The BBC: more neutral than you think

I was comment-spammed on Facebook recently by a school friend, who's very adamantly pro-Israel. She insists that the Arabs are engaged in some kind of global conspiracy to destroy the entire Western world or something like that. I like her, so I don't want to lambast her here. What I wanted to point out is that she firmly believes that the only reason we don't understand why Israel is the bulwark of civilization and a shining light of virtue is because we're been "brainwashed by the BBC".

Here's what I find slightly ironic:

Gaza aid ship protesters try to storm BBC Manchester

Protesters demonstrating against the Israeli attack on a Gaza-bound aid ship have attempted to storm the BBC in Manchester.

More than 800 people marched through the city centre and down Oxford Road, where the crowd surged at the BBC's entrance, smashing its front doors.

One man climbed to the top of the building to plant a Palestinian flag and there were at least three arrests.

Protesters said they were also angry about the BBC's coverage of Israel.

Police officers formed a chain across the BBC's Oxford Road entrance and surrounded the building with police vehicles and officers.

Protesters from the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, who organised the demonstration, chanted slogans including: "BBC tell the truth."

From this, I'd like to propose two hypotheses.

First of all, if ever you can tell a situation has gotten out of hand, it's when both sides of the argument insist that the BBC is in cahoots with the opposite side.

Secondly, and most importantly for us as that first point is, in this context, a bit of a no-brainer, the BBC is far more neutral than you'd think. If both sides hate it, I guess they really must be pretty unbiased!