Political bias at BBC - something has to be done surely

[McWigglebum4th]

K12beano said:

Unb-f-eleivable-ing....

Well - "strange" morning on the BBC.

I would have started to defend them up to this morning.....

A cricketer died - nothing else happened - and a cricketer died - Eric Pickles interviewed the BBC - a cricketer died - they sent someone to East Anglia to make fun of the Canary Breeders ..... And a cricketer died..... He had a car crash last year when he was 83.... And was Australian......and was a cricketer.


Did I miss anything?



I don't like cricket.

Do you love it?

[pmanson]

McWigglebum4th said:

K12beano said:

Unb-f-eleivable-ing....

Well - "strange" morning on the BBC.

I would have started to defend them up to this morning.....

A cricketer died - nothing else happened - and a cricketer died - Eric Pickles interviewed the BBC - a cricketer died - they sent someone to East Anglia to make fun of the Canary Breeders ..... And a cricketer died..... He had a car crash last year when he was 83.... And was Australian......and was a cricketer.


Did I miss anything?



I don't like cricket.

Do you love it?

[iphonedyou]

K12beano said:

Unb-f-eleivable-ing....

Well - "strange" morning on the BBC.

I would have started to defend them up to this morning.....

A cricketer died - nothing else happened - and a cricketer died - Eric Pickles interviewed the BBC - a cricketer died - they sent someone to East Anglia to make fun of the Canary Breeders ..... And a cricketer died..... He had a car crash last year when he was 83.... And was Australian......and was a cricketer.


Did I miss anything?



I don't like cricket.

The only thing you've missed is that they don't programme for you alone, I think.

[turbobloke]

iphonedyou said:

K12beano said:

Unb-f-eleivable-ing....

Well - "strange" morning on the BBC.

I would have started to defend them up to this morning.....

A cricketer died - nothing else happened - and a cricketer died - Eric Pickles interviewed the BBC - a cricketer died - they sent someone to East Anglia to make fun of the Canary Breeders ..... And a cricketer died..... He had a car crash last year when he was 83.... And was Australian......and was a cricketer.


Did I miss anything?



I don't like cricket.

The only thing you've missed is that they don't programme for you alone, I think.

True enough - from reports of goings on like the above, they don't programme for many people these days. Then again, if you're Red Ed during an election campaign and do or say something idiotic they'll programme not to cover it or will spin it up for you, and if you're CMD or a Tory in an election campaign and do or say something that goes down well then they'll also programme not to cover it much if at all (or spin it on some obscure peripheral issue so it seems bad.

Then some biased smartarse will look at coverage and say something silly without lookng at the details of what the coverage and output actually is.

Mrs TB, who's not a particularly political person and who does still take in BBC propaganda every now and then to see how bad it's got, commented last year (so well before purdah but that's no excuse) about a BBC current affairs item on unemployment and how it was down, again,(ok) and how previously static or rising youth unemployment had gone down too but "only by x" when it was in fact a record fall for that category.

[Johnnytheboy]

Did anyone else enjoy the way Eric Pickles cut Justin Webb dead when he asked why there was not more positive campaigning on R4 Today this morning?

"Every time we try and talk about something positive you try and change the subject to something negative."

I've never heard a Today presenter actually lost for words before. It was priceless.

[darren f]

Whether the bias actually exists I wouldn't like to speculate. I do know I have just about given up watching our local BBC1 at 1830 regional news programme as (it seems) the lengthy lead story every evening is about a crisis in the local NHS or at one of the local hospitals. Funny I don't recall a prevalence of such 'in depth' analysis of these issues prior to May 7th being announced

[Esseesse]

Election jottings: BBC Impartiality, the Syria Mess, and Hot Dogs

[Gargamel]

The news that the BBC economics correspondent used to date Ed Miliband in 2004 whilst he was at the Treasury hardly helps to dispel the allegations of ingrained political bias.

[K12beano]

Johnnytheboy said:

Did anyone else enjoy the way Eric Pickles cut Justin Webb dead when he asked why there was not more positive campaigning on R4 Today this morning?

"Every time we try and talk about something positive you try and change the subject to something negative."

I've never heard a Today presenter actually lost for words before. It was priceless.

I would have had time for Justin Webb up until that interview this morning.

[maddog993]

Johnnytheboy said:

Did anyone else enjoy the way Eric Pickles cut Justin Webb dead when he asked why there was not more positive campaigning on R4 Today this morning?

"Every time we try and talk about something positive you try and change the subject to something negative."

I've never heard a Today presenter actually lost for words before. It was priceless.

You don't think it was the fact that Webb was merely exasperated by Pickles repeated failure to answer the question of where the funding was going to come from for the three days voluntary aid leave or how the manpower deficit would be made up? I thought Pickles came across as a bit of a tt. Perhaps not entirely his fault as he appeared to have been ill-briefed.

[AnotherClarkey]

Gargamel said:

The news that the BBC economics correspondent used to date Ed Miliband in 2004 whilst he was at the Treasury hardly helps to dispel the allegations of ingrained political bias.

