Bad Reporting

I was listening to Radio One the other day, (I like to keep down with the kids and get a handle on what the young people are listening to, you see), when I heard a news item that left me astounded. It was about a report which claimed that immigrants from the EU to the UK were the cause of the high levels of youth unemployment in the UK. The impression given when this was first reported was that this was some kind of official report, commissioned by a government department or, at the very least, one produced by a reputable source, such as a university, charity or even a thinktank. However, in subsequent reports it became clear that it was actually produced by the notorious Migration Watch, a shady right wing anti-immigration pressure group which clearly has a vested interest in pushing anti-immigration propaganda, (facts not mentioned in any of the reports run on Radio One that day).

Even worse, in later news bulletins they admitted that the report couldn't actually produce any evidence of a causal link between immigration and youth unemployment, but was sure it existed anyway! This is Brass Eye territory, for God's sake - "It's been scientifically proven that peadophiles have more in common genetically with crabs than human beings, there's no evidence to support this, but it is a scientific fact"! Effectively, the BBC provided a decidedly dodgy pressure group with free publicity, not to mention spurious credibility, for the better part of a day. Worse still, it was giving this 'report' full of non-facts prominence on a radio station aimed primarily at a youth audience. This is pretty poor journalism by any standards. That said, the vox pop sections they accompanied the item with was equally woeful, my favourite bit being where an unemployed youth, who admits he has no qualifications because he couldn't be arsed at school, tries to put the blame on immigrants taking the only sorts of jobs he could aspire to. Incredibly, he seemed to think that he could have found work as an electrician if it wasn't for those bloody Poles - I've news for him, you need qualifications to be an electrician. He does concede that his unemployment might just be partly his fault! No you dick, it's all your fault! You can't blame immigrants for not bothering at school, (unless they spent all their time distracting you in class). I really do despair sometimes...