“Impartiality? Not, say the Tories, with Labour figures heading the regulators” Peter Preston writing in today’s Observer
“Paul Farrelly, the Labour MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme, had a Commons question for our new culture secretary last week. Would the rules governing impartial television news remain sacrosanct in coalition land? To which Jeremy Hunt could have said simply “Yes – I’ve no plans to change anything”. But in fact he went on for a rather fascinating couple of sentences. “We will take no lessons on impartiality from the opposition,” he said, somewhat brusquely. Then he added: “There are two people responsible for impartiality in British broadcasting – the head of Ofcom and the head of the BBC Trust. One is a former Labour councillor and the other is a former Labour special adviser.”
That’s actually the only interesting bit. He goes on to make snippy comments about Boris Johnson’s father for no apparent reason. But it shows that Jeremy Hunt has his eyes open at least.
Can I stress the importance of anyone posting here, taking the time to e-mail their MP fairly regularly to point out the bbc bias problem.
Most of them accept that its a fact, but they have to be able to say they get lots of complaints from constituents, before it permeates through into ‘the party line.’
Yes indeed Backwoodsman. It’s not difficult and weight of correspondence is important.
Sent my complaint about bBC bias direct to Hunt several weeks ago. Was told to send my complaint to OFCOM. I did not, but I had registered my dislike of the beeb.
i have posted emails to mr hunt since he came into power.In fact almost every day and have not got a reply once….lets hope he will take note so thay we can all save £140 plus this year
Agreed, I’ve emaile Hunt and my own MP on several occasions (I’ve also written to my MP) and had very little feedback.
The Tories just seem to accept the bias in the BBC towards them, they’ve grown up with it.
The MPs and MEPs who have shown most interest in my complaints are the ones who aren’t in the government – the excluded conservatives. It would be good to keep them on board, but if David Cameron, Jeremy Hunt and co. choose to ignore them (as they seems very happy to do) they aren’t going to be of much use to us.
Um. Paul Farrelly is my local MP………. :-[
Very interesting but when is something going to be done about the BBC. Its support for everything left and its hidden accounts. If I pay for it i should know about every penny it spends.
Surely the first easy step is to make the BBC publish all its accounts in detail. Why has Mr Hunt not done this on day one. Other areas are being sorted ( ie Mr Pickles) why not the BBC.
His wife Lucia will be distraught to hear that news 🙂
What you are correctly recalling is that he spoke at London Gay Pride in 2009. He had beer bottles thrown at him. Presumably empty ones.
Uuf! In that case I look on with profound interest at what action the happily married Mr Hunt takes!
It is better, I think, to make any complaints about outright endemic bias at the BBC to your MP – asking him to send it to the Culture Secretary. The MP’s staff then send it to Hunt’s office for a reply – which the MP then routes back to you.
Any letter (with enclosure) from an MP gets higher-grade treatment than a letter from Joe Public to a Minister. It becomes an “MP’s case”, quicker reply etc.
http://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/Letter_writing
Great thinking! Although in my case the problem with that is that my MP is Jeremy Corbyn!
It does not usually matter which party the MP belongs to. His staff pass on virtually all letters to the appropriate Minister – or local authority – and then relay the reply back to the constituent.
Isn’t Corbyn way past his sell-by date ? Certainly that bloody corduroy jacket is !
John, the DSS once undercalculated money I owed them and I paid them back the correct amount (about 40 pounds over). A few months later the DSS threatened to take me to Court for not repaying them. I pointed out the amount and the day the cheque had cleared my account. Another threatening letter and a Summons. I warned them when pointing out for a third time their mistake that my letter was with prejudice and may be used against them in a Court of law. The DSS discontinued their prosecution but only on the grounds ‘as you’ve now paid the money’!!!
Across a two month interval I twice wrote to Mr Corbyn asking him to look into the matter of so that I get a due apology for this gross maladministration, but nothing. The third time I wrote (CCing it to the Conservatives and Liberals) along the lines of as I’m not an IRA supporting ethnic lesbian but an honest law-abiding sap it doesn’t surprise me you have completely ignored my two letters and I dont intend wasting any more time with you, I came back from work two days later to find a VM from him expressing utter perplexity as to how this could have all happened and his eagerness to help. Needless to say, I stuck to not having him waste any more of my time.
No, I dont have much confidence that this anti-Semitic trotskyite would pass on complaints of BBC bias to Mr Hunt!
You’ll have heard about this then? I thought you were in Barcelona.
I live there but I dont vote there. If I voted in Spain I would lose the right to vote in England, and I shall live and die an Englishman.
Interesting how Preston seems to think that Labour placemen are a guarantor of impartiality but Ann Widdecombe and BJ’s dad would make the BBC Fox News. With people like Preston (ie a huge amount of the left) not being biased in favour of the left means being biased against it. If they judge people by their own low standards its not surprising.
[And my profound balderdash below now duly rescinded]
I have to say though, that I believe (and profound apologies if my memory serves me wrong) that Jeremy Hunt is a homosexual and this in itself makes it very unlikely he will want to restore true impartiality to the BBC if it risks sacrificing the BBC’s huge bias in favour of the homosexual lobby. Not impossible, but unlikely.
Today, 16:23:09– Flag – Like – Reply – Delete
I notice that the BBC has been reporting on the new cluster bomb treaty that came into force today, the ONLY nation they mention that hasn’t signed up is the USA, but they fail to point out that Barry Obama doesn’t want to ban the use of them, you can bet if Bush were still in power the rent boy lovers at the BBC would be up in arms.
Oh and the BBC failed to mention that China and Russia haven’t signed up either.
And what exactly is stopping them from filling in with details like those, to give a more balanced, well-rounded and er, impartial report? Absolutely nothing! Textbook example of pure bias by omission.
Adam Smith Institute proposes scrapping the TV tax and letting the BBC be funded by subscription. Well well well, let’s see if the Tories have the balls to follow this up.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-10815162
I read that article with disbelief and dismay, both at the language used and the naked pitch for global domination. I wondered: What is it with the Adam Smith Institute, proposing to retain free access to BBC news and children’s programmes, the most toxic parts of the BBC, while proposing subscription for drama and entertainment?
Then all became clear: the report for the Adam Smith Institute was written by a former BBC producer. Flipping heck! You could not make it up. It’s like something Mark Thompson could have written for political and public consumption, acknowledging competition issues, while cleverly calculating how to preserve the special position and influence of the BBC world empire.
God help anyone who thinks we are ever going to get the BBC cut down to size.