Category Archives: BBC bias

I notice that the main BBC news portal has been augmented. There is usually a link at the top to each of the four home nations. But this has now been augmented and we now have an ALBA and a CYMRU.  Now, some may see this is the BBC simply providing Welsh and Scottish language enthusiasts with the opportunity to read the news in their language of choice? But where does it end? Should it also be in Polish, Irish, Bangladeshi? This strikes me as pandering to minority language obsessives. If you want to find out what is happening in England, Scotland Wales and N.Ireland how about you go on a website that tells you this in the language overwhelmingly spoken in this part of the UK?

We asked why the BBC totally ignored a caller to LBC who castigated Labour and Miliband for having failed to provide a good NHS service…..On Monday Nicky Campbell may have provided a reason as to why the BBC cannot bring itself to publicise such criticism of Miliband and Labour……Campbell told us that another member of the Public had given a Labour politician a severe ear bashing but he couldn’t tell us what that person had said because of course the BBC is politically neutral.….work that out if you can.

Later Victoria Derbyshire had a bit of ‘brain fade’ telling us that we had had a Conservative-Labour Coalition government for the last 5 years……or was it Conservative -West Ham?  Will the BBC be ‘laughing’ endlessly at such a foolish mistake for days on end?  Perhaps they could bring in a psychologist as they did to discuss Cameron’s little faux pas?

It did seem like the BBC was pushing Labour’s agenda on Monday…with quite a bit of SNP thrown into the mix…..the BBC frequently seems to assume we will have a Labour government and discusses an SNP pact with Labour as if that was the most likely scenario…and as so often we had a look at the ‘puzzle’ of productivity, or the lack of….a Labour theme now that employment is always going up and they need to find another angle to attack the Coalition somehow.

Then we had the aforementioned Campbell who was talking about housing….yet again a Labour theme.  Then Victoria Derbyshire talking about mental health…again a subject Labour, and the LibDems (for some reason) thinks it has the Tories up against the ropes on.

Then we had the Evan Davis ‘Leaders’ Interview’, this time with Nicola Sturgeon.  I was going to watch it but Craig at Is the BBC biased? has done sterling work and provided us with a run down of how it went…..not bad at all from Sturgeon’s point of view….all that was missing was a glass of wine and some candlelight….a completely different ‘tone’ to the aggressive and sanctimoniously disapproving lecture Nigel Farage received.

Have to say the BBC’s coverage of the SNP gets ever more like a glorification….Wednesday seemed to be a coronation of Sturgeon by the BBC with much trumpeting if her as a ‘breath of fresh air’ and a ‘straight talker’…..both of which are complete nonsense…she’s a politician the same as all the rest…..in private she says she thinks Miliband is unfit to be PM and she’d prefer a Tory government but says something different in public and no comment from the BBC about her repeated claim to really respect ‘democracy’…the woman who wants to keep having referendums until she gets the answer she wants on independence.

Then we have Cardiff University’s run down of news coverage of the election…apparently, again h/t Craig, the Tories are way out in front in receiving airtime from the various news broadcasters….though that doesn’t say whether it is positive or negative coverage…so hardly an informative study….here is how they went about that study…

The Cardiff University study examined bulletins on Channel 5 at 5pm, Channel 4 at 7pm and at 10pm on BBC, ITV and Sky News.

Not exactly comprehensive….but they have noticed that the BBC gives more time to Miliband…

The BBC was an outlier, giving more time to Miliband, who made up 24.3% of time leaders were speaking on screen, compared to 21.9% of time for Cameron.

Now anyone who has listened to the BBC radio output or read the website will know that Labour has the lion’s share of the headlines…hardly a day goes by when ‘Labour announces……’  doesn’t get top billing and as on Monday the latest Labour policy ‘discussed’ repeatedly on the BBC.  The BBC takes the risk that the policy will get mauled but keeping Labour in the headlines and the Tories out seems to be the BBC modus operandi….unless it is unmistakeably bad news for Labour, such as callers on the NHS blasting Miliband, which is completely absent from the BBC, or bad news for Cameron such as the ridiculous story about ‘brain fade’ which will be discussed endlessly.  If a Tory policy does make it to the headline it is not long before it is replaced with the Labour response rubbishing it.

