A Censure of the British Office of Communications

I've decided to issue an official "My Word" censure...

A censure is a public scolding and today it goes to the British Office of Communications (search) — OFCOM as it is known — which censured me last week.

Turnabout is fair play and here's mine:

Charge 1: A total disregard for the concept of freedom of speech. Under Ofcom's rules, it is actually illegal for a "presenter" — and in Britain, they would call me that — to render an opinion about anything.

What this means is that unseen hands in the TV operation are guiding the opinion of the organization — opinions expressed in what is covered, how it is covered and what is written for the presenter to read on the air.

You, the viewer, might be encouraged to conclude the opinions expresed by the unseen hand are actually reality — the truth.

It is a huge disservice to the viewer not to disclose whose opinions are presented.

Charge 2: Letting pass the offenses occuring right under their various bureaucratic noses. Last Thursday night, I thought to look in on the BBC again to see what they were up to.

Once again, story after story after story about how the Americans are wrong, that President Bush falsely insisted on a link between Saddam Hussein (search) and Usama bin Laden (search) when everybody knows they wasn't one, plus the steady diet of Americans as torturers.

Abu Ghraib (search) is still a top story — weeks later — and nary a mention of Nick Berg (search) or Paul Johnson's (search) loss of head.

And these beheadings are for what? Oh, right... nasty Americans putting ladies underwear on an Iraqi prisoner's head or humiliating some detainees by letting a female soldier see them naked.

I thought, "Is Ofcom watching this? How is it so hard to see the ingrained anti-Americanism in the BBC coverage of Iraq, or Bush or the U.S. in general?

Ofcom censured. Offense: The BBC. Enough said.

That's My Word.

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