Another BBC insider fesses up to institutional group think

egb_hibs

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Joined
Jul 2, 2002
Sadly the times is pay walled but today they are running the serialisation of a book by a former editorial director who describes the liberal groupthink at the beeb. A cracking example is the coverage of immigration where numerous 'racists' are ignored when interviewing people in the street about the impact on their community and the single favourable comment is used.njusy an anecdote but illustrative of the wider mindset. Their envisioned target listener - a fantasy liberal middle class couple - is particularly amusing.
 
And in the last tax year, the BBC yet again purchased more copies of the Guardian than any other paper despite it being the UKs second smallest national daily (the smallest if you count the Indy and I together).

A little data point illustrative of the fact that what would otherwise be a fringe viewpoint is made dominant when put through the almighty amplifier of the progressive broadcast ministry.
 
And in the last tax year, the BBC yet again purchased more copies of the Guardian than any other paper despite it being the UKs second smallest national daily (the smallest if you count the Indy and I together).

A little data point illustrative of the fact that what would otherwise be a fringe viewpoint is made dominant when put through the almighty amplifier of the progressive broadcast ministry.
You're lying.

Daily Mail: the 'leftwing' BBC's newspaper of choice | Media | The Guardian
 
Fair enough BBC, or whoever responsible for the information request, were lying.

Still hardly a shocking story which proves absolutely nothing. According to the revised figures they buy roughly 380,000 copies of right wing papers compared to 200,000 of left wing ones. Your argument is still void.
 
I suspect they made a mistake, as you did. That's not the same as lying. Although that said, vastly understating the guaridan in particular then correcting after it was reported is a wee bit convenient. That and despite its notoriety for gaffes, you'd think the guardian would fact check against its own sales.

My argument is not void. The bbc editorial line is very close to the guardians. The bbc amplify this fringe voice into a mighty roar. It's thus no surprise to find they consume it more than papers with 10 times the circulation.

Why do you reckon they need to buy papers out of all proportion to the way those reflect the public? They buy nearly 1% of all guardians sold ffs.
 
I suspect they made a mistake, as you did. That's not the same as lying. Although that said, vastly understating the guaridan in particular then correcting after it was reported is a wee bit convenient. That and despite its notoriety for gaffes, you'd think the guardian would fact check against its own sales.

My argument is not void. The bbc editorial line is very close to the guardians. The bbc amplify this fringe voice into a mighty roar. It's thus no surprise to find they consume it more than papers with 10 times the circulation.

Why do you reckon they need to buy papers out of all proportion to the way those reflect the public? They buy nearly 1% of all guardians sold ffs.
Should they reflect what's most popular then? If so then the main story on the 6pm news should be what some Charlotte from 'Geordie Shore' wore on the beach yesterday and the addresses of the 10 most recently released paedophiles.
 
Should they reflect what's most popular then? If so then the main story on the 6pm news should be what some Charlotte from 'Geordie Shore' wore on the beach yesterday and the addresses of the 10 most recently released paedophiles.
Whether or not they cover tabloid subject matter, there is absolutely no justification for them being a bullhorn for a fringe viewpoint, which is what they are and this is just one small piece of corroborating evidence.

I admire your tenacity but let's face it, the beeb have an institutional bias which is visible to all but those who do not want to see, is repeatedly attested to by insiders and which is reflected in their statistically anomalous consumption of thre paper they swap staff with.

I liked the Sharks documentary too, but the BBC is a highly biased organisation which badly distorts the marketplace of ideas and political landscape within this country.

It's no coincidence it is only unionist, labour voting social liberals who contrive not to spot this.
 
So what would you prefer? It disbands then the political policy of the new commercial BBC is decided by the largest shareholder?

It may come across lefty and namby pamby but it has to represent 60 million different, diverse, people living in the UK aged 0-100. What are they missing out that would be there in your ideal tv station? What was not included from their news tonight that the allegedly neutral sky news did report?
 
So what would you prefer? It disbands then the political policy of the new commercial BBC is decided by the largest shareholder?

