I’m not going to go over the same ground Kerry Buttram covered. Instead, I want to focus on one of the ways the BBC often distorts readers' perceptions of a story and inserts comment into its news: the vox pop or public opinion survey.
See the sidebar to the right of the BBC’s main story? Good. Go click on the “OPEN” button to see “California’s views on win”. You'll find a report, in words and pictures, which the BBC calls the “Voters’ Verdict”.
Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger has won the race to become governor of California, ousting Democrat incumbent Gray Davis.There follow six photos of people with quotes on their responses to Arnie's election victory. To summarize:
BBC News Online speaks to residents of California and finds that many are experiencing mixed feelings over the Austrian-born actor's victory.
3 out of 6 were against the recall or think Arnie’s either an "embarrassment" or "not the answer".
2 seem fairly undecided.
1 voted for him.
So, the “Voters' Verdict” on Arnie’s election, according to the BBC, looks like this:
Against 50%
Undecided 34%
For 16%
If that’s the voters’ verdict, howcome they elected Schwarzenegger? Here’s how: Four million people voted for him, he won 48.7% of the vote and beat his nearest rival in the ballot, Democrat Cruz Bustamante, by over 1.4 million votes.
Maybe it’s one of those cultural differences, but in the USA we take the election result to be the voters’ verdict. At the BBC, the "Voters' Verdict" depends on who its reporter talked to while wandering around Golden Gate Park with a digital camera.
Fair and balanced? I smile when I hear that on Fox; sometimes the BBC makes me laugh.
