We said we were taking the day off today, but when we saw the picture above, we were so angry that we had to put pen to paper.
In the past we've criticised the way the BBC covers Boston - mostly in the context of national programmes such as Radio Four's Today show, as BBC Radio Lincolnshire pays lip service at best when it comes to reporting news from the town.
Today only finds Boston newsworthy when it wants to feature the fattest, most bigoted people in the country. For the rest of the time it leaves the town alone.
BBC Radio Lincolnshire's sporadic coverage of Boston is largely an insult, and the regional television coverage is even patchier.
This picture from the BBC's website, forms part of its general election "coverage" of the county's seven constituencies.
Most of the others are treated pretty neutrally, but in Boston, BBC Political Editor for Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, Tim Iredale, chose Fenside as the area to visit and on which to base his report because it had returned a BNP borough councillor.
It is scarcely possible to imagine a more slanted coverage than the one offered to viewers who know little or nothing about Boston.
What words are planted in our minds by this picture and the film that accompanies it?
Bigotry, ignorance, and squalor are the first that spring to mind.
The film is not just an insult to the people of Fenside, but to the people of Boston as a whole.
The BBC has tarred us all with its crass stereotyping.
Watch this disgraceful nonsense at http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/lincolnshire/hi/people_and_places/newsid_8655000/8655062.stm
Coverage like this is disgraceful, and if our local leaders had the guts they would complain to the BBC at the highest possible level - just like they claimed they would when
Kristina Murrin made us all look like fools in her Channel Four programme: "The woman who stops traffic" a couple of years ago.
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1 comment:
It seems that whenever representatives of the media speak of Boston it's always in a strongly negative light, so I for one, was not surprised by the tone and direction of the news item in the slightest.
When it came on Look North, I knew immediately what would happen as Fenside zipped past the reporters car window.
Playing 'hunt-the-thicko' on Fenside is something they always do.
Have some pity though, it must have come as quite a shock to the reporter to actually be required to venture beyond Hull/Yorkshire in order to create his banal non-news item.
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