BBCWatch Letter to BBC from Neil Winton December 8, 2003 Lee Rogers Editorial & Investigation Team BBC Information Television Centre Wood Lane London W12 7RJ Dear Mr Rogers, Thanks for your letter dated November 27. It is no surprise that, being in the pay of the BBC, you would seek to deny its bias and lack of balance. You try and justify the James Robbins story I criticised. Let there be no doubt about it. The transatlantic alliance does not divide Britain. If one of your leftist reporters thinks it does, he should marshal a few facts first. The fact that up to 100,000 misfits marched across London (leaving 59,900,000 not demonstrating) proves little. Around the same time, I believe an opinion poll in The Guardian (of all places) demonstrated that Britain is very much in favour of the special relationship with the U.S., and hasn’t swallowed your reporters’ drip-drip of negativity, which tries to show Americans and President Bush in a bad light, or Dubya as some kind of stumblebum moron. I would also draw your attention to an article in today’s Wall Street Journal Europe - “How the Partial Auntie Tilts its News Leftward, by Jonathan Boyd Hunt (Page 8). His AIDs reporting example is a good one. I would refer you to my website’s (www.wintonsworld.com) criticism of your Iraq war reporting, which used similar tactics. I worked for Reuters for more than 30 years as an editor and reporter. I know bias when I see it. The BBC is an egregious example of it. The pity and shame of it is not only that you and your colleagues persist in this unethical and counterproductive behaviour, but also that you have somehow managed to make sure that you are beyond criticism and accountability. I hope that the politicians can find a way to bring the BBC back into the real world, by either breaking it up, or forcing you to hire a broad spectrum of reporters and editors, and not just the clique you use now who share this warped soft-left view of the world and try to force it down our throats. Yours sincerely Neil Winton Top