Here’s a great post over on The Shy Society….make sure you read it in full.
“The BBC is routinely accused of bias from the left and the right – therefore it must actually be pretty centrist,” is the line you often hear.
This is a lazy argument and one which we will return to shortly. But let’s just say for a minute that the statement was true and the BBC did represent the middle-ground and the status quo, would that suddenly legitimise their performance? Surely as a public broadcaster they should represent the public? And if the last 18 months has taught us anything it’s that Britain is deeply divided politically – more and more people have moved to either the left or right of politics and reject what they see as the establishment looking after self-interests.
That aside, the argument that the BBC is indeed centrist simply doesn’t stack up when you listen to insider accounts or examine the evidence. Around seven years ago popular newsreader Peter Sissons lifted the lid on his 20 years at the Beeb by saying that its very DNA was “firmly of the left”. He went on to explain that by far the most widely read newspapers were the failing Guardian and Independent and that producers would routinely refer to them for the line to take on running stories.
“I am in no doubt that the majority of BBC staff vote for political parties of the Left,” he explained. “But it’s impossible to do anything but guess at the numbers whose beliefs are on the Right or Centre-Right. This is because the one thing guaranteed to damage your career prospects at the BBC is letting it be known that you are at odds with the prevailing and deep-rooted BBC attitude towards life, the universe and everything.”
Click to read the full article here!
The Right wants the BBC to be more balanced. The Left wants the BBC to parrot its views, and complains of bias when it doesn’t.
The people from the right complain that the BBC is very left-wing so call for it to be scrapped.
The “people” from the left complain that the BBC is right-wing but will fight to the death for its continued existence and for the licence fee to remain at current or higher levels.
That tells us all that we need to know about in which direction the BBC is biased.
Demon,
I think , too, if looking for tangible evidence – not just what you see and hear – the number of labour politicians who get jobs in the al Beeb – an ex labour minister is now a senior manager defending it. Or lefty journos who become lefty MPs.
Example – the late John Nicholson . Formerly of al Beeb but then became an snp mp . Late because he lost his seat in the 2017 general election. Suppose he ll write book and then get a job with al Beeb al Scotland again.
Leftists like their cousins – communists, socialists, are totalitarians. For each of these group, if the other does not agree becomes Far Right.
Is it simply coincidence or is right usually associated with right while left, more often than not, goes with out?
No, right means the same in French. Droit means a right, as well as right in its other sense.
On the other hand the Latin for left is “sinister”.
And of course in French it’s ‘gauche’.
Kemi Badenoch is often confused as a member of the Labour party. I wonder why?
“… I do not believe winter is coming, I believe the vote for Brexit was the greatest ever vote of confidence in the project of the United Kingdom.” @4:55 – Kemi Badenoch
A strong speech!
What a shame the chamber was virtually empty.
A striking difference to that SNP oik who turned up in a football shirt.
Why was he even allowed in?
I’ve seen her before, she is intelligent and makes her points coherently. Hopefully a good career is ahead of her, but the intelligent aren’t always in evidence at the top in politics.
Diane Abbott ?
And so few to listen to her!
Impressive, did a quick wiki – the down side to her is she studied law (me too) but on the upside, rarely for a politician , she has had a real job. Will be interesting how soon she starts on the greasy pole ( not the ones who live near me – decent people they be)
The BBC has one great self-preservation technique and that is to be patriotic in the areas of the monarchy and the anti-fascist 2nd World War. The few times that they have erred on the monarch employees have felt the ire of Beeb management as never otherwise. The national sports teams normally also receive undiluted support. Every institution bar the NHS and teachers is subject in programming or news to corrosive criticism. Note we could never see undercover filming in a public sector school or mainstream NHS setting.
Empirical evidence that people think the BBC is biased to Left/lib
I simply lifted the last 30 comments off the 230,000 strong petition to abolish the licence fee.
None complained of Rightwing bias.
Now there are quite a few mad lefties on Twitter screeching like hell when the BBC fails to regurgitate the Labour line , but there is nothing like this massive petition.
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/end-the-bbc-licence-fee
StewGreen
How many posters on this site have complained of the right wing bias of Al Beeb?
QED .
Signed .
Good point on Left/Right bias – but remember it’s easy, snug and warm in your own echo chamber.
I’ve fallen into the trap many a time, and still do, when I see something, research it and find it did not give the story I wanted and ignore it. Works both ways I’m afraid – just remember to approach it as “Seeing Things as They Are: Selected Journalism and Other Writings: George Orwell {amazon}“.
p.s. remember that when the BBC has gone so does this site!
Bureaucracy breeds more bureaucracy, and will fight to the end to justify it’s existance.
Yes Stew – can you imagine a question time with Jacob reees Mogg, Alex Deane, David Starkey around the table with a token lefty exiter and one of those wealthy champagne lefty comedians ? Not something we are likely to see eh ?
I fully agree with scrapping the licence fee but won’t sign this petition as it doesn’t say how to replace it. The only two options should be the scrapping of the so-called BBC altogether or make it completely commercial and fight for its income. An end to the licence fee at present would lead to it being wholly financed by general taxation which means all taxpayers would pay for it with no limit to their contribution which the licence fee has.
It is definitely a worse option but if the petition would say “Scrap the licence fee and make the BBC compete in the commercial media world with no government-taxation or EU money allowed” I would sign readily.
A third option would be a more focused, genuine public service broadcaster, operating a single national TV channel and a single radio station. During the day, the TV channel might cover parliament and run educational/schools programming. During the evening, a mixture of news, documentaries, cultural programming that reflects British traditions and values, plus material that commercial channels do not provide. Maybe a slightly different mix at weekends, maybe classic comedies and dramas from before the PC-era, drawn from the BBC’s vast library. The radio station would be broadly similar, with allowances for the different medium of course. Most existing TV and radio assets would be sold off. Local radio stations and racist stations (Radio 1Xtra, Asian Network) would not be permitted. Having been through their published accounts and with some knowledge of the industry, I estimate the annual cost of this at around £500-£600 million. Scrap the TV licence and pay for it from general taxation (a reduction in the Foreign Aid Theft budget of less than 5% would cover it). The BBC would be free to operate additional TV channels if it wished, but strictly on a commercial basis via subscription along the lines of Sky or Netflix.
Oh yes: and an official apology for everyone ever convicted of TV licence evasion and compensation for those imprisoned as a result, paid for from the sale of assets.
Has anyone else here cottoned on to the BBC’s relentless daily state sector public relations exercises? I’m getting really pissed off with the amount of BBC output featuring state sector workers and how heroic they are.
OK, doctors and nurses, policemen and firemen, all do a great job. In some cases they go above and beyond the call of duty, in rare cases they act heroically.
But in the BBC world they are ALL heroes. You only need to wear the uniform to be assumed a hero as far as the BBC is concerned. But that’s all part of brainwashing us into believing the state and state funded sectors (such as the BBC) are essential for us and our society. We need to ‘give generously’ through our taxes. It’s almost a kind of blackmail: speak favourably of the state, or the state will forsake or punish you!
If an extra-terrestrial intelligence was to watch the BBC from thousands of light years away to gain knowledge of the Earth and its inhabitants, they would see such a skewed view that when they eventually visit in person they would assume they had landed on the wrong planet!
They would ask, ‘Where are all the nurses, teachers and doctors? Where are all the policemen and policewomen? Where are all the firemen and firewomen? There are so many other people living on this planet! Why did the BBC not speak about them?
Look at all these taxi drivers, engineers, bar staff, sales people, baristas, fork lift truck drivers, mechanics, window cleaners, quantity surveyors, lorry drivers … Why didn’t the BBC inform us of these people who far outnumber the ones they feature on a daily basis?
Why were we so foolish as to base our understanding of Earth on the BBC. The BBC’s portrayal of Earth is so far, far removed from reality.’
Here’s an example from yesterday when the Victoria Derbyshire programme, featuring Alton Towers victim Vicky Balch and how the accident changed her life, becomes a love-fest for the NHS and those who work for it.
A medic called Ben recalls how he treated Vicky on the day of the accident at the scene, which is of some interest (although nowhere near as interesting as Vicky’s description of events earlier in the video), but he goes into the tried and tested ‘I’ve never seen anything like it’ bullshit that we hear far too often, implying that he was thrown in at the deep end but coped under impossible pressure.
What Ben actually means is; he’s fully trained to treat traumas but not on a roller coaster. What a fucking hero!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08y9vk6/victoria-derbyshire-20072017
@51 mins
Don’t catch VD on TV because of the legal thing.
However she seems to tweet every frame of her show anyway.
It epitomises the worst schmalzy daytime trash from the USA, with a nasty dollop of BBC agenda thrown in.
Guest,
I did not know that you can catch VD from a TV. Just as well I do not own one .
#sawwhatididthere
🙂
Grant… you can also get STD from a TV (Socialist Trash & Dogma)
“Has anyone else here cottoned on to the BBC’s relentless daily state sector public relations exercises?”
The whole concept of public sector TV is idiotic. Of course it spends its time promoting high taxes and an anti free market agenda, of course its journalists arse kiss the Labour Party. It is the Labour Party establishment. At least you have to pay if you want to read The Guardian, or you have to put yourself up for election if you want to be a Labour MP. The BBC abuse their (vast) power and expect us to be grateful for their public service. But I am not grateful I despise them. The BBC should have gone the way of British Rail. rationing, and rotten boroughs. It is a relic of the time when progressives thought Stalin was the future. It is like a leaky old nuclear reactor poisoning the country while the people who run it could not care less, because they earn a good living out of it and can afford to live elsewhere.
Wild,
Interesting that the ITV daytime programme with the ex mirror editor ( resigned) doing the public service by taking apart one Angela Raynor the shadow education secretary over the Corbyn Labour election promise to end all student loans – cost £100 billion. Yes billion.
Mr Morgan told the hobby Angela Raynor that one of his children voted labour because of that false promise – or Lie – as non beeboids would call it. Rayner tried being offensive ( not difficult for her) by refusing to talk about numbers as “that’s not my style” – so she must be due for the Shadow Treasury on next reshuffle.
While hearing this story I wondered where al Beeb was on it. Then I remembered beeboids earn so much their kids don’t need to take out student loans – such as the Dimbleby Eton offspring.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t envy wealth.ive got a few bob. In fact good luck to people who make an honest buck. But it’s the hipocracy of BBC public employees and tax dodging production companies which pee me – fedup – off.