I’ll bet there were some dropped jaws in BBC boardrooms at the results of this Glasgow University study, which somehow, against all odds and evidence, found that the BBC favors Israel in its reporting. (Thanks to all who emailed about this.)

The study, by the Media Group at Scotland’s Glasgow University, found Israelis were quoted more than twice as much as Palestinians in reports. It said that news programmes did not provide enough information about the conflict’s history and origins. Many viewers were also not even sure who was “occupying” whose territory.

Researchers focused on the BBC One and ITV News channels’ coverage from the beginning of the current Palestinian intifada, examining more than 200 programmes and interviewing more than 800 people, including several prominent BBC correspondents.

They found that, in addition to “a preponderance of official Israeli perspectives”, US politicians who support Israel were “very strongly featured” in news programmes, appearing more than politicians from any other country and twice as much as those from Britain.

The report takes issue with a tendency in the media to present the problem as “starting” with Palestinian action, while Israelis were seen to be “responding” with actions that were explained and contextualised.

“There was very little discussion of the nature of the relationship between the two sides - that one [the Palestinians] was subject to military control by the other [Israel],” the report says.

I didn’t think it possible, but I believe we’ve found someone even more anti-Israel than the Beeb.