April 24, 2005

Think the NYT Will Try This?

From the UK Telegraph:

The BBC was last night plunged into a damaging general election row after it admitted equipping three hecklers with microphones and sending them into a campaign meeting addressed by Michael Howard, the Conservative leader.

Of course, the BBC tried to deny it:

Last night, the BBC claimed that the exercise was part of a "completely legitimate programme about the history and art of political heckling" and said that other parties' meetings were being "observed". However, The Telegraph has established that none of Tony Blair's meetings was infiltrated or disrupted in similar fashion.

Guy Black, head of communications for the Conservative party, said in a letter to the BBC that, "I do not believe that the BBC should be in the business of creating news." Well said, Mr. Black.

Now I don't have much stake in the outcome of the British elections. I like what Tony Blair has done as far as his support in Iraq, but as for his policies at home...well, let's just say that I'd probably be happier with a Conservative as Prime Minister if I were a British citizen. But my opinions are irrelevant. (Why haven't there been any polls over here asking us who we'd vote for for PM if we could? There were plenty of European polls during our election...)

That aside, it'll be interesting to see who wins. And it'll be even more interesting to see how much fallout there'll be for the BBC after this little stunt.

It's a shame that the BBC has the monopoly on broadcast news in Britain. We have publicly-funded PBS over here (and it's leftwing bias is apparent to anyone with more than a two-cell structure), but at least we have other options. The other options might not always be great (CBS comes to mind), but fortunately there's talk radio and FOX News.

Britain is a friend, but there's nothing like living in America.

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