Robinson gets his facts wrong

BBC political editor Nick Robinson comes in for some critisism over his reporting of the alleged Labour backtracking on the fiscal rules.

Over at Comment is Free-Frank Fisher says

less than heartening to see Nick Robinson at the BBC ignoring the foundation for an effective Q&A format: if there's one thing guaranteed to produce a wrong answer, it's a wrong question.

Fisher looking at his performance on last night's Ten o,clock news says

His response to the suggestion that Gordon Brown is to abandon his key fiscal rule, extending government borrowing beyond the 40% mark, was to put in the public's mind this quandary Brown, or any other PM, faces: "Do nothing and the government would be faced with a stark choice - tax us more to make up the shortfall or borrow more and break their fiscal rules."

adding that he

could almost sense a million angry middle-aged men shouting at the telly, in true pantomime style: "Oh no it bloody isn't!" The third choice, cutting spending, the prudent response to any overspend, national or personal, didn't get a look-in

.

Again this morning on the today programme he maintained the same line as the previous evening.Why is this the case asks Fisher?

the BBC could spin the line that while the choice isn't restricted to two options in a wider reality, in a political reality it is – but that simply doesn't wash. Not only do viewers expect a more detached analysis of facts, not spun facts, from a supposedly independent broadcaster, but those are not even political facts.