ACCORDING TO THE DAILY MAIL, NEWS REPORTERS CONCERNED WITH TRUTH AND ACCURACY ARE A ‘LEFT-WING MOUTHPIECE’

The Daily Mail has published a revealing article where it suggests that fact-based reporting is left-wing.

The article appeared this week and was another predictable attack on the BBC. It concerned an apology made by the BBC for allowing remarks made by Lord Lawson (pictured) on climate change to go unchallenged.

Lord Lawson, who is dismissive of the concept of global warming, appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Today show in August where he made the claim that global temperatures have not risen over the last decade. This is in contrast with data from climate change scientists that shows how average temperatures have been slowly increasing.

The show received complaints at the time from listeners concerned that nobody on the programme had taken issue with the statement. The BBC initially defended its position on impartiality grounds, claiming that the other side of the argument needed to be heard (even if not entirely fact-based) and that Lord Lawson’s stance ‘is reflected, for example, in the current US administration which has distanced itself from the Paris Agreement.’

However, after an executive complaints unit review, the corporation admitted that it had breached its own editorial guidelines on accuracy and that Lord Lawson’s comments ‘were, at the least, contestable and should have been challenged’.

Step forward the Daily Mail whose response the the Beeb U-turn was that it was yet more evidence of the BBC’s (yawn) lefty bias. In its article titled ‘BBC IS ACCUSED OF BEING A ‘LEFT-WING MOUTHPIECE’ AFTER GROVELLING APOLOGY FOR FAILING TO CHALLENGE LORD LAWSON OVER INTERVIEW CLAIM THAT TEMPERATURES HAVEN’T RISEN IN PAST DECADE’, the paper quoted a couple of disgruntled Tory MPs who were seemingly unconcerned with accuracy standards of our public broadcaster and more interested in moaning that the ‘typical BBC’ had caved in to pressure from ‘left-wing cheerleaders’.

But the odd thing is the Mail then went on to print the scientific evidence against Lord Lawson’s arguments at the end of the article. It displayed a graph from four major international science institutions demonstrating global warming…

along with evidence of scientific experts refuting Lord Lawson’s claims

So the paper admits that Lord Lawson is talking out of his a**e. Yet it criticises the BBC for admitting it was wrong in failing to challenge him.

Most sensible people might think that scientific data and evidence-based research is beyond concerns of ‘left-wing’ and ‘right-wing’ and that it is more about producing accurate results and improving knowledge regardless of politics. As such, the BBC was surely right to issue an apology in these circumstances for allowing its standards to slip.

Not the Daily Mail. Despite acknowledging that Lord Lawson’s views contradict the bulk of peer-reviewed evidence, the paper seems to equate refuting them with left-wing bias. Along with its witch-hunt of university lecturers over Brexit this week, the paper is doing a good job of presenting itself as the enemy of academia. The paper of choice for the anti-intellectual.

Still, good news for the left. I’m sure they’ll be delighted with these efforts to associate them with high journalistic standards on truth and accuracy.

Don’t like what you’re seeing in the press? If you see an article you’re unhappy with, you can email the press regulators at inquiries@ipso.co.uk to voice your concerns. If enough complaints are received, they will have to look into it.

Tabloid Corrections Facebook page: here.

MEARS GROUP COMPLAINT AGAINST THE TIMES UPHELD BY IPSO

*The following text is reprinted from The Times and IPSO rulings.

Following an article published by The Times on 21 February 2017, headlined “Police to investigate Glasgow corruption” in the Scottish edition of the newspaper and online, Mears Group PLC complained to the Independent Press Standards Organisation that The Times breached Clause 1 (Accuracy) of the Editors’ Code of Practice. IPSO upheld the complaint and has required The Times to publish this decision as a remedy to the breach.

