Lord Carlile, the veteran Lib Dem peer, is complaining to the BBC Trust about the corporation’s biased coverage promoting the legalisation of so-called assisted dying. The phrase itself, of course, is repulsive Newspeak that citizen Smith would have instantly recognised. It’s a classic liberal BBC cause: how can it not be right to show ‘mercy’ to a dying loved one by smothering them or filling them with poison? My analysis of the BBC website this morning shows that every utterance by those in favour, such as the novelist Sir Terry Pratchett (who wants the establishment of killing panels); camapaigner and MS sufferer Debbie Purdy; and the lefty journalist Ray Gosling have been slavishly followed and boosted to headline status as if their words were the Holy Writ. To be fair, those against – such as George Galloway – have also been given some airtime; but the overwhelming coverage has been of those who want this form of murder legalised. And of course, the BBC Trust, as they always do, will firmly but politely tell Lord Carlile to go forth and multiply.
DYING CAUSE…
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While I agree with your case that there has been bias, I think the case would be better put if you did not use the word “murder” which just suggests that you are unwilling to listen to any opinion but your own extreme view.
This is a debatable point. I, like many readers here, am a libertarian. I think people should have choice about as many aspects of their lives as possible, which is in fundamental opposition to the usual BBC viewpoint of big-government socialism. However in this case I agree with the BBC’s viewpoint. The assumption that we should control our own lives extends to the manner of their ending in the few cases where that is possible.
You can make an excellent case for bias here, one which I would applaud; I don’t want that bias shown just because I agree with the conclusion. You don’t make a good case because you show far too much bias yourself, turning he post into a nasty rant and insulting the intelligence of your readers.
If you want to take your own life (eg. with an overdose of sleeping pills) that’s fine. Suicide is legal. However, if Gosling, Pratchet’s panel or Purdy’s husband decide to smoother you with a pillow, that’s murder and should be treated as such by the law.
The BBC bias on this issue is very sinister, especially with an ever aging population and terrible public finances. I don’t want the state sanctioning and encouraging my murder if I become a burden thanks very much.
A nasty rant and insulting the intelligence of the readers? How oversensitive can you get.
I think you make a very good point about the tendency of many posters here to promote their own point of view above exposing BBC bias, but then you went and ruined it!
When RH is willing to give some thing that might pass as kudos to a repulsive human being like George Galloway, that balances the piece out considerably.
The point is that the BBC shouldn’t have a “viewpoint” !
I noticed that the BBC reports about Ray Gosling’s killing of a man, went on to write about assisted suicide and CPS guidelines, as if the smothering of that man was a suicide. To me, even taking as true what Gosling told us, that wasn’t a suicide, assisted or otherwise.
So how was the BBC in a position to decide that it was and why bring a discussion about assisted suicide into it rather than merely report the facts as known?