Political bias at BBC - something has to be done surely
Discussion
The Don of Croy said:
tangerine_sedge said:
...Now imagine if radio was entirely in private hands...
Think Capitol and Classic FM. 'nuff said, right? Not forgetting that independent pirate radio was instrumental in creating a 'youth' BBC channel.Just because a monolithic tax supported leviathan can indulge in filling the airwaves with many genres doesn't make it good. Just big.
Today we have a plethora of mechanisms to access moving images and/or audio streams - who needs DJ's ?
SpeedMattersNot said:
Radio One's "Chris Smith" gave Milliband (sic.) a hard time on newsbeat. Totally biased against Labour, I am writing in to complain.
Says you but even if so, the sample size = one, meaningless. There's plenty of evidence on bias in the bank over the years, plus BBC staff admissions. Then there's the BBC's own reporting (online) of the above event that shows Miliband getting a hard time from a few of the invited questioners, while Chris Smith let him off the hook.
"You're keen on saying people will make their voice heard and send you a message. If you do lose [lots of] MPs on 7 May, what message is Scotland sending you? What short phrase could you sum it up in?"
Miliband responded, smiling: "We'll discuss that after the election, Chris!"
Not if Miliband can help it.
Chris also let an audience member get Ed off the hook on his duplicity over originally supporting Cameron over Libya.
McWigglebum4th said:
For someone who despises the BBC so much he is forced to spend hours and hours a week ranting about how evil they are on the internet
You certainly know far more about its content then i do
and in the next breath likely to be moaning aobut those who go out of their way to be offended by things ... You certainly know far more about its content then i do
PH hypocrisy matters
mph1977 said:
McWigglebum4th said:
For someone who despises the BBC so much he is forced to spend hours and hours a week ranting about how evil they are on the internet
You certainly know far more about its content then i do
and in the next breath likely to be moaning aobut those who go out of their way to be offended by things ... You certainly know far more about its content then i do
PH hypocrisy matters
Anyway, who he? Not me: I don't despise the BBC, have never said they're evil, and can quite easily become familiar with recent TV/radio content from other PHers when replying to threads. Online material is fair game though. The many previous years spent watching and listening have provided a background store of examples of bias which I've noted directly. Clearly nothing has changed.
If the above remarks were aimed at me there's no hypocrisy either, as I'm not offended by the BBC. They simply ought to play their role as impartial national broadcaster rather than act as a propaganda mouthpiece for the Labour Party, as they are now so far removed from this position, evidence-based criticism is rational and objective, not ranting and not emotive. Objecting to being forced to fund political propaganda just to watch live broadcasts on other channels is also a perfectly rational position to adopt.
Also in terms of the occasional so-called 'hard time' that a Labourite may experience once in a Blue Moon, firstly there aren't many such events and when it happens - as confirmed by experienced BBC staff - it's usually when the BBC are coming at the Labour Party from the left because they're not being lefty enough for the BBC. So a hard time is still often indivative of bias at work.
turbobloke said:
mph1977 said:
McWigglebum4th said:
For someone who despises the BBC so much he is forced to spend hours and hours a week ranting about how evil they are on the internet
You certainly know far more about its content then i do
and in the next breath likely to be moaning aobut those who go out of their way to be offended by things ... You certainly know far more about its content then i do
PH hypocrisy matters
Anyway, who he? Not me: I don't despise the BBC, have never said they're evil, and can quite easily become familiar with recent TV/radio content from other PHers when replying to threads. Online material is fair game though. The many previous years spent watching and listening have provided a background store of examples of bias which I've noted directly. Clearly nothing has changed.
If the above remarks were aimed at me there's no hypocrisy either, as I'm not offended by the BBC. They simply ought to play their role as impartial national broadcaster rather than act as a propaganda mouthpiece for the Labour Party, as they are now so far removed from this position, evidence-based criticism is rational and objective, not ranting and not emotive. Objecting to being forced to fund political propaganda just to watch live broadcasts on other channels is also a perfectly rational position to adopt.
