John Redwood has realised the BBC isn’t there to report the news but to shape the news….
The BBC is more interested in shaping the news agenda than reporting it, says John Redwood.
Yesterday, I was phoned to be asked onto the BBC Radio 4 Today programme this morning. They said they wanted me to answer questions about how the election would change the UK’s ability to negotiate a good new relationship with the EU. I was happy to do so, and said I could make any time at their studio. It seemed like a good topic, and central to what the PM said about her reason for calling the election.
They then proceeded to ask me a series of questions all designed to get me to disagree with the UK negotiating position and the Prime Minister.
I then found another Leave supporting Conservative MP had been given the same treatment, and he too had thought the BBC were trying to change the news rather than reporting the position.
I do not know who is feeding the BBC this nonsense, but it is frustrating that they do not accept the truth from those whose views they claim to be reporting, and do not bother to get back and openly say they do not want you on because you won’t say what they want you to say.
You can hear a perfect example of that last point, that BBC journalists don’t accept the truth when told to them as Adrian Chiles ploughs on regardless [1 hr 11 m 25 secs] insisting that Dominic Raab is just spouting a Tory ‘line’….no such criticism of the Labour or SNP politicians on the show…
It’s not the first time John Redwood has written about this sort of thing over the years.A few others have too.Why is nothing ever done about it ? The BBC shouldn’t be manipulating opinions.
I really hope some thing is in the manifesto to sort out the BBC but I won’t hold my breath.
Debs,
It may explain why many Tory MPs which I would expect to see interviewed very rarely appear. They refuse to toe the BBC line. In my view the top MP in the party, and the HoC, is The Mogginator, but he rarely seems to appear on the BBC.
Mogg is far too clever for Al Beeb. Clever not only in the cerebral sense, but also wily in his presentation. Unfailingly polite, intensely well-informed and incapable of being riled, he still gets his point across well without being diverted or resorting to shouting or interjection.
Why would Al Beeb want to give him airtime when they can do highly selective vox pop with Albert Steptoe Corbyn’s nutter supporters?
Peter,
True, Beeboids hate anyone who is cleverer than them which narrows the field to Rabbit and False Dawn. I can think of so many times when they have interviewed someone who completely outargues the Beeboid and you never see the person again.
I think the far-left bbc is such a dangerous organism that no political party could put their intentions for sorting them out in their election Manifesto. If they did, the whole might of the far-left bbc would be waged against them to ensure they lost the election. Thus I think the destruction of the far-left bbc will come like a thief in the night.
john,
You mean what we are seeing now is not the “whole might ” ? I don’t see how much more the BBC could do !
I agree. It is best to keep it away from the manifesto. Perhaps the best way is to first of all de-criminalise not paying the license fee and then have an soft opt out clause of not paying the license fee for confirming you do not intend to watch the BBC. The BBC would then wither on the vine. Without money BBC could not enforce anything, a vicious circle for the BBC.
Good comment…. but maybe even if Corbyn is now elected as PM this despicably biased organisation will still be kicked in the proverbials.
A bit like something out of ‘The far side’ Corbyns brother accuses the BBC of evil bias
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4428274/Jeremy-Corbyn-s-brother-says-BBC-evil-anti-Labour.html
Soon they all will be at it!
Judd
If ‘spouting party lines’ is the attack point du Beeb, I cannot wait for Mr. Green Room snitch to ‘interview’ Dawn of the Red.
But as you say, they do seem ‘selective’ (BBC quotes) in when applied.
It will be interesting to watch what the BBC do on the subject of tax during GE2017. The TOADY Programme have done two segments on it on consecutive days, with Paul Johnson from Institute of Fiscal Studies getting to comment on both days. ‘Shaping the narrative’ in order to ‘manipulate opinion’? Possibly.
Taxation just happens to be one area of interest for John Redwood.
Income Tax, especially the higher rates, is probably also an area of personal interest for highly paid BBC Radio and Television presenters.
Up2,
As a former tax specialist myself ( Booo ! ), I can confirm that Redwood is one of the few MPs who have a good grasp of it. Osborne did not have a clue.
I have to say that Redwood is just another idle Tory, content to sit back & fiddle while the country goes to hell in a hand cart just so long as he can hold onto his family wealth.
Alas all the Tories are the same only interested in the holding of wealth generated by someone else back in the annals of time in some cases hundreds of years ago.
The only reason Redwood has been wakened from his slumber is because the BBC threatens his core value – and I really do mean that in the singular, greed.
The Tories have become so complacent we ended up with what Labour called the zombie parliament, because having changed tax laws to benefit the already wealthy, Cameron had nothing else he wanted to do.
So we ended up keeping all the oppressive ideology from the Blair years. Now the latest excuse for doing nothing is that they are busy with Brexit, which is of course complete BS. A few of them are busy with Brexit the rest of the policy making team are anything but busy, they did what they needed under Cameron, and now they’re all down the wine bar drinking Champagne !
Alas that the muppet Nuttall is being allowed to drive UKIP into oblivion.
Hasn’t The Vulcan made his own money in investment management? Nothing wrong in that in my view.
Peter,
Yes, he is one of the few who has had experience of the outside world. It is ridiculous that such talent should have been side-lined by so many PMs and that the BBC connive to keep him off air. He has also written some interesting books and pamphlets. I sometimes think that dim PM’s like Major, Cameron, Treezer do not like to have much cleverer people in their cabinet. It may also explain why the Mogginator has not been promoted.
The BBC has oodles of ‘wriggle-room’ to sidestep the election rules, and to continue to pursue vigorously its self-declared campaign to expose to the maximum the pitfalls of Brexit
I’ve a lot of respect for David Keighley, who routinely holds the BBC’s toes to the fire for its flagrant biases and conceits, but I only half agree with him about this.
Sometime within the past 20 years, the BBC seems to have taken a calculated decision to favour the LibDems way above any reflection of the party’s popularity with the electoroate. As we have seen when the BBC has played race and gender politics, it always goes overboard when it does this, hence the massive over-representation of BME TV presenters and the absurd amounts of airtime it gives to gays and the transgendered.
I would agree that this election is about Brexit, yes, but it is also going to be used as an exercise in helping the LibDems back after their disastrous collapse post-Cameron. The brighter Guardianistas at the Beeb have worked out that Labour is a busted flush for many in the working class and that only the dimmest middle class dumb-bell would support Labour in its present form, which leaves the LibDems as the flag bearers for all the pro-gay, pro-EU, pro-socialist, pro-green claptrap which Labour is never going to be in a position to drown us in for the foreseeable future.
My prediction is that this election campaign will see LibDems hogging our airwaves like rarely before and in no respect in proportion to the amount of airtime this party of chancers, losers, opportunists, fakes, perverts, cheats, crooks, hippies and maniacs really deserves.
You forgot yoghurt-knitting, sandal-wearing, tofu producing (organic of course) and congenitally stupid.
GCooper
This is exactly how it will be played, the LibDems couldn’t be at a worse point than now with 9 MP’s the only way for them is up.
They will probably gain double digit MP’s and as the main ‘remainer’ party it’s success will lead to the EU and assorted Miller/Blair creatures to claim this as a reason to have another referendum forced on us.
I think it is clear since the day a year ago we voted out we have had nothing but obstacles and trickery put in our way, this GE is a retrograde step, it isn’t about a mandate for May as she has one for brexit it’s called ‘Brexit the 52% majority’. Other tory policies are neither here nor there, and indeed she hasn’t claimed she needs a clear mandate for those policies to be enacted. Far from bringing stability post brexit she is deliberately making it worse and unworkable.
It ain’t over yet!