BBC America 'reaching 40m homes'

According to a report from The BBC:

BBC America, the BBC's commercial US digital channel, has announced it is now available in 40 million homes for the first time.

And what does the British government do in return?

TV code calls for 'bias' warnings From The Telegraph

Foreign news channels such as Rupert Murdoch's Fox News may be made to carry on-screen "health warnings" under proposed new guidelines published yesterday covering accuracy and impartiality on television.

And what about CNN?

The rule would only apply to output that was made for an overseas audience rather than broadcasters such as CNN which tailor programmes for a British audience.

"Tailor" is an interesting choice of words for CNN.

Funny, they don't mention Al-Jazeera. But then Al Jazeera "tailors" its' news for the British audience as well.

Eursoc has some thoughts.

Surely if OFCOM are going to stick labels on the news channels they should start at home and point out that ninety percent of our TV news media has a left wing agenda and ‘fair and balanced reporting standards’ serve only as a mask.

Is it fair to be sticking labels on foreign news channels like they were ‘adult movies’? Unencumbered access to information should be the right of a free society. Do we need some ministry of truth to tell us what to watch on TV?

Everyone knows where Fox and Al-Jazera are coming from, nobody watching those channels is being duped.

(unlike the BBC...ed)

If we really need protection it is from our own news channels that go under the guise of sanctimonious impartiality but only give one side of the story.

But the BBC is not the only one that is afraid of Fox.

SISU has an article from the Wall Street Journal (you have to subscribe) about Canada baring Fox news but allowing Al Jazeera. 

 
When it comes to Canadian identity, Fox News Channel is apparently a threat. Al-Jazeera, on the other hand, is just another point of view enriching Canadian culture. That's the message sent last week when the Canadian Radio and Television Commission (CRTC) granted the Qatar-based, anti-American al-Jazeera a Canadian license. Fox has wanted into Canada since 1999 but has so far been shut out -- except in Ottawa, at the Canadian Parliament, which requested and got a Fox feed last August.

The official justification for this double news standard is that al-Jazeera doesn't compete with any local Canadian-owned company.

Statists will never get it. Competition is a fact of nature, human or otherwise. Can you say survival of the fittest? The truth will out:

What doesn't seem to matter to Ottawa's information gate-keepers are the wishes of Canadian viewers. Canada's cable industry estimates that up to one million Canadian households grab U.S. signals illegally, and the Fox network has received thousands of calls and e-mails requesting the news channel. Yet Canadians are stuck with CNN, which was grandfathered under Canadian law.
 
Can you say "bias"?
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