Is the BBC politically biased ? A poll.

[tubbystu]

So, is the BBC politically biased ?

There are regular BBC bashing threads, so to get some sort of idea as to the percieved stance of the BBC;

Are they institutionally left or right of centre ?

Are they institutionally just slightly off-centre, but against the govt of the day - to keep the govt in some form of check ? This gets messy when New Labour & Lib/Con pact are a Rizzla paper apart on many issues but......................

Are they always just anti or pro the govt of the day ?

Are they always just pro Labour or Tory ?

I know where my vote will go, but am interested in others responses.

[thinfourth2]

Need 2 more options

Not biased

and

OH my god they mentioned the labour party once and they haven't got a 24 hour day rolling praise of maggie thatcher. They are so left wing it is utterly disgusting. Because i see bias where ever i look

[Frankeh]

That poll is the definition of irony.
My opinion is that the BBC is not politically biased.

[tubbystu]

thinfourth2 said:

Need 2 more options

Not biased

and

OH my god they mentioned the labour party once and they haven't got a 24 hour day rolling praise of maggie thatcher. They are so left wing it is utterly disgusting. Because i see bias where ever i look

Noted and edited to include "not biased" - ooops

[Percy Flage]

Each journo is different. It depends who is producing/editing/presenting. It varies. On balance I would say not biased.

[900T-R]

Not so much biased as being a bit naïve and unquestioning towards 'authority' when it comes to flavour of the week topics such as 'climate change', traffic policies, safety 'issues' etc...
Just like any other generalist, public service sort of media then.

Edited by 900T-R on Tuesday 12th October 15:31

[pilchardthecat]

If the BBC were the state media of any other country on earth, would you think differently about it's output?

Personally i think it should be banned from producing news, current affairs and editorial content, and those parts of it should be privatised immediately.

It should be left to do arts and sciences and educational stuff that isn't commercially viable.

[alangla]

I'm a bit gutted there isn't a "24 hour rolling party political broadcast for the Labour party just like Channel 4 News, especially when Snow's presenting it"

[JagLover]

I voted left of centre, because there are not necessarily pro-Labour, but promote their own agenda from the left of the political spectrum.

[XJ40]

I'd have to say that on average they are somewhat left of centre.

I don't think the news is so much but whenever I watch a political discussion programme such as Andrew Marr, Question Time, etc. I get the left leaning impression.

[TuxRacer]

pilchardthecat said:

Personally i think it should be banned from producing news, current affairs and editorial content, and those parts of it should be privatised immediately.

It should be left to do arts and sciences and educational stuff that isn't commercially viable.

I agree for the most part, but some of their output around news and editorial is very good and at least tries to avoid the outrageous bias there is in other parts - HIGNFY and the BBC World-whatsit channel spring to mind. I'm not sure I'd like to lose either of those and then see programmes like Top Gear pushed even more to include more Labour witch doctors.

Perhaps they're worth the sacrifice though, HIGNFY could easily be picked up elsewhere and I only see BBC World one a year or so anyway!

[Hedders]

Whenever you see an extreme 'left wing' attitude, it is treated with respect by the BBC.

I don't think you can say the same for extreme right wing attitudes!

Surely that tells us which way they tend to lean.

[grumbledoak]

It is very common for the performing arts to be quite left wing. Well, until they make millions, normally. Even Frankie Boyle recommends reading Monbiot. Though he does admit that much though he hated Thatcher, New Labour were far worse.

This bias historically resulted in less criticism of Labour governments than Conservative ones. But under Blair they were leaned on to the point that they became little more than Labour's propaganda department. I do think 'Call Me Dave' should do something to stop this happening again, even if that means selling it off for some much needed cash.

[B3njamin]

Hedders said:

Whenever you see an extreme 'left wing' attitude, it is treated with respect by the BBC.

I don't think you can say the same for extreme right wing attitudes!

Surely that tells us which way they tend to lean.

It's truly a shock after seeing the meteoric popularity that far right-wing celebrities such as Nick Griffin have experienced from the general public... Truly a shock that their views aren't aired more...

[pilchardthecat]

Hedders said:

Whenever you see an extreme 'left wing' attitude, it is treated with respect by the BBC.

I don't think you can say the same for extreme right wing attitudes!

Surely that tells us which way they tend to lean.

This is particularly true when they cover US politics. It doesn't matter how hard they try, the BBC just cannot comprehend that the centre ground in the UK is quite a bit further to the left than the US. eg: Why would Americans NOT all want the government providing all their healthcare? The notion that it might end up being very expensive and not as good..... Surely Americans don't actually want guns? It's only the far-right christian lunatics, isn't it?

The BBC are so wrapped up in their own lefty world view they measure everyone elses based on it's distance from theirs, not from the real middle.

[12gauge]

Always anti tory in my view. Theyre certainly not liberal though, apart from some war coverage i cant think of any time they reported honestly about labours blatant authoritarian streak.

A very, very dangerous media outlet, all the more so as there is still a lot of trust in it.

[otolith]

JagLover said:

I voted left of centre, because there are not necessarily pro-Labour, but promote their own agenda from the left of the political spectrum.

This ^^

Not party-political, and were happy to attack Labour whenever they were felt to have strayed too far to the right. If Labour had won the election, and was now in the position of having to make cuts in public spending and benefits, the BBC would be giving them a hard time over it.

(The upshot is that they will kick the Tories on principle for disagreeing with them on everything, but only kick the other parties on the issues)

Edited by otolith on Tuesday 12th October 18:12

[TuxRacer]

Left of center vs. pro-Labour/anti-Tory?

There hasn't been much difference to most intents and purposes for as long as I can remember.