It may come across lefty and namby pamby but it has to represent 60 million different, diverse, people living in the UK aged 0-100. What are they missing out that would be there in your ideal tv station? What was not included from their news tonight that the allegedly neutral sky news did report?

I may be wrong but I think Eeg's point has more to do with which side an allegedly impartial BBC would take [do take - we've all seen that] in debates or referenda etc rather than simply the news stories they show as against what SKY shows.
 
I may be wrong but I think Eeg's point has more to do with which side an allegedly impartial BBC would take [do take - we've all seen that] in debates or referenda etc rather than simply the news stories they show as against what SKY shows.

Aye but like in the referendum 'bias' whose the BBC? The BBC one news, Andrew Marr, Michael Portillo, Paxman, Andrew Neil, Question Time Audience, BBC Scotland News, BBC Wales, BBC Lancashire, BBC Cumbria, Newsround, The One Show, Newsnight Scotland, Radio 1 News Beat, Today Show, BBC radio 2 news, every programme bar sport on the 24hr 5 Live, BBC Asian Network, Cebeebies? They all deal with issues that could be described as political. Everyone is in a Guardian reading left wing conspiracy? Every single person has been told how to think?
 
Jack jokingly suggests that it's maybe the grauniads impartial reporting that makes it a favourite with the BBC.
 
Jack jokingly suggests that it's maybe the grauniads impartial reporting that makes it a favourite with the BBC.

Glad you're jokimg there jack. You would be conceding every thread of this kind to me ad infinitum if you weren't

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So what would you prefer? It disbands then the political policy of the new commercial BBC is decided by the largest shareholder?

It may come across lefty and namby pamby but it has to represent 60 million different, diverse, people living in the UK aged 0-100. What are they missing out that would be there in your ideal tv station? What was not included from their news tonight that the allegedly neutral sky news did report?
It doesn't represent those people,though S - it represents a narrow constituency which it then widens by propagandising for them.

I don't think the BBC has a role in news and current affairs, while license payer funded. In a multi cultural society it cannot legitimately represent everyone. Maybe that's hard, but then the bbc worked tirelessly to get us to that point and you reap what you sow.

Moreover it doesn't even try to represent society as a whole, only a narrow and predictable range of views. Only the sheer dominance it has and the pervasiveness of its reach can disguise this, as the unwary can mistake a bbc line for some kind of norm. Even worse, In many cases it succeeds in actually establishing norms through it's propagandic influence..

Imagine a relentlessly euro sceptic, free market trumpeting, pro Israeli, hostile to gay marriage and abortion BBC which in everything from current affairs to drama mocked supporters of multiculturalism as barking, endlessly bigged up scottish nationalism, lynched Natalie Bennett on question time to a baying audience of BNP supporters, had major foreign correspondents aggressively and obsessively preoccupied with Venezuela and Cuba, denounced the Euro as a currency for swivel eyed loons, had every second light entertainment show presented by a Pentecostalist while they are featured in most dramas also (a group I pick as they are roughly equivalent in number to gay people, and illustrate selective coverage of minorities)). Meanwhile dramas would perennially feature wicked labour schemers, malevolant muslims hiding behind every apparent Israeli misdeed, be obsessively preoccupied with black crime while bending over back wards to explore the shades of grey involved in racist thinking - and so on.

It would be pish wouldn't it? But it would be no less neutral and representative than the current BBC. There is no tenable argument that justifies BBC bias while it is taxpayer funded. We are well past the era where it is acceptable for us to be educated by our betters through the BBC and to pay them for the privilege.

The BBCs mandate should be contained to educational and public services such as wildlife and science. It has repeatedly demonstrated the impossibility of impartiality in political matters whether with a large or small P. If it wants to play in that space it should become a commercial enterprise.

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Aye but like in the referendum 'bias' whose the BBC? The BBC one news, Andrew Marr, Michael Portillo, Paxman, Andrew Neil, Question Time Audience, BBC Scotland News, BBC Wales, BBC Lancashire, BBC Cumbria, Newsround, The One Show, Newsnight Scotland, Radio 1 News Beat, Today Show, BBC radio 2 news, every programme bar sport on the 24hr 5 Live, BBC Asian Network, Cebeebies? They all deal with issues that could be described as political. Everyone is in a Guardian reading left wing conspiracy? Every single person has been told how to think?

