Author Archives: David Vance

Although we concern ourselves most frequently with BBC news, I though this was an interesting tour de force commentary from a B-BBC reader. 

“I’m concerned notso-much by the News Content (which, whilst biased, is probably the most obviousform of it and thus easiest to counteract) but by the infiltration of biaswithin Drama.

For example, if “EastEnders” were an accurate representation of EastLondon (where I’ve lived previously), approximately 60%-80% of characters wouldbe Muslim/Asian, and most likely there would be a “Sharia ControlZone”… If they were feeling refreshingly honest, they’d show the bigotedposters and slogans painted across east-london involving the advocacy of thedeath-penalty for jews, homosexuals, apostates and non-believers (depending,usually, upon where precisely you live). 

Moreover as regards this particular issue, BBC London News (i.e. not thenational news that everyone sees but the local london news that increasinglynon-homogenous audiences are watching) have given these Islamists air-time. Ifthey were feeling really honest, EastEnders would probably include a BBC LondonNews crew apologising for Islamists, giving airtime to the IFE, Anjem Choudharyand Lutfur Rahman (and presenting them as peace-lovers!) for some “neighbours”scheme that better resembles a one-way street of giving-and-taking betweenislamists and their opponents in Tower Hamlets and surrounding areas.

What particularly motivated me to write this was watching today’s episode of“Doctors” (aired 3rd August). The main storyline (as implied by the”if you’re affected by [insert character here]’s story” after theprogramme) told the story of female immigrant from Botswana, who is victimisedand persecuted by a gang of white-racist bigots, who smash-up her garden andurinate on her laundry. That’s not all, for they’re also enabled (i.e.defended/justified/aided) by a bigoted, church-going, old white woman.

How, precisely, is this representative of anywhere in Britain? I’d like to seethe examples of widespread incidents of white-gangs urinating on immigrants’washing… or which church-going, old white ladies think it’s acceptable. Ialso think it’s insulting to Botswana – whom the character thinks is”violent” and is described in not-very attractive terms. 

If it’s consideredgood enough to hold the world-debating championships, for Top-Gear to show asan example of a good african government and overall, hasn’t really warrantedany international attention for human-rights abuses, misspending Aid Money,starting wars (etc, etc); I doubt that the country is so bad as to warrantemigration because of reasons including racial violence and lawlessness. Yes,it may not be the richest country in the world, but it certainly isn’t ahellhole either. 

All of this reminds me of Spooks. That bloody drama the BBC thought was so good- the dogs-b*ll*cks, so to speak – because it was so accurate andrepresentative of our right-on MI5 agents. To describe the content quickly, Irefer to the first-season I have on box-set. Episode 1 told us about a Pro-Lifemovement that bombed abortion-doctors. Episode 2 continued, with right-wingpoliticians and extremists planning a race-war in Britain. Are theserepresentative of Noughties’ Britain? Other episodes (that I’ve seen fromSeason 5) have included Islamist Al-Qaeda terrorists who take over a SaudiEmbassy to murder innocent people – only to turn-out as Secret-Israeli Mossadagents. In another episode, two fundamentalist Islamic clerics were murdered bya ‘radical christian group’.

All of this is indicative of the way BBC producers and writers see Britaintoday. And it doesn’t match a-jot of what anyone else has experienced. Anyopposition to immigration? Racist. Any opposition to Islamists?Islamophobic/Fundamentalist-Christian. I’ve watched with dismay as the BBC havesmeared-by-association anyone associated with Anders Behring-Breivik’s supposedgrievances (whether it’s opposition to multiculturalism, acknowledgement ofdemographic determinism or anything else) and reported-with-glee over phone-hackingin Murdoch’s newspapers (I see they haven’t brought the same inquisitionagainst the Mirror Group). 

They’ll continue on this pattern through anything, whether it’s support for theEuro whatever the costs, bias against Israel in the Middle-East conflicts andwhatever other issues remain. I believe, however, that much of the BBC’s biasremains to be acknowledged, let-alone tackled. The future for Biased BBCrequires as-much a watchful-eye over the BBC’s dramas (where no neutralitytsars remain to tame the undoubted prejudices of BBC journos, writers andworkers) and documentaries, rather than it’s news coverage.”