BBC

From Popbitch:

Bafta balls-up: Nightmares for the BBC

The Power of Nightmares, the programme about how news media distorted coverage of the war on terror which Popbitch promoted last Autum, won a Bafta last week. When its helmer Adam Curtis made his acceptance speech about the ludicrous coverage of the recent Ricin trial and, with fabulous irony given the subject matter of the show, the speech was cut out completely from the TV coverage.

Newspaper coverage of the Ricin trial alleged that it meant "consequences beyond 9/11." The reality? Eight men acquitted and no evidence of ricin found. Just one man, Kamal Bourgass was found to have been trying to make nicotine poison. But at Porton Down, the Government’s biological experimentation centre, when they tried to use this poison on mice, they couldn't even kill them with it. The mice just got a bit queasy and had to be put down.

Still, the programme’s plaudits continue. This week it's being feted at the Tribeca Film Festival, and next week it's the only British film to be shown at Cannes.

A speech about media distortion is distorted... No wonder the BBC has a reputation be being the Ministry of Truth. Guess they've learned to stay on Bliar's side since the Hutton Report.