Category Archives: BBC bias

Is the BBC biased? looks at a suggestion in the Telegraph:

Of course people at the BBC are biased: why not make a virtue of it?

We need the BBC to be more like the newspapers – open about the unavoidably political beliefs of its staff

Not sure it would work. 

The point of the BBC is to try, I say try, to provide a gold standard of impartiality and accuracy that people can rely on….they may enjoy the one sided, unchallenging reading of a newspaper that reflects their own views but in the  end they need that fall back of a neutral, outside view of the world that the BBC is supposed to provide.

Clearly the BBC fails on that front, hence the proliferation of blogs and other comment from the MSM about the BBC’s ‘impartiality’…not counting the BBC’s own internal reviews on bias which it studiously ignores  or interprets in a way that is patently biased in its own favour…ironically.

If the BBC were allowed to ‘take sides’, or at least its journalists allowed to shape stories using their own personal views there woud have to be a balance of journalists….of all political, religious or other ideological persuasions….clearly impossible.

The BBC is already, to coin a phrase ‘left leaning’, imagine if allowed free rein to let rip and indulge in propagating their own world vision untrammelled by even idealistic notions of impartiality imposed upon them as now.

The BBC as it is, isn’t perfect, but it at least holds in check the worst excesses of its clearly idealistic and politically committed journalists.

The bias it does portray is bad enough and has serious consequences for society, for the World even, if you value democracy, free speech and thought…..the BBC being a supporter of oppressive ideologies and not embarrassed to practice its own suppression of free speech when it feels the need.

The problem with the BBC is that whomever it recruits they are eventually, if they want to succeed and get promotion or the best jobs, absorbed into the ‘left leaning’ culture, the group think.

That means they think twice before reporting or writing something in a way that doesn’t reflect the corporate world view…and the BBC is ‘Institutionally biased’.  If you are the wrong political persuasion, race or religion you will find yourself out in the cold if you don’t realign your thinking and toe the line.

A solution?  Difficult…other than breaking the BBC up into smaller units and moving people around more so that they don’t get set in their ways and are not allowed to develop a culture that becomes ingrained and is then passed on to any new recruit.

It would be politically beneficial for the BBC to be seen to be actually doing something proactive to combat bias other than staging these ever more farcial reviews that are no more than clear attempts at damage limitation (at least from the people who commission them), diverting attention from the real problems at the BBC.

As I said more effort to recruit a different class of journalist and presenter and determined efforts to prevent the onset of institutional bias and groupthink would at least give an impression of some recognition that there is a problem.

The problem is they don’t think there is a problem.

Don’t hold your breath.

BBC breathlessly informs us that  Labour has become the second-largest party on Norfolk County Council after winning the Thetford West by-election. BBC not so quick to discuss the fact that ALL but one of Labour’s prospective MEP candidates for next year are linked to UNITE. 

Bit of a struggle to find this on the BBC world class website….? Brought to my attention earlier so maybe they gave finally covered it?

Gang chanted ‘Lee Rigby’ as they kicked soldier in Exeter underpass

And yet another story about “men” who prey on young white girls. Care to wager that should the conviction come the BBC will label them as “asian men” and ignore the matter of their muslim background.

On time and ready for you to fill up with examples of BBC bias and prejudice! The floor is yours…

Over here in Northern Ireland, the BBC has been pushing the World Police and Fire Games. Heard of them? No? Me neither until the Stormont Executive got hold of the idea that hosting such a strange event would be a wizard wheeze. Met with almost universal indifference over here, the BBC has been doing its best to hype the event, going so far as to give us recorded highlights of the Opening ceremony which take place last evening. But perhaps MOST sickening was how the BBC zoomed in on IRA godfather Martin McGuinness as he gave a welcoming speech to the competitors. You will remember how MANY Police officers the IRA slaughtered and maimed. All of this is casually forgotten and the BBC plays its designated role as the sanitiser in chief for a political process that places terrorist godfathers as the smiling face of Northern Ireland. Oh, and the BBC does not seem to want to ask why NO national flags can be carried at this event. Heaven forbid mcGuinness should see a Union Flag about the place.

