I generally forego the pleasure of reading A.L. Kennedy's columns in the Guardian, but this morning I fell victim to temptation. Kennedy begins by lamenting a concept of media balance which dictates that some loony and a scientist get equal time to talk about a scientific matter. Well, indeed. She then goes on to other examples of the phenomenon as she sees it, and one of them is this:
It means demonstrations against the occupation of Iraq aren't covered by the BBC, leading to more demonstrations outside BBC premises, which aren't covered. This is the most common form of media balance - balancing reality with silence.It's that same old crazed delusion that the anti-war movement and its points of view haven't had their fair share of coverage in the media, and here's A.L. Kennedy getting to propagate it in a major national newspaper.
