Category: Media Watch

“Away with the Atheists,” declaimed the second-century Christian martyr Polycarp when ordered by the proconsul to recant his faith in Jesus Christ. I couldn’t help being reminded of this famous remark as the Independent Online yet again recycled a story via Facebook claiming, “Atheists are less tolerant than religious people, study claims.” The disappointingly brief

On 20th December the BBC announced that it would be airing more religious programming, including a greater representation of all faiths. I heard this announcement when Nick Robinson interviewed James Purnell, BBC Directory of Radio Education and Religious Programming about it on the Radio 4 Today programme, which you can listen to here (from 1°21’34”

News outlet betrays ignorance whilst claiming that “one in five Brits do not know Jesus Christ born on 25 December” On 6 December the Independent Online published an article which claimed, Christmas 2017: One in five Brits do not know Jesus Christ born on 25 December, study finds Despite ubiquity of nativity plays and Christian

“The goodness we have reached is a house built on piles driven into black slime.” “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven / All good children go to heaven.” So sang Paul McCartney in the Beatles’ 1969 song, ‘You Never Give Me Your Money.’ Now this may just be a silly little ditty. But the

BBC responds to accusation that it deliberately ignored the Reformation I recently sent a letter of complaint to the BBC regarding the lack of content on the BBC website about the important 500th anniversary of the Reformation. The letter I sent to them was as follows:— Mr. Graham Harter [address supplied] BBC Complaints PO Box

Four-year-old, irrelevant article is rehashed to churn up advertising revenue Yesterday (10th November) the Independent Online re-publicized “stunning claims” on Facebook that the “story of Jesus Christ was ‘fabricated to pacify the poor’, [according to] controversial Biblical scholar” — only to point to a news story which was printed in October 2013 and is now

‘Detective story’ about discovery of ‘new’ Mary Magdalene account gets fresh, undeserved airing via Facebook On Tuesday 31st October — the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation — the Independent Online celebrated by re-hashing and re-publicizing on Facebook an 18-month-old article about a discredited book by Professor Barrie Wilson and writer Simcha Jacobovici

500th anniversary of one of the most momentous dates in the last millennium reduced to a mere matter of ‘Faith and ethics’ As predicted yesterday, the BBC Online is showing no indication of doing anything of note to commemorate the 500th anniversary of one of the most important events in European, and indeed world, history.

One day to go until the 500th anniversary of Luther’s 95 Theses, and no sign of anything Reformationy on BBC home page… I shared recently my letter to the BBC challenging them to be consistent in their selection of editorial content for the BBC home page, and their very nice, if non-committal reply. According to

Dr Janina Ramirez presents informative programme on Tyndale’s New Testament, Cranmer’s Book of Common Prayer, and Foxe’s Book of Martyrs that is unashamed of explaining the issues of the day Last night I had my annual TV catch-up and managed to watch BBC Four’s ‘England’s Reformation: Three Books That Changed a Nation,’ presented by Janina