With several shoots of green indicating that the UK economy may be on the recovery, the BBC has had to find new ways to dampen any positivity people might have so today they have been pushing a survey that claims that half of UK adults are struggling to keep up with bills and debt repayments and this number has worsened since….2006. One assumes that the recession created by Labour might have had something to do with this and that the financial situation for some individuals post economic recession would be more precarious. This is no news served up as a gloom and doom and is simply the BBC trying to help the ludicrous Miliband/Balls agenda.

The BBC’s Rottweiller turns out to be a bit of a lapdog.

John Humphrys fresh from his carpeting by the BBC Trust for being too right wing is proving his loyalty to the Corporation by pulling the wool over listener’s ears.

The BBC had steadfastly ignored recent reports of the hacking of phones by private investigators for hundreds of companies, as well as law firms and other organisations…..might that include the BBC?  They also use PIs as Mark Thompson admitted.

But yesterday on the Today programme (08:50) Humphrys ‘investigated’ the BBC’s lack of interest….or not…he said:

‘Some people draw a distinction between the way this story has been covered and the way that newspapers using private investigators were covered…there is a huge disparity,  massive coverage of the newspapers and relatively little for this bunch.’

Tom Symonds, BBC home affairs correspondent, plays it all down and blames News International for ramping up the coverage….

‘The coverage was due to the News of The World and News International who admitted phone hacking  themselves and when they closed down the News of The World this ramped up the story to a great degree.’

Really?  No coverage before that?  No massive witch hunt against Murdoch?  No massive coverage in the media before that?  It wasn’t that massive coverage, by the Guardian in particular, which lied about the hacking of Milly Dowler’s phone, that caused the closure of the News of The World?

Good old BBC…never let the facts get in the way of a good story especially when trying to cover up your own cover up.

Good that the BBC is reporting on the ‘reporting’ of a story…..obviously feeling a little like they were caught out and are trying to cover up their decision not to report this until forced to.

Interesting that they feel the need to comment on the lack of reporting….the complete lack of interest in these big companies and law firms…..with no connections to Murdoch.

We know that the BBC has issues with Islam and that is a prime source for Islamophilia. However when the world’s most prominent Islamic scholar calls for jihad to be waged in Egypt, one would have thought all those world class journalists that we pay for MIGHT have found the story. It seems they missed it. How convenient. I suppose they are too busy hunting down Islamphobes?

“Dr. Yusuf al-Qaradawi—one of the most influential Islamic clerics in the world, author of over 100 books on Muslim doctrine, head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, and spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood—has just posted a new video where he calls on all the Muslims of the world to come and wage jihad with their lives in Egypt on behalf of “what’s right”—that is, the return to power of the Muslim Brotherhood.

He called on everyone and anyone—the “sons of Al Azhar,” businessmen, journalists—and from all around the world, specifically mentioning Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Senegal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Somalia, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Tunisia, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Jordan.

Qaradawi called on them to be shuhada, “martyrs” who sacrifice their lives in the course of the jihad.”

I have to agree with Grant Shapps just for a change!

The BBC’s coverage of the Government’s welfare reforms has sought to paint them as ‘Armageddon’ for the nation, a senior minister said yesterday. Tory Party chairman Grant Shapps accused BBC bosses of letting their ‘personal views take hold’, covering the Coalition’s attempts to rein in the welfare bill as though the world were ending. He spoke out amid a row over the way the BBC Trust censured respected presenter John Humphrys for a programme exposing the truth about the bloated welfare state.

The Trust condemned the TV show as a breach of its impartiality rules after it discussed the ‘dependency culture’ in Mr Humphrys’ home city of Cardiff, where he found some claimants prefer life on benefits to working.  But Mr Shapps said BBC officials should have ‘applauded’ the Today anchorman and condemned other coverage by the BBC as biased against the Government.

Where Shapps gets it wrong, however, is when he goes to say that “The BBC is not a newspaper and needs to remember it’s a state broadcaster who should be providing an objective analysis of events”

And that’s the issue. WHY do we need “a state broadcaster” in the first place? Why does the BBC have to parasite off our taxes by forcing us to pay for it? The BBC cannot be objective or impartial, none of us can. So let us all be honest, accept the BBC is biased and will remain so, and deny it the entirely anachronistic right to take our cash to fund its bias. Yes?