Brexit and climate change were early warnings, where the BBC was pressured and directed into allowing lies and opinions to be juxtaposed with verifiable facts, in supposed balance. When Trump speaks, barely a sentence passes without a barefaced lie, but I’d not expect the BBC to call them out as that would offend that various right wing plants that have been embedded at the top.
For news I go to Channel 4 which is not afraid to confront some of these difficult issues. The BBC had and still has some of the greatest reporters, especially internationally. It is sad to see them drifting away. The BBC needs to regain its independence and licence to offend politicians.
I think BBC news needs overhauling without a doubt - not a day goes by without pro Reform propaganda or at least negativity about anything other than RW topics.
But the cultural/drama/ entertainment part which is the larger share of BBC content needs supporting as a separate entity if possible.
Yes but the perception is of the BBC as a whole, they need to have BBC News under it's own management team independently with oversight unrelated to any one political party or ethos.
I’d be interested to know who gave Trump this bit of information as we all know he only watches Fox Lies. I also believe it’s time members of the BBC Board were thoroughly investigated. Robbie Gibb is a big Tory donor and appears to interfere where he has no right. I won’t be returning to BBC News until it’s clear that impartiality has returned and that won’t be before Chris Mason and Laura Kuensberg are given training!
The BBC lost its way many years ago - late 90s imho - when they stopped reporting facts to us so we could decide & instead served up their opinion we were supposed to devour.
My moment came in 2008. Our local Look North did a 60 second article on 600 job losses. They followed it with 15 seconds on 800 job creations. That was the hard evidence that stopped me watching any BBC journalism. That said, for those interested, take a moment to disect any current news on the Beeb and you will hear all points being prefaced with: maybe, could, might, possibly etc. What we are now served is opinion/interpretation not bare facts and those opinions are corporate opinions towing a political line.
RIP news impartiality. You've been dead 30 years on the BBC but the thickos have now noticed...
I take a slightly different view. (I often do.) I think the BBC does have major problems in its news coverage, but the problem isn't bias - although that it likely to be a contributory factor - but that critics from all sides have thrown the word 'elite' at it* so it has turned to ratings chasing entertainment.
I notice from people I know - so, not the scribblers in national newspapers - that the response to something they don't like is to call it a conspiracy or bias. I'm amazed (not really) by how many people have strong views about things that they haven't actually seen.
But, to get back to my main theme, it's entertainment that is the problem. News and analysis is sometimes dull, you have to live with it. Now, there's a clear desire to get the Gotcha!Yes, they want that moment when somebody is on the ropes. It may please the crowds, but it doesn't enlighten.
And here's the big problem: government isn't actually that exciting, much of it is mundane. Minority parties can just chase headlines by being outrageous. I mean, isn't that what Ed Davey and Nigel Farage do?
Trying to put me in my place, someone told me that I just wanted news to be all analysis. Actually, I want it to be better analysis. Listeners need the context to understand what politicians are saying.
That said, my big gripe - and it's enormous, it's a real Burj Khalifa of a gripe - is that I can sense that so much news is driven by press release. Some obscure - maybe newly-formed - think tank comes out with some wacky proposal and it makes the main news. That's where I feel the real problem is (and it's also something the left could think about if that's the way it's going...)
*Being elite isn't necessary a problem (ask an elite athlete), being elitist maybe is a problem.
As someone who doesn’t have a tv license so hasn’t been watching the news for some time, I have absorbed the failings and inbalance third hand but I do want a public broadcaster that has strong ethics and standards. These still exist here and there, often on the radio. Funding is a major problem, I think the entertainment side is still excellent and is able to sell its products worldwide. The news needs to be supported by government without bias and agendas.
This development is sickening and chimes with all the other right wing problems - privately run utilities, ppp in the nhs etc.
That Andrew Marr reference at the beginning has taken me back to when my ex cleaned the house to the lulling of his voice. I still suffer from PTSD from that experience.
Anyway, the events of the past few weeks ending on this whole BBC debacle are suspiciously similar to the plot of season 5 of Slow Horses. I think we’ve reached the blind your enemy stage now.
The bbc became compromised the moment it started ignoring its charter. The constant platforming of Reform and farage, no pushbacks on interviews. Chris Masons orgasms on anything to do with reform. The hiring of former gbeebies editor McAndrew. And now Trump trying to influence bbc policy and succeeding. The way forward is clear to anyone. Strip the bbc of Johnson's appointments. Tell the likes of Kuessenburg and Mason to do their jobs properly or else they'll be fired, end the obvious reform bias, and grow a bloody spine!!
Pretty much spot-on as usual. Just another thought though - doesn't all this mean that Robbie Gibb is going to be untouchable (if the Beeb survives this as I hope it will) for fear of further 'left-wing bias' accusations?
What I would dearly like is a clear out of clearly biased useful idiots to the global right wing shouty mob. A national broadcaster has to be a) impartial b) able to stand up for its impartislity c) block and refuse to entertain those whose views are widely seen as offensive. I wish the former Boris' Broadcasting Chums (including Board members) could be defenestrated as too costly, in financials and reputation, to the organisation. Subscription model and ads rather than licence fee, so people who don't watch or listen can cringe in peace at its antics. I wrote in my comment on Willy and Bill's post that if it absolutely has to be funded nationally, make it from general taxation and subject to the same rules as the NHS has to observe to get funding. And, from what my care team have been telling me, for them that means no recruitment, budgets slashed, staff leaving under voluntary redundancy. Oh dear. Sorry Boris' luvvies. You're too expensive. Bye bye.
In Scotland the BBC has been anti Scottish since 2010/11 when WM announced there would bean Independence Referendum held in 2014. And it has got worse every year.
Brexit and climate change were early warnings, where the BBC was pressured and directed into allowing lies and opinions to be juxtaposed with verifiable facts, in supposed balance. When Trump speaks, barely a sentence passes without a barefaced lie, but I’d not expect the BBC to call them out as that would offend that various right wing plants that have been embedded at the top.
For news I go to Channel 4 which is not afraid to confront some of these difficult issues. The BBC had and still has some of the greatest reporters, especially internationally. It is sad to see them drifting away. The BBC needs to regain its independence and licence to offend politicians.
See also Ian Dunt’s excellent piece on Substack - Striking 13
Another bullseye from you. OFCOM needs looking at as well.
I think BBC news needs overhauling without a doubt - not a day goes by without pro Reform propaganda or at least negativity about anything other than RW topics.
But the cultural/drama/ entertainment part which is the larger