I think that Stephen Glover has quite a perspicacious article here on the subject of how the BBC operates as a multimedia more powerful version of the Guardian.
As a publicly owned broadcaster funded by the licence payer, it is supposed
to eschew partisan or biased stories with a political agenda. In this case,
the newspaper lobbed a grenade into David Cameron’s back yard by targeting
Andy Coulson. The BBC blindly followed suit. But then the Corporation
often takes its cue from the Guardian. The two organisations share the same
values. Day after day, week after week, the BBC adopts the Guardian’s Leftist
preoccupations and prejudices. The relatively low-selling newspaper serves as
the Corporation’s brain, and many of the progressive causes it
promulgates are taken up by the BBC with its far wider reach.
I think this is about right. And because the BBC is so profoundly institutionally biased that there can be no salvation for it, I’m afraid. It has to be axed and the license tax burden removed. If it wants to push a leftist (or even a right wing) point of view, fine. Let it fund this itself.
Making predictions in the world of politics is to make yourself a hostage to fortune but I believe that David Cameron will shy away from doing what is necessary to the BBC. I believe that he will try to ameliorate the worst excesses of the BBC whilst remaining continually wary of the malign power of the State Broadcaster. He may even think that being nice to them will make things better. It won’t. The values of conservatism are incompatible with the BBC and it will continue to undermine these which is why the only viable option is the complete and utter destruction of the BBC as we know it.
No tax without representation
Remember that the Guardian like the BBC is totally reliant on the tax payer. Without the tax payer both leftist scum organisations would go bust.
I've lost count of how many times I hear Radio 5 using a Guardian journalist for comment, as if somehow using one of these left wing twats it is somehow incisive reporting.
The Coulson story was a non story from the start. Now the Guardian and the BBC are trying to shift the story sideways saying that many journalists use phone hacking etc.
SO what? The local Council go through our rubbish and use terrorism legislation to spy on us. I think that is far worse, but then the Guardian and the BBC are big supporters of the corrupt Government we have.
David Cameron, like Margaret Thatcher before him, does not have the balls to take on the malign influence of the BBC. If we are allowed a general election, and I have my doubts as to whether we will be, the BBC will be more biased in favour of the Labour party than at any time since (and maybe including) 1993-2001. If the Conservatives manage to win the election then the BBC will revert to being the voice of opposition to the government in a way that will make David Cameron wish he had the cojones.
Mrs Thatcher could and should have broken up and privatised the BBC in 1983. Instead, she tried to reform it by bringing in Duke Hussey and John Birt, to curb some its worst excesses.
That worked to some extent, but as soon as the pressure was eased, the BBC reverted to type.
Let us hope that the Conservatives have learned their lesson. The BBC is institutionally leftist, corrupt and parasitic. It has had a malign influence on this country for the past thirty years and more.
Like the former GLC, the BBC cannot be reformed. The TV licence fee must be abolished, and the BBC broken up and privatised.
Not a sheep
I think the task would be easier for Cameron – the BBC has lost a lot of the respect it had in Thatcher's day.
But yes, it is looking unlikely that Cameron will be as bold as he needs to be.
Not a sheep: Cameron has fired a couple of warning shots across the bows of the BBC, but yes I agree Cameron himself may not have the balls, but there are a lot of people within the Tory party that will go after the BBC once they get power.
The BBC will really attack the Tories in the run up to the election, the Coulson non story being an example.
Expect to see the BBC hand in hand with the Guardian to spout even more lies.
the Tories would do well to run a neutral commission into the media which could investigate the end effects of digitalisation of the airwaves.
There should be an option of breaking up the BBC and allowing people to cherry pick what they want by subscription.
A lot of people I suspect would find this prefererable to the existing licence fee.
This would also mean the Tories are not directly involved in breaking up poor old Auntie Beeb.
How did this somehow become the BBCs story when most pundits were at pains to point out that they were avoiding it to avoid an allegations of bias – the guardianistas were the only ones to really cover it
'damned if you do, damned if you don't', it would seem
It would be a pity if the Beeb's excellent factual radio output – I own no television, having an important appointment with some drying paint – was axed because of the ridiculous excesses of the rest of its unwieldy function. Also, what would you good people do with your time?
The cosy relationship between the Guardian and the BBC has been in existence for many years.
Aside from the revolving door between these two bastions of Leftism, one of the most telling pieces of evidence is the Corporation's tendency to reach for a Guardian hack whenever it wants an outside commentator. And when it doesn't choose a Guardian hack, more often than not, it picks one from the Observer or the Independent.
There is an easy solution towards to dissolution of The Guardian. It's readership is a derisory 350,000. If the Conservative Government simply stops placing government ads in the miserable Left Fest, it will collapse overnight.
As for their fellow traveller, the Trostky Troughers at the BBC, nothing short of a privatisation will be acceptable to the angry poll tax payers.
In the age of newsfeeds, online news and 24/7 information systems, nobody should be forced to pay a tax for something they do not want or for a backward nationalised industry that reflects a late 19th century syndicalist and Gramcsi neo Communist minority worldview.
No Tax without Representation!
We need to galvanise the majority of people to work together start a mass public protest movement – refusing en masse to fund the Evil Empire at the BBC.
I do not know anyone who has any regard for this disgraceful organisation. Apart from this disgraceful dying government and their Left Wing metrosexual "progressive" supporters who seem to thrive on deceit and vindictiveness.
If the incoming Conservative Government do not have sufficient knowledge and examples of how left wing, biased and anti UK the BBC is…. then they are as out of touch and unfit to govern as the crooked bunch of amateurs laughingly referred to as a Government that we have now.
They should, IF they are intelligent enough to aspire to government, be able to SEE and HEAR the bias against themselves at least.
I do not profess to be educated enough to hold down a ministerial post but it is as plain as the dead eyes of the automaton Brown to me, that the BBC will move heaven and earth to discredit and blame the Conservatives for ALL the UK's ills, past, present and future. If this ploy fails and they still get elected they will move into overdrive (using our money to undermine OUR choice of Government, natch) to ensure the Labour idiots are back after a parliament.
"Most", to coin a BBC device, readers here know all of the above at least as well as I do, it is almost beyond belief that the "savvy" politico's aspiring to lead us do not.
If they do, and are too cowardly, stupid and uncaring to do something about it, then I for one will abandon the "mainstream" of politics and head for one of the so called "extreme" parties who, with enough support WILL have the balls to rid me (us) of this parasitic carbuncle of an organisation.
I have waited many years for the demise of the BBC, for it's oppressive all pervasive presence to be limited to those who would be happy to pay for it. If the overpaid tax loving monstrosity is to get a free ride from the party it hates… well I'm off for some extremism.
FS
Field Size writes: "I do not profess to be educated enough to hold down a ministerial …."
Don't be so silly. You are clearly better educated than many in the Cabinet – and a great deal better informed.
As for the current Conservative pretenders, they have extensive experience of the BBC from insiders like Boris Johnson and Michael Gove.
If they will not reform or disband the Corporation (and they won't) it is because they are cut from exactly the same cloth. The might be a slight shade bluer, but not by much.
We'll need someone a great deal weightier than Cameron to do the job.
By THE most sheer coincidence just after posting at 1:32 PM,July 16 2009
I received a reply from an email I sent in early June to the office of David Cameron pointing out my thoughts on the BBC and how damaging they will be to a Conservative Government.
Here is an extract from the reply…
"We receive regular complaints calling into question the integrity and impartiality of the BBC. We know that commentators from both sides of the political spectrum sometimes complain about bias.
It is essential, given the regard that the BBC is held in by the public, that the highest standards of journalistic integrity and independence are upheld. On balance we believe the BBC does a good job reporting the news from the perspective of British values and beliefs. However, we are determined that we continue to ensure that the BBC is free from political interference, as its integrity rests on it being impartial."
I think that answered everything I need to know about how the BBC will sail on uninterrupted by a Cameron administration… unbelievable.
As I said, my vote is off to any party with balls…
FS
RE: Field.Size – I think you place too much store by this reply from David Cameron’s office. If he is planning to cut the BBC down to size, he would be wise to play his cards close to his chest BEFORE the election; less the BBC gets their retaliation in first. Somebody else on this blog suggested that the Tories should appoint an independent commission (independent in the same sense that labour’s commissions have been independent i.e. appoint some establishment figure who can be relied upon to come up with the right recommendations) into television/media in the digital age. Hopefully then the Tories could at least cut the BBC down to size and marginalize their corrosive effect.
As for the Guardian. The Tories could kill two birds with one stone. To save money 🙂 and encourage more applications from ethnic minorities and other disadvantaged groups 🙂 the GVN should establish and maintain a one-stop, public sector job’s website. Of course, this would mean that central GVN, councils, Quango’s, NHS trusts, LEA’s regional assemblies etc… would no longer need to pay for job advertising elsewhere. Ditto the BBC. Oh dear, bye, bye Guardian; still in a nice twist – the GVN could announce that all monies saved by this project, will be ploughed into saving the environment. So in a way, the Guardian’s sacrifice will help us save the planet 🙂
Anonymous
2:42 PM, July 16, 2009
I like your idea's and there is merit in thinking Cameron's office is being cagey pre election.
You see, I am prepared to clutch at straws… still, but I think in my heart of hearts I know we now don't have politicians quite as clever as that and it will turn out that the statement is in fact a true reflection of wooly attention deficit syndrome.
FS
I am not sure that Cameron has anything to lose. privitise them now, give everyone back £135 a year and pay down the national dbt with the proceeds. That would be popular. In addition we all know that the BBC will do its utmost to defend itself and its favoured causes in the coming general election campaign. We will see the most brazen, partisan and blatant and unapologetic bias. Simple things like always giving the favoured cause the last word, 'scare quotes', the use of "Tory claims", time allocation and running order, Dimbledore/Harpy wrist touching love-ins (see QT passim), failure to ask simple questions or press for clarification (how, exactly, does a "zero percent increase" represent "continuous growth")
The BBC has nothing but contempt for the mainstream of British public opinion (Daily mail reading fascists – see Sissions article) and sees its principal role as social(ist) engineering of a 'new society'. These causes are not popular with mainstream voters so cameron has an open goal
ITV is no better – millions of taxpayers money is (reportedly) spent on Nulabor PR – adverts and 'social engineering' programmes which are definitely on the increase.
The transfer of licence payers money to ITV will exacerbate existing left wing biased advertizing and brainwashing. Local news will no longer be independent or democratic, but as controlled and biased as the BBC.
Anonymous BBC Bias said…
3:39 PM, July 16, 2009
Agreed, wholeheartedly….
But does Cameron hear anyone espousing these views??
I am beginning to think not, despite the years of bile thrown their way by the BBC, on the face of it they seem prepared to take it and try to appear (not nasty) FFS.
I sincerely hope that you and others are right and I have it all wrong…. I really do.
FS
"perspicacious"
Thanks for that Mr. Wordy. I had to Google that one.
"On balance we believe the BBC does a good job reporting the news from the perspective of British values and beliefs."
I think this pretty much sums up what we can expect from the conservatives.
We are fucked. Vote "monster raving looney".
I'm afraid that anyone who believes that David Cameron will try to take on the BBC is living in cloud cuckoo land. Since becoming party leader he has done everything possible to distant himself from the traditional values of the past and to cozy up to the "liberal" and "progressive" ideals espoused by the Guardianistas and the Beeb. He clearly believes that Mr and Mrs Daily Mail have no one else to vote for, but let's hope that recent events may just have made him think twice about that.
Of course most of us see through his bogus beliefs in green issues and hugging hoodies, but the man is still a worthless charlatan. Tragically there isn't a single mainstream right wing voice raised in opposition to all this left wing clap trap. I look at the three main parties and I feel like the beasts at the end of Animal Farm. "The creatures outside looked from pig to man and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to tell which was which."
"Greg Dyke, the former BBC director general who is chairing the Conservatives' wide-ranging review of the creative industries, says: "I don't detect that the Conservative leadership is deeply hostile to the BBC in a way some of its predecessors have been."
http://www.u.tv/News/BBC-gets-the-blues/8f9e5e83-542c-41af-a10c-ba57b1647749
Any party that was seriously considering selling off the BBC would hardly have the Labour supporting ex-BBC DG to chair their "review of the creative industries".
I'm afraid I agree with both Jeff and JHT: there is not a chance that Cameron (a media creature if ever there was one) will do anything at all to curb the BBC.
If his (Not The) Tory Party wins the next election, the BBC will simply carry on being the opposition party of the Left – just as it has been to ZaNuLabour.
BBC and its beloved anti-Gitmo campaign:
"Chaos besets 9/11 court hearing"
('Americas' anti-Gitmo page).
Alternative headline:
" 9/11 families want Gitmo kept open"
('thestar.com').