These protests have been worthwhile, and it's fantastic to see lots of new faces turning out, but please lets jettison some of this fake outrage. The BBC distorts the truth, sure, but that's par for the course, and certainly not a surprise; besides, it's not the worst media outlet. Therefore, at the risk of being branded an agent provocateur, I'd like to remind people that there is a News International Building in Manchester ;-)

I think the BBC has been just as bad in terms of giving anti-war protesters bad or no coverage.
Funny you should mention that News International office...

Around 1000 people marched from Birmingham City Centre to the BBC's Pebble Mill studios today. It was a decent enough show of outrage and solidarity, though SWP hacks did their damnedest to quell anything getting TOO militant by discouraging people from actually setting foot on the studio grounds.

Poxy BBC didn't even bother to come out and film us.

The BBC are the only media outlet that are supposed to be accountable to the people, so they are the right target for these protests. Much as I dislike Murdoch, I wouldn't actually ban NI from publishing their tosh. On the other hand we pay to keep the BBC running, and they have the responsibility to provide us with the truth, not feed us the government line in every bulletin.

I was protesting at Broadcasting House in London on Saturday. Later, on the evening news, there were pictures from every protest in the country - except the one outside their front door...... sigh!

.

By Jack Chang
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

An Iraqi man sits up on a hospital bed to reveal the bloody wound he has
received on his back, apparently caused by a U.S. bomb. A child whimpers and
cries for his mother, in obvious pain. Several Iraqi women moan in a hospital
hallway, one ceremoniously slapping her own face in grief.

Watching these scenes on the Qatar-based cable station Al-Jazeera transmitted to
her Walnut Creek home, Iraqi native Nibras Araim tears up and calls out
uncontrollably, "Look at these people! My country is being destroyed!"

Then, her husband, Amer, switches to the U.S. news station Cable News Network,
which is showing grainy footage of buildings photographed from far up in the sky
and then a missile attack engulfing the scene in flames.

"You see, the American media show buildings more than people," Nibras Araim
said.

With the U.S. invasion of Iraq well into its second week, many East Bay
residents, especially Middle Easterners, have voiced similar complaints about
U.S. media.

They say television in particular has been purposely shying away from pictures
of civilian casualties and destruction in favor of prettified video meant to
rally support for the war.

And they have been turning to alternative news sources such as Al-Jazeera and
other news channels from the Middle East to get what they say is the full
picture.

Even the mention of CNN elicits an exasperated cry from Helal Omeira, executive
director of the Northern California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations.

"Most informed people feel this way," he said. "It's not just a Muslim thing.
We're just asking they tell us the whole picture."

In a statement, CNN responded Friday: "CNN's coverage on the U.S.-coalition led
war on Iraq offers reporting from all viewpoints, including the bombings in
Baghdad and Northern Iraq; embedding with the coalition forces; regional and
world reaction to the war; anti-war opposition; and anti-war protests. In
addition, our programming provides viewers with insight into how the war is
being covered in the Middle East press, such as Al-Jazeera and Iraqi
Television."

Over the past week, peace protesters have been shifting their anger to CNN and
other media, demanding they present more balanced and complete coverage of the
war.

"They are showing the Pentagon version of the war," said Andrea Buffa, a peace
campaigner for the public interest group Global Exchange. "All we have now are
generals pointing to spots on the map like this war is a big video game."

New technologies such as small satellite dishes and the Internet have allowed
people to seek their own news sources in lieu of mainstream U.S. media. What
they have found there, especially on Al-Jazeera, has been upsetting.

"Look at what's happening!" a Jordanian man said in an Oakland pizza restaurant
where Al-Jazeera was broadcasting video of wounded Iraqi children and of
massive, chaotic anti-war protests from around the world.

"We go to Al-Jazeera to see what's happening on the ground."

Many U.S. observers have accused the news station, which reaches 35 million
viewers worldwide, of applying its own pro-Muslim bias to the news. On Friday
morning, the channel showed several interviews of Muslim clerics calling for
Middle-Eastern resistance to coalition forces as well as press conferences by
U.S. officials, all intercut with fresh, bloody footage of civilian victims of
that morning's airstrike.

Other, more liberal sources such as the Web site www.commondreams.org generally
offer more news about coalition military setbacks, Iraqi civilian deaths and
anti-war protests. Buffa said she has found U.S. print media more balanced about
the war.

But, even in the Muslim world, not everyone is complaining about CNN.

Pittsburg resident Fazel Abdiani,, who hails from Afghanistan, said he has been
sticking to U.S. television news channels for information about the war.

He doesn't have much choice, at least on television. Abdiani, an Afghan, doesn't
understand Arabic, the language in which Al-Jazeera broadcasts, and doesn't
watch the channel.

Unlike Araim and Omeira, Abdiani supports the invasion.

"It's hard to tell and judge the media because we are not there in Iraq,"
Abdiani said. "I just know that war, all war, is ugly."

 http://www.bayarea.com/mld/cctimes/5512120.htm

BBC downplayed the friendly fire incident yesterdy, I saw the film of the attack in dutch media, blood on the lense, the BBC correpondent in the middle of chaos. US media focussed on a kurdish official killed in the incident and a killed bbc translator:

John Simpsons reports on BBC Weblog:

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/2921449.stm

Irbil, Northern Iraq :: John Simpson :: 1228GMT

We were heading for the town of Diberjan which had just been captured by the Kurdish forces when we joined the special forces convoy.

As we got out of our vehicles the American officer in command saw an Iraqi tank a mile or so away and called in an airstrike.

A few minutes later two American aircraft circled low overhead. I saw the bomb falling from the aircraft and then, extraordinarily, I saw it just before it hit the ground only 10 yards away. It was painted white with a red nosecone.

The explosion killed a dozen or so people outright, one of them may have been an American [!!], and a large piece of shrapnel hit our translator, Kamran Abdul Razak, in the legs.

We tried hard to save him and he had the help of the American special forces medics who were there but he died of blood loss a few minutes later.

The rest of our team suffered light shrapnel wounds and perforated ear drums. Given how close the bomb had landed to us, those of us who survived were all extraordinarily lucky.