Have the politicians finally woken up to the enormous damage the BBC does to British interests?…Just a shame they don’t also investigate the BBC’s undermining of security and anti-terrorism actions and its promotion of the Islamist cause…
BBC risks undermining Brexit and damaging UK with ‘pessimistic and skewed’ coverage, 70 MPs warn
The BBC risks undermining Brexit and damaging the UK’s reputation with its “pessimistic and skewed” coverage, MPs have warned.
More than 70 MPs from across the political spectrum have written to Lord Hall, the director-general of the BBC, accusing the corporation of portraying the UK as a “xenophobic” nation that regrets the vote to leave the EU.
They say that the corporation has failed to “break out of pre-referendum pessimism” and accept the “economic good news” the UK has enjoyed since the referendum.
The letter comes after months of mounting anger in the Conservative Party about the corporation’s coverage of Brexit in the wake of the EU referendum.
“Some of the signatories of this letter shared many of the concerns about the economic impact of Brexit, but all are delighted to find forecasts of immediate economic harm were at best misplaced. So-called ‘despite Brexit’ reporting may be expected of a partisan press, but licence fee-payers have the right to expect better.”
The letter adds that “BBC bias can have a substantial effect on national debate. We fear that, by misrepresenting our country either as xenophobic or regretful of the Leave vote, the BBC will undermine our efforts to carve out a new, global role for this country.”
You only have to look at the make-up of the Question Time panel post referendum; typically Leave 2, Remain 3. I can’t recall a Leave majority on the panel at all.
The BBC and Lord Hall will take not a jot of notice .They are ensconced in their feather bedded ivory tower and its two fingers to the people who pay their poll tax and keep them in their lifestyle.
Trump and Russia …Another fake news theme from the BBC .It really is getting very tiresome .
The Tories had their chance to curtail the activities and bottled it.They feel very safe with their magic money tree.
I must be one of thousands who simply don’t bother with the BBC anymore and it will only escalate. Eventually they will have to be brought down to size ,but who or what is going to do it ,I don’t know.
The BBC continues to fail to investigate Labour’s complicity in the mass abuse of Sikh and White children by Muslim rapists here in the UK. To date 5505 victims spread across 46 English towns and cities.
If we come off badly from Brexit we will know exactly who to blame the quislings in the media.
07.15am . Only just turned on Today, wall to wall coverage of Martin McGuiness at the moment, has there been a mention of the MP’s letter ?
What would it take to get Lord Hall in front of “Committee” at Westminster.?
This is of course welcome, albeit overdue. Wheels grind exceeding slow, it has taken a long time to get this far, but Brexit has once again become a means of fighting back.
They question must be, what will be done? We all fear nothing. The Left controls too much of government and society in general; lets hope this is built upon.
The BBC must be broken up.
A BBC spokewoman said in response to the complaint:
“The BBC is covering the political and financial events following the referendum vote in a responsible and impartial way. The BBC is also one of the great exports of this country and makes a significant contribution to the UK creative sector. ”
Unfortunately Deborah and Badger you are both right. Nothing will be done now as the best chance to lance the BBC boil was deliberately fudged and there is not now the political will to take this organisation on which has now metastasized from a irritating lesion into a full blown cancer.
Theresa and the tories are too much of “good publicity junkees” to even think about questioning the behavior of this devious organisation.
Yes it needs to be broken. Who will dare to do this I know not. But unfortunately events will need to get a lot worse before anyone in power will have the balls to take on this publicly funded parasite.
As the above statement implies this organisation is completely detached from reality with a grandiose and inflated view of its self worth. And it considers that therefore it has a moral right to manipulate news and events to fit in with its own political agenda.
Once upon a time this was called lying now the BBC calls it news.
Now on Today – no one from BBC to give official response, hence can dodge the issue.
They are treading carefully, quite a deferential response in places.
There is no prospect that Brussels Broadcasting under Hall will give any ground at all. You need only to look underneath the surface of a seemingly insignificant story such as the “battle over your TV guide” from yesterday to see exactly what we are up against.
James Purnell, a former Labour Secretary of State for ‘Kultur’, and BBC’s director of radio and education, wrote in the Daily Telegraph that “sensible action” needed to be taken, or “we’re at serious risk of losing something very special about our British culture” referring to the fact that people are now able to make up their own minds on how and what they want to watch on their TV. So in the House of Lords a crossbencher is trying to amend the Digital Economy Bill to “protect the place of public broadcasters”. And who is this crossbencher ? Why none other than Lord Wood of Anfield- Stewart Wood, former Tonbridge grammar school boy and PPE from Oxford, adviser to Gordon Brown on economics, education and EU policy,adviser to Ed Milliband and election campaign helper (and thus by association contributor to the Edstone), and at one time working with the “Policy Network” think tank whose current president is-Peter Mandelson.
Old Boy network ? What Old Boy network.
“BBC’s Brexit coverage pessimistic and skewed, say MPs.”
Nooo – BBC coverage of EVERYTHING skewed, say we.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39335904
I always like the tiny, snide digs we get every day from our much-beloved W1 A scribblers. For example take this one yesterday from dear Katty Kay talking about US Supreme Court judge nominee ” Neil Gorsuch :
“Gorsuch, educated by the Ivy League”- implying that he’s just another rich, privileged republican. Well its true, Gorsuch took his first degree from Columbia University in New York and his law degree at Harvard, but what she misses out is that he won a Truman Scholarship (described as one of the most competitive US scholarship programmes) to get to Harvard and that he also subsequently won a UK Marshall Scholarship to to take his Doctor of Philosophy degree at Oxford.
Ok its a news bulletin so no-one is going to read out the guy’s cv but how about instead ” Gorusch a highly qualified candidate” nah- a Trump pick- not a bloody chance.
It sounds as if Gorsuch is a highly intelligent, hard working man. How dare Trump appoint him to the Supreme Court!
Compare his treatment to that of another man, who went from Columbia to Harvard Law School, became editor of the Harvard Law Review, but never wrote an article, used the law to keep his university record a secret, and is not recalled by people who attended the same law classes which he allegedly attended.
The left wing BBC think that this man is the greatest politician who ever walked the Earth. But they are not biased. Dear me no, the very thought…
It was discussed a bit on Radio 4 this morning but there was a bit of sniggering in the tone.
I wonder how much sniggering they will be doing when the Tories finally grow some balls and end their £4bn annual subsidy.
While its good to see these MPs raising BBC bias over Brexit, I doubt it will change anything . The fact is that the BBC is not accountable in any meaningful sense. Knowing this and seeing the Government back off by renewing the 10 year charter and changing very little, the BBC has become even more brazen in its bias.
Expect continuing anti- Brexit attitudes, starting with the programme David Dimbleby is hosting next Monday.Also expect a bland response to the letter from the new Chairman of the BBC Trust , who was copied in.
Reform is impossible. These MPs are wasting their time as the BBC is culturally unable to endure criticism and always blames those who criticise it. It is going to fade away not because we manage to get rid of it but because Netflix, Amazon.Sky etc etc will do for it and the new generations are going to ignore it.
They know that the young people have no interest or time for it now so are getting desperate.
The last great state behemoth long overdue finishing off.