The article reported that “police are being called in to investigate allegations of corruption and cronyism at Scotland’s largest local authority”, Glasgow City Council (GCC). The article reported that Mears’ ties to the council “are being examined – along with a number of other firms – by the authority’s chief internal auditor”. The article went on to report that “a council source confirmed that ties with Mears and a number of other firms were being looked at by the council’s internal auditor”. It reported that a spokesperson for the complainant had said that it did not have any current contracts with the council department concerned, and that “people are entitled to have whatever friendships they want outside of work, provided they do not impact on any professional business”.

The complainant said that it had been confirmed by both Police Scotland and GCC that there was no investigation taking place involving Mears. The complainant had also not been given the opportunity to deny the allegation that it was the subject of an internal investigation by GCC auditors.

The Times said that it understood from a senior source within GCC that Mears featured, or had featured, in its investigation. It said that while the council’s official position was that it could not share any information with the newspaper, the GCC provided its journalist with sufficient reassurance to be confident in the accuracy of the claim that the complainant’s dealings with the council were being examined by the internal auditor. It said that the journalist was told that the provision of this information was authorised by the then leadership of the council.

The newspaper said that it contacted the complainant prior to publication. It had not specifically asked whether Mears was the subject of an investigation. The statement it received in response was published in the article.

The newspaper had failed to put the specific claim to the complainant that its ties to the council were the subject of an investigation. As a result, the complainant was unaware that this would form part of the published allegations against it. It was therefore not in a position to include its denial of this point in its response.

In these circumstances, the failure to put to the complainant the allegation that it was under investigation was a failure to take care over the accuracy of the article and a breach of Clause 1 (i).

Reporting this as fact – and in combination with the statement from Mears which consequently did not deny this – was significantly misleading. The newspaper had not offered to publish any clarification in response to the complaint; this was a breach of Clause 1 (ii).

Don’t like what you’re seeing in the press? If you see an article you’re unhappy with, you can email the press regulators at inquiries@ipso.co.uk to voice your concerns. If enough complaints are received, they will have to look into it.

Tabloid Corrections Facebook page: here.

MORE LESSONS IN TABLOID SPIN: HOW THE PRESS MISREPORTED ON GOVERNMENT RACE DISPARITY REPORT

One of the most interesting things whenever a big government or academic report is released is seeing how the press reports on it. More often than not, many papers choose to cherry-pick facts and figures to suit their own narratives and thus the main findings often end up obscured by tabloid spin.

Recently, some papers have gone a step further and haven’t even bothered waiting for reports to be publicly released, preferring to pre-empt things and write about what they think the findings might be.

This was the case with the government’s Race Disparity Audit, released this week. Seemingly unable to wait until the official midweek release, a number of papers jumped the gun at the weekend and published articles based on a supposed leak from an unnamed government source.

According to all of these news reports, the research was set to reveal how ‘shockingly badly integrated‘ Pakistani women living in Britain are, and how they are living in an ‘entirely different society‘ than the rest of us.

The papers set out their stock quite clearly in their headlines. The Mail on Sunday went with ‘PAKISTANI WOMEN ARE LIVING IN ‘ENTIRELY DIFFERENT SOCIETY’ AND ARE ‘SHOCKINGLY BADLY INTEGRATED’ SAYS OFFICIAL AUDIT’. Similarly, The Sun ran with ‘WORLDS APART: RACE PROBE FINDS PAKISTANI WOMEN LIVING IN AN ‘ENTIRELY DIFFERENT SOCIETY’ TO BRITS AND ARE ‘SHOCKINGLY BADLY INTEGRATED”. The Sunday Express weighed in with ‘PAKISTANI WOMEN ‘SHOCKINGLY BADLY INTEGRATED’ INTO UK LIFE, GOVERNMENT REPORT SAYS’.

Stories filtered down to the more extreme right-wing news sources, with the likes of Breitbart and Jihad Watch linking the story to the failure of multiculturalism, mass immigration and the apparent Muslim take-over of Britain.

With no actual report to base articles on, these publications were citing a ‘source close to the Cabinet Office’ quoted in the Sunday Times as saying ‘Pakistani women who don’t speak English or go out to work are living in an entirely different society and are shockingly badly integrated‘.