Milliband used to date Robert Peston? Or are you referring to ex-economics editor Stephanie Flanders who moved from the BBC to that bastion of uber-leftiness JP Morgan Asset Management a couple of years ago?

[andymadmak]

Bizarrely Flanders is also reported to be an ex squeeze of Mr Balls.
Which makes it all the more curious as to why she was EVER given the job that she had at the BEEB, especially as most of her "Stephanomics" pieces had more bias than a left handed corkscrew.

Still, at least she's not there now. Peston seems slightly more balanced in his output, albeit with a decidedly strange mode of delivery!

[Esseesse]

AnotherClarkey said:

Gargamel said:

The news that the BBC economics correspondent used to date Ed Miliband in 2004 whilst he was at the Treasury hardly helps to dispel the allegations of ingrained political bias.

Milliband used to date Robert Peston? Or are you referring to ex-economics editor Stephanie Flanders who moved from the BBC to that bastion of uber-leftiness JP Morgan Asset Management a couple of years ago?

Didn't the Fed bail out JP Morgan a few years back? Doing such a thing could only be described as being left wing surely?

Edited by Esseesse on Friday 10th April 11:14

[The Don of Croy]

K12beano said:

Unb-f-eleivable-ing....

Well - "strange" morning on the BBC.

I would have started to defend them up to this morning.....

A cricketer died - nothing else happened - and a cricketer died - Eric Pickles interviewed the BBC - a cricketer died - they sent someone to East Anglia to make fun of the Canary Breeders ..... And a cricketer died..... He had a car crash last year when he was 83.... And was Australian......and was a cricketer.


Did I miss anything?



I don't like cricket.

Much like the ten o'clock news last Thursday - lead story some guff about the 'leaders debate' that was on ITV just minutes before, item three the slaughter of Christian Kenyan students...nice to get the priorities straight.

Poor Richie Benaud - cut down in his prime? Unexpected? World news? Whatever...

[loafer123]

Not to mention that it is hard to believe the analysis of someone who let those two get it on with her. Surely the very definition of poor judgement?

[anonymous-user]

Esseesse said:

AnotherClarkey said:

Gargamel said:

The news that the BBC economics correspondent used to date Ed Miliband in 2004 whilst he was at the Treasury hardly helps to dispel the allegations of ingrained political bias.

Milliband used to date Robert Peston? Or are you referring to ex-economics editor Stephanie Flanders who moved from the BBC to that bastion of uber-leftiness JP Morgan Asset Management a couple of years ago?

Didn't the Fed bail out JP Morgan a few years back? Doing such a thing could only be described as being left wing surely?

Which would have what to do with someone working for an organisation that has rather 'right-leaning' economic values?

The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, proposed by the Republican Henry Paulson (ex-investment banker), and enacted under a Conservative Government...

Left-wing liberal Bush Government!

[AnotherClarkey]

loafer123 said:

Not to mention that it is hard to believe the analysis of someone who let those two get it on with her. Surely the very definition of poor judgement?

Then again she knows them better than you do and is therefore in a better position to judge.

[Digga]

AnotherClarkey said:

Milliband used to date Robert Peston? Or are you referring to ex-economics editor Stephanie Flanders who moved from the BBC to that bastion of uber-leftiness JP Morgan Asset Management a couple of years ago?

Since when was the, well-oiled revolving door between politics and big business the sole reserve of the Conservatives? Pretty clear to see what goes on here.

It's also IMHO a minor scandal that Flanders has been so underhand about her actual influences and influence, given the supposed impartiality of the BBC. Certainly Paxman is on record as saying he could never make friendships with politicians because of his position - I hardly see how hers differed greatly.

[turbobloke]

AnotherClarkey said:

loafer123 said:

Not to mention that it is hard to believe the analysis of someone who let those two get it on with her. Surely the very definition of poor judgement?

Then again she knows them better than you do and is therefore in a better position to judge.

In bed maybe, and thank heavens it's not compulsory yet so some of us will never find out whether Wallace Gump's orgasm face is even worse than his burger face. As to economics, better by far to look at the numbers and make your own mind up than swallow biased BBC information pollution.

[Bluebarge]

Digga said:

ince when was the, well-oiled revolving door between politics and big business the sole reserve of the Conservatives? Pretty clear to see what goes on here.

It's also IMHO a minor scandal that Flanders has been so underhand about her actual influences and influence, given the supposed impartiality of the BBC. Certainly Paxman is on record as saying he could never make friendships with politicians because of his position - I hardly see how hers differed greatly.

Really?? She was economics correspondent - nobody paid a blind bit of notice to economics reporters until it all went tits up in 2008, by which time Flanders was on maternity leave.

And if it's a condition of employment that you mustn't be friendly with any politicians then every news organisation in the country would see their newsroom re-deployed to the traffic department. It's a reporter's job to get friendly with politicians so that they find stuff out FFS.

Honestly, chaps, you really do come across as a paranoid bunch. The problem here is not that the BBC is biased; it's just that it doesn't reflect your bias.