BBC ignores Scotland shock
Posted by ewancrawford on June 11, 2008
The conclusions of the investigation by the BBC Trust into the corporation’s coverage, or rather non-coverage, of Scotland and Wales fall into the “no sh** Sherlock” category. Anyone who watches the BBC network news will not be surprised that in the words of Sir Michael Lyons, the Trust chairman: “the resounding message from this review is the BBC is falling short of its own high standards and is not meeting properly its core purpose of helping to inform democracy.”
But the sheer scale of the London-centric news agenda, revealed by the report, is still staggering. One statistic in particular should mean an instant rebate on the licence fee for everyone living in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland: ”the study found that of 136 stories about health and education, all 136 dealt with England alone. ” Not one, single story about health and education outside England was broadcast to a UK audience – totally unacceptable from news editors whose wage packets are paid for by people across the UK.
