It doesn’t take long for things to start to unravel.
The BBC’s impartiality review, conducted by Cardiff University, has some major flaws.
Even without reading it you can already pick holes in it.
Its terms of reference were obviously far too narrow..ironic for a review that was concerned with ‘breadth of opinion’.
Two major topics of concern are missing…climate change and Israel.
Strangely Israel was also missing in any meaningful way from the Seesaw to Wagon Wheel report as well.
But another question might be asked….why Cardiff University? Or indeed any university.
Academics are notoriously left wing…and ‘extreme’…. ‘Academics have deeper knowledge but some also hold extreme views’….hardly a good starting point.
If this was conducted by students you have to ask do they have the experience and depth of knowledge needed to judge ‘bias’ in the BBC’s output….they would need a wide ranging and deep knowledge of world affairs to be able to do the job properly….did they?
And look at Cardiff….and the BBC’s relationship with it….the BBC has close ties to Cardiff which seems to be the ‘go to’ place when the BBC wants some research done.
Cardiff research recognised for reshaping the BBC’s post-devolution news agenda
22 May 2013
A Cardiff University research project that helped change the way the BBC reports on political issues has been recognised for its impact at the University’s prestigious Innovation and Impact Awards.
and how about this:
Professor Richard Sambrook – BA (Reading), MSc (Birkbeck, London)
Position: Director – Centre for Journalism Email: SambrookRJ@cardiff.ac.uk
Blog: JOMEC @ Cardiff University
Twitter: @Sambrook
Richard Sambrook is Professor of Journalism and Director of the Centre for Journalism which undertakes postgraduate vocational training. He is a former Director of Global News at the BBC where he worked as a journalist for 30 years as a producer, editor and manager.
Oh…and look..who was a previous director of journalism at Cardiff:
Professor Richard Tait CBE, was Director of the Centre for Journalism Studies at Cardiff University[1] and a member of the BBC Trust, the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation.
and it looks like he is still there as a ‘professor of journalism’
Professor Richard Tait – M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon)
All of which probably means nothing at all…but it hardly inspires confidence in the independence of Cardiff.
And nothing on promotion of, and non-criticism of matters Islamic, compared with Beeboid treatment of Christianity.
Sambrook was the clown in direct charge of BBC news at the time of the David Kelly affair. It was entirely his stupid fault that the affair escalated into an all-out fight with Downing Street – absent any care and attention being paid by Greg Dyke as Director General and therefore “editor-in-chief”, and absent any proper oversight by the BBC Governors.
If Sambook had conceded that the original Andrew Gilligan report on the Today programme crossed the bounds of accuracy – at least somewhat – the matter would have not spun out of control. And Dr. David Kelly would likely be OK. But Sambrook dug himself in, and his letters read in an insulting manner. He did not have to grovel to Downing Street – but he should have taken the matter much more seriously
I remember at the time seeing the ignorant and petulant letter Sambrook was writing – seldom dealing properly with the arguments, and thinking “What an arrogant, complacent clown”. Of course arrogance is a trait more generally of senior BBC personnel.
Regardless of what happened at the subsequent Hutton enquiry, the affair was a striking example of editorial mismanagement at the BBC. Focussed on Sambrook.
The idea that Sambrook should be anywhere near any enquiry into BBC impartiality or openness of mind is a travesty.
“Academics are notoriously left wing…and ‘extreme’”
Depends what you study, really. This is true if you study sociology or “Gender Studies”, but I’ve done economics and technology subjects and they are pretty hard-headed in those subjects.
The trouble is that the whole of left wing “progressive” politics is based on a theory – Marx’s theory of class conflict. It is the imposition of a theoretical idea of the way things should be on to the way they are. It has been refined and extended over the years, most notably into sexual and racial relations, so the roots are obscure now, but that is what it is based on originally.
Just watching the Sky ‘news’, with live coverage from Tahir Square…. On a hotel balcony… With two white blokes, one a flown in anchor.
It was a different time.
Wonder if any lady colleagues were down in the side-streets doing vox pops?
They were ‘analysing’ away, as you do, but one thing seemed to excite them.
Seems the Muslim Brotherhood had issued a ‘beautifully written’ statement… in English.. on… ‘Social Media’.
I found this rather interesting. Seems the MB doesn’t see much point in appealing to their countrymen, but out to the West via twitter, default news gathering tool of news gathering tools… no question.
One is sure the new team at the BBC ME desk, under the professional guidance of Mr. Bowen, would not be swayed by such things.
I wonder how much Sambrook got paid to leave the BBC? Surely the time has come for the Tories to make a start at getting rid of the BBC. There have been so many scandals at the BBC in the last year or so that they have the perfect excuse to conduct a Leveson style witch hunt into the BBC. Which, if conducted by a suitable individual, is bound to find plenty of serious stuff which can be used to at least rein in the BBC or better lead to its closure.
My advice to the Tories is, don’t let the liberal left stop, you get stuck into the BBC , ignore all the legal impediments they will throw up, close down as quickly as possible ,then let them rant and rave all they like . Once its broken it will never be able to be reconstituted.
Basically just do to the liberal left what they did to the country over immigration, do it first and then have a discussion.
Anyone know why Cardiff ‘University’ is planting cookies when this page on Biased BBC is opened?