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Complain to BBC over misreporting of attendance at Traf.Sq anti-Thatcher party

Bullshit-Detector | 15.04.2013 08:32 | Other Press

On the BBC News broadcast at 10pm on BBC1 on the evening of Saturday 13th April 2013, the news report about the demonstration in Trafalgar Square against Baroness Thatcher's legacy misreported the number of people who were in attendance at the demonstration, stating that only a few hundred people were present. This was a mistake of such glaring misrepresention that it reeks of an apparant agenda to play down the significance of the level of attendance at the event, which was in actual fact in the region of between 2-3000 people. It suggests a politically biased agenda to downplay the level of feeling against Lady Thatcher and her legacy by the BBC.
Write in to the BBC on their online Complaints form. The more the better! Don't let them get away with it!
Complain at:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/complain-online/

When you activate your online Complaint, here are the key details about the News report on BBC-1 which you need to be aware of and have to state in the online questionnaire in order to proceed with the complaint:

Which service is your complaint about? Answer: Television
Which TV channel is your complaint about? Answer: BBC1
When was it broadcast? Answer: 13/04/2013
What time of day did the issue happen? Answer: 22hrs 00mins


Here is a draft complaint which has already been submitted (within the 1500 character limit):

On the BBC News broadcast at 10pm on BBC1 on the evening of Saturday 13th April 2013, the news report about the demonstration in Trafalgar Square against Baroness Thatcher's legacy misreported the number of people who were in attendance at the demonstration, stating that only a few hundred people were present. This was a mistake of such glaring misrepresention that it reeks of an apparant agenda to play down the significance of the level of attendance at the event, which was in actual fact in the region of between 2-3000 people, as now confirmed by the BBC correspondent Tom Symonds, who was at the protest, as published in the BBC's report online - Ref:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-22144797

It suggests a politically biased agenda to downplay the level of feeling against Lady Thatcher and her legacy by the BBC. Since substantially fewer people will be made aware of this clarification of actual numbers in attendance at Trafalgar Square on Saturday evening than would have watched the BBC News broadcast on Saturday evening on BBC1, clearly the majority of people who watched the news on Saturday evening will be unaware that misreporting has taken place irrespective of the online clarification. Of course, only a full clarification on a BBC News television broadcast would fully ameliorate the large misperception of the scale and significance of Saturday's gathering which the BBC has either willingly or mistakingly engendered in their original reporting.

Bullshit-Detector

Comments

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Really...really!!

15.04.2013 09:36

For the love of god, PLEASE....just be honest for the first time! Yes there were a few more than the 'hundreds' reported however there were nowhere near 3,000 ppl! I would say around 1,300 - 1,500 maximum. There were easily more fucking cops tbh, no suprprises there! Was a cool day out for all concerned and loads of bloody crazy characters...Still feeling rough from the Ele & Castle after partly lol....

P & L

Lordy Lord

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IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

You are making us look stupid

15.04.2013 10:15

These silly claims after demos always make us look petty and petulant.

There was not "3000" there, I would estimate the number as around 1000 - 1300 (and I have been on a lot of demos in the square) and to claim otherwise falls right into the hands of those we oppose.

One last thing - complaints to the BBC are a complete waste of time. Always have been always will be, if they hundreds of thousands they give a 20 second response on Right To Reply and then forget it.

Was There

I was also there and would say around 2500 and please express..

15.04.2013 11:34

.. your love for God elsewhere because like your estimates its nonsense..

Barry Cade

No surprise surely!

15.04.2013 14:17

Its common knowledge that Trafalgar Square will hold 5000 and as is very clear from the pictures that have been posted, Trafalgar Square was full.

So yes, the BBC have misrepresented the truth and as everybody involved expected that they would do this beforehand, that does equate to an agenda being exercised. Unfortunately this is routine at the BBC (for many, the BBC is completely unreachable).

One can only suppose that this situation has come about because the BBC are the state broadcaster and simply report whatever the government tell them to report. They have a long and illustrious history doing this.

The BBC is simply the TASS of the west.

Nothing more.

Its as bad under Labour as it is under the Tories.

Antonin Siropoloev.

Hidden Comment

This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

Meanwhile

15.04.2013 15:39

....back in the world of reality.

"Its common knowledge that Trafalgar Square will hold 5000 and as is very clear from the pictures that have been posted, Trafalgar Square was full. "

Common knowledge ?

5000 ?

Full ?


