Although we concern ourselves most frequently with BBC news, I though this was an interesting tour de force commentary from a B-BBC reader.
“I’m concerned notso-much by the News Content (which, whilst biased, is probably the most obviousform of it and thus easiest to counteract) but by the infiltration of biaswithin Drama.
For example, if “EastEnders” were an accurate representation of EastLondon (where I’ve lived previously), approximately 60%-80% of characters wouldbe Muslim/Asian, and most likely there would be a “Sharia ControlZone”… If they were feeling refreshingly honest, they’d show the bigotedposters and slogans painted across east-london involving the advocacy of thedeath-penalty for jews, homosexuals, apostates and non-believers (depending,usually, upon where precisely you live).
Moreover as regards this particular issue, BBC London News (i.e. not thenational news that everyone sees but the local london news that increasinglynon-homogenous audiences are watching) have given these Islamists air-time. Ifthey were feeling really honest, EastEnders would probably include a BBC LondonNews crew apologising for Islamists, giving airtime to the IFE, Anjem Choudharyand Lutfur Rahman (and presenting them as peace-lovers!) for some “neighbours”scheme that better resembles a one-way street of giving-and-taking betweenislamists and their opponents in Tower Hamlets and surrounding areas.
What particularly motivated me to write this was watching today’s episode of“Doctors” (aired 3rd August). The main storyline (as implied by the”if you’re affected by [insert character here]’s story” after theprogramme) told the story of female immigrant from Botswana, who is victimisedand persecuted by a gang of white-racist bigots, who smash-up her garden andurinate on her laundry. That’s not all, for they’re also enabled (i.e.defended/justified/aided) by a bigoted, church-going, old white woman.
How, precisely, is this representative of anywhere in Britain? I’d like to seethe examples of widespread incidents of white-gangs urinating on immigrants’washing… or which church-going, old white ladies think it’s acceptable. Ialso think it’s insulting to Botswana – whom the character thinks is”violent” and is described in not-very attractive terms.
If it’s consideredgood enough to hold the world-debating championships, for Top-Gear to show asan example of a good african government and overall, hasn’t really warrantedany international attention for human-rights abuses, misspending Aid Money,starting wars (etc, etc); I doubt that the country is so bad as to warrantemigration because of reasons including racial violence and lawlessness. Yes,it may not be the richest country in the world, but it certainly isn’t ahellhole either.
All of this reminds me of Spooks. That bloody drama the BBC thought was so good- the dogs-b*ll*cks, so to speak – because it was so accurate andrepresentative of our right-on MI5 agents. To describe the content quickly, Irefer to the first-season I have on box-set. Episode 1 told us about a Pro-Lifemovement that bombed abortion-doctors. Episode 2 continued, with right-wingpoliticians and extremists planning a race-war in Britain. Are theserepresentative of Noughties’ Britain? Other episodes (that I’ve seen fromSeason 5) have included Islamist Al-Qaeda terrorists who take over a SaudiEmbassy to murder innocent people – only to turn-out as Secret-Israeli Mossadagents. In another episode, two fundamentalist Islamic clerics were murdered bya ‘radical christian group’.
All of this is indicative of the way BBC producers and writers see Britaintoday. And it doesn’t match a-jot of what anyone else has experienced. Anyopposition to immigration? Racist. Any opposition to Islamists?Islamophobic/Fundamentalist-Christian. I’ve watched with dismay as the BBC havesmeared-by-association anyone associated with Anders Behring-Breivik’s supposedgrievances (whether it’s opposition to multiculturalism, acknowledgement ofdemographic determinism or anything else) and reported-with-glee over phone-hackingin Murdoch’s newspapers (I see they haven’t brought the same inquisitionagainst the Mirror Group).