Also in terms of the occasional so-called 'hard time' that a Labourite may experience once in a Blue Moon, firstly there aren't many such events and when it happens - as confirmed by experienced BBC staff - it's usually when the BBC are coming at the Labour Party from the left because they're not being lefty enough for the BBC. So a hard time is still often indivative of bias at work.
As i never watch the BBC after i canceled my license fee
P.S. thanks for paying for radio 4 and iplayer
As i don't
turbobloke said:
evidence-based criticism is rational and objective, not ranting and not emotive.
Can you show or link to any evidence-based data, rather than the anecdotal evidence that is mainly spouted? Has any plausibly independent body done any sort of analysis of the BBC output across one or more channels? The problem I have is that if I go looking for BBC left-wing bias, I find it. And if I go looking for BBC right-wing bias, I find that too.
Wills2 said:
If Evan Davis leans any further to the left he'll fall off his chair in his next interview....
Thank god we still have the likes of Andrew Neil to give a bit of balance.
From video clips online it looks like he gets to know background information for himself, rather than relying on the handout Guardian copy that BBC producers distribute like confetti (according to the beeb people who kept being offered it). After that he expects a straight answer and has better angles than Paxman when he doesn't get it. Paxo was one dimensional in that regard when giving people a hard time.Thank god we still have the likes of Andrew Neil to give a bit of balance.
I'm offended that a regressive tax is levied to fund the BBC. It wouldn't matter to me if it used the Telegraph rather than the Guardian to source its stories and place its recruitment ads.
Even if it were unbiased - and it isn't
http://order-order.com/2015/04/22/more-bbc-website...
http://order-order.com/2015/04/21/bbc-website-bala...
It's not a service - like Defense, or Health and Education, that anyone should be obliged to fund.
Even if it were unbiased - and it isn't
http://order-order.com/2015/04/22/more-bbc-website...
http://order-order.com/2015/04/21/bbc-website-bala...
It's not a service - like Defense, or Health and Education, that anyone should be obliged to fund.
rudecherub said:
I'm offended that a regressive tax is levied to fund the BBC. It wouldn't matter to me if it used the Telegraph rather than the Guardian to source its stories and place its recruitment ads..
As am I. The Licence Fee is a horrendously outdated concept in these days of video and audio streaming.I would personally like to see the BBC ship their production out via iPlayer and a subscription. Don't want to pay? Can't watch the content. I'll bet many, many people would subscribe. It's the way of the future.
We could then free up the Freeview spectrum for more wireless comms.
As whether or not they could fund the Beeb this way in 2016? Maybe not. An awful lot of people don't yet have proper broadband.
rudecherub said:
It wouldn't matter to me if it used the Telegraph rather than the Guardian to source its stories and place its recruitment ads.
Same here 100% - it must be absolutely neutral and impartial.And charge people for what they view, not via an effectively forced subsidy for what other people want to view.
Don said:
As am I. The Licence Fee is a horrendously outdated concept in these days of video and audio streaming.
I would personally like to see the BBC ship their production out via iPlayer and a subscription. Don't want to pay? Can't watch the content. I'll bet many, many people would subscribe. It's the way of the future.
We could then free up the Freeview spectrum for more wireless comms.
As whether or not they could fund the Beeb this way in 2016? Maybe not. An awful lot of people don't yet have proper broadband.
Do not be half surprised if they (BBC) attempt to dictate an internet tax to fund their grasping selves. Remeber Brown's levy on the phone line standard charge? Which thankfully did not get actioned. I would personally like to see the BBC ship their production out via iPlayer and a subscription. Don't want to pay? Can't watch the content. I'll bet many, many people would subscribe. It's the way of the future.
We could then free up the Freeview spectrum for more wireless comms.
As whether or not they could fund the Beeb this way in 2016? Maybe not. An awful lot of people don't yet have proper broadband.