Almost all. Why do you find this so difficult? You get left liberal opinions expressed on Fox news, but you'd presumably have no difficulty in distinguishing the overall thrust of the channel. The BBC is like a left liberal version of it. Moreover, you keep overlooking the point I keep restating in these threads, and which is the one bbc insiders keep confessing to; it is less about party politics and more about bourgeois social liberal assumptions. The BBC is so powerful in this respect that the tories have had to adopt these things to get a hearing.
 
Think it boils down to the large majority of people that act, write, produce and direct television in the UK are left leaning former students with more gay friends than average. The biggest media broadcaster in the country represents this. Shock.
 
ps who said Sky was neutral? It will matter the day you're forced to pay for it.

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Think it boils down to the large majority of people that act, write, produce and direct television in the UK are left leaning former students with more gay friends than average. The biggest media broadcaster in the country represents this. Shock.

What kind go answer is that? What have their gay friends got to do with anything? And why is it acceptable for them to use public monies to propagate their left leaning views - which they will in turn have in large part because of the influence of the BBC and the similarly skewed Universities?

As I keep saying, I have no problem with them pushing their view, as long as no one is forced to fund it.

I'm also surprised you are so blas about the points you make as it's another way of saying the upper middle class has taken over; it's another indicator of the dearth of social mobility. Writers etc can't get anywhere without genuflecting to this upper class hegemony and their values.
 
ps who said Sky was neutral? It will matter the day you're forced to pay for it.

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What kind go answer is that? What have their gay friends got to do with anything? And why is it acceptable for them to use public monies to propagate their left leaning views - which they will in turn have in large part because of the influence of the BBC and the similarly skewed Universities?

As I keep saying, I have no problem with them pushing their view, as long as no one is forced to fund it.

I'm also surprised you are so blas about the points you make as it's another way of saying the upper middle class has taken over; it's another indicator of the dearth of social mobility. Writers etc can't get anywhere without genuflecting to this upper class hegemony and their values.
Sky News says they are neutral, it's in their licencing remit.

Your argument would be so much better if there was a major difference between what the BBC show on their news and dramas than there is on ITV, CH 4, CH 5 and sky. You've not showed a single shred of proof that their editorial line is not broadly the same as every other single terrestrial broadcaster in the nation.
 
Sky News says they are neutral, it's in their licencing remit.
are you sure about that? I've never heard of this. I certainly don't view them as impartial though they're probably not as bad as the Beeb. Either way when I'm forced to pay Murdoch I'll start to worry about it.
Your argument would be so much better if there was a major difference between what the BBC show on their news and dramas than there is on ITV, CH 4, CH 5 and sky. You've not showed a single shred of proof that their editorial line is not broadly the same as every other single terrestrial broadcaster in the nation.
You're stuck in a rut; it doesn't matter what other channels do if they are commercially funded. That said given the public service remit of Ch 4 it's comedy levels of news bias are possibly an exception.

We've been over this before on these threads and some of it is alluded to in this thread. In news and drama the BBC displays a blatant 'guardianista' bias on subjects as diverse as europe, religion and social matters, Israel, demographics, multi culturalism, immigration and race, economics, scottish independence, terrorism, crime etc.

I've given examples above of what you'd be unlikely to ever find the BBC doing, in a list of categories selected because it is routinely biased with the same or equivalent topics but in a predictable pc direction; remember, by the way, that viewpoints excluded are just as much an aspect of bias as those selected for inclusion. I'm sure you don't really need those spelled out again - however so that you can't complain;

As repeatedly before, it's about social liberal assumptions more than party politics (which doesn't mean it isn't team labour because it blatantly is) so;

