“U.S. Inspires World With Attempt at Democratic Election”–headline, the Onion, Nov. 3
“U.S. Vote ‘Mostly Free and Fair’ “–headline, BBC Web site, Nov. 5
(Shamelessly lifted from James Taranto’s Best of the Web Today)
The Beeb Imitates the Onion
Bookmark the permalink.
I do not see the BBC as taking much of a left wing view on politics. I tend to think it takes a fairly centralised view.
This is in stark contrast with the Foxnews channel which seems to have no qualms with broadcasting stories which take a much more sympathetic stance to the right wing of the agenda.
If you are correct in your arguements, which I would dispute, then I surely it is healthy to have a strike a balance with Fox?
Do you watch Fox regularly? Sure, they present a righ-wing slant but they are also fair to present a view from the left to balance it. At least you can hear both sides of a story at Fox. The BBC often fails at this, often presenting a caricature of the right-wing position. I do not say they never manage to be balanced, but it’s pretty hard when you have the likes of Greg Palast on your team. I have never seen a Fox News reporter pull the stuff he does and call it reporting.
Fox is not funded (as is the BBC) through a coercive, mandatory fee.
The BBC World Service and BBC World are funded through the British Foreign Office at taxpayer expense and is, to some degree, meant to fairly represent British government interests. (Can they not at least call suicide bombers terrorists? Maybe years of reporting IRA atrocities damaged their outrage meter.)
Bravo Kerry. As you say, Fox News isn’t as biased as people make out. Besides why highlight the main right leaning cable channel when whole American networks are left biased? (Cough CBS, cough)
Will
I don’t recall seeing your name here before so we’ll keep it polite and civil.
1 – You say you don’t perceive much of a left wing bias at the BBC, in fact you think it fairly centralised. I believe you’re insane. Your email address indicates you’re either a student or other academic. Quelle surprise. Before you say it, I’ve been there too. I know what I’m talking about here.
cont’d …
2) Does it really need pointing out to you that as the BBC is funded via extortion from most Britons the job of providing balance to a so-called right-wing Fox News is not the business of the BBC.
Strike a balance with Fox? How many bloody people in the UK watch Fox News?! BBC News is ubiquitous and pumps a constant stream of left wing crap across the nation and the world. Wake up. Before you accuse of being a (stream of usual insults here) I want (firstly) to see the end of the BBC, failing that I want simple, plain facts. Nothing more.
May I butt in here and add to the “bias” discussion? Currently, an aged, decrepit, filthy, corrupt old terrorist queen is FINALLY dying ( or not, it’s a moment by moment thing, I’m keeping my fingers crossed). A BBC “reporter”, by name of Barbara Plett, files a story in which she freely declares her grief at this great man’s passing. Indeed, after extolling all his many “virtues” and expressing her bewilderment that not many seem to share her view, she breaks down and weeps! This is “centralised” reporting???
Anyone know how I can download or stream a video of BBC Question Time with the US Ambassador a couple of days after 9/11? Or how about a transcript?
I agree, Sean. That was a peach, that Question Time. If you find out, please let us know.
I often work in western Massachusetts, and over the years many of the local people have mentioned how much they value the BBC news that is available via public broadcasting, and that with PBS, NPR, and BBC at least you get a balanced view, unlike with Fox. Then I noticed that the fox news channel is unavailable on the regions cable-TV system. How do they know that Fox is un-balanced???
I`ve never understood why silly people always refer to fox news as being right wing when discussing the bias of the BBC. Fox news can be a rabid right wing news station for all i care….i don`t have have fox news, i don`t pay for fox news, i`ve never watched fox news and don`t particularly want to, its not even a british news outlet, i, like many people here in the united kingdom of great britain and northern ireland have 5 tv channels…to watch these i pay a licence fee which does not cover fox news but does cover the BBC so the comparison with fox news is wholly irrevelant.
I think we should start a campaign to force people to purchase fox news.
This is in the name of balance. People need to be able to see different viewpoints and gain an tolerance and proper understanding of the political diversity in society.
I’d say and 130GBP/year compulsorary tax should fund the Fox News rollout in the UK!
The last point was very apt in the way it was clearly ridiculous and annoying. Such is the situation with the BBC. Awful.
The BBC is incredibly biased. Not content with promoting one side of any story, they even distort facts in the one side that they do show.
Plett is an excellent example. Her tears for Arafat and her idiotic dissapointment that Palestinians don’t do what she wants them to do.
When the BBC interviews would-be journalists for reporting on international affairs, they quiz them about international affairs. They’ll chuck out anyone who sings a different tune. If your views are different than the BBC, would you dare to try to enlist to the BBC? Would you be crazy enough to tell your views when you’re interviewed? They won’t take you on. If asked, they’d say you showed a lack of knowledge or were lacking in other qualities. Meanwhile, their ‘reporting’ will create more people like them!
I think Murdoch has had enough favours from the various recent governments of this country.
Regarding bias did anyone but me see Christiane Ammanpour commenting on CNN the day of Bush’s re-election? She was beside herself with rage. Still, at least she was honest and showed her true feelings-will she continue to do so or revert to false objectivity mode?
