Quentin Langley has been counting mentions of “left wing” and “right wing” on the BBC.
Time for some hard numbers.
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It is analysis like this one by Quentin Langley that makes the BBC’s bias so blatant and John Reith and the other Beeboid defenders so ludicrous when they try and deny the obvious.
Natalie, you know the BBC search is shite.
If Langley doesn’t then he’s wasted his time using it as a data mining tool. Unless he’s trying to show that the BBC’s search engine has been manipulated to bury left wing stories, in which case does that make it biased for or against the left wing?
Use Google and see the results:
Left wing: 17,800 results “http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=site%3Anews.bbc.co.uk+%22left+wing%22&meta=”
Right wing: 17,500 results http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=site%3Anews.bbc.co.uk+%22right+wing%22&meta=
Langley’s second point is that the BBC writes more about the far right than the far left. And yet it is patently obvious to even a casual observer that far right politics are a much larger force in Europe (where most of the far-right stories are from). Would he search for dogs and cats and, finding a discrepancy of number of stories, conclude the BBC was biased towards one or the other? Of course not, the methodology is poor.
It is sloppy analysis like this one by Quentin Langley that actually detracts from proponents of BBC bias because it is so easy to pick holes in.
DA
It is sloppy analysis like this one by Quentin Langley that actually detracts from proponents of BBC bias because it is so easy to pick holes in.
It’s good of you to admit that most claims are valid.
This must be B-BBC’s legendary reading comprehension in action again.
I don’t think the Beeb knows what left or right mean politically any more, which goes for most of us come to think of it. These days it’s an excuse to label yourself and pick up a load of pet political issues off the peg without having to think too hard about it. Isn’t it more accurate to talk about liberal and interventionalist economic and social policy?
More importantly I’m peturbed about the sporting references (or lack thereof) to right and left wingers. Surely left wing is England’s problem position whereas the emergence of Aaron Lennon has sorted the right so why are the left references more popular?
Doesn’t matter whether they’re left- or right-wing, people the BBC doersn’t like are always called “conservatives” which to al-Beeboids is the polite term for “fascist”.
Hold on, if that’s the case the BBC must be being biased to the Conservative Party, because they call them Tories.
“so why are the left references more popular”
I have the answer:
Mark Cueto’s a shoe-in, but on the left Ben Cohen’s kicking and passing game is awful. And where do you play Josh Lewsey?
Glad to be of help.
It’s a fine calculation, but the al-Beeboids reckon that “Tory” is more offecsive than “conservative” in a British context. There aren’t any overseas Tories (Canada?) after all.
It’s worth noting that http://www.tories.org.uk takes you directly to… http://www.conservatives.com and a search of conservatives.com yields 206 references to “tory”, so the Conservatives can’t be that offended by the term.
“Mark Cueto’s a shoe-in, but on the left Ben Cohen’s kicking and passing game is awful. And where do you play Josh Lewsey?”
I thought the England rugby team had been sent to Coventry by the media for being unfeasibly sh*t. Much like the rugby league mob who were flavour of the month a couple of weeks ago but relegated to the darkest inner pages after another trouncing on Saturday.
Look for cricket to be relegated back to uninteresting small minority sport by the end of the third test – it might even get so unpopular that it starts appearing on the Beeb.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4086892.stm
DA, the Google links you provided validate Langley’s analysis rather than refute it.
First page Google results for “Right Wing”:
Violence flares at right-wing rally
Olmert appoints right-wing deputy
Russia at the polls |The Union of
Right-Wing Forces
Nick Griffin: Right-wing chameleon
Conservatives ‘still right wing’The Conservative Party is still at its core “right wing and unpleasant”, says Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell.
US right attacks SpongeBob video
Right-wing leaders puzzled over Haider
Buchanan: Standard-bearer of the right wing
Three jailed for racist bombing
First page for “Left Wing”:
Caracas excels as left-wing haven
Left-wing Uruguay leader welcomed
Uruguay elects left-wing leader
Bolivia’s new left-wing government has put a coca grower in charge of the fight against drug trafficking
McAvoy defeats left-wing challenge
Left-wing Lula leads the polls
Part of Columbia’s left wing found
Emilio San Pedro examines the left-wing populism currently sweeping Latin America in this two-part series.
As Langley said, “right wing” is associated with violence, racist bombings, unpleasentry, Haider, Buchanan, Griffin, censorship, Russia and worst of all – Israel *spit*.
