Whilst there has been significant improvements at the BBC over the last two years in relation to proper and honest coverage of equality issues, most readers of this blog are more than aware that the much of the organisation still unfortunately represents little more than a toned down version of the Guardian in its output much of the time.
Evidence of this came today in the organisation's well known weekly news quiz, a regular feature of its website. The quiz is a prominent feature on the BBC's main news page (one of the most viewed such pages in the world) and features seven multiple choice questions about the week's news.
Question one of the quiz featured a quote from Raab's superb call for equal rights for males in which he stated "Feminists are now amongst the most obnoxious bigots" and highlighted various forms of sexism faced by men.
Viewers of the website are asked who came out with such comments, the choices given are Mr Raab, but also the hugely sexist Angy Gray and his marginally less sexist colleague Richard Keys. This is a rather disturbing set of options, the implication being that the disgusting individuals that are Gray and Keys are somehow similar in mindset to the brilliant Mr Raab. It's clearly the BBC view that anyone who dares to consider criticising sexist feminists such as Harriet Harman must somehow strangely actually be a sexist themselves. Peter Sissons confirmed this bias towards Harman earlier in the week, noting how most of the producers at the organisation "seemed to be fully paid-up members of her fan club".
OF course there's technically nothing wrong with with a smear by association, but when one chooses an answer in the quiz the BBC kindly gives us more detail on the story. The organisation informs us that the week's news had featured a "broadside against "equal rights" for women" by Raab and how it had coincided with Gray's and Key's derogatory remarks about women in football!. Such ridiculous assetionscouldn't' be further from the truth, it's blatantly obvious that Raab is fully in favour of equality for everyone and the only relevance of teh Key's/Gray comments in the way they've been handled compared to similar statements on Womens' TV programmes and also those by various female Labour politicians. Not once does Raab attack women' equality nor even hint at doing so, and it really sums up the mindset of thsoe who produced the quiz for them to have to jumped to assuch a conclusion.
Thanks to complaints the BBC have now been forced into a U-turn on this issue and have removed the smear against Mr Raab, replacing it with a summary of what was actually said. It's worth noting that you wont' find any acknowledgement of the previous mistake on the page, nor any apology to Mr Raab for the attack. Luckily the excellent News Sniffer site allows people to see how BBC articles have changed over time, and shows us both versions of the article so everoyne can see what has happened.
It's pretty clear the BBC have it in for Mr Raab. Firstly there's the instance of his rough treatment on Radio 4's PM program which contrasted hugely with the type of questioning other guests were subjected too. Now we have these fasle statemtents and one hates to think what's next. On the plus side Radio 4 have now at least released a recording of the full interview with Mr Raab but it's really worrying that our public broadcaster behaves in this way.
If you want to let the BBC know you feeling on this issue (or any other instance of similar bias and lies) be sure to fill in the BBC complaints form.
by John Kimble
Well said John, great article, and thanks for highlighting the fact that has flown over the heads of most people that Raab is pro-equality and anti-bigotry. I wrote an open letter the MP: http://brightonmanplan.wordpress.com/2011/01/25/mp-takes-a-stand-for-men-agains-feminist-bigotry/
Best Regards - Glen, The Men's Network
Posted by: Glen Poole | Saturday, 29 January 2011 at 17:45
Well it's nice to see the BBC forced into telling the truth
Posted by: Bob | Tuesday, 08 February 2011 at 02:38