Post by Teddy Bear on Jan 1, 2012 19:25:39 GMT
2 separate journalists at 2 different newspapers recall and note the initial BBC enthusiasm for the Euro when it was first launched, and how they are now realising it needs to be subdued or face complete ridicule.
The one posted below is from the Daily Mail, the other, by Damian Thompson, is at the Telegraph and can be read here How the BBC sucked up to the eurozone
The one posted below is from the Daily Mail, the other, by Damian Thompson, is at the Telegraph and can be read here How the BBC sucked up to the eurozone
Not so europhoric now: How the BBC has changed its tune after ten years of the single currency
By GLEN OWEN
What a difference a decade makes. Ten years ago, the BBC announced ‘Euphoria in Euroland’ as it hailed the birth of the euro.
But with the single currency now facing collapse, the Corporation’s coverage of today’s anniversary has been notably more restrained, as senior executives prepare to defend their ‘pro-Brussels bias’ during a showdown meeting with Eurosceptics.
On January 1, 2002, the day that the euro currency first entered circulation, BBC presenters were gushingly enthusiastic.James Naughtie, presenting Radio 4’s Today programme from Paris, talked of ‘a sense of occasion, a genuine excitement, a sense of change in the air especially among young people, a sense of breaking away from the past’.
The opening line on BBC1’s Ten O’Clock News was ‘Euphoria in Euroland’, while a Today reporter in France talked about the ‘feeling that this is a country very much at ease with this latest engagement with Europe’, adding, in an apparent swipe at Eurosceptics: ‘For people here, the euro has got little to do with loss of sovereignty or superstates. It’s about money, pure and simple.’
The BBC’s website found it equally hard to control itself, with headlines including ‘Dawn of a new era’ and ‘Leaders hail currency’s success’.
In 2010, the BBC’s former Brussels correspondent Jonathan Charles candidly admitted he and the BBC had got carried away by the euro launch. He said: ‘Even now, I can remember the great air of excitement.
‘It did seem like the start of a new era... for a few brief days, I suppose I and everyone else suspended their scepticism and got caught up in that euphoria,’ added Mr Charles, now director of communications at the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, which is part-funded by the EU.
An analysis of Today’s output in the nine weeks leading to July 21, 2000, when the euro argument was dominating domestic British politics, showed that of 121 speakers on the topic, 87 were pro-euro and 34 against.
Rod Liddle, then Today’s editor, has said: ‘The whole ethos of the BBC and all the staff was that Eurosceptics were xenophobes.’
He recalled a meeting with a senior BBC figure over Eurosceptic complaints of bias in which the executive said: ‘Rod, the thing you have to understand is that these people are mad. They are mad.’
Big day: In 2002, Today's James Naughtie sensed 'change in the air'
The BBC’s bias appeared to re-assert itself last month in its reporting of David Cameron’s veto of a new EU treaty at a Brussels summit.
No 10 was infuriated by the BBC’s ‘funereal’ coverage in the hours after the veto, which they claimed portrayed the action as a national disaster rather than a political triumph.
The euro anniversary has coincided with a period of unprecedented strain for the eurozone, with many leading economists describing 2012 as its ‘make-or-break year’.
The Corporation’s one-sided coverage of the euro’s birth has been highlighted by Eurosceptics planning to present a dossier of evidence of alleged pro-EU bias to Helen Boaden, the BBC’s director of news.
Conservative MP Philip Hollobone is expected to join Labour’s Kate Hoey and Eurosceptic peer Lord Pearson at a meeting with Ms Boaden in the coming weeks.
In 2005, after an internal BBC report admitted that it had promoted a pro-EU bias across its output, the Corporation pledged to make its coverage ‘more sophisticated’.
But an analysis by Lord Pearson’s think-tank, Global Britain, to be presented at the meeting, claims that over the past six years, just 0.04 per cent of Today’s output has been devoted to the potential benefits of withdrawing from the EU.
Last night Mr Hollobone said: ‘We want to know what the BBC is going to do about the findings of its own independent report, which concluded that it was institutionally biased against the withdrawalist perspective.
‘It is noticeable that the BBC seems a lot more subdued about the euro a decade later, as it has finally sunk in that there is nothing to celebrate about the single currency.’
Last night, the BBC said today’s coverage of the euro anniversary would be ‘appropriate’.
