Political bias at BBC - something has to be done surely
Discussion
Eric Mc said:
And if you don't listen to Radio 4, start now. It will change your life.
I always started the day with the Today program on Radio 4 but sadly found their complete and utter bias towards the MMGW hyposthesis was changing my life but in a negative way - all I wanted them to say was both sides of the story fairly and equally and let listeners decide but as we know that is not the case.So I stopped listening to it. I am not clear why my "entertainment tax" in the form of the BBC licence fee should be used to further what is an ideological cause rather than an independent appraisal of what they are being told by press officers etc from UEA and the rest.
[quote=paddyhasneeds]I don't think you're comparing like with like Eric.
If you get in from work and switch to the BBC news at Six or Ten O'Clock, you'd pretty much come away from it with one point of view.
quote]
Do you?
I don't.
But then again. I'm more of a Newsnight man than a 6 O'clock News man.
There is a fair amount of intellectual snobbery going on in much of this argument in that people base their view on the presumption that "I am clever enough to spot biasedness in the media and not be sayed by it but the rest of the population isn't".
If you get in from work and switch to the BBC news at Six or Ten O'Clock, you'd pretty much come away from it with one point of view.
quote]
Do you?
I don't.
But then again. I'm more of a Newsnight man than a 6 O'clock News man.
There is a fair amount of intellectual snobbery going on in much of this argument in that people base their view on the presumption that "I am clever enough to spot biasedness in the media and not be sayed by it but the rest of the population isn't".
steveatesh said:
Eric Mc said:
And if you don't listen to Radio 4, start now. It will change your life.
I always started the day with the Today program on Radio 4 but sadly found their complete and utter bias towards the MMGW hyposthesis was changing my life but in a negative way - all I wanted them to say was both sides of the story fairly and equally and let listeners decide but as we know that is not the case.So I stopped listening to it. I am not clear why my "entertainment tax" in the form of the BBC licence fee should be used to further what is an ideological cause rather than an independent appraisal of what they are being told by press officers etc from UEA and the rest.
Or are you afraid that the rest of the population, who are obviously less intelligent than you, WOULD be unable to make up their own minds on this topic - as you did.
Eric Mc said:
Indeed, if I find a programme on the BBC is annoying me, I change channels or turn the programme off. It doesn't mean I want to ditch the entire channel.
You are missing the point, we are being forced (with threat of jail) to pay for the BBC, a organisation that spends much of this money campaigning on political points that I disagree with.I they just made neutral TV and radio I would be ok with it.
Fittster said:
Can anyone name a news source that wouldn't consider to be biased by either the left or right?
The BBC itself. Pre-1997. It was a while ago now but I don't remember them frothing at the mouth in news reports so much then.I think that misses the point though. I don't have a problem with BBC bias, so long as I'm not required to pay for it to get to other organisation's content.
Eric Mc]addyhasneeds said:
I don't think you're comparing like with like Eric.
If you get in from work and switch to the BBC news at Six or Ten O'Clock, you'd pretty much come away from it with one point of view.
[quote]
Do you?
I don't.
But then again. I'm more of a Newsnight man than a 6 O'clock News man.
There is a fair amount of intellectual snobbery going on in much of this argument in that people base their view on the presumption that "I am clever enough to spot biasedness in the media and not be sayed by it but the rest of the population isn't".
I'm not trying to suggest I'm spotting anything that other people don't, simply suggesting that I believe that the bias is there.If you get in from work and switch to the BBC news at Six or Ten O'Clock, you'd pretty much come away from it with one point of view.
[quote]
Do you?
I don't.
But then again. I'm more of a Newsnight man than a 6 O'clock News man.
There is a fair amount of intellectual snobbery going on in much of this argument in that people base their view on the presumption that "I am clever enough to spot biasedness in the media and not be sayed by it but the rest of the population isn't".
I'm not suggesting that the BBC are the only channel that does it, rather that they shouldn't due to the fact that they are publicly funded, but I guess that's what you get when the news ceases to be reported as news and becomes more about the correspondents opinion.
It would be difficult imho to have a news broadcaster which is so neutral as to be above criticism. It would presumably have no commentary, just news, every item of news must have an equal length of time allowed, as would interviewees, and questions asked. And if one political party won't put up a rep, well you can't ask the others to etc.