Len

Reality for realists.

15.04.2013 16:12

I dont get you, are you disputing these facts or are you just repeating these facts followed by a question mark and hoping that will do.

With standards as low as that...you have to be a Tory.

Parliament Square will hold 5000...FACT.

Our images show Parliament Square to be full...FACT.

The BBC attempted to pass that off as 200...FACT.

The BBC is a sponsored mouthpiece and nothing more...FACT.

What's your problem? (apart from failing to own reality!)

Antonin Siropoloev

Yeah, FULL

15.04.2013 17:53

Margaret Thatcher Death Party - FULL (click on panorama to enlarge)
Margaret Thatcher Death Party - FULL (click on panorama to enlarge)

More pictures also on this thread -  https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2013/04/508477.html?c=on#comments

@Len

BBC acknowledging "2-3,000 people" so don't waste your time

15.04.2013 18:11

It's interesting the question of how many people attended the party is still an issue for the trolls, but don't waste your time complaining to the BBC, because the article above (and call-out for complaints) has been overtaken by events. Here's an article from BBC News acknowledging "Thousands at anti-Thatcher rally in London", and saying "2-3,000 people have attended a protest in central London following the death of Lady Thatcher on Monday"...

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22137849

We all make mistakes from time to time, but if you're going to post an article on Indymedia please check to make sure it's accurate before hitting "contribute"

If you're going to spend your time doing anything spend it explaining to eg - office workers why Thatcher's attacks on the unions led to most of them working unpaid overtime almost every day of the week

Cannongate

BBC say Trafalgar Square holds at least 12,000

15.04.2013 18:53

This BBC report says that a "crowd of about 12,000" watched the World Cup on a giant screen in Trafalgar Square in 2002 –

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport3/worldcup2002/hi/matches_wallchart/england_v_brazil/newsid_2055000/2055509.stm

So there's no question the BBC a/ were lying, b/ still are lying, because there are more than enough photos showing the Margaret Thatcher Party virtually filling Trafalgar Square, but to be honest if you want to complain to the BBC about anything, that's probably the least best way to actually get them to broadcast your concerns

How about asking the BBC to properly address the relationship between the monetarism of Thatcher's government and the monetarist experiment which Thatcher's friend General Pinochet imposed on Chile... at gunpoint

Chairman, BBC Trust -  Chris.Patten@bbc.co.uk (Patten was one of Thatcher's close allies)
Director General -  Tony.Hall@bbc.co.uk

 newsnight@bbc.co.uk,  politicsshow@bbc.co.uk,  news@bbc.co.uk,  today@bbc.co.uk,  jeremy.paxman@bbc.co.uk

Fog Horn

Complaint is about BBC News broadcast at 10pm on BBC1 on Sat eve - 13/04

15.04.2013 19:09

Cannongate, you bafoon, perhaps if you actually read the post above, you'dd see that the point of this post was that the BBC News broadcast at 10pm on BBC1 on the evening of Saturday 13th April 2013 claimed (as did all the tabloids the next day) that there were only a few hundred people there. As I say, it's all very well publishing the correct figure online 24 hours after the event, but most people have been informed of the outcome of the event from them television news broadcasts and the tabloid reports. Only full retractions in television news bulletins and in the newspapers will be sufficient to provide any kind of even partial reversal in some of the public's perception that there were only hundreds in attendance. That's not likely to happen - but you never know if enough people wrote in and complained...

Bullshit-Detector

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This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

Complain how shit this site is

15.04.2013 19:51

ffs this is a load of crock

Tobi

@Bullshit

16.04.2013 07:27

The BBC won't listen to your complaint because, if they bother to respond at all, all they'll do is to point out the mistake was corrected in subsequent reports. People's energy would therefore be better spent on other stuff

culture

Online Complaint takes less than a few minutes

16.04.2013 10:45

culture said:
"The BBC won't listen to your complaint because, if they bother to respond at all, all they'll do is to point out the mistake was corrected in subsequent reports. People's energy would therefore be better spent on other stuff"

ReSPONSE: it will take less than a few minutes of your time to do the online complaint... ..there is a principle at stake here, and a sufficient number of complaints may lead to them doing more than just giving out the standard response

Bullshit-Detector

Few minutes

16.04.2013 17:08

Fair point (but believe me, the BBC really don't give a damn, look how many tens of thousands of complaints the left racked up over Jeremy Clarkson.... the BBC did fucking nothing)

T2

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