A lot of people, including the (generally more junior) BBC journalists who sometimes visit this blog and take part in discussion, admire what one could call the “big beasts” of BBC journalism- people like Marr, Humphries, Simpson, and Mark Mardell. Urbane and intelligent, they are seen as figures of substance. That’s troublous to an outsider to this circle of admiration as they’re biased too.
Well, take a look at Mardell’s reaction to the Italian election [correction- have a look here. Thanks Max]. His first comments “With Italy’s elections complete, does the domination of the media by the political elite distort the debate, and will the internet change things?”
Coming from a “big beast” from within the unquestionable behemoth of British media, the hubris is comic.
But also clearly unfair when one thinks about it, however one may object to Silvio Berlusconi and his media empire. The first point is that this “empire” didn’t prevent Berlusconi losing power to Prodi two years ago. The second is that Berlusconi turned his narrow defeat into a victory by a 9% margin- quite a feat. The third is that Italians apparently made an historic sea change in their politics this election- they gave their communist party (a long-time political player) precisely no seat in either chamber. Wow. Oh, and the greens went too- analysis here.
So of course Mardell is at the front of the queue undermining the legitimacy of the Italian public’s choices by implying their thought processes were skewed. After more than ten years of Labour government, one might start to consider whether the status quo in the UK might have anything to do with the Labour-dominated BBC.
First time I have posted here and very OT, however I wanted to comment on the amount of politicised dialogue that I have noticed more and more on BBC drama productions. For example, last night on “Waking the Dead”. The sroty slowly reveals an apparently normal suburban mother, who works as a nurse – as a former ETA terrorist with links to two other characters in the story from the particularly dreadful INLA and the throat cutting Algerian GIS…..and how did our intrpid police team make the link when identifying which countries they came from…aha! yes! umm…”Military Occupation” was the line used by Trevor Eve, the oh-so touchy-feely boss of this investigative team. What nonsense. Of course, one of the team manages to remind us of the election result that the GIA ‘won’ in Algeria – thus justifying their actions…despite failing to brief her boss about the widespread terror the GIA spread to ‘get elected’….and I noted as with BBC shows nowadays that the women are the real tough guys and the men are emasculated fools.
After looking at the BBC world coverage of the Italian election I am starting to think that the BBCs repeated claims of a very tight race was a covert attempt to get more socialist voters out in greater numbers? The Italian socialists knew they were heading for disaster yet the BBC kept spinning it as a very tight race right to the end! why? Are the BBC now trying to influence foreign elections?
As for the utter destruction of the Greens and Hard left the BBC has very little to say and I wonder why?
The Italians seem to have got it right – if you want success, vote for a successful man, not a miserable redistributer of other peoples wealth like we have.
Thats Sarkozy, Berlusconi, Merkel err is there a pattern here?
May I suggest that we all observe how many times the BBC manages to insert the word CONSERVATIVE as a negative term in its news ‘reports’?
The TOADY SHOW managed it in a ‘report’ about Chinse capital punishment!
As the local elections draws near I fully expect the BBC ‘reporters’ to start using the word CONSERVATIVE as a political weapon?
How pathetic and childish and desperate have the BBC propagandists become?
BTW why is naughty pronouncing his name as Nocktie?
Cassandra | 15.04.08 – 8:10 am,
I guess the BBC had to put all those champagne bottles back in storage after Berlusconi won. Regarding interfering with elections, the BBC was solidly behind Labor in the recent Australian elections:
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/patrickcrozier/479291044838395608/#375825
AndrewSouthLondon | 15.04.08 – 8:27 am,
Let’s hope there is a pattern and that it continues.
A frequent Italy visitor writes…
“The Italians seem to have got it right – if you want success, vote for a successful man”
errrr…. that’ll be success like they had the last time he was in power then, and the time before that??
Berlusconi is hopeless, possibly marginally less hopeless than the alternative, but hopeless. There’ll be someone different this time next year, as always.
As I watched Mardell bemoan the fact that Silvio is back, I couldn’t help thinking that in Beeboid land, real tyrants such as Castro get a much better press than the Berlusconis of this world.
