You'd have thought that the President of the European Commission was not a man who once professed allegiance to Chairman Mao, the greatest mass murderer in history. You'd have thought that Catherine Ashton, EU foreign policy supremo, was not once a high ranking member during the Cold War of the extremist, pro-Soviet, unilateral disarmament movement CND.

You'd have thought these things if you had been reading the mainstream media in the last few days where they're back to their old antics: the hyper-selective smear tactics against UKIP that worked so marvellously well during the campaign for the European elections.

This time it's all about UKIP's alliance-building in the European parliament, a fact of life in Brussels which necessitates strange bedfellows all across the spectrum since forming a political group with a critical mass of MEPs is required in order to attract official funding.

The strangest thing about UKIP's new group is that the biggest partner is Beppe Grillo's Five Star Movement from Italy; strange because Grillo does not want Italy to leave the EU. But the real "scandal" is that the grouping includes an MEP who was elected on a Front National platform in France and two members of the Sweden Democrats.

The French MEP left the Front National two days after the elections and the Swedes were forced to write a letter rejecting their party's extremist past. That makes them far more palatable than Barroso, who thinks his communist past is funny, and Ashton who says she has no regrets at all about having effectively backed totalitarianism during the Cold War.

But bring on the Guardian, whose headline and blurb on the UKIP non-issue is as follows:

"Nigel Farage joins forces with far-right Swedish and French MEPs"

"Ukip leader's group in European parliament includes party founded by white supremacists and ex-FN member."

This is farcical because the Guardian does actually point out that the French and the Swedes have distanced themselves from extremism. The purpose of the story is plainly just to throw some mud at UKIP at the top of the article and hope it sticks even as the truth emerges lower down. Quite pathetic.

The Guardian's broadcasting arm, the BBC, is less dishonest but does manage a sly insertion in its own article thus: "The BBC's Simon Wilson in Brussels said some of Mr Farage's new allies had faced criticism in the past for their far-right views."

We're sure he said that. But why didn't he also say that many members of the European Parliament's leftist groupings have faced criticism in the past for their far-Left views?

Well, we know the answer don't we. Neither the BBC nor the Guardian regard the extreme left as problematic.

Now, let's be clear, far-Right extremism is a major problem in contemporary Europe. But UKIP is not a far-Right party and to imply that it has leanings in that direction is both dishonest and also trivialises a worrying new trend.

But propagandists will be propagandists. When the Guardian does it, it's just the same old same old. Over the years they have carried countless articles in support of murderous totalitarian regimes, and they obviously have no shame. That's their problem.

But the state-funded BBC has a duty to be impartial, and the fact that it isn't is a problem for us all. So, in closing, we ask a question we have asked many times before: How long can this be allowed to continue?

UPDATE: It is noteworthy that the Guardian is today running a piece by none other than George Galloway...