On 19 March, Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine show included a segment about byways in Wales where for years, users have faced illegal obstructions.A local club (Bonkas 4x4) has been trying to keep the lanes clear - only to receive sinister threats in retaliation. Recently, a convoy from the club found a crucifix on one of the lanes with a shocking message attached to it. A sheep’s head had been stuck on top, its testicles nailed to the bottom and an old jacket draped over it bearing the spray-painted message ‘Bonkas 4x4 who next’.
This is a clear, open-and-shut case of a minority group being harassed and threatened with violence while going about their legal business. So you’d think the BBC’s coverage would be sympathetic. It was.Towards the criminals.Vine’s show either attempted to be even-handed and failed miserably, or was conceived with bias running through it from the word go. Either way, the utter lack of accuracy in it was a downright disgrace.
Speaking on the show, Bonkas 4x4’s MikeToseland did a sterling job in what were impossible conditions. Meanwhile, the anti-4x4 side was allowed to put forward sheer lies - without any kind of challenge, and in some cases even back-slapping endorsement from Vine himself.
For example, one caller said:‘It only takes two or three vehicles to wipe out a byway for years.’Vine’s reponse:‘And maybe that’s why the scarecrow was put up.’
Those of us who treasure our rights of way are all too used to the subject getting openly dishonest coverage in the mainstream media.A favourite trick is to find an interviewee from the 4x4 side who looks and sounds as rough as possible, then to put them up against a well polished professional anti.
Film showing vast numbers of vehicles speeding along lanes is stock-in-trade, too. The truth, that even the busiest lanes see very little traffic and it moves very slowly, is just not a good story.
I remember a piece in The Observer a few years ago, too, by Roy Hattersly, which put across a laughably fictional version
Alan Kidd Editor