OT
All the news on Arafat keeps reminding me of the Monty Python sketch about the Dead Parrot.
I consider Fox a counter balance to CNN, BBC, NBC, CBS, and ABC. I’ve heard we’re soon to get an “English” version of Al-Jazeerah. If we add the major print papers, e.g. NYTimes, Washington Post and many, many others, Mr. Murdoch is actually performing a public service in providing an opposing view. That said, I personally don’t happen to find Fox as biased as the others. I watch it, but not exclusively. Generally, when biased, it’s personality based, clearly acknowledged by the presenter (O’Reilly, Brit Hume), and within the “talking heads” format. On straight news reporting, it actually is “fair and balanced”, whereas the other outlets obviously aren’t (Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw). Fox’s election coverage was terrific, with a balanced panel(2 Libs, 2 Conservs.) of pundits. In any event, it’s all free here, so you don’t have to subsidize any of it, which is what I would find the most objectionable regarding bias in news services.
JohninLondon – Yes! Also shades of Generalissimo Franco, remember that?
OFF TOPIC
The following caught my eye from an opinion piece in today’s Telegraph by Daniel Johnson,
“Submission, the film that occasioned the attack , is by no means an attack on Islam as a religion. It does not, as Rushdie did, ridicule the Prophet Mohammed, what it does is to denounce the barbaric tratment of women in many Islamic societies …”
Fair enough or even so what? you might say, and indeed, I had read as much elsewhere. But I certainly had not heard this from the BBC
who persist, in a most un-nuanced way, in saying that the late van Gogh ‘made films attacking Islam’ (that was from a news report on this morning’s Today programme about a school being vandalised in the Hague by the outraged van Gogh-supporting populace, apparently). Is it just me or is the BBC being selective and extremely chary about the way it has reported this story and its aftermath?
Gordon – No, but no suprises there. Christiane was a dear, dear friend of JFK, Jr., they went to school together, I believe. JFK Jr.’s uncle Ted was/is Kerry’s mentor and was the main sponsor of his run for President. These “objective” reporters are all attending the same cocktail parties, weddings, funerals, etc. as are the personalities they cover. Naturally she’s enraged, no state dinners on MY tax dime at the White House for her, now!
la marquise –
i just watched the bbc lunchtime news, waiting for a report on the dutch terrorist incident in the hague, and the
islamic school burning …..and i waited ….but nothing!!
why so un-newsworthy?
(i must admit, i did leave the room for a minute. Did i miss it when i was gone?)
Mr Gonads
Maybe its because in BBC-land we all live in a happy clappy, multi-culti world where Kofi Annan is the great Law-Giver and social workers are actually useful. The BBC would love to report that the poor downtrodden followers of a certain Arab paedophile (whoops!) have to suffer under the racist pyromaniacs in Holland, but if so they would also have to mention van Gogh’s murder by an ‘activist’. The BBC News online service is spinning this thing towards their default position: unrest has sprang from somewhere and muslims are now being ‘demonised’.
la marquise – I agree, it’s weird, even for them. Given their evident contempt for every other organized religion, with suggestions of the intolerance it spawns, I would have expected them to have a field day with this story. Many discussions, phone-in panels, “have your says”. Imagine had it been a Jew or Christian attacking a Muslim in this fashion? Why the skewed reporting, BBC?
It all comes down to the intellectualy void concept of multi-culturism in its purist form: To be so tolerant that it is necessary to be tolerant of those who are profoundly intolerant.
dodo gonads (indeed) – yes, I too, am waiting for the BBC to address this latest terrorist outrage. And if and when they do, I fully expect them to ask them to examine WHY they are hated so much, what did THEY do to bring this upon themselves?
It’s not tolerance that people want it’s mutual acceptance. I don’t see much Muslim acceptance of the values of the UK host culture.
Rob Read – As I’m anticipating a push to reclaim Al Andulsia sometime in the not so distant future (noises are being made), I’m not convinced we’ll be seeing a whole heck of a lot of acceptance of European values. I truly hope I’m wrong about this.
Here’s a link to one of the best critical deconstructions of multiculturism I’ve read and I agree with its sentiments entirely:
http://www.libertyhaven.com/noneoftheabove/culture/multiculturalism.shtml
A quick look at Holland is enough to justify this criticism.
“To be so tolerant that it is necessary to be tolerant of those who are profoundly intolerant.” What about the recent steps to outlaw arranged marriages by the government?
That Ghost is an example of the UK government not being multi-culturist. Holland is the multi-culturists dream and look at the results.
Andrew P: What’s wrong with Holland? (Recent isolated incidents aside…)
Recent events are typical of what is happening in Holland. Multi-culturism simply does not bring people together, it drives a wedge between them as is based on the recognition of ‘many essentially closed systems of perception, feeling, thought, and evaluation – each associated with some racially, ethnically, or sexually defined group.’ (Quote from my link above).
There is undeniable unrest in Holland over completely un-integrated immigrant groups, expanded by previous liberal interpretations of immigration laws, creating enormous social discontent.