Also, compare the amount of coverage when Berlusconi lost the last election to the relatively small amount of coverage of him winning this one. A little unbalanced, to say the least.
Graeme | 15.04.08 – 7:36 am,
Yes, the BBC’s politicising of drama has often been mentioned on this blog. Good to see your comment. More and more people are exposing the BBC as the propaganda outfit that it has become.
Merkel is an interesting case though. She’s done pretty well with Germany despite being hamstrung by having to accommodate the opposition, retains reasonable popularity at home.
It also seems has improved the country’s global standing considerably http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3234639,00.html . However the Beeb rarely seems to mention her, seemingly obsessed with Sarkozy’s fight for popularity. Wonder why?
I listened to Shara Kennedy (hic) comparing Berlusconi to Castro – “You can’t get rid of them, can you?”
Poor confused dear; quite when she thought Castro held proper elections, I don’t know. Have another sip, love.
The BBC is very like its beloved EU – it thinks there are ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ results to elections. The horror of Jorg Haider in Austria or the BNP in the UK winning anything provokes an outbreak of ‘How can we change the system?’ questions.
“You can’t get rid of them, can you?”
Hey don’t knock it! Inferring that Berlusconi is only as bad as Castro and not worse is a notable event in the People’s Republic of Beeb.
You don’t have to be Atlas Shrugged to see the true extent of the beeboid manipulation / presentation of news and social affairs from a nulab / leftyist perspective ! Marr owned up to it openly FFS !
The question is, how to stop it ? As a minimum, write to your MP and ask him to confirm he is commited to acting to end bbc bias – they love that sort of letter, they can wave it at the party managers and demand action.
EU Referendum notices also:
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2008/04/he-is-back.html
“His great value, apart from his basic pro-Americanism and suspicion (no more than that) of the European Union, was his ability to reduce the left of centre main-stream media (a tautology, really) to foaming rage. Clearly, he does not have the same effect on the people of Italy.”
Bryan,
I will be laughing all day now at the thought of all those crestfallen BBC socialists and their champagne celebration that never was! I mean how hilarious is a picture of a miserable socialist with a bottle of bubbly trying to comprehend that their perverted politics were not wanted, Ha Ha Ha!
Think of all the BBC ‘reporters’ that went to Italy to cover the socialist triumph that never was and all the camera crews too! I can see them ready and waiting to fill the airwaves with hours of reports about a leftist victory but when it dawned on the BBC comrades that the people had the nerve to crush the leftists, they all packed up and slinked off to their five star hotels quick time!
NOW THATS BBC ENTERTAINMENT I CAN LIVE WITH!
Beeboid line of attack against TB infected badger cull is interesting. They have given up trying to deny the link, but now give regular uncontested airtime on their morning commedy slot, Farming Today, to so called ‘experts’ put up by the bunny huggers, denying a cull is physically possible.
This, of course ,is utter bollox. Keepers, hunt staff, and land owners know the location of every sett and will have no problem whatsoever carrying out a planned cull.
The BBC’s ‘coverage’ of the Italian election was very poor, lacking insight and depth. Apart from notably understating Berlusconi’s lead, their Radio 4 interviewer could do little more than ask some other talking head, ‘Why do Italians vote for this idiot?’
There is a decided lack of understanding in such ‘reporting’ into the real structural, social and demographic challenges that Italy faces. They should leave this work to serious, informed reporters.
In one report I read on the BBC they even tutted about the reduced turn-out, as if this was a factor – a turn-out of 80%!! Contrast with the 60% or so which elected their beloved socialists in the last two elections!
This sort of bias when a right-winger wins an election (hubris from Beeboids etc.) should provoke the supposed right-wingers in this country (the Conservatives I mean) to go nuclear – threaten the BBC with abolition after they win the next election.
I expect the BBC to be even more nakedly partisan and pro-Lieabour. That’ll make the case for abolition even stronger.
Close down the BBC.
The BBC have some nerve when they bitch about Berlusconi or even Murdoch. At least both these media tycoons put their brand to the market test, and are not raking in their fortunes from television taxes a la BBC.
The BBC are midgets compared to wealth creators such a Berlusconi and Murdoch.
P45,
Nice thought but the problem in the UK is that even the Tories do not have the bollocks to shut down the BBC as a publicly funded monolith. Its the same with the NHS. After Labour has doubled its budget since 97 the services have become worse. In any cognitive analysis one would come to the obvious conclusion that the whole system is screwed up but it and the BBc seem to occupy some sort of utopian masturbatory dream-world.
cassandra..i too followed the beeb coverage of oitalian election and when contrasting it with other coverage I was amazed at how they described it as tight…right down to the wire.just why would they do that?…who do they do it for? or are they just constantly in the grip of manic self delusion?
When election results go the wrong way BBC staff often feel the need to step up their obligation to inform and educate us. This lessens the possibility of similar mistakes happening again.
…. ditto … the American elections and their Obama love-in.
BBC1 1pm News finds some long haired geriatric to tell us what Berlusconi now has to do with his media holdings.
Even when rejected by the voters the left still consider they have the divine right to direct operations.
Tobias Jones in “The Dark Heart of Italy” points out that the Italian media are “schierato” ie “lined up”. The state broadcaster, RAI, has three channels, divided between the Christian Democrats, the Socialists and the Communists (the daughter of the Communist Berlinguer still reads the news on RAI 3). Berlusconi’s Mediaset channels provide football, variety and game shows.
I rather think this is superior to the British system – at least everyone knows which channel is biased in which direction, whereas the Beeb still harbours (and propagates) delusions of impartiality.
Ed, I think you mixed/forgot the links. Mardell’s piece is here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markmardell/2008/04/clown_prince_of_bloggers_takes.html
Phil, trust me – if you had to watch much telly in Italy you wouldn’t think it superior to over here. Whether you think it’s acceptable or not there’s every truth in the accusation that Silvio is all over it like a rash, in pretty unsubtle fashion.
Have to admit that most Italian television is pretty dire – being in Italian doesn’t help it – but I’d be reluctant to make any great claims for superiority on the basis of Holby City, East Enders et al. The point is, however, that everyone knows that each station is biased, and discounts accordingly. The BBC still thinks it can get away with claiming to be unbiased.
the BBC kept spinning it as a very tight race right to the end! why? Are the BBC now trying to influence foreign elections?
Cassandra | 15.04.08 – 8:10 am | #
They’re actually in training to influence our next general election – when Gordon Brown gets his and ZanuLabours proverbial arses kicked – right out of office.
Incidentally just watched Brown’s latest interview with Adam Boulton on Sky News. What planet is Brown the Clown on. His comments just beggard belief. It reminds of another Labour Prime Minister who said ‘Crisis? What Crisis?’ Jim Callaghan I think it was back in the 70’s.
There’ll be someone different this time next year, as always.
Cockney | 15.04.08 – 9:01 am | #
If only there was going to be in this country.
Graeme | 15.04.08 – 7:36 am,
Bryan | 15.04.08 – 9:02 am | #
The outrageous Spooks being the leading culprit.
Correction:
‘Crisis? What Crisis?’ Jim Callaghan I think it was back in the 70’s.
Actually he didn’t say that.
What he actually said was –
‘I don’t think other people in the world would share the view [that] there is mounting chaos’
But same head in the sand stuff in my view.
And from the main page summarising the election result we get a link to Robin Lustig’s blog, highlighted thus :
But isn’t he a corrupt buffoon, you may ask ?
Graciously, Mr Lustig seems to conclude that the answer to his question is not necessarily.
A free banana to anyone who spots “but isn’t he a corrupt buffoon, you may ask ?” on a BBC story about, oh say, Ken Livingstone or Hugo Chavez.
Here’s the BBC putting a positive headline on a negative story.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7347637.stm
I think ‘Lord Jones dumps Brown and Labour’ would have been more appropriate.
And this is the lead story for the second day running:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7347330.stm
I don’t think even Berlusconi would expect to get more favourable treatment. Pity that Brown’s “decisive” look comes over as mildly deranged, though. Ruins the whole effect. Get a grip, Beeboids!
As ITN apparently put it “the left wing regime” has been swept aside. Aaaaagh! Poor BBC luvies, another darling bites the dust, well you would not expect the BBC to lead with this news would you? Just drop it in somewhere near the end of a bulletin.
What they did get really excited about was the 6 warriors from Hafrica who took part in the London Marathon. Unable to speak passable English the BBC reporter led them through the interview getting across the reason for the adventure, namely to raise money for a water well. What the BBC did not say was that only 4 out of the 6 actually finished on the day. I had to wait until next days newspapers to find that out. Still the BBC did slip in that our Hafrican guest was now fully recovered after his stay in our wonderful NHS Hospital. Rock on Fidel, you have outlasted 9 US presidents make it double figures make it ten the BBC will give you a half hour slot if you manage that!
Phil:
Have to admit that most Italian television is pretty dire – being in Italian doesn’t help it
————
Interesting point of view. I guess that’s a problem in common with Beeb output, being in native English. Much more interesting to have Corrie sung in Italian: real (soap) opera
(The last I watched Italian tele most of the game shows seemed to involve already scantily clad girls taking their clothes off. Some might call that “dire”, but it held my attention briefly.
At least they don’t have tough incisive reporting like the Beeb’s current headline:” Brown ‘standing firm’ on economy” That’s “news”?
silvio getting back in cheered me up immensely.
hearing that the commies and greens were wiped out was the icing on the cake.
so , now we have Sarko and his drop dead gorgeous other half, Silvio and his harem of Italian babes.
and here in Britain we have…..
“Have to admit that most Italian television is pretty dire”
and so in Spanish tv.
but there is a logical reason for that – most Spaniards and Italians GO OUT in the evening while our tub-o-lard benefits mobs settle down for the daily Eastender brain melt.
the italians couldnt be arsed with tv – they’d rather go out and eat a nice meal. how civilised.
Speaking of the average BBC employee’s opinion of Berlusconi, one must be amused by this title for the video link accompanying an article about his plans for Naples:
Silvio Berlusconi’s controversial background”
The link doesn’t seem to be working at the moment, so I don’t know what the BBC has to say. But I think Andrewsouthlondon above at 8:27 explained why the BBC feels that Berlusconi’s background is “controversial”:
R4 Toady this morning
Some time between 6:55 and 07:15.
Turn on R4 by mistake whilst making the breakfasts. Heard them getting their cards on the table.
In about 3 minutes we had
“Berlusconi’s surprise victory…..”
“Berlusconi’s right wing coalition…”
“out going left of centre….”
I now need a new radio. The old one crash landed.
Crisis. What crisis?
meggoman | 15.04.08 – 2:49 pm |
Three words that helped bring down the last Labour government in 1979, even though the man generally thought to have uttered them – Jim Callaghan – did not in fact do so.……….but “Crisis? What crisis?” suited the mood of the nation and has since become part of political folklore
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/921524.stm
Actually I remember watching Callaghan being interviewed live at Heathrow as he stepped off the aircraft in January 1979. The country was in a state of collapse and Callaghan had swanned off to sun himself in Guadaloupe along with such political giants as Jimmy Carter, Helmut Schmidt and Giscard d’Estaing. The only prat missing was Pierre Trudeau.
As he came through the tunnel from the aircraft Callaghan was literally surrounded by jostling journalists and photographers. He was in a foul mood and was snapping at everyone. At one point he turned to a TV camera (and I’m assuming it was a BBC camera because that was what I was watching) and said “Crisis. What Crisis?”
My nephew who also saw it rang me shortly after and said “Did you see what that c**t just said”. I watched all the later news bulletins because I was astounded Callaghan’s sheer arrogance, but thereafter it was edited out of all further news coverage on the BBC. I think one of the papers caught onto what he said. Either way the Labour BBC spin machine went into damage limitation mode and spun the, now accepted, story that Callaghan didn’t actually say “Crisis. What crisis?”
Ed Balls recently had a similar ‘Callaghan’ moment with his “So what” comment. Now being hotly denied by him and his cronies in the BBC.