They’ll continue on this pattern through anything, whether it’s support for theEuro whatever the costs, bias against Israel in the Middle-East conflicts andwhatever other issues remain. I believe, however, that much of the BBC’s biasremains to be acknowledged, let-alone tackled. The future for Biased BBCrequires as-much a watchful-eye over the BBC’s dramas (where no neutralitytsars remain to tame the undoubted prejudices of BBC journos, writers andworkers) and documentaries, rather than it’s news coverage.”
“Tour de Force” is spot on description of extremely well written post. Hats off to the writer for having the stomach to watch and report on so much so called drama. As for BBC London News, I had no idea it could be so horrible either. Depressing as it all is, the one redeeming fact is that more and more people are angry enough to speak out, and here at least is an invaluable forum to do so.
This is an excellent post. I have always thought that the inherent bias in BBC Drama and “Comedy” as far worse and more insidious than anything they achieve in their “news” or “current affairs”. I have deliberately supplied inverted commas in my previous sentence where I think the official term is misleading, e.g. most right-on, left-wing comedy is as funny as a root canal filling.
When I first commented on this site I made some comment about the comedy/drama side and one person replied that it wasn’t very important and we only need to monitor the Current Affairs/News. I replied, as did others, that in many ways it is much worse as people are not always aware that they are being led to a particular viewpoint.
Drama was Goebbels’s favourite means of propaganda and the BBC have obviously learned from their predecessor. I remember during the days of Margaret Thatcher that the attacks on her were relentless. Truth had no place in their attacks but the British public saw the benefits she brought to the country and she was re-elected twice more. However, this propaganda of the time stuck and now it appears to be an accepted “fact” that Thatcher stole from the poor to give to the rich; whereas in fact all sections of the community got richer. The lower earners had now more possessions than ever before including a massive increase of house ownership. Now people believe that there were gangs of feral Conservatives raiding poor people’s houses like the tax-collectors of King John.
It must be remembered though that comedy is a greater force for indoctrination even than drama.
The bias in drama has always irritated me. Does anyone remember the obnoxious drama called ‘white girl’ that was shown on BBC as part of their ‘white Britain series’? It was pure propaganda, featuring at one point a teenage girl praying to Allah whilst her alcoholic mother was prostrate through drunkenness in the background.
At the end the mother was sober enough to divorce her abusive partner by saying ‘I divorce you’ three times as per Sharia law. It never seemed to have dawned on the leftist moron who scripted it, that under Islam only the male partner can that! Still can’t wait for the next drama that will see a teenage muslim girl evading a pending honour killing, by seeking refuge with a group of evangelical Christians, bound to happen…
BBC would argue drama is fiction, not subject to the test of truthfulness in the same way as news reporting. They fail abysmally on that too, but fiction is not a license to tell lies about the world either, and certainly not the grotesque inversion of reality that flows from the BBC’s stable of writers. It is not drama so much as propaganda. Think of Ken Loach, drama always through a marxist prism.
BBC’s drama commissioning controller Ben Stephenson writes the following:
‘We need to foster peculiarity, idiosyncrasy, stubborn-mindedness, left-of-centre thinking.’
The BBC could save a fortune on their drama budget by simply cutting to a neon sign flashing VOTE LABOUR.
This post makes an important point. Bias isn’t just a matter of misrepresenting facts, it’s also about shaping attitudes. People are prepared to belive that the Norweigan gunman was a Christian fundementalist not just because the BBC’s news division has spent hours implying it, but also because years of drama output has depicted Christians as dangerous nutcases. Ditto, the US. Would the BBC’s sliming of the Tea Parties have been as effective without years of Americans, and particularly patriotic ones, being depicted as insular morons?
I am forced to watch Doctors and I fully support the point made about the current outrageous story line!
forced??
Hey everybody, I remember writing this and am glad it chimes with so-many of you. I hadn’t watched Doctors until then – because I’ve either been in education or employment – but watching it just made me feel so angry. I just thought I’d clarify: It is good that this site watches the news content religiously – and it should possibly watch the local news a little closer – but like i say, the drama is really where no-one watches out for the bias that continues to shape the world view of Britons from cradle to grave.