I noticed as well, on discussion forums (Disqus etc) arguments by commenters (almost definitely paid lobbyists, like we see on here) taking a pro BBC stance and as part of their argument, continuously attempting to forge a link between TV broadcasts and the internet. This would have been , sometime around the previous GE .
I can see no reason, no reason at all as to why the BBC should not be available on a subscription basis , just like any other service, they are, after all, a media company , like many other media companies.The only thing that should see a whiff of public money, is the world service, an important tool for diplomatic projection in the wider world.Everything else, no. Time they were made to stand on their own two feet, something, when you read their ripostes on funding they are scared witless of.
Freedom of choice? The BBC do not understand the principle.
Cheese Mechanic said:
Don said:
As am I. The Licence Fee is a horrendously outdated concept in these days of video and audio streaming.
I would personally like to see the BBC ship their production out via iPlayer and a subscription. Don't want to pay? Can't watch the content. I'll bet many, many people would subscribe. It's the way of the future.
We could then free up the Freeview spectrum for more wireless comms.
As whether or not they could fund the Beeb this way in 2016? Maybe not. An awful lot of people don't yet have proper broadband.
Do not be half surprised if they (BBC) attempt to dictate an internet tax to fund their grasping selves. Remeber Brown's levy on the phone line standard charge? Which thankfully did not get actioned. I would personally like to see the BBC ship their production out via iPlayer and a subscription. Don't want to pay? Can't watch the content. I'll bet many, many people would subscribe. It's the way of the future.
We could then free up the Freeview spectrum for more wireless comms.
As whether or not they could fund the Beeb this way in 2016? Maybe not. An awful lot of people don't yet have proper broadband.
I noticed as well, on discussion forums (Disqus etc) arguments by commenters (almost definitely paid lobbyists, like we see on here) taking a pro BBC stance and as part of their argument, continuously attempting to forge a link between TV broadcasts and the internet. This would have been , sometime around the previous GE .
I can see no reason, no reason at all as to why the BBC should not be available on a subscription basis , just like any other service, they are, after all, a media company , like many other media companies.The only thing that should see a whiff of public money, is the world service, an important tool for diplomatic projection in the wider world.Everything else, no. Time they were made to stand on their own two feet, something, when you read their ripostes on funding they are scared witless of.
Freedom of choice? The BBC do not understand the principle.
I have said many times before, we do not watch/listen to virtually any BBC content, yet we have to pay the licence fee because sometimes we watch live programmes on other channels.
Given the choice (legally), I would stop paying this fee in a heartbeat, as there is little to no content for us, and if there is, other channels do it so much better.
If I was a public sector worker or union member, I can see the attraction, but I am neither, and feel I am paying for inferior content that I do not want to watch/listen to, while at the same time, paying again for subscription services that offer far better quality programming, and without the inherent liberal bias sprinkled into virtually every programme.
I have also said before that, it is only when you haven't watched/listened to BBC content for any length of time, you realise just how bias it really is, if you dip your toe back in for an hour or so, it's actually a lot worse than you remember.
There is now so much choice out there, I cannot believe we're still forced to pay for this, even if we don't watch any of the content, unlike any other TV/film/radio channel - most of which now have a watch again service without ads.
We don't actually watch any programmes live. Everything is recorded or streamed.
We watch almost no BBC content - but what we do watch (British Drama is good) we get via NETFLIX!
If the BBC were funded by subscription I'd probably get it initially and then see if I could switch it off.
I don't watch BBC news or current affairs programming as I don't need to (and it is too annoying). I read all my news and analysis via on-line newspapers or the excellent Windows "News" app.
We watch almost no BBC content - but what we do watch (British Drama is good) we get via NETFLIX!
If the BBC were funded by subscription I'd probably get it initially and then see if I could switch it off.
I don't watch BBC news or current affairs programming as I don't need to (and it is too annoying). I read all my news and analysis via on-line newspapers or the excellent Windows "News" app.
Gassing Station | News, Politics & Economics | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff