I laughed when I read Craig at Is the BBC biased? (Yes it is) saying he didn’t trust the cherry-picking Cardiff Uni-style mass of distorting quirks…..I had just been reading some of their work and one of the august journals that gives them a platform to spread their particular brand of bunk….The Conversation.
This is what ‘The Conversation’ says about itself….
The Conversation is an independent source of news and views, sourced from the academic and research community and delivered direct to the public.
Access to independent, high quality, authenticated, explanatory journalism underpins a functioning democracy. Our aim is to allow for better understanding of current affairs and complex issues. And hopefully allow for a better quality of public discourse and conversations.
We aim to help rebuild trust in journalism.
They are different from other, less trustworthy media organisations because…
The Conversation provides readers with a free high-grade and trusted information service.
We are quite different to anything else in the media for the following reasons:
In a world of misinformation and spin, The Conversation contributes to healthy democratic discourse by injecting facts and evidence into the public arena.
Who said that? Stephen Khan, Editor.
That’ll be Stephen Khan from the Guardian, Observer and the lefty Independent. Thank heavens he, and his team of inky superhero’s in search of truth and justice, are there to protect us from all that Murdochian misinformation and spin!
When ‘The Conversation’ looks at The controversial business of researching BBC impartiality who does it go to for its research?…..
- Mike Berry
- Justin Lewis
Professor of Communication at Cardiff University
- Karin Wahl-Jorgensen
Professor; Director of Research Development and Environment, School of Journalism at Cardiff University
- Kerry Moore
Lecturer of journalism, media and cultural studies at Cardiff University
- Richard Sambrook
Professor of Journalism at Cardiff University
- Richard Tait
Professor of Journalism at Cardiff Universi
Let’s think...Mike Berry…pro-BBC but likes to spin it that the BBC is right-wing…his famous conclusion…’So the evidence from the research is clear. The BBC tends to reproduce a Conservative, Eurosceptic, pro-business version of the world, not a left-wing, anti-business agenda.‘, and he is of course an anti-Israeli lefty; Sambrook, ex-BBC; Tait, ex-BBC; Moore, Hmmm…her choice of subject matter...’Kerry Moore’s research explores media and political discourses surrounding migration, racism and cultural identity. Her most recent publications explore asylum and refugee issues in journalism and government policy, ‘crisis’ narratives in media representations of migration and cultural difference, media constructions of young black men, and Islam in the news.’ ; and Karin Wahl-Jorgensen who has very close ties to the EU and their purse strings….just one example...’she has been Principal UK Investigator on a €4 million European Commission funded project on the European Public Sphere.’….and she also writes for the far left rag Red Pepper.
And of course the omnipresent Justin Lewis, also from Cardfiff Uni, who has long, long had a thing for the BBC. and is clear that…‘ the accusation of BBC anti-war bias fails to stand up to any serious or sustained analysis. ‘ He also peddles the usual line about the BBC’s critics…’ Leading the charge are conservative media owners and their press outlets.’ He is also the author of this….‘A monster threatens UK broadcasting? It’s Sky, not the BBC.’
Hardly independent of the BBC nor of the values of the BBC and its favourite hobby horses. It seems unlikely, and has proven so in fact, that they will criticise the BBC in any meaningful way.
For example here is Richard Sambrook giving us his recent appraisal of the BBC’s future…
There is now a clear choice following the publication of the British government’s green paper into the future of the BBC.
A good start….seems like he is giving us a choice.
You’d be wrong.
We get a long homily to the glory of the BBC and its benefits to society…
[One view of the BBC] believes there is an increasing role for a trusted voice in the increasingly crowded digital market – one that is accountable, focused on the public – as opposed to commercial or political – interests; that seeks to bind the country together through shared experience and national debate; that seeks to offer a diversity of views to challenge the homophily of our other media habits; that contributes to supporting and developing the creative sector in the UK and which ties the UK together to the rest of the world through international programming and services. It recognises the BBC as the UK’s only global media brand – and one which has to have the resource and remit to continue to innovate in a dynamic, international marketplace.
And ‘In the other corner is a view’ that hands over the media sphere to the commercial companies...’ it doesn’t believe the BBC can or should try to compete with the global behemoths starting to dominate our media consumption.’ That sums up Sambrook’s idea of the other view…essentially Murdoch, the enemy, will emerge triumphant…oh no!!!
He paints one side as negative the other as positive…
One view is inclusive and outward focused, recognising a UK role in a global market.
The other is driven by more insular concerns about the UK market and exclusive in its approach to programming.
Here’s a less than subtle criticism of the Charter review panel….
Whittingdale [is] assisted by an expert panel of largely commercial media experts most of whom have been critical of some aspect of the current arrangements.
Then there’s this…
And of course this follows a licence fee deal once again rushed through behind closed doors with significant extra costs imposed on the BBC under the threat of worse if it didn’t agree.
It’s the way governments hobble public broadcasters the world over.
Back to the ideological or political rather than just good housekeeping when restructuring the BBC and the government isn’t here to improve the BBC but to do a hatchet job on it.
Here he is even more blatant in suggesting this is political…
In Australia, a government-sponsored efficiency review has led to significant cuts in the budget of the ABC following politicians’ complaints about bias and insufficient support “for the home team”.
Now in Britain a similar assault is underway.
According to Sambrook it’s ‘right-wing politicians and newspapers, ideologically opposed to large public intervention in the market, that fuel discontent about the BBC.’
What he is saying of course is that any criticism of the BBC is unjustified and purely driven by right-wing ideology and prejudice….which is a comment that is somewhat prejudiced and ill-informed itself….and all the more funny when you read a following sentence...’Most discussion is governed by a triumph of opinion over fact.’ Well yes, certainly when concerned with any ‘facts’ and ‘research’ we get from Cardiff.
Oh and that choice he was keen to offer us in his position as impartial observer at an academic institution?
As a senior manager there [at the BBC] I used to tell staff who felt under siege with wave after wave of newspaper and political criticism that it meant we still mattered. And that is the point. Its critics, for ideological or commercial reasons [that old chestnut yet again], want it diminished and to matter less.
If the people of Britain do not want to see the erosion and dismantling of one of the country’s most successful public institutions, they need to make it unambiguously clear now. So what kind of BBC do you want?
I guess he’s not that impartial after all.