“It’s not tolerance that people want its mutual acceptance. I don’t see much Muslim acceptance of the values of the UK host culture.” I think a compromise between the two would be good. I see a lot of acceptance in the area I live in which (despite frequent BNP trouble-making) is one the safest places in my city to live. What non-acceptance do you see?
Why is Murdoch’s Sky News just as left-leaning as the BBC ITV and Channel 4?
I know I have said this before, but Sky News should provide a haven for right of centre journalists to counter balance BBC etc. I am sure it would be a money spinner. Then people like dear old ‘ghost’ could start up a ‘Biased Sky Blog’.
I think there’s some truth in article you linked too, but I’m not sure that this applies to Holland more than any other country in Europe. I’m also not sure who are the “un-integrated immigrant groups” you speak of.
ghostofredken,
Simple, the government should stay out of such private arrangements to which all parties are consenting.
Of course, there is a distinction between “arranged” and “forced” marriages – the latter involving duress being exerted on one or more participants, sometimes (literally) on pain of death.
To oppose action against forced marriages would be to take multi-culturalism towards the sort of extremes the piece describes.
Peter: “I am sure it would be a money spinner.” If it would, I’m sure Murdoch would have done it. Didn’t he plan to remake/remodel Fox for the UK but was advised that it wouldn’t be commercially successful? I’m sure I remember reading something along those lines…
red ken
Diverse societies work, multicultural societies do not.
Once you’ve cleaned the tea from your screen reflect that this very statement was uttered recently by Trevor Phillips, Chairman of the Commission for Racial Things and one of the guards of our great, successful, PC society.
People have often said alot of crap where Holland is concerned. Relatively liberal sex and drug laws have not made for a ‘liberal’ society. The Dutch have simply been very much like the British: a deeply conservative people pushed to the limits of their (great) tolerance.
theghostofredken-
authentic liberal freedoms cannot be compromised or diluted by pathological religious intolerance, in any shape or form. Period.
(..if that indeed was the sort of compromise you were suggesting)
Melanie Phillips is also on the case today:
http://www.melaniephillips.com/diary/archives/000885.html
Trying to set fire to Northern towns is hardly a sign of successful integration. Nor is massive if silent support for jihadists, even when they are fighting against British forces. Nor is having Muslim no-go areas.
I think we’re all in agreement here, although looking at my post it’s not very clear what I meant. I wholeheartedly support the government in taking steps to prevent women being forced into arranged marriages.
Can someone from the left explain to me why it is acceptable for a fair number of Muslim nations to forbid any expression of differing religious beliefs, however, said same Muslims do not believe it is acceptable for the French to deny Muslims schoolgirls their right to wear the hijab? As an American, I don’t approve of the ban myself, but it IS the law in France. Shouldn’t the law of the land trump all else?
OT – Fox is reporting “hostage slaughterhouses” are being uncovered in Falluja. I suppose some on this thread won’t believe this until the BBC reports it, but I dare say even the BBC can’t pass this one by.
Holland is a focus at the moment as it has under previous governments implemented a very multi-culturist agenda, I would say more so than many other European countries (except maybe Belgium, have your read that they’ve banned a major political group, describing it as racist, as it opposes liberal immigration stances!)
“Nor is massive if silent support for jihadists, even when they are fighting against British forces. Nor is having Muslim no-go areas.”
Who are this silent majority? Where are the no-go areas? And in the case of northern shitholes like Bradford, isn’t the general level of malcontent as much to do with poverty, disaffection, unemployment etc. as is it with integration?
Andy P: From my own experience I would say the immigration issue is far greater in Germany than Holland. Holland is very small country with not much need for manual labour, and as such its immigration levels have remained consistently quite low and have actually been declining over the past few years.
http://www.cbs.nl/en/publications/articles/webmagazine/2004/1552k.htm
Johninlondon
re: Dead Parrot
see here
Pam, re: Generalissimo Francisco Franco…My English wife looked at me sideways with a humoring smile everytime there’s been a story about Yasser Arafat and I’ve said…”This just in…Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead…”
Ghost, for once I agree with you ;-)! Having lived in Germany, I think the backlash would probably be even worse if something similar happened, as immigrant communities are forced more into a ghettoisation than multicultural “respect and tolerance”.
“OT – Fox is reporting “hostage slaughterhouses” are being uncovered in Falluja. I suppose some on this thread won’t believe this until the BBC reports it, but I dare say even the BBC can’t pass this one by.”
At time of writing they have haven’t picked it up. Although they do report the claims of rebel fighters:
An unnamed man claiming to be a rebel fighter told the BBC’s Today programme that the destruction in Falluja was “total”.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3998049.stm
They haven’t picked up the comments of Maj. Gen. Abdul Qader Mohammed Jassem Mohan commander of Iraqi forces in Falluja.
OT
“Meanwhile, BBC News and Current Affairs is expected to lose at least 30 per cent of its personnel.”
Source: http://www.thisislondon.com/news/articles/14598771?source=Evening%20Standard
(via Drudge)
The slaughterhouse claims are now on the BBC front page. Presumably they were found under the corpses of the civilians which we’ve bombed the crap out of. What a good idea this all was.
James – Thanks! I was beginning to feel sooooo old… 🙂