The source in question appears to be unnamed, which might ring alarm bells to readers versed in spotting tell-tale signs of dodgy newspaper tactics. However, of far greater concern is the fact that the actual report makes no mention of Pakistani women being ‘shockingly badly integrated’ or living in an ‘entirely different society’ anywhere in its 54 pages.

What it did find with regard to Pakistani women in particular is:

• Adults from a Pakistani or Bangladeshi background, primarily those in the older age groups, were the most likely group not to speak English well or at all. However, among Pakistani and Bangladeshi adults aged 16-24, almost all of them could speak English.

• Pakistani and Bangladeshi households were more likely to live in deprived areas and receive income-related benefits and tax credits than those from other ethnic groups.

• School pupils from Pakistani and Bangladeshi backgrounds are achieving almost as well as, and progressing better than, White British pupils.

• Although women from Pakistani and Bangladeshi backgrounds were the least likely to be employed, the proportion in work has increased substantially since 2004.

• Those from Pakistani and Bangladeshi backgrounds are more likely to be in low-paid, low-skilled work than those from other groups.

• Pakistani and Bangladeshi households tend to live in lower quality, overcrowded housing.

• Around 1 in 5 Pakistani or Bangladeshi residents do not speak English well or at all. Women are more likely to have poor English proficiency than men but, although almost half of Bangladeshi women and a third of Pakistani women aged over 65 can’t speak English, only 1% of those aged 16-24 cannot speak English.

Other key findings from the report include:

• The majority of people from each ethnic group feel a sense of belonging to their local neighbourhood.

• Asian and Black households are most likely to experience persistent poverty.

• Pupils from Chinese and Indian backgrounds showed the highest educational attainment while those from Gypsy, Roma or Irish Traveller backgrounds had the lowest attainment and progress.

• London is the region where the most educational progress and best attainment is being made at state primary and secondary school level.

• Home ownership, access to social housing and quality of housing varies widely between ethnic groups but there has been an increase in ethnic minority households recognised as statutory homeless over the past two decades.

• White adults have the highest percentage of convictions among defendants but Black and Asian defendants found guilty receive longer custodial sentences on average, and Black defendants – particularly Black males – are more likely to be remanded in custody.

• There are a range of differences between ethnic groups regarding both physical and mental health.

• The public sector is a major employer of ethnic minority workers, but ethnic minority employees are more concentrated among the lower grades or ranks.

So a rather complex picture overall that points to some disparities between groups and some distinct disadvantages experienced by Pakistani and Bangladeshi households, including one or two where the focus is on women in particular, but not really much to suggest in this report that Pakistani women are ‘shockingly badly integrated’ or ‘living in an entirely different society’. It’s a pity that sections of the press in this country preferred to base their reporting on a rickety quote from an unidentifiable source rather than wait and report calmly and soberly on the facts. Probably too much risk of people becoming informed rather than outraged.

Don’t like what you’re seeing in the press? If you see an article you’re unhappy with, you can email the press regulators at inquiries@ipso.co.uk to voice your concerns. If enough complaints are received, they will have to look into it.

Tabloid Corrections Facebook page: here.

FACT-CHECK ON ONE OF THE EXPRESS’ MOST CONTENTIOUS RECENT ARTICLES

One of the frustrating things about newspaper journalism is that writers don’t have to back up what they print with any proof. This leaves many of the loud-mouthed columnists in the biggest selling dailies free to pass their opinions off as facts which often go unchallenged.

One recent example of this is an article published in the Daily Express by a writer called Leo McKinstry. Now out of all the daily UK papers, the Express is the one probably least acquainted with the concept of facts (in fact, doing a fact-check on an Express article feels a bit like searching for head lice on a bald head). But this particular article feels worthy of the effort because, whereas most loud-mouthed columnist articles tend to be a spew of ire without too much in the way of specific statements, Mr McKinstry made a number of comments in his article ‘All British people should be equal before the law’ that can be quite easily checked for accuracy.