“Left wing” is a South American revolutionary (good) Phenomenon associated with elections, or part of space shuttles.
As a Google user you’d also know that the first pages are the ones being of greater importance to searchers, so there.
Okay max, BUT:
Using a google advanced search of the BBC News domain for exact phrase ‘left wing’ plus at least one of the words: politics, party ,tank (short for think-tank), vote (in order to exclude sporting and other non-political usages), you get 10,400 results.
http://www.google.co.uk/search?as_q=&num=10&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=left+wing&as_oq=politics+party+tank+vote&as_eq=&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=news.bbc.co.uk&as_rights=&safe=images
Using the same parameters but this time searching for exact phrase ‘right wing’ yields 12,100 • many of which are about the BNP court case. Repeating the search adding ‘without the word: trial” (so as to exclude court reports) yields 10,200.
http://www.google.co.uk/search?as_q=+&num=10&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=right+wing&as_oq=politics+party+tank+vote+&as_eq=trial&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=news.bbc.co.uk&as_rights=&safe=images
I wonder if an illustration of the BBC world view may be obtained by Googling “far left” and “far right”.
Searching the BBC site gives the following: “far left” 1,860 and “far right “9,410” = a multiple of 5.06.
On the other hand, searching the entire web on Google gives “far left” 1,570,000 and “far right” 1,860,000 – a multiple of only 1.18.
The figure for the Times is 3.30, for the Telegraph it is 3.63, and for the Scotsman 2.29.
A site giving similar results to the BBC yields “far left” 1,420 and “far right” 7,920 – a multiple of 5.58. What is this site? Guardian.co.uk. As for the Independent, its score is a mighty 6.02.
“As Langley said, “right wing” is associated with violence, racist bombings”
On the front page of the Google search:
The Israel story is neutral. So is the Austria one.
“The Union of Right-Wing Forces was one of the surprise successes” – positive
If the “Nick Griffin: Right-wing chameleon” story were a far left politician, it would be seen as a puff piece. Similarly the Pat Buchanan one – “He’s the no-nonsense, straight-talking, virtual gun-slinger of America’s right…. Charismatic and outspoken”.
“Analysis: Denmark’s shift to the right” – positive.
On the left wing search
“US unconcerned by left-wing leaders” is at best neutral and at worst anti-left wing.
“Coca grower in Bolivia drug post” is hardly positive, is it?
“McAvoy defeats left-wing challenge” is at best neutral.
Describing the left wing as “A New Axis of Power” doesn’t carry especially positive connotations.
If you choose to think that all references to Israel, Buchanan etc are, without question, anti, then of course you’re going to read the first page as biased.
all this confusion about “far right”, “far left” dates back to WW2 according to Lord Tebbit (pbuh)
“Our efficient propaganda machine labelled the Nazis “Right-wing”, both to counter the far Left’s efforts to assist Stalin’s ally Hitler, and to help Attlee bring the Labour Party into Churchill’s wartime coalition.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/05/07/do0710.xml
Good point. I dont see any libertarians beig members of the BNP.
So , if the BNP are “far right” , where are the libertarians on the Beeboid political map, eh?
maybe thats because the whole concept of having bugger all government is so alien to them that it doesnt even register.
And on the second page:
Embattled Kerry seeks low profile
Chavez signs deals with Vietnam – “The radical, left-wing President spoke warmly of Vietnam’s fight against the United States”
Country profile: Colombia – “Security: A deadly campaign by left-wing Farc rebels continues”
Page 3
“Left-wing activist Mr Clark”
“left-wing Labour”
“President Jacques Chirac’s right-wing coalition is poised to seize control of the French parliament next week after defeating a despondent left wing”
“There were chaotic scenes in Mexico’s Congress as left-wing lawmakers forced outgoing President Vicente Fox to abandon his final annual address”
“Profiles: Colombia’s armed groups – The Farc is the oldest and largest group among Colombia’s left-wing rebels”
“1979: El Salvador cathedral bloodbath… The left-wing group is currently holding a number of hostages”
And this is all positive, indisputable coverage of the left wing how, exactly?
“So , if the BNP are “far right” , where are the libertarians on the Beeboid political map, eh?”
“In his weekly opinion column, Brian Walden considers the political muddle create by archaic terms such as left wing and right wing.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4086892.stm
“I dont see any libertarians beig members of the BNP.”
They fought with the Communists in the Spanish civil war?
John Reith:
Hi John! Where have you been?
Have you managed to find two BBC journalists yet who would be willing to sit on a day-long demo of documentary evidence proving that the Guardian perverted the Downey Inquiry of 1997? There’s a weighty £1,000 waiting to be delivered into the coffers of the charity of your choice if you can find just two journalists of integrity among the BBC’s thousands. Surely, John, you must be able to find two BBC staff who would be willing to bite their lips for a few hours for a massive grand to Africa’s downtrodden?
While you and the team are conjuring up an obfuscating answer to that awkward little poser, if you do a search on Google for “Biased BBC”, you’ll find you obtain a whopping 590,000 pages of results:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=%22biased+BBC%22&btnG=Search&meta=
However, a search for “Tory sleaze” produces a comparatively piffling 10,200 pages:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=%22Tory+sleaze%22&meta=
Meanwhile, a search for “sleazy Tories” produces a positively microscopic 189 results:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=%22sleazy+Tories%22&btnG=Search&meta=
Given the reliability of Google, do you not acknowledge that this suggests convincingly, at least on the face of it, that among the impartial people of this world the supposedly unbiased, impartial BBC is actually around 60 times more widely recognised as being the discredited and dishonourable rabble that we B-BBCers know it to be than even the wisely discredited Conservative Party?
“I dont see any libertarians beig members of the BNP.”
You don’t see many true libertarians full stop. It must go down as one of the most butchered political epithets in history.
Er, that should have been “the widely discredited Conservative Party”, not “wisely discredited”.
Mind you, having said that . . .
“I thought the England rugby team had been sent to Coventry by the media for being unfeasibly sh*t”
No, they’re still at the point where a lot of people are discussing how sh*t they are. They’ll go to Coventry when that line of enquiry has been exhausted.
“They fought with the Communists in the Spanish civil war?
Cockney | 20.11.06 – 5:23 pm |”
that would be the anarcho-syndicalists. Dunno if there were any libertarians in that conflict..
if you are right, then that would make the liberatarians left wing … ooh i give up.
we need some new terminology for the 21st century, thats what.
“You don’t see many true libertarians full stop. It must go down as one of the most butchered political epithets in history.
DifferentAnon | 20.11.06 – 5:27 pm | ”
doesnt matter whether you see many of them. what matters is why the BNP are deemed “right wing” when they have statist big government (i.e. national socialist) policies.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4086892.stm
interesting article there DifferentAnon. thanks.
nice to see that somebody in the MSM sees that this “left-right” terminology is archaic nowadays.
quote:
“To begin with, if taken literally it’s saying that being a Eurosceptic is right wing. But that’s by no means always the case. The best-known Socialist in the country, Tony Benn, is much more Eurosceptic than Mr Davis. What sort of right-wing cause is it that has Benn on board?”
indeed.
There are 43 results for ‘hedgehog’ and only 3 for ‘toilet brush’. I demand an investigation into this obvious BBC bias against toilet brushes.
I refuse to pay my compulsory tax while this blatant discrimination against bathroom utensils continues.
(Id appreciate the donation Jonathan Boyd Hunt but I think we would both be wasting our time if your post above is an example of the evidence you might produce!)
I’m probably the least religous and biggest sinnest on this blog.
But, I’ve just cut up my British Airways Silver frequent flyer card.
In light of them banner that stewardess from wearing a crucafix.
Watch the Beeb do it next – Just watch the bastards.
Easily the worstest speller an all innit…
Sorry I’m pissed oops
Gosh Greg D,
I thought you had to at least have some brains to be a propagandakaiser for the BBC. Now I know you don’t.
I’d hate to see what you “accidentally” use to flush big logs in your bathroom.
(Id appreciate the donation Jonathan Boyd Hunt but I think we would both be wasting our time if your post above is an example of the evidence you might produce!)
Perhaps you ought to read the discussion between JBH and JR over the last month before shouting your mouth off.
Currrent score is JBH 23 – 0 JR.
‘Currrent score is JBH 23 – 0 JR.’
Dunno mate, I think it’s 0-0 (match abandoned due to extreme irrelevance and tedium).
Would be 0-0 if Robbie Keane was playing up front…
By co-incidence, just the day before, an article on a similar theme “What is ‘Far Right’?” was posted here http://www.radical-and-right.org/20061119.html
“… We are ‘Right’ only because we oppose the extreme ideas of the Left …”