The not-so-trustworthy BBC.

I want to write something about, what I would call, the “selective hearing” of the BBC News broadcasts and newspapers. As you may have already guessed my blog is very opinionated so this post will also be very opinionated. Prepare thyself.

First of all: I do not trust the BBC as far as I can... throw it (is that possible?!). I've come to realise over the past year, as I attempted to become more worldly and knowledgeable, that the BBC coverage about news across the globe is nothing other than piss-poor. There have been so many times when I've had to reign in my swelling anger and stop myself from writing a strongly worded letter to the Big Bosses.

Let us go deep into our mind palaces and recall the Scottish referendum (well shit! That really does require some effort). Most immediately, what has happened to that? Where did it go? I try and read the news extensively everyday and although my memory is terrible, I'm pretty sure that I haven't seen the words “Scottish Referendum” in the news for months. Now that could just be due to Cameron sweeping his dirty little political promises under the carpet in the run up to the election, I admit that. What I want to remember, however, are the protests that happened around the time of the Scottish referendum. I cannot find in the archives of Google the article that I wish to cite but here's the upshot: The BBC reported about a march/rally/protest that took place in Edinburgh (I think) stating that “a few” or a “few hundred” people showed up to the “Vote Yes” campaign thing. What actually happened was that thousands of people showed up and the BBC just failed to mention that. A little while after that hundreds of people gathered to protest against the bias of the BBC towards the “Better Together” campaign. Obviously spokespeople for the BBC scrambled to attention saying that they were following «the guidelines”

I suppose that situation was quite a long time ago and maybe people don't care so much anymore. Nevere fear! There is another thing that I would like to rant about and it is the coverage of the Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria. Now although there are reports on the BBC website about these militants, it is rarely ever on the front page and you really have to search for it.

Around the same time as the Charlie Hebdo attacks, 2000 women, elderly people and children (and obviously men as well, but according to Amnesty International reports, amongst others, there were less men killed) were killed by Boko Haram in the biggest massacre in it's history. I read about this before I read about the Charlie Hebdo attacks. The BBC didn't report about it on nearly the same scale as Charlie Hebdo, if at all. I'm not saying one should be prioritised over the other but 2000 people were dead. I personally cannot even fathom what that many corpses looks like.

Another example is in recent news Boko Haram have been rampaging through towns killing dozens and causing destruction everywhere. Innocent people are fleeing to the town of Maiduguri, however Boko Haram have surrounded the area and threatened that they are preparing it into a “big grave where there will be no mercy”. According to reports authorities have not helped. People are going to die.

That is happening today and do you want to know what the top stories are in the news?

• “Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid) rushed to hospital because he has flu”
• “Students fury over impossible economics exam”
• “Teenager isolated over charity haircut”

I'm am an optimist (believe it or not) and I do believe that not all news should be bad news BUT SO MANY PEOPLE ARE DYING. Boko Haram have gone wild. There are mass murders everyday! I feel like if the BBC media was more representative of the situation in Nigeria there would be more chance of the people out there getting help!

Perhaps I am just being over-pessimistic about these particular examples but I can't help but lose my sense of trust in the great giant of news reporting. If anyone who's read this is looking for more places to get news I would check out the Reddit sub /r/WorldNews. That offers a lot more coverage and is actually very educational.