BBC: "ridiculous" and "bizarre"?

The Telegraph today reports that the BBC has described as "ridiculous" and "bizarre" Fiona Hyslop's complaint on Sunday Politics that the Corporation misrepresented the views of Ireland's Minister for European Affairs, Lucinda Creighton. On the programme, Ms. Creighton was shown, again, saying the words attributed to her, as if the complaint was that she hadn't said them. That's not the complaint. You do not need to make something up in order to misrepresent someone's views. You just don't report the important bits. The bits you don't like. Or you miss out any qualifications to what you do report.

And that is just what Ms. Creighton herself says was done. She has written to Nicola Sturgeon to say that she is "concerned that an interview which I conducted with the BBC is being misconstrued" and "sincerely regret[s]" that her comments "seem to have been...presented out of context".

Reporting Scotland exclusive: "Time is linear", explains Irish minister

The genius, Albert Einstein, postulated that there are no instantaneous reactions in nature and that therefore there must be a maximum possible speed for any reaction, which is the speed of light in a vacuum. Most of us scientists accept the theory nowadays so I was puzzled by the prominence given by the BBC to the fact that Ireland's European affairs minister, Lucinda Creighton, said (in answer to a question asked by the BBC's own reporter) that an independent Scotland's application to register with the EU would "take time" to go through. I can't quibble with that and in fact wouldn't even claim that it would be as quick as the speed of light in a vacuum.

What she actually said was:

"...there would be an application and a negotiation process, as there is for any candidate country...I don't see why it would be a terribly complex process...negotiations for membership are always painstaking and they're always complex, but I don't see why it would be difficult...I think that it would certainly lead to accession at the end of the process. But it would take time."

It. Would. Certainly. Lead. To. Accession.

Who'd have thought that Reporting Scotland would miss a scoop like that? You'd almost think they had some kind of agenda. Thank goodness for the reassuring  balance provided by Call Kaye and Eleanor Bradford.