And how would you decide what to include, and in what order, without demonstrating bias? That one item is deemed more important than another could be interpreted as bias.
It's impossible. And no, commercial stations don't do it, they just do what you happen to like, another person's bias.
But if you don't like the BBC, how about writing to them or your MP and saying so, like iirc Turbobloke has done? Start an online petition? Do we have to have a thread about it every three weeks? It's repeated more than the.....
Btw, if you can be bothered, in an earlier thread I posted a few clips of Paxman and the like giving some Lab poiticians a good bashing which were very entertaining.
And how would you decide what to include, and in what order, without demonstrating bias? That one item is deemed more important than another could be interpreted as bias.
It's impossible. And no, commercial stations don't do it, they just do what you happen to like, another person's bias.
But if you don't like the BBC, how about writing to them or your MP and saying so, like iirc Turbobloke has done? Start an online petition? Do we have to have a thread about it every three weeks? It's repeated more than the.....
Btw, if you can be bothered, in an earlier thread I posted a few clips of Paxman and the like giving some Lab poiticians a good bashing which were very entertaining.
Eric Mc said:
I think people are more animated about such matters these days partly because the internet allows them to be animated.
Great that people take an interest and look critically at things, but this thread is on more often then The Great Escape at Christmas.I guess I should just watch another thread
Of course the BBC are biased towards the left. For anyone to deny it is naive. Yesterday the top news story was obviously Cameron and the EU Treaty. However they led their story with 5 or 6 mins. of opinion and argument why it was wrong for Britain before they ran the video of Cameron and what he actually said. Any unbiased program would have led with Cameron - he's the Prime Minister - and then followed up with supporting argument and counter argument. It is common for the BBC to position a piece to camera from Balls, Millerband or some other opposition spokesman before the government statement, if they run anything from the government at all. Now I would think people might be interested to know what our Prime Minister has said on an issue, but obviously the BBC think it's less important than the opposition's view.
RichB said:
Of course the BBC are biased towards the left. For anyone to deny it is naive. Yesterday the top news story was obviously Cameron and the EU Treaty. However they led their story with 5 or 6 mins. of opinion and argument why it was wrong for Britain before they ran the video of Cameron and what he actually said. Any unbiased program would have led with Cameron - he's the Prime Minister - and then followed up with supporting argument and counter argument. It is common for the BBC to position a piece to camera from Balls, Millerband or some other opposition spokesman before the government statement, if they run anything from the government at all. Now I would think people might be interested to know what our Prime Minister has said on an issue, but obviously the BBC think it's less important than the opposition's view.
And far, far less important than the level of coverage and credence that they place on their own Editors' and Correspondents' views, placing them above everything else and treating their input as gospel fact rather than biased opinion, which is the reality of it. They are too often the only and unopposed talking head the BBC will feature.Creator Of Yes Minister Launches Blistering Attack On The 'Bias-Ridden' BBC
The co-creator of Yes Minister has launched a blistering attack on the BBC – saying it is biased on issues such as climate change. Sir Antony Jay, who worked as a BBC producer before writing the hit comedy, called for a dramatic downsizing of the corporation, saying it had simply become too powerful.
The co-creator of Yes Minister has launched a blistering attack on the BBC – saying it is biased on issues such as climate change. Sir Antony Jay, who worked as a BBC producer before writing the hit comedy, called for a dramatic downsizing of the corporation, saying it had simply become too powerful.
mybrainhurts said:
thinfourth2 said:
Tin foil hat, Tin foil hat, Tin foil hat.
That's three times you've said it in one day now. How's about giving it a rest? You're fighting a losing battle, the BBC is left wing, end of story.
The sad fact is unless the BBC reported like this
Pistonheads version of neutral said:
Our great and glorious leader the man who we must all worship David want to have his babies Cameron rode into europe today on his white stallion and vanquished the evil hordes of the EU.
That evil stupid little weasel from the labour party said something and we strongly recommend that he is shot in the face in front of his family.
Later tonight please join us for the Maggie Thatcher masturbation hour followed by Celebrity come poor people stabbing
This place would scream about the BBC being left wing That evil stupid little weasel from the labour party said something and we strongly recommend that he is shot in the face in front of his family.
Later tonight please join us for the Maggie Thatcher masturbation hour followed by Celebrity come poor people stabbing
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