So here is a fact-check on eight stand-out comments from that article.

1. There is evidence that the courts are biased in favour of ethnic minorities

This was a comment made amid a general piece in which it was asserted that ‘the state has become obsessed with pandering to minorities’. ‘Too many institutions indulge in special treatment of groups that have been awarded victim status’ McKinstry went on, arguing that this has led to ‘rank injustice against the British public’.

The inspiration for these comments was the recent inquiry headed by Labour MP David Lammy into racial prejudice in the criminal justice system. McKinstry believes that not only are the findings of this report wrong but that the whole reason the inquiry was held in the first place was because the state is ‘desperate to parade its hyper sensitivity towards ethnic minorities and migrant groups’. He disputes Lammy’s findings of judicial racism and asserts that ‘evidence points in the opposite direction’.

McKinstry cites one study of crown court verdicts that found that ethnic minority men were 9% more likely to be acquitted than white men in similar cases. But what does the bigger picture show?

The most recent statistics on race and the criminal justice system published on the government website are from 2014 and it’s a pretty mixed bag in terms of sentencing. While figures show that white offenders had higher conviction rates in terms of percentages than black or Asian offenders overall, black and Asian offenders were more likely to receive immediate custodial sentences than white offenders. This was consistent across males, females and juveniles. Additionally, the average length of custodial sentences for black and Asian offenders was greater than for white offenders. This tallies with evidence presented in the Lammy report.

So hardly a strong argument that the courts are inherently biased towards minority groups. The 2014 report also found that ethnic minorities were more likely to be stopped and searched or arrested by police and more likely to be victims of crime.

Separate judiciary statistics from 2017 show that ethnic minorities are under-represented among the judiciary, with 7% of court judges and 10% of tribunal judges identifying as ethnic minority (compared to around 14% of the UK as a whole). So if the criminal justice system is, as McKinstry seems to believe, over-run with political correctness, it doesn’t appear to have translated very strongly into career opportunities for minority groups.

Add to this the recent research that shows that just 3% of the 1,000 most powerful people in Britain are non-white and the whole argument that society has shifted in favour of minorities looks a little threadbare. It is based on weak anecdotal evidence, misinformation and a misinterpreting of race relations legislation that has sought to reduce historical imbalances between ethnic groups. Despite any real or imagined instances of ‘political correctness’, no institution in this country is biased in favour of ethnic minorities – including the criminal justice system – and there exists no real evidence to back it up.

2. There is a witch-hunt against British soldiers who served in Northern Ireland

This has been a popular narrative in the right-wing tabloids recently, inspired by ongoing investigations into the behaviour of British soldiers in Northern Ireland in the 1970s.

Much of this has concerned the forthcoming trial of army veteran Dennis Hutchings over the shooting of a man in 1974. McKinstry refers to this as ‘part of an official witch-hunt against hundreds of ex-Army personnel who served in Ulster. Yet ex-IRA thugs have not only been allowed to walk free but have even been welcomed into Northern Ireland’s government.’

Firstly, let’s deal with the Hutchings trial. Far from being the victim of a witch-hunt, he is standing trial for shooting an innocent unarmed man in the back as he fled Army patrol. Which is the way the law works. If you are accusing of shooting an innocent person dead, you stand trial – whether it happened last week, last year or forty years ago doesn’t matter. McKinstry seems to think that because Hutchings was wearing a British Army uniform and that he is now a 76-year-old man, that the law shouldn’t apply to him.

It’s true that the actions of hundreds of ex-soldiers are being investigated by Northern Ireland’s Legacy Investigation Branch. But these investigations concern 238 fatal incidents in which 302 people died. As the Pat Finucane Centre (PFC) states: ‘In the early 70s, an illegal agreement existed between senior army and police officers which meant that soldiers involved in fatal incidents were rarely interviewed by police officers’.