It is as we have always suspected with these ‘studies’ that they are extremely limited in scope and only examine a very small part of any broadcaster’s output…far less than you and  I can hear as we go though the day listening to various BBC programmes and getting a real feel for the output as whole over the day.

Just as Labour are saying they will seek to control the Media, except the BBC, the BBC continues its campaign to dominate the world as its commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, buys up the opposition and begins product placement…

BBC to introduce product placement on world news channel

The BBC will turn to product placement on its global news channel for the first time as it seeks new ways to fund its worldwide news operations.

The move is likely to be controversial a year after the BBC was criticised by MPs and the National Union of Journalists for taking advertising and sponsorship on the World Service for the first time.

BBC World News will feature product placement on programmes such as technology, sport and travel documentaries, but not on its core news and current affairs output.

And…

BBC Worldwide takes 25% stake in producer Curve Media

BBC Worldwide has taken a stake in Claimed and Shamed producers Curve Media after chief executive Tim Davie said he had “re-engaged the engines” on investing in production companies.

The BBC’s commercial wing will “make more of these sort of investments” said Davie, who said Worldwide is “pushing through a number of deals”.

 

On another note have to say was highly amused by MiliBrand….at least he made it up the stairs without falling over.  And what’s with the accent?  Also interested to hear his views on the over powerful effect of one man’s, Rupert Murdoch’s, media empire….no hypocrisy in that Miliband was grovelling to one man, Russell Brand, in the hope that a bit of his star dust might rub off on himself….in other words Brand’s apparent popularity with the ‘youth’ was something be exploited by a mainstream politician….Brand himself might want to think about that…but it is hypocrisy for Miliband to criticise the power of Murdoch, and to attack politicians for meeting Murdoch, when he himself is blatantly seeking ‘street cred’ and votes from the Brand effect….Brand who is part of the unelected powerful, millionaire elite who have exploited the disenfranchised and dispossessed as the transfer of money from the poorest to the richest continues unabated.

Why does Brand have a shower in his kitchen?

I was fascinated to hear the Muslim Mishal Husain’s views on the DUP on Tuesday’s Today programme…..she told us that they were socially and politically conservative and as such, some might say, were a party with unpleasant and backward views.….remind me in which little book they urge their followers not to make friends with people who have other political persuasions or indeed to kill them, or to reduce women to mere chattels, or to whip or stone to death adulterers, or crucify criminals or kill those who leave the party?

Maybe she’d got wind of this...Democratic Unionists: we’d seek review of BBC in hung parliament talks when the said ‘they would place the renewal of the BBC charter on the table in talks with Labour or the Tories in a hung parliament, after accusing the corporation of distorting UK politics in its handling of the television election debates.’

Something that a Tory government might also be considering as they say…BBC Today show debate ‘very, very anti-Tory’, says culture minister..

‘Culture secretary Sajid Javid has accused the BBC of bias – calling one item “very, very anti-Tory” – and said the job of changing the way the press is regulated is done.

Warning that the upcoming charter review would include an investigation into bias, Javid said in a Daily Mail report that Labour’s commitment to revisit regulation risks interfering with press freedom.

The comments, come after the ambitious Conservative minister has already indicated that the BBC’s licence fee could be cut if the party returns to power.

In comments made more than a week after the flagship morning news show ended with a three-way debate in which Scottish comic Rhona Cameron calling the Tories a “cancer”, Javid said: “Last week, listening to the Today programme, there was a debate… they were all anti-Tory. It came across as very, very anti-Tory.”’

The BBC’s response…

‘A BBC spokesman said the corporation believed it had “reported fairly and impartially on the policies of all parties”.’

Of ocurse they are as they try to rig the election once again….

Conservatives outnumbered two-to-one in audience for BBC Question Time debate

Up to two thirds of the audience in Thursday’s Question Time Leaders’ debates will be left wing, The Telegraph can disclose.

The numbers of Labour and Liberal Democrat voters in the audience for the programme will reignite the row over audience bias which dogged the last election debate.

