We’ve already looked at the BBC’s decision to put on a huge EU referendum debate just two days before the actual vote, concluding that it was likely that the BBC believed that such a circus would benefit the pro-EU campaign persuading, nudging, the ‘don’t knows’ into voting ‘stay’.
David Dimbleby front’s the BBC’s EU coverage and will lead a debate to be held at Wembley Arena just two days before the referendum.
This is pure showbiz from the BBC….there’s absolutely no need to hold such a major debate at such a massive venue and at such a dramatic time. The BBC’s description of the event is possibly more truthful than they intended to let on….’The corporation’s biggest ever campaign event’.
We know that the vote might be close and the BBC has obviously ‘gamed’ this final debate and come to the conclusion that those crucial few votes may be swung by this debate, the über pro-EU BBC wouldn’t take the risk otherwise….As it is controlled and marshalled by BBC presenters who can define the limits of the debate, set out the arguments and choose the questions it is in their power to finesse their presentation so that it favours, they hope imperceptibly, the pro-EU side. The audience is supposedly self-selecting, 50-50 pro-EU/pro-Brexit but of course that is all down to the audience’s honesty, how does the BBC select those who ask questions? Do they pick the inarticulate, the working class, those with ‘extreme’ views about the EU? How often have we seen that contrast on the BBC when the person giving the narrative that the BBC would seem to support is the educated, articulate, middle class professional and the opposing view is put by someone the BBC wants to portray as an uneducated bigot?
However it seems the ‘Inners’ are also rather doubtful about the debate and the Times tells us they are out to ‘scupper BBC debate at Wembley’.
They think it will be a ‘circus’ and that the audience will favour the Brexit side. They would like the venue to change to one more suitable for a serious debate.
What’s interesting is the BBC’s reply…
A senior BBC figure said: “By going public on briefing against us, they have made it harder, not easier, for us to change position. The last thing we can be seen to do is concede to one side or another.”
So the BBC would have changed the venue if the pro-EU side had come to them behind closed doors….it’s OK as long as the public don’t see the ‘fix’ going in.
I would suggest that such a debate about the venue be held in the open with both parties…it’s not hard to organise surely? There would then be no question of the BBC being seen to be conceding to one side or the other and no secret deals being done behind those closed doors which we must now assume go on all the time between the BBC and the politicians…so much for independence, openness and accountability…and trust.
I have no doubt that this is yet another attempt by the BBC to poison democracy, something they carry out with consummate skill on an almost daily basis. However, choosing to conduct this circus 48 hours before the referendum vote tips their hand. The clumsiness of this speaks volumes about their attitude to the plebs. We are the BBC, we can do what we want, when we want, so suck it up regardless of how we are going to influence the more feeble of mind.
If this organisation goes down the road of encrypting access to its iPlayer then they have the means to implement it for their regular output. If that is the case then people will have to pay for access to mainstream TV, therefore rendering the TV tax obsolete.
You want it you pay for it. You don’t want it you don’t pay for it. Simple really. Lets see how the ‘envy of the world’ survives then.
Hold the debate 2 days before the referendum so any complaint of bias has no chanxce of being corrected before we vote. How canny/devious is that ? Why not 2 weeks before voting, so bias can be examined in public ?
Finer minds than mine might be able to tell me when the BBC reached this tipping point from “reporting news” to setting agendas in order to shut down unwanted voices, and massage a lefty progressive culcha of their own devising.
One example last year was the BBC effort to force Cameron onto a debate between party leaders before the election.
It really is NOT the BBCs job to do that-any more than their regular efforts to create a whining lefty narrative for all the lefty grievance mongs based on race, disability, gender or a.n other.
“Sources have told”…”The BBC understands” or “The BBC has learned that”…”Under a Freedom Of Info request submitted by the BBC”…and all that jazz.
The buggers need defanging and the toxins rendered harmless-the BBCs view on Trump, The EU, immigration and the need for a Lefty Government is all too clear to us…so no need to pretend that they`ll be balanced in creating anything other that a Farage ducking stool.
Hope to God nobody bothers the BBC from our side,,,let Clegg, Ashdown,Heseltine, Clarke, Johnson and Lucas hang themselves…the more we see of those grubbing loons, the bigger the Out vote will be.
AND-let us never forget-the whole liberal circus I name as well as the BBC-not ONE of them ever wanted a referendum on any of this…no wonder they`re kakking themselves…and let`s hope they`ll be wanting Imodium and not a podium on June 24th…what a coup to lose a generation of old menses like Menzies!
Another great post ChrisH and oh so spot on with your observations. The thing is, in the environments that I move in, more and more “plebs” are at last, beginning to think like you.
Wembley Arena , London . Why London , which is so untypical of the country it is the capital of that it will vote to remain ? Couldn’t the Beeboids find a place up north , as they are supposed to have a place at Salford ? I think we should get a campaign going to make them hold the venue somewhere else , and portray them as Londoncentric and against the rest of the country if they don’t .