“But I think Andrewsouthlondon above at 8:27 explained why the BBC feels that Berlusconi’s background is “controversial””
errr… you’d need Stevie Wonder’s eyesight, Beethoven’s hearing and Lassie’s grasp of finance not to see Silvio as a teensy bit “controversial” (not to say that the Italian left isn’t either). This is a man that reknowned leftie commie rag The Economist has consistently deemed unfit for office. Berlusconi is a scumbag, end of. Whether a scumbag is better than a rabble of hopeless leftists remains to be seen.
Bryan and Meggoman,
Thanks, I thought it was just me and that I had somehow become a ‘reactionary’ in my advancing years.
In the early nineties, my then girlfriend who was a nurse at Great Ormond Street Kid’s hospital and I would watch the BBC hospital soap ‘Casualty’, since she liked to professionally nitpick at the show. However, I really began noticing then the carefully inserted comments critical of the Tory Government, my girlfriend began to notice too. It reminded me then of the brainwashing technique known as subliminal messaging, which I thought was illegal.
AndrewSouthLondon:
You’re onto something there – Strada della Coronazione could be a winner, perticularly were it to feature a squad of scantily-clad Italian cuties. Make a nice change from Gail Platt.
On “Crisis, what crisis”, the Oxford Companion to Twentieth Century British Politics has the following entry:
“Crisis, what crisis?” With the government passive in the face of the 1979 winter of discontent, a sun-tanned Prime Minister Callaghan returned from a Guadeloupe summit, and unguardedly claimed at Heathrow that the preoccupation of the British press with the disruption caused by strikes was “parochial”. The “Sun” headlined his comment “Crisis, what crisis?” (which he never actually said) and thus deepened government unpopularity.
Cockney: Would the BBC refer to Ken Livingstone as ‘controversial’?
I don’t think do. But Boris Johnson does.
For the Beeboids. No one on the left can ever be ‘controversial’ in their eyes.
DV
I wouldn’t consider Mardell, Humphries and Simpson to be “big beasts”, though it’s probably what some of these massive egos imagine themselves to be.
Much of what they do is not journalism but pathetic and condescending sneering – particularly towards the United States.
Berlusconi, a BIG admirer of George W. Bush, is certain to get up many BBC noses, or more likely they’ll just delude themselves that it hasn’t really happened. It’s unlikely you will see this victory trumpeted very much.
I know that according to people here the Economist (as well as the FT) has been classed as a left wing publication, but here’s what I think a pretty good summary of Berlusconi
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10966223
Seems to me some people would be happy to see the left gone, no matter what the alternative. Strange to see people here rejoicing..
And Sarkozy enemy of the left? Right!
WHO DO YOU BELIEVE? Let’s put it this away, Tibet gets more coverage than Italy.
According to Forbes magazine, Berlusconi is Italy’s second richest person, a self-made man (see section) with personal assets worth $9.4 billion (USD) in 2008, making him the world’s 90th richest person.[3] Michele Ferrero is the only wealthier Italian, ranked 5th richest in the world with a net worth of $11 billion USD. Source Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silvio_Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi is Italy’s richest man, estimated to be worth $12bn (£7bn) by US business publication Forbes.
Source BBC NEWS 24
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3034600.stm
ROME, March 6 (Reuters) – Silvio Berlusconi lost a different kind of competition — The billionaire media mogul was knocked off the top of Forbes’ list of the richest Italians by the man behind Tic Tac sweets and chocolate spread Nutella, Michele Ferrero. Ferrero’s $11 billion in wealth trumped the Berlusconi family’s $9.4 billion.
Source REUTERS
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssConsumerGoodsAndRetailNews/idUSL0685922920080306
Italy’s richest man, the business tycoon Silvio Berlusconi, is on his way back to power.
Source BBC NEWS EUROPE
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1298864.stm
Ben,
Why do you think it strange that people are pleased to see the back of those nasty Italian socialists and marxists?
The leftists in Italy sabotaged silvio at every turn and had to put together a creaking mixed bag of sleazy idiots to force an election, then they all fell out and plunged Italy into a finacial crises because thats what socialists do! They crave power but dont know what to do with it and rather than build up the nation they pull it to pieces with their loony half baked pie in the sky political fantasies.
At last Silvio will be able to build Italy up again and bloody good luck to him!