The Tories’ David Cameron, Labour’s Ed Miliband and the LibDems’ Nick Clegg will be quizzed separately during the 90 minute in that order.

The breakdown means that as much as two thirds of the audience could be left wing – likely to vote for Labour, the LibDems or the Greens.

The composition of the audience is highly relevant because only they will be able to submit questions to the three party leaders.

Andrew Bridgen, a Conservative MP who has been long term critic of the BBC, said: “This confirms what we have known for a long time – the unashamed left wing bias of the BBC.

“When you see the unrepresentative make-up of the audience in the most important Question Time programme for five years the BBC are not even subtle about.”

The BBC’s response…

In a blog posted on Wednesday evening, by Ric Bailey, the BBC’s Chief Political Adviser, defended the composition of the audience.

He said: “The thinking behind this is that it will ensure that there’s a level playing field. Each leader engages the audience on the same terms.

“It also means that the BBC has done all it can to ensure that each leader gets the same shot at a fair hearing with the much bigger audience at home.”

A ‘level playing field’ and a ‘fair hearing’?  How does he work that out?

Lefties have no fear though about Tory revenge…the troops are mobilising to ‘save the BBC’….as a campaign is launched by unnamed media persons ‘#7DaysToSaveTheBBC ‘

‘There were rumblings of disquiet at the FT Digital Media conference this week, and they were not at the quality of freebies being offered in exchange for taking out a sub to the Pink ‘Un. Instead, delegates were discussing the sudden appearance of a divide between politicians over the future of the BBC. In the past week, the three parties that might constitute a Cameron-led government have each made threatening noises against Auntie, apparently over perceived bias in its election coverage.’

‘There are clear lines between these positions and the broadly pro-BBC noise coming from Labour, the Liberal Democrats and even the SNP – though the latter may want to use the Beeb as a bargaining chip. Thus it was that some of the assembled delegates were murmuring about the urgent need to kick off a popular campaign to save the BBC, pointing out that 78% of the UK population is in favour of the BBC receiving strong licence fee support. Look out for the descending hashtag #7DaysToSaveTheBBC.’

Sounds suspiciously like these journalists are trying to start a campaign that is highly political and is aiming to exploit people’s fondness for the BBC in order to attack the Tories by suggesting they will damage or do away with the BBC that people allegedly like so much.

Might be good to know who those campaigning journalists are….just how many are from the BBC?

So, the BBC reports on the Conservative promise to curb tax rises during the duration of the next Parliament and the BBC dutifully reports the Labour accusation that this is “a gimmick”. The BBC reports on the meeting between Ed Miliband and Russell Brand and suggests it was ‘interesting” – no criticism reported so I guess everyone agrees with Ed? I suspect the BBC is just excited at the idea of these two socialist millionaires chilling out together to allow any scathing criticism of this stunt.

Middle of the week and time for a new one of these for you! Detail the bias here!

A Biased BBC reader writes…

“There’s one hell of a story regarding BBC bias developing over at BBC Radio Nottingham.

The Nottingham area is the only place in the country (or entire western world) with a party seeking election who speak out to advance the human rights of men and boys. 2015 marks the political debut of the political party “Justice for men and Boys” and they have 2 candidates standing – Mike Buchanan and Ray Barry.

The BBC’s response to this historic political event has been shocking even by their standards. Firstly the only recent TV appearance of either Ray or Mike involved the former briefly debating a radical feminist which the BBC heavily edited.

Roughly a week after this appearance the BBC organised hustings debate on Radio Nottingham. Mike was invited to appear but was shocked to find out that the BBC had banned men from the audience and made women’s’issues the focus of the entire discussion, with the BBC even using a female host for the event! To compound matters further still, the BBC didn’t even invite Ray Barry to the hustings debate in his constituency.

Needless to say there is considerable outrage at what the BBC have done and Mike used the debate to attack the BBC’s blatant breaches of its charter. Their conduct amounts to very clear interference in the political process and they’ve quite blatantly sabotaged the J4M&B campaign by denying them the opportunity to discuss their manifesto nor engage with the vast majority of voters who they are targeting. The BBC’s behaviour has resulted in a situation whereby the party has not had a single second in which they have been able to discuss any male issue or engage with a single male voter! I guess a parallel for you part of the world would to be to put a Protestant candidate in front of an all-Catholic audience.

You can listen to the “discussion” here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKjIpu30_AE
There’s some extremely biased coverage of the scandal by the Mirror, but the comments below the piece are well worth a read, with 67 condemning the BBC and one in support!
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mens-rights-party-leader-left-5571931
Further analysis in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xz9cLGOdsU“

BBC journalists on the UKIP and Conservative campaign trails are trying with increasing desperation to get that GOTCHA! moment. Meanwhile, Newsnight under the editorship of Ian Katz has found its spiritual home:

RT @bbclaurak Team @BBCNewsnight on Harman's pink bus pic.twitter.com/XsFZEetPTl

— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) April 28, 2015

I mentioned the BBC having fitted up UKIP in their ‘Meet the Ukippers’ film in the last post and curiously the subject has come up again…the BBC being quite proud of that little film.

The Guardian tells us that ‘BBC2 controller Kim Shillinglaw calls for shows that ‘grab you by the balls’ for an audience she described as the “punk” generation.  The channel, which has become synonymous with cookery and craft shows, has just seen the average age of its audience rise above 60 for the first time.  Shillinglaw called for more presenters with edge and attitude, and appeared to call time on “straight cooking” shows despite the imminent return to the channel of Nigella Lawson.’

I don’t know about you but that is probably quite scary….what the BBC believes is grabbing you by the balls is undoubtedly being openly biased and over-dramatic about subjects such as immigration, Islam and climate change…the BBC going all out to grab hold of your misperceptions about these subjects, give you a good shaking and rigorously emphasise and press home the ‘real’ facts that you never knew you didn’t know but the BBC will gladly re-educate you about.

Shillingshaw says…..

“We made a flawed but very interesting documentary called Meet the Ukippers which had some moments in it which just made your jaw drop.”

I’d be fascinated to know exactly which bits of the programme she thinks were ‘flawed’.  Could one of them be the way the BBC set out to tar a completely innocent woman as a racist?  Probably not as that is presumably the bit which made Shillingshaw’s ‘jaw drop’.  Clearly she didn’t actually listen to what the woman,  UKIP councillor Rozanne Duncan, said on the film and understood its actual meaning….we’ve looked at that film in a previous post….A Peculiar Kind Of Racism.….Duncan is in no way a racist…..and yet the BBC deliberately trailed the film, finally released in February, suspiciously close to the election, when it was already in the can in December, and ‘leaked’ that Duncan was making ‘racist’ comments.

The BBC crucified Duncan and hung her out to dry for their own political motives.  In effect this was BBC ‘racism’…you’re in UKIP you must be bad and therefore we can abuse you at will,  say anything we like about you however false, however slanderous, no matter if it destroys your life.

Hilariously Shillinglaw said ‘she wanted BBC2’s factual shows to be “a little bit more contemporary. Life isn’t just about bunting; we could do more to get closer to the national conversation”.’

Get closer to the ‘national conversation’?  You’ve got to be kidding…Evan Davis just spent half an hour lambasting Nigel Farage for his ‘unacceptable’ tone, ie, that he opposes mass immigration, wants to get out of Europe and spoke openly about the difficulties caused by immigrants who refuse to integrate and instead form their own ghetto societies…..all things Evan and the BBC find taboo subjects and yet are all ones that the ‘national conversation’ has views on that are contrary to the BBC’s and wants represented in a more balanced, reasoned and less vitriolic way…not to mention truthful.

If the BBC wants to reflect the national conversation then it will have to change its tone and start telling the truth about immigration, Europe, climate change and the consequences of the Islamisation of parts of the UK and of the political sphere as politicians sell out the country to buy minority votes.

At the moment the ‘Punk Generation’, and everyone else, is being ‘Punk’d’…fooled, humiliated and lied to by the BBC… so I look forward to a new era of openness, reconciliation and a new vision for the future that means we can talk about immigration without being called racist, talk about Islam without being vilified as Islamophobic and criticise climate ‘science’ without being deliberately associated with Nazi ‘Holocaust Deniers’ by BBC presenters.