No reason to celebrate: The euro's reputation has become tarnished over the last decade
A spokesman said: ‘We don’t recognise the 0.04 per cent figure or claims that our news coverage has been one-sided. Our reporting of the eurozone has reflected the story as it has unfolded and featured a wide range of voices.
‘As with any news story, appropriate coverage will be given to the tenth anniversary of the eurozone examining the past and the future of the single currency.’
By GLEN OWEN
What a difference a decade makes. Ten years ago, the BBC announced ‘Euphoria in Euroland’ as it hailed the birth of the euro.
But with the single currency now facing collapse, the Corporation’s coverage of today’s anniversary has been notably more restrained, as senior executives prepare to defend their ‘pro-Brussels bias’ during a showdown meeting with Eurosceptics.
On January 1, 2002, the day that the euro currency first entered circulation, BBC presenters were gushingly enthusiastic.James Naughtie, presenting Radio 4’s Today programme from Paris, talked of ‘a sense of occasion, a genuine excitement, a sense of change in the air especially among young people, a sense of breaking away from the past’.
The opening line on BBC1’s Ten O’Clock News was ‘Euphoria in Euroland’, while a Today reporter in France talked about the ‘feeling that this is a country very much at ease with this latest engagement with Europe’, adding, in an apparent swipe at Eurosceptics: ‘For people here, the euro has got little to do with loss of sovereignty or superstates. It’s about money, pure and simple.’
The BBC’s website found it equally hard to control itself, with headlines including ‘Dawn of a new era’ and ‘Leaders hail currency’s success’.
In 2010, the BBC’s former Brussels correspondent Jonathan Charles candidly admitted he and the BBC had got carried away by the euro launch. He said: ‘Even now, I can remember the great air of excitement.
‘It did seem like the start of a new era... for a few brief days, I suppose I and everyone else suspended their scepticism and got caught up in that euphoria,’ added Mr Charles, now director of communications at the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, which is part-funded by the EU.
An analysis of Today’s output in the nine weeks leading to July 21, 2000, when the euro argument was dominating domestic British politics, showed that of 121 speakers on the topic, 87 were pro-euro and 34 against.
Rod Liddle, then Today’s editor, has said: ‘The whole ethos of the BBC and all the staff was that Eurosceptics were xenophobes.’
He recalled a meeting with a senior BBC figure over Eurosceptic complaints of bias in which the executive said: ‘Rod, the thing you have to understand is that these people are mad. They are mad.’
Big day: In 2002, Today's James Naughtie sensed 'change in the air'
The BBC’s bias appeared to re-assert itself last month in its reporting of David Cameron’s veto of a new EU treaty at a Brussels summit.
No 10 was infuriated by the BBC’s ‘funereal’ coverage in the hours after the veto, which they claimed portrayed the action as a national disaster rather than a political triumph.
The euro anniversary has coincided with a period of unprecedented strain for the eurozone, with many leading economists describing 2012 as its ‘make-or-break year’.
The Corporation’s one-sided coverage of the euro’s birth has been highlighted by Eurosceptics planning to present a dossier of evidence of alleged pro-EU bias to Helen Boaden, the BBC’s director of news.
Conservative MP Philip Hollobone is expected to join Labour’s Kate Hoey and Eurosceptic peer Lord Pearson at a meeting with Ms Boaden in the coming weeks.
In 2005, after an internal BBC report admitted that it had promoted a pro-EU bias across its output, the Corporation pledged to make its coverage ‘more sophisticated’.
But an analysis by Lord Pearson’s think-tank, Global Britain, to be presented at the meeting, claims that over the past six years, just 0.04 per cent of Today’s output has been devoted to the potential benefits of withdrawing from the EU.
Last night Mr Hollobone said: ‘We want to know what the BBC is going to do about the findings of its own independent report, which concluded that it was institutionally biased against the withdrawalist perspective.
‘It is noticeable that the BBC seems a lot more subdued about the euro a decade later, as it has finally sunk in that there is nothing to celebrate about the single currency.’
Last night, the BBC said today’s coverage of the euro anniversary would be ‘appropriate’.
No reason to celebrate: The euro's reputation has become tarnished over the last decade
A spokesman said: ‘We don’t recognise the 0.04 per cent figure or claims that our news coverage has been one-sided. Our reporting of the eurozone has reflected the story as it has unfolded and featured a wide range of voices.
‘As with any news story, appropriate coverage will be given to the tenth anniversary of the eurozone examining the past and the future of the single currency.’