So 302 unarmed people were killed and nobody was ever prosecuted. All that’s happening is that these crimes are finally being investigated. The PFC rightly puts it that ‘where (soldiers) didn’t uphold the law they should be subject to investigation and prosecution as with anyone else’.

To date, only four British soldiers have actually been convicted of shooting civilians in Northern Ireland and all were released after five years through ‘Royal Prerogative of Mercy’ despite being given life sentences. All were allowed to rejoin the army.

Contrast this with thousands of republican and loyalist prisoners who served years in jail. Yes, many were pardoned as part of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) but most had served lengthy sentences. We are not talking about people who were never punished for their crimes. There is a huge difference between early release of prisoners as part of a mutual agreement – remember, prisoners from both sides were released, it wasn’t a one-sided thing – and crimes going completely unpunished. If ex-members of paramilitaries – loyalist or republican – were found guilty today of an unpunished offence committed before the GFA, they would be tried, as they should be.

So whether you see this as a witch-hunt or not rather depends on whether or not you feel that people suspected of murdering innocent people should stand trial in a court of law.

3. The government has failed to tackle female genital mutilation (FGM)

McKinstry moves onto what he sees as the ‘disgraceful failure‘ by the government to tackle FGM which he rightly describes as a ‘barbaric practice‘. Looking at the available evidence, he appears to be on more reliable ground with this assertion.

FGM has been illegal in the UK for over 30 years now but, despite a £2.8 million six-year programme called the Tackling FGM Initiative involving a range of charities and community groups that generated an extensive resource pack, a report by the House of Commons Select Committee in September 2016 revealed that there has not been one single successful prosecution for FGM. The report stated that this is a ‘national scandal that is continuing to result in the preventable mutilation of thousands of girls‘. A study in 2011 estimated that there are approximately 137,000 women and girls in England and Wales subjected to FGM.

4. This country has casually accepted sharia law

A popular belief of the likes of Britain First and the English Defence League, and stated with confidence by McKinstry in his article, but another that doesn’t stand up to close examination. A recent Full Fact analysis into the existence of sharia courts in the UK found that, although there are a number of sharia councils (estimated to be between 30 and 80 in total) that have been set up to make decisions on religious matters, they aren’t courts of law and none have the power to over-rule regular courts.

The sharia councils exist to provide services such as family mediation and issue divorce certificates. Although some people are uncomfortable about their existence and there are concerns that women may be disadvantaged by mediation outcomes, these councils aren’t that much different from the Jewish rabbinical courts (which also have no power to over-rule regular courts) that have existed in the UK for over 200 years.

In 2016, the government launched an independent review into the application of sharia law in England and Wales.

5. The DWP pays out welfare benefits to multiple wives in polygamous marriages

McKinstry acknowledges that polygamous marriages are against the law in the UK. The only instances of polygamous marriage that this country recognises are where they have taken place in a country that permits them and where both parties were residents of that country at the time of marriage. Anecdotal evidence exists of some polygamous marriages taking place in the UK through informal ceremonies that are not recognised under UK law.

Although McKinstry’s statement has some truth to it, it doesn’t tell the whole story. A 2017 government briefing paper on polygamy states that: ‘At present, some benefits can be paid, in certain cases, in respect of more than one spouse‘. These rules have been in place in the UK since 1987.

At present, wives in polygamous marriages can claim for income support, income-based jobseeker’s allowance and income-related employment and support allowance. Plus they can claim for child benefit/tax credits. Housing benefit and council tax benefit cannot be claimed for multiple households, so a husband cannot have multiple wives and claim separate housing and council tax benefit. In the event of the husband’s death, wives in polygamous marriages are not entitled to bereavement benefit and do not qualify for state pension on the basis of the husband’s contributions.

Making a welfare claim as a spouse in a polygamous marriage is actually a disincentive as the amount they receive as a polygamous wife is only 57% of what they would receive as an individual claimant in their own right. The government has decided that polygamous marriages will not be recognised under Universal Credit arrangements (currently being phased in and expected to be fully introduced by 2022). This means that in some cases polygamous households may receive more in welfare benefits than under current arrangements, as additional wives may claim as individual claimants in their own right.

