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.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2383890/BBC-spends-24-000-hospitality-appearance-fees-just-TEN-MPs.html….and who is paying for all this,yes muggings me and you
We need the BBC to be more like the newspapers – open about the unavoidably political beliefs of its staff
This would only be acceptable or logical if the BBC was significantly polled and not financed by a universal obligatory TV tax: that’s the whole point of the problem of BBC bias.
Exactly. Channel 4 is probably even more left wing than the Beeb but since I’m not paying for it I don’t have a problem with that.
A public service broadcaster, directly paid for by the general public HAS TO reflect the politics of the general public, or it isn’t doing its job properly.
Span, you took the words out of my mouth.
Want the Beeb to be like the newspapers? PRIVATISE !
The telegraph wants a mere adjustment where nothing less than a paradigm shift would do.
shelagh i giggle alot fogarty on monday was having a bit of fun when handing over to richard bacon when she noticed he was wearing red trousers,i say his dress sense matches his politacal labour party beliefs.
The bias is ingrained. It is not really bias but a belief system .The BBC is but a part of this belief system. It extends everywhere and is a result of a way of looking at the world that has it’s roots in what was originally a desire to make a better world and to alter human nature.
This is why our politicians all sound the same. Everybody subscribes to it. That is all those who have had an extended education over the last fifty years or so. As with all belief systems eventually it will collapse. when the stresses of dealing with reality prove too much. There is no point in expecting the BBC to change. It simply cannot do so. In the end it will be reality that does change it
That is the function of reality. To put an end to illusion.
I always encourage the reading of Homer. In the Iliad and the Odyssey there is only the reality of human existence. Yes the Gods are there but it is always men and women who are at the centre of things.
“if they want to succeed and get promotion or the best jobs, absorbed into the ‘left leaning’ culture, the group think.”
Like the Borg- The British Borg Corporation- you will be assimilated.
As a follow-up to the theme which Alan ran as a thread on July 30, on ‘Biased-BBC,’ on:- “Media Plurality”-
-even the Beeboids’ chums at ‘The Guardian’ have to mention that this is a political issue-
“BBC in the crosshairs as government lines up media plurality review.
“The government’s plans have potentially serious implications for the corporation – and the press is eager to get stuck in.”
By Steve Hewlett.
http://www.theguardian.com/media/media-blog/2013/aug/04/bbc-government-media-plurality-review?
BBC in the crosshairs as government lines up media plurality review
The government’s plans have potentially serious implications for the corporation – and the press is eager to get stuck in
If the pretend neutrality were removed in the way the original article suggested then two things happen
1. The BBC will either be obliged to provide balance through hiring
2. Or the BBC could not justify a universal license fee.
Incidentally, aren’t all broadcasters supposed to offer neutrality