Accusations of bias against Tg1

"Anche questa sera e' andata in onda una edizione del Tg1 sfacciatamente faziosa". Lo afferma Giorgio Lainati, capogruppo di Forza Italia in commissione vigilanza Rai. [Repubblica]

Music for tomorrow's Bar Fiasco shift

I thought I'd post the music I wanted to put on at my shift in bar fiasco tomorrow night...

Name	Artist	Album	Year
Somebody Dance (Sven & Friends edit)	The Killers vs David Bowie		2006
Emotional Rescue	The Rolling Stones	Forty licks (Disc 2)	1980
Life o' The Party	Prince	Musicology
Hey Ladies	The Beastie Boys	The Sounds Of Science (Disc 2)	1999
Concrete Schoolyard	Jurassic 5	Jurassic 5 - J5	1998
The Don of Dons	The Neptunes	The Neptunes Present...Clones
It Blows my Mind	The Neptunes	The Neptunes Present...Clones
Evil (Rollercoaster Project remix)	Interpol	Dreamboat Records December 2005	2005
Satellite Anthem Icarus	Boards Of Canada	The Campfire Headphase	2005
I Know	The Beta Band	The Three E.P.'s	1997
Essex Dogs	Blur	Blur	1997
Tears From The Compound Eye	Boards Of Canada	The Campfire Headphase	2005
Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun	Pink Floyd	Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd (Disc 1)	1968
Us & Them	Easy Star All-Stars	Dub Side of the Moon	2004
Sun is Shining	Bob Marley and the Wailers	One Love - The Best Of...
4th Time Around	Bob Dylan	Blonde On Blonde	1966
Tropicalia	Beck	Mutations
Music Is My Radar	Blur	The Best Of (Disc 1)	2000
Boys Keep Swinging	David Bowie	Lodger	1979
Fistful Of Love	Antony & The Johnsons	I Am A Bird Now	2005
The Gun	Lou Reed	The Very Best Of	1999
I'm Just A Killer For Your Love	Blur	Blur	1997
Mutual Slump	DJ Shadow	Endtroducing.....	1996
6/8 War	Leftfield	Rythm and Stealth
Push Upstairs	Underworld	Everything Everything: Live [IMPORT] [LIVE]	2000
Cherubs	Arab Strap	Elephant Shoe	1999
Can't Get You Out Of My Head	The Flaming Lips	Kylie Minogue Cover - Live BBC	2002
Mr. Ambulance Driver	The Flaming Lips	At War With The Mystics	2006
U.K. Girls (physical)	Goldfrapp	Felt Mountain	2001
Come	Lemon Jelly	Lemonjelly.ky	2000
Stay Loose	Belle & Sebastian	Dear Catastrophe Waitress	2003
I'm A Cuckoo	Belle & Sebastian	Dear Catastrophe Waitress	2003
Sheriff Of Hong Kong	Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band	Doc At The Radar Station
Love Floats Two	The Bats	Silverbeet	1993
The Hustler	Beachwood Sparks	Once We Were Trees	2001
Netty's Girl	The Beastie Boys	The Sounds Of Science (Disc 2)	1999
Redemption Song	Bob Marley and the Wailers	One Love - The Best Of...
Accross 11th street (Jackie Brown)	Bobby Womack	Sound Track
The Crooked Road And The Briar	Calexico	Rough Trade Shops: Country 1	2003
Modern Parlance	Candidate	Nuada	2002
A=A	Cha Cha Cohen	Out Of Our Heads On Skelp	2003
Lost In The Supermarket	The Clash	London Calling
Pass It On	Coral	Magic and Medicine	2003
Stay	David Bowie	Bowie At Beeb: Best Of BBC Radio 68-72 (Disc 3)	2000
D.J.	David Bowie	Lodger	1979
Time	Easy Star All-Stars	Dub Side of the Moon	2004
Strugglin' Horse In Hollywood	Ella Guru	Rough Trade Shops: Country 1	2003
She's Got A Problem	Fountains Of Wayne	Fountains Of Wayne	1996
Monkey Gone To Heaven	Frank Black	Frank Black Francis (Disc 2: Treated Disc)	2004
Darts Of Pleasure	Franz Ferdinand	Franz Ferdinand	2004
Stray Dog And The Chocolate Shake	Grandaddy	Sumday	2003
In Remote Part / Scottish Fiction	Idlewild	Scottish fiction	2003
No Fun	Iggy Pop	Nude & Rude
Static On The Radio	Jim White	Drill A Hole In That Substrate And Tell Me What You See	2004
Caroline, Yes	Kaiser Chiefs	Employment	2005
Tranny	Kings of Leon	Youth and Young Manhood
Backstreet Girl	Lambchop	Is a woman	2002
This Corrosion	Lambchop	Is a woman	2002
Give Me Your Love (Love Song)	Lambchop	What Another Man Spills	1998
Is A Woman	Lambchop	Is A Woman	2002
Phat Planet	Leftfield	Rythm and Stealth
Dance Me To The End Of Love	Leonard Cohen	Various Positions	1985
A Nanny In Manhattan	Lilys	Better Can't Make Your Life Better
Mezzanine	Massive Attack	Mezzanine	1998
John McLaughlin	Miles Davis	Bitches Brew (Remaster) (Disc 2)	1969
Dial: Revenge	Mogwai	Rock Action	2001
Ratts Of The Capital	Mogwai	Happy Songs For Happy People	2003
Loser	The Neptunes	The Neptunes Present...Clones
Execution Day	The New Pornographers	Mass Romantic	2002
Guns of Brixton	Nouvelle Vague	Nouvelle Vague	2004
Track 02	Outkast	The Love Below
Track 11	Outkast	The Love Below
...and Carrot Rope	Pavement	Terror Twilight	1999
Bad Cover Version	Pulp	We Love Life	2001
Losing My Touch	The Rolling Stones	Forty licks (Disc 2)	2002
The Skins	Scissor Sisters	Scissor Sisters	2004
Turn A Square	The Shins	Chutes Too Narrow	2003
Skip Tracer	Sonic Youth	Washing Machine	1995
Becuz	Sonic Youth	Washing Machine	1995
Night Vision	Super Furry Animals	Guerrilla	1999
Big In Japan	Tom Waits	Mule Variations	1999
Some Kinda Love	The Velvet Underground	The Velvet Underground	1969
I Cut Myself	Wannabe Texans	Rough Trade Shops: Country 1	2003
Seven Nation Army	The White Stripes	Elephant	2003

Leaked BBC minutes on impartiality

This is London takes up this story about the BBC's 'impartiality summit'. The paper's spin is that the summit was an admission that the BBC is 'biased'. In particular, "the BBC is dominated by trendy, Left-leaning liberals who are biased against Christianity and in favour of multiculturalism".

If the minutes of the meeting are accurate, and if the quotes reported are correct, and if they are given in their correct context (and some of them are not - Andrew Marr's quote about the BBC being a liberal institution is meant in a philosophical or epistemological sense, not a political one), then what are we to make of it?

1. the fact that the BBC is dominated by left-wing people should not surprise: journalists across the world are more likely to support left-wing parties than right-wing parties, and journalists in the UK One 1996 study by Tony Delano found that 55% of UK journalists were Labour voters, and only 6% Conservative voters;
2. ... but this is irrelevant because journalists' values don't matter that much. People who've spent time studying the production of the media have emphasised how journalists' output is often conditioned more by the organisation they work in than their own personal beliefs. Change the organisation, and you start to learn the ropes there; eventually, what you write changes;
3. If an excessively politically-correct mindset is now pervasive in management and the structures they create, this is more worrying. In particular, the write-up of the article suggests that the beast has a life of its own. Why in God's name should Mark Byford, Head of News, have to secretly agree to help Justin Webb shore up the BBC's coverage of America instead of calling a meeting to discuss the issue?
4. This 'problem' concerns cultural issues more than (party-)political ones. The BBC has had decades of negotiating between positions on the left and right of politics. It has become adept at assuaging the fears of both sides. These points, although not fixed, have established reference points (Labour and the Conservatives). Cultural issues are much more difficult. Cultural viewpoints rarely have authoritative spokespeople who enjoy the kind of substantial rapport with their base to mute criticism. Additionally, cultural issues are much more heterogeneous, and difficult to satisfy all at once. If the BBC lets its news-readers wear 'whatever they want', is it being pro-Muslim (by allowing news presenters to wear veils), pro-Christian (by allowing news presenters to wear crucifixes), or merely liberal (by allowing them to wear whatever they like)?
   