6. Islamic jihadism has flourished in Britain to a greater extent than in any other European country

This comment is most likely based on the statement a few weeks back from Gilles de Kerchove, the EU’s counter-terror coordinator, who warned that the UK is home to between 20,000 and 25,000 Islamic extremists which is the highest known figure in Europe.

However, while this is obviously a big concern, the estimated number includes a vast range of individuals from those the security services feel could pose a genuine threat to fringe individuals who have featured in investigations, people who have had past links to extremism and people with no history of violence who have radical views.

The statement that jihadism has flourished in Britain to a greater extent than elsewhere can’t really be made on the basis of this figure for a few reasons. It’s an estimated rough figure, there haven’t been similar assessments made in other European countries, and the existence of individuals with extreme beliefs is not the same as jihadism flourishing. In fact, far more attacks have been prevented than carried out in this country. To say that jihadism is flourishing almost sounds as if you’re giving the terrorists a pat on the back and making them sound more successful in their goals than they have been.

7. There is open bias and exclusion against the indigenous population in some services and sectors

According to McKinstry, ‘the fixation with diversity is now carried to a grotesque conclusion of open bias and exclusion against the indigenous population‘. He claims that ‘in public housing, some providers trumpet their racial favouritism’ whereas elsewhere ‘a host of public sector training schemes are reserved for ethnic minority candidates‘.

The evidence he offers to back this up is paltry. The one housing provider he names is a voluntary sector organisation, the Camden-based Odu-Dua Housing Association which provides affordable housing for black and ethnic minority people in North London. Because that’s what the voluntary sector does – provides specialist support for various sections of the community in need. Odu-Dua runs 184 properties and was set up in the 1980s to find housing predominantly for young black homeless men. It doesn’t exclusively provide housing for BME groups but they are the main target group.

There are numerous housing associations that exist to cater for specific groups, such as Hanover which provides homes for the elderly, Windsor Walk which houses people with long-term mental health problems, Probus Housing which provides safe and secure accommodation for single working women, and the Mary Seacole Housing Association that provides homes for young single homeless people.

The problems with accessing adequate housing among minority groups has been documented in studies such as a 2004 report by Shelter which detailed how BME households were over four times more likely to experience homelessness than white households, with the causes of this including limited housing opportunities, racial harassment and lack of appropriate housing services.

Similarly flimsy is the claim that the public sector is now a hotbed of positive discrimination in terms of employment opportunities. McKinstry cites the BBC which offered training schemes targeting BME groups under its 2016 Diversity and Inclusion Strategy. But beyond this, there is no evidence of such schemes anywhere in the public sector.

8. Immigration to the UK is running at almost 600,000 arrivals a year

This is a misleading comment. McKinstry is talking about the gross figure, which according to the latest statistics is around 588,000. But the net figure, accounting for those leaving as well as arriving, was 339,000. There is little point in using the gross figure in most discussions on migration as it doesn’t tell you much about national migration patterns on its own. It’s like pointing out how much a specific social group cost in terms of public expenditure without also mentioning what that group pays back into the pot in taxes.

This is important here as McKinstry links the immigration figure to ‘collapse of justice‘, as if Britain is being invaded year upon year by waves of criminals. Yet there has been no significant increase in crime in the UK according to the most recent statistics, and recent research has found there to be no causal link between immigration and crime.

So the results of this fact-check on eight comments would suggest that only one of them (the government failing to tackle FGM) fully stands up to scrutiny. The rest are a mixture of the Express‘ textbook exaggeration, distortion and misinformation. A 12.5% accuracy rate – not good at all but, sad to say, not that surprising.

Don’t like what you’re seeing in the press? If you see an article you’re unhappy with, you can email the press regulators at inquiries@ipso.co.uk to voice your concerns. If enough complaints are received, they will have to look into it.

Tabloid Corrections Facebook page: here.