- On europe, it was sceptics - now so thoroughly vindicated - who were viewed and treated as swivel eyed loons
- on immigration it is relentless propaganda in reportage and drama, no platforming or viewing as racist the working class communities destroyed
- on gay marriage, it was opponents not advocates denounced as insane or wicked from the BBC bully pulpits. on the continent some of the biggest demos in europes history running for months and years - indeed going on unto this very week - and brutally put down by state robocops were not covered where every right on gathering of a few thousand gets reported, (and where people are sent around the world to find continuing maltreatment of gay people, and where further flung examples of police brutality are newsworthy). Hell, even melodramatic suicide protests went barely remarked. Moreover its impossible to understand the wider implosion of modern France without understanding the many fault lines in its society that opened up in the particularly vast and sustained french campaigns and vicious response from a state which is presiding over disintegration. In short, newsworthy.
- on AIDS, in albert square it was famously a disease of straight white men in the opposite of the world, lie filled panorama hatchet jobs made by anti catholic groups on the role of church teaching and AIDS are not balanced with reporting of the real world inverse correlation of catholicsm (and Islam) with aids, and it's positive correlation with secular approaches (repeated in different regions), while rapid new growth in the UK barely gets a mention
- on terrorism, we mince around the language used in respect of the biggest barbarians in modern times while in spooks it was Jews or yanks behind their every apparent action.
- on race, the BBC is far more given to obsess over white on black racism while barely any attention is given to the bigger issue of inter minority racism or far bigger problems today like black on black violence
- In politics and economics, once more in both reportage and drama, venal capitalists are a constant theme but the historical, humanitarian and ongoing economic disaster of socialism is rarely such rich material for dramatists or obsessive focus by documentaries.
- In selection of personnel there is gross over representation of some demographics and the opposite for others - the same of course goes for interests and subject matter covered.
- On Scotland - I'll leave to interminable debates on this subject alone; suffice to say the broadcast wing of the labour party has provoked even those normally blind to its biases
- as above, you also know with certainty what view bbc pieces or dramas will take on a whole number of issues from the death penalty to abortion to multiculturalism to crime. The BBC will take a predictable position, sometimes corresponding to a minority view, sometimes a majority one, sometimes view the BBC has moved from minority to majority with its propagandising, sometimes one it has failed to budge, but always predictable.

Check out the biased bbc blog for weekly lists of examples. Many of its contributors are of course themselves biased. And it's still not the point - nobody is forced to fund them. Nor does it matter if your own biases align with the BBCs - mine do on some things and not on others - but no one is forced to pay to listen to us.

Once more, no intrinsic problem with the BBCs biases - most commercial media and arts are broadly the same, probably for the reasons you insinuated about their dominance by an elite who trumpets its own values. However, we are not forced to pay for them. It is bad enough that posh progressives have drummed the proles off stage or into harmless performing jester roles, but being forced to pay the dominant lot is just taking the piss.

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More than enough words now spilled S and most repeated for the umpteenth time. Unless you want to go back to the OP I will leave last word to you.
 
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Na lad we've both said our piece. What I would say tho that even if BBC bias was in the other direction - polish immigrants undercutting the eastenders market, panorama talking about the negativity of homosexuality, Nigel Farage presenting newsnight - I'd still be defending it.

No other broadcaster in the world would offer you better Scottish lower league football radio coverage, the best documentaries in the history of television, children's programming unequaled anywhere or the 1000's of niche interests covered tremendously by the beeb every single year.

You might not be happy to fund it but I'm glad you do.
 
Have you watched TV in other countries? It's sometimes pretty rubbish, mostly because it can come across as provincial and lacking nuance and taste. (Obv there are exceptions to this but we get the absolute cream here).

Our telly is good partly because of the public funding and partly because we have a more developed creative economy than most.
 
Have you watched TV in other countries? It's sometimes pretty rubbish, mostly because it can come across as provincial and lacking nuance and taste. (Obv there are exceptions to this but we get the absolute cream here).

Our telly is good partly because of the public funding and partly because we have a more developed creative economy than most.

I have. Though i don't get terribly far unless it's english language. Not noticed much worse in US and Canada, while their dramatic output strikes me as superior - caveat: we clearly import the cream of the crop, but even then a rather richer harvest than our own best; and certainly more nuanced.

US print media is streets ahead IMHO - the current affairs mags in particular.