Anonymous said...

Have a look at the BBC's Crimewatch webpage - February appeals.

Out of 10 appeals, 5 feature black suspects, 3 black, and 2 in which race is not mentioned (an attack on a man in Newport and the discovery of a horde of tacky stolen jewellery).

Does not look like political correctness is guiding Crimewatch's selection of appeals.

The BBC is a huge organisation, so maybe different 'office cultures' hold sway in different parts of it.

Anonymous said...

That's 5 black, 3 white, duh.

Anonymous said...

yeah, it was the same with the bust of the drugs gang a few days ago.
Skynews was reporting them as illegel immigrants who should have been picked up years ago. I think BBC 6oc news also mentioned the illegal status.

But the BBC website listed them.
name of South London.
name of Eastend London.
etc.
I guess everytime I see 'of' its because they didn't say 'from' for a reason..

Anonymous said...

With Crimewatch they're actually trying to catch the people involved, so it self-evidently needs an accurate description. I can imagine why it's not in the news reports, but it's not consistent, they'll mention it sometimes but not others. I think they should mention it all the time, facts are facts.

Anonymous said...

You're missing the point.

Crimewatch select which crimes are featured as appeals out of a vast pool of criminal activity.

They could easily choose to show only those crimes committed by whites, perhaps throwing in the occasional crime by a non-white for appearance sake.

But that's not what they do. Crimewatch is an un-PC zone.

Anonymous said...

Giving a description would help the police catch the attackers.

perhaps the bbc doesnt wish that