THIS IS news? A few days ago Barbara Plett, a BBC Middle East correspondent, broadcast a report about the airlifting of Yassir Arafat to Paris. She informed her listeners: “When the helicopter carrying the frail old man rose above his ruined compound, I started to cry . . . without warning.”

She went on to talk about Arafat’s “ambivalence towards violence” (an interesting phrase for the man who effectively invented modern-day terrorism) and to castigate Ariel Sharon for having “demonised” the man responsible for a campaign to murder as many Israeli citizens as possible.

For some reason, Ms Plett’s words have prompted a series of news reports. I am at a loss to understand why. There is nothing remotely newsworthy about her having expressed her adoring view of Arafat and her contempt for Israel’s attempts to defend itself from terror. Certainly, her tear-jerking might not convey the impartiality which license-fee payers ought to be able to expect from the BBC, but her sentiments are so straight-down-the-line a representation of the BBC’s bias against Israel that they are in no way newsworthy.

The BBC’s world view is ever present across its airwaves. Anyone who disagrees with its left-liberal clichés is at best an oddity and at worst deranged. Last Thursday, for instance, I took part in a discussion about the American elections. The presenter, Natasha Kaplinsky, began the slot with this: “It seems that the polls throughout the election were right, but nobody really wanted to believe them; that George Bush was going to get re-elected.”

“No one” wanted to believe them? Not in White City, for sure. The programme’s researcher had rung me the night before to ask what I would say in response to a variety of questions.

Researcher: “Why do you think the exit polls were wrong, so that we were all so disappointed by the result?” Me: “We weren’t all disappointed. Not everyone shares the BBC’s anti-Bush leftie bias. I was delighted and relieved that the free world will continue to be led by a man who understands the threat we face.”

Researcher (giggling, and clearly mystified that such a person existed): “Oh gosh, I’m sorry, I forgot you were pleased by the result.”

As a sympathiser for Palestinian terror, Ms Plett need have no fears about the incompatibility of her views and her job as a BBC reporter. The former is a prerequisite of the latter.