A Clear BBC Bias? What the Bird’s Nest Really Looks Like Under Beijing’s Blue Sky
I have to admit that I’m a partial addict to BBC News: it’s the first thing I check out everyday when I load up Firefox. I like the BBC because they’re mostly objective: they present a mostly balanced view and tell both sides of a story.
However, without a doubt, BBC News is what some would consider the “Western Media“. There are numerous cases and examples of their bias, especially during the Tibetan riots earlier this year.
A while ago, I was browsing through the BBC’s “In Pictures” section. Here’s what I saw:
It is captioned: “A Chinese paramilitary policeman stands guards near the National Stadium also known as the Bird’s Nest, as a thick haze of heat, dust and pollution covers Beijing.”
It’s really interesting how they specifically chose to capture a photo of the Bird’s Nest on a particularly gloomy day, and how they especially emphasized and enlarged Beijing’s pollution situation.
Now I feel quite indignant. Pictures really speak better than words, so I’ll let you make your own judgment:
Now… the fact that the BBC chose to place this photo of the Bird’s Nest, one taken on a particularly hazy day AND the fact that they made an effort to make the “pollution” situation more obvious by captioning it… really ticks me off. There’s a hundred million photos out there with a hundred million different perspectives. Why must they choose that particular one? Why must they caption it in such a particular way? I think the answer’s obvious.
Reader's Comments
Really well more written and an easily understandable contribution. I look regularly here by and would like to leave here greetings from Germany!
Very interesting…
I love the contrast between the presented picture and the rest of them.
Beautiful.
I’m a Westerner (but I speak Mandarin) and I hate the bias towards China. It’s in every medias… I got really mad a couple of times lately because I’ve been to China and I know Chinese history and I KNOW what is being reported is wrong.
I wonder how the media’s going to portray the Olympics comes August 8, 08. I’ll be in Beijing during that time, keeping an eye opened
bias ? I see no bias in the picture.. and I live in beijing, so I can tell : the bbc picture reflects the reality, way more than the others below.
As for the comment it’s another problem, haze and mist in beijing have nothing to do with pollution, some grey day are actually not so polluted, while some blue sky days are heavily polluted.
But you can not argue that anyway, a low pollution day in beijing equals a pollution red alert in most other cities. numbers to prove it exists.
good point, Paul.
I’m pretty sure those beautiful blue sky are the products of photoshop and such! Beijing is just as dusty and full of pollution as the BBC picture has shown for the majority of times!!! I’d like to hear what you have to say to this.
Well, looks like Paul has made a similar point.
I wonder how smooth the whole Beijing Olympics Event is going to be.
Wow Anonymous, your comment is so biased and full of bull crap! Just look at my latest post and the photo of myself in front of Tiananmen. I’m in Beijing right now, and out of the 3 days that I stayed, we’ve had 2 beautiful, blue-skied, cloudless days. Your ignorance truly amazes me. But hey, why am I complaining? There are, after all, people who are glued to CNN and Fox all day and people who would vote bush. You know what? Stay in your bubble. Ignorance is bliss, my friend.
Well, Eastwood, at least I was polite in my argument…
If you want to talk about ignorance, then I’d argue that a majority of the Chinese population is the true group of ignorant people — they are content with being fooled by the propaganda the Chinese government puts out, and ignore the real issues lying beneath all the façade! These ignorant people (I sincerely hope you are not one of them, ’cause that would just be VERY unfortunate) do not see how corrupted the situation in China is, nor do they want to spend time reading about voices from different resources… But hey, I don’t blame them, after all, the Chinese government is super good at censoring foreign countries’ news report.
P.S. Too bad I’ve actually been to Beijing and other few cities in China a few times. The reality speaks louder than words, my friend.
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“nor do they want to spend time reading about voices from different resources”
Ironically, “Anonymous”, I think that is a reasonable description of yourself. Someone who has balanced resources would have thought through the situation in China thoroughly and would have been less quick to criticize. It seems you have not done careful research on China’s development, not just with regards to economics, but also with her incremental steps with regards to human rights for her citizens.
In terms of pollution, I would like to point out that Britain during her Industrial Revolution has had her fair share of terrible pollution - to the point of black soot appearing on trees. It doesn’t make sense to blindly chide China’s record on the environmental, and ignore the obvious failures of the West.
Sometimes however, people have closed their minds so tightly that they cannot be reopened. I hope “Anonymous” will not become one of those people. Especially since 1.3 billion of the world’s population is Chinese - it’ll be hard for him/her to get along with 1/5 of the World’s population.
Thanks, and well-said, A
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