Re: smoking and the pub
 

Your right one article does not an agenda make but whenever there is bad news for this government why is the bbc last to air it i usually can see the bad news first on sky news and itn before the bbc. I am not disputing that pubs are changing but there are a lot of places now that are licenced to sell alcohol that were not in the past such as greasy spoons and suchlike that are not a direct replacement for the traditional pub.

Re: smoking and the pub
 

They aren't a direct replacement, but they are not supposed to be. The suggestion is that the market for the 'traditional' pub is dying out, and those establishments that wish to survive the change in society that is driving that are the ones that are evolving, rather than standing still.

Re: smoking and the pub
 

It was the BBC that unleashed the fury of the Government after one of their 'journalists' claimed they faked the dossier and led to the Hutton Report. Panorama often has pretty heavy stories focusing on government failures in the social services or police. They are the ones who did a big episode on dirty hospitals, racism in the police, and investigations into the social services after the various inquires.

Then even have comedies which poke fun at the government, In the Thick of It for example which is a pretty harsh ribbing of the current spin doctors in number 10. Have I Got News For You is often pretty harsh on (admittedly all) politicians.

I don't see where they are soft on the government, they might be more considered when breaking news but fast != accurate. It's not as if they don't cover the stories. Since neither Sky nor ITV do any proper analysis they simply break a story and put a couple of talking heads on for a few minutes. Whereas the BBC slaughters politicians on shows like Newsnight and Question Time.

Bias in favour of the Government from the BBC just doesn't hold up. I suspect people view the fact they call Gordon Brown the "Prime Minster" instead of "That lying, cheating, unelected git" is evidence of bias.

Anyway, this is off-topic and the blog post offers data and reasoned argument which cannot be dismissed so easily.

I doubt the increase in greasy spoons serving alcohol is a touch on the pubs that decided to sell food as well, which is the more likely path in the evolution of the pub.