Whilst perusing the CBBC Newsround site

, I chanced up their story about Private Johnson Beharry, VC, UK soldier wins highest honour. In it they include the line:

Private Johnson Beharry, 25, becomes the first person to receive the award for more than 20 years.

Would it really have been too much to mention, even in passing, that the last two VCs were awarded during the Falklands War in 1982, perhaps even going so far as to remember their posthumous recipients, Colonel H. Jones, VC, and Sgt. Ian McKay, VC? It’s not like there’s any shortage of related material on the web, for instance,
this or
this or
this or
this.

This isn’t an issue of bias, but to include this small but noteworthy detail (even as a link) would be part of the BBC’s mission to educate, entertain and inform, and might even provoke curious youngsters to go and find out a bit more about British history. But then again, maybe that’s why the BBC didn’t mention it. Or perhaps the CBBC hacks were too lazy to look it up, or worse, have low expectations of their audience’s ability and interests.

The reason I originally went to the CBBC Newsround site was to find out what they said about the Hair-braiding sparks school row story. Newsround’s TV coverage on Tuesday evening included viewer’s feedback on the story, although neither the recap of the story nor any of the selected feeback mentioned the race discrimination aspect of the story.

Even though it is obliquely mentioned in their web coverage, why omit the relevant detail, the nub of the story, from their TV coverage? It is the race discrimination aspect of this story that makes it a story – it wouldn’t be much of an issue were the policy applied consistently to all pupils at the school (although Shabina Begum may beg to differ!).

Further to this, while they say that “Olivia has been given the chance to work in a unit at the school”, they omit to explain that it is the chance to work separately from her friends and fellow pupils. Hardly an adequate solution.

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6 Responses to Whilst perusing the CBBC Newsround site

  1. the_camp_commandant says:

    You are missing the point here, gentlemen. For a liberal, whether or not a policy or act is racist depends above all on the race of the racist.

    Trust that clears things up OK.

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  2. Zevilyn says:

    One rule for black girls, another rule for white girls.

    They used to have that in South Africa, it was called “Apartheid” and was very bad.

    But, according to PC doctrine, because blacks are “oppressed” and therefore can only be victims.

    Whites, who are “oppressors” can only ever be privileged, and thus the PC leftist sees no discrimination against whites (yes, even poor, or working class whites).

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  3. jon livesey says:

    A neglect of British military history does indeed seem to be one of the BBC’s characteristics.

    Not long ago, they were noting Prince Harry and William’s decision to join the forces, and added the snide comment that members of the Royal family are kept safe from the real action.

    In fact this isn’t true, as I pointed out. True, the classic example, the Duke of Windsor, was kept away from the front lines, but other princes were not. Prince Albert, later George VI was on a battleship at Jutland and commanded a gun crew, while one of George V’s sons was actually killed on active service during WWII.

    In reply I got a snotty email saying that “we have to depend on our military experts”, followed by one of their usual unannounced midnight re-edits of the original story.

    I found myself wondering who their “military experts” could be, if I knew more than they did.

    In fact, I sometimes wonder if anyone at the BBC actually knows *anything* or if their job is simply to package stuff that is fed to them by their “experts”.

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  4. Susan says:

    Queen Victoria’s grandson Prince Maurice of Battenberg died at Ypres in WWI.

    Another grandson Prince Christian Victor died in the Boer War.

    Son-in-law Prince Henry of Battenberg died in the 2nd Ashanti War.

    Great-grandson Lord Louis Mountbatten was Allied Supreme Commander in Asia during WWII.

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  5. JohninLondon says:

    jon livesey

    Many of the BBC’s so-called “experts” are leftie academics or free-lancers with little real expertise.

    Their “military expertise” was sorely lacking in coverage of the Iraq war, for example. Or in coverage of stuff like Fallujah. Their “diplomatic expertise” is the sort of puff piece for the UN or the EU that they trot out endlessly.

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  6. Susan says:

    I forgot to mention Prince Andrew, Duke of York, veteran of the Falklands War 🙂

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