Sunday reads

It's time for a book post:

In today's Opinion Journal, Robin Aitken writes about The Beeb's Bias
Britain's public broadcaster is a major source of anti-American propaganda.

On every issue of public policy and political controversy, the BBC's instincts are to side with the progressive, liberal wing of politics.

The war in Iraq? Opinion within the London newsrooms was overwhelmingly opposed to military action from the start and has never wavered since. Man-made climate change? The BBC has jettisoned all semblance of impartiality on the issue; it now openly campaigns with a constant stream of scare stories. The Arab-Israeli conflict? The BBC's sympathies are firmly on the side of the Palestinians, who, having achieved the status of permanent victims, escape skeptical examination of their actions and motives.

The same biases color attitudes on moral issues. Abortion? BBC reportage invariably starts from the premise that it is an unquestioned social good, and the company has close links with pro-abortion groups like the International Planned Parenthood Federation. Multiculturalism? The BBC enthusiastically embraces a relativism that treats all cultures, no matter how backward, as equally valid and gives our own democratic traditions no special weight. Homosexuality? The BBC has consistently pushed the agenda of gay-rights activists on issues like same-sex marriage and the adoption of children by gay couples.

The reverse of the coin is that the BBC has its own in-house pariah groups: the "Christian Right," neocons, climate-change skeptics, "homophobes," George W. Bush. These people will never get the soft interview or helpful publicity.

This week's WSJ's book selections:
Author David Gelenrter chooses the "Best 5" books about America:

Also in Geletner's list, The Religion of Abraham Lincoln by William J. Wolf, and The Two-Ocean War by Samuel Eliot Morison, both published in 1963.

The WSj also has reviews of


While I was at the beach I was reading,


But before you buy your books, don't miss Dr. Sanity's Carnival of the Insanities,