Friday 8 January 2010

BBC at it again.


Here's another BBC news story scaremongering about alcohol.

Note the following paragraph:

The report also called for a rise in duty on spirits and white cider, mandatory health warnings on labels, and stricter regulation of alcohol advertising and promotion.

So, the story is about a report which calls for a duty rise on spirits and white cider. What image does the BBC choose to illustrate this story about spirits and white cider – a picture of someone drinking a pint of what appears to be cask ale, presumably in a pub.

Poor journalism.

6 comments:

Mark, Real-Ale-Reviews.com said...

First thing when I saw the headline was 'I bet it's a picture of a pint'.

The Guardian opted for some sort of wine or spirit drink (I think it might have been a Jager bomb actually!). Telegraph went with red wine, The Times picture-less (online anyway).

The Beer Nut said...

Could be smoothflow.

Ban this sick filth.

Nice to see the beer style indicated in the bottom right corner, though.

Kristy said...

Have posted the following.....

Can I ask why you have chosen to use a picture of beer for this article? Having read the article through several times I still can't see where beer is mentioned so it would seem that you are trying to deliberately mislead your readers.

Beer is at its lowest level of consumption since the 1930s. It is lower in alcohol, on average, than wine, spirits and cider. Wine and spirits are taking an increasing share of total alcoholic drinks. So if you are looking to depict alcohol misuse it certainly shouldn't be an image of a pint that you use to represent it.

Won't hold my breath waiting for it to go live though

Jeff Pickthall said...

Well done K. Let's hope they're listening.

Anonymous said...

Nice to see the beer style indicated in the bottom right corner, though.

I genuinely lolled at that, BN. I now realise that all my career I thought AFP stood for Agence France-Press when it's really "A Fine Pint".

Kristy said...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8455252.stm

Looks like that they're at it again. Another lurid alcohol story illustrated with a pint