I can barely watch reports by Matt Frei, the BBC's Washington Correspondent, without screaming at the TV. He's one of the worst examples of the 'opinionating masquerading as reporting' disease at the BBC, and his sneer when dealing with Republicans is barely masked. But even for him, his latest 'Washington Diary' takes the biscuit, a collection of crude generalisations and half-truths all of which read more like an angry blog from the Daily Kos than a piece of journalism.

Here's how he reports the contest for a Republican nominee:

The panic-stricken hunt for the right candidate is unusual in a party known for its discipline.

Er, what? McCain, Giuliani and Romney all have downsides. But they all have huge upsides - and certainly when contrasted with Hillary Clinton, one of the most divisive figures in US politics. In head-to-head polls, Giuliani comfortably beats Clinton and Obama in current head-to-head polls. McCain beats Hillary, and is tied with Obama. Romney has had relatively little exposure so far, but if he manages to beat Giuliani and McCain for the nomination then by definition he will be an extremely strong candidate.

Then this:

Just as the heads stopped rolling in the Walter Reed scandal another ugly patch appeared.

This involves the sacking of eight US attorneys.

They testified before a Senate committee that they had been forced to step down because they didn't do the bidding of Karl Rove, the president's supreme fixer.

Their job is to prosecute acts of political malfeasance - but they all told the Senate they had been pressed by the White House to investigate Democrats before the elections last November.

All had immaculate records in office. All had been appointed by the Republicans.

How about some context, Matt? The firing of DAs is routine – Clinton fired all 93 as soon as he took office, and no one raised an eyebrow. There is a question of competence over the way the firings were handled, but that's all, and it doesn't reach back to Bush.

And his reference to the Walter Reed scandal alienating

The troops, the warriors, the heroes who come from the red states in the heartland, who have stuck by the president even when the rest of the country didn't

is pure condescension. Every word is used ironically, Frei's sneering implication being that they are neither warriors nor heroes. And yes, he's also trotting out that standard trope of the BBC that the US armed forces is constituted solely of dumb hicks from the Mid-west.

Frei then claims that when Ann Coulter used the word 'faggot' in reference to John Edwards (Frei doesn't mention Edwards, and so fails to put the remark into context) the audience "lapped it up". Well no, they didn't. If he'd bothered to speak to people who were there, or even watch a video, he'd have seen that after Coulter made her remark there was silence, then some embarrassed/nervous/polite laughter. And since then, leading figures on the Right immediately condemned Coulter. But then that doesn't fit the BBC/Frei image, that Republicans are homophobes.

We pay for Matt Frei's 'reports'.