5. This bias, however, is not 'sinister'. Those people who comment on Biased BBC often write in what Richard Hofstadter called the 'paranoid style' - they assume that, behind every manifestation of bias or impartiality, there is a conspiracy which created the impartiality, which desires to further some aim. This seems unlikely at the BBC - and the very fact of calling an impartiality summit should help critics to recognise this. (Which is, of course, why the BBC is doing it).

Marco Follini leaves the UDC

Marco Follini, former secretary of the UDC, has decided to leave the party, founding his own group, l'Italia del mezzo.

This was not unexpected - Follini had left his post as party secretary a while ago, and had carped about his party's policy and Berlusconi's leadership of the centre-right. What is surprising, at least to me, is the willingness of Italian politicians to found new parties which have negligible electoral prospects.

RTÉ responds to government's proposed media reform

In response to the previously announced government consultation exercise, RTÉ has responded to the government's draft broadcasting bill with a fair amount of red ink. Politically relevant concerns are the following:

1. In order to fall under companies legislation, RTÉ is to be constituted as a single-shareholder company with one shareholder, a cabinet minister. RTÉ argues that this would mark the change from public broadcasting to state broadcasting, in that RTÉ has not, since the passage of the 1960 Broadcasting Act, been part of the state apparatus.
2. the general scope for intervention - whether by ministers or by the new Broadcasting Authority Ireland (BAI)
3. The chief executive of the BAI should be appointed by the minister after public consultation.
4. a new right-of-reply is far more generous than existing rights guaranteed by the Broadcasting Act 1990;
5. the provision for RTÉ's independence is couched with the qualification, "subject to the qualifications of the act", which, on RTÉ's reading, mean that RTÉ is not independent in many areas of its management;
6. The requirement that the director ensure "gathering and presentation [of news] which is accurate and impartial according to the recognised standards of objective journalism" - a phrase which I hadn't noticed before - is impossible vague.

Trust and politicians' ability to leave things be

As a sideline, I've been reading about trust in governing institutions. Does the political independence of broadcasters depend on whether politicians trust the broadcasters to report truthfully or accurately? If so, might existing low levels of trust prevent an improvement in the relationship?

Working through one wonderful article on LBJ's psychology, I came across the term 'sinister attribution error': "the tendency for individuals to overattribute hostile intentions and malevolent motives to others' actions". It struck me as a perfect description of Italian politicians' attitude towards television coverage, as essentially motivated by the grinding of partisan axes.

Unfortunately, the literature on trust suggests that phenomena like sinister attribution error are difficult to eradicate. As Diego Gambetta has written, low trust "prevents people from engaging in the appropriate kind of social experiment" necessary to invalidate false beliefs about the objects of distrust. So, LBJ was unable to check whether Bobby Kennedy though himself a threat to LBJ (he didn't) precisely because he thought Bobby Kennedy was a threat to LBJ.

New Director-General for Sveriges Television

Eva Hamilton, SVT's Head of Fiction, was last Friday appointed Director General of the Swedish public broadcaster. With experience in SVT's News department, she comes to SVT after having worked for Aftonbladet ("independent social democrat") and Svenska Dagbladet ("independent, conservative") [Source for these judgements: BBC Media monitoring].