THE STIRRER BANNED BY THE BBC

30-08-2006

This website has been banned by the BBC after we requested a link to their local online news service…

Checking out the admirable, publicly-funded Beeb offerings for Birmingham and the Black Country, we noticed that they carry links (with suitable disclaimers) to papers such as the Birmingham Mail and the Express and Star.

A good thing too, you might think.

No news organisation has a monopoly on truth - and having access to a wide variety of information is fundamental to a democracy.

That's why we asked if a link to The Stirrer could be added as well.

As the Corporation says, “it is not responsible for the content of external internet sites” - and no sensible person would expect it to be.

Despite that, our first approach was rebuffed.

Douglas Marshall who works for BBC News Interactive West Midlands told us: “We link only to sites run by established news sources such as newspapers.”

That's a bit rich we thought.

Isn't the web sufficiently well-established to have generated a few well-established news sources of its own?

What about The Onion, The Drudge Report, or in Britain, Indymedia.

We pointed out that a number of stories which appeared first on the Stirrer have been followed up - quite legitimately - by BBC radio and television as well as other media.

This month alone, we've also clocked up more than 50,000 hits in our won right.

So how, we wondered, do they define “established?”

This time the buck was passed to Hugh Berlyn, Editor News Interactive (English Regions) and he found a new reason to exclude us.

"Having reviewed your site" wrote Hugh, "I am afraid it is quite clearly a vehicle for personal opinion and comment and does not meet our criteria for news sites.

"The main criteria is that sites present news reportage in a fair, balanced and unbiased way.

"While such sites may have space to allow public opinion to be aired (as indeed does our own) it is not their main purpose to give out the personal opinions of their owners or managers.

"I am therefore not prepared to add a link to our 'More News Sites' section."

So the Daily Express, Daily Mail, The Mirror, The Sun, The Guardian, Daily Telegraph et al - which NEVER use their front pages to editorialise, and which always report in a “fair, balanced and unbiased way” are allowed to have BBC links.

Just think on that the next time you see atabloid with a screaming headline about asylum seekers /immigrants/gypsies/Tories/Blair/Brown/Princess Diana.

And refelect on the fact that they are allowed, but the Beeb has banned The Stirrer.

PS. Those BBC sites are still very good. Check out www.bbc.co.uk/birmingham and www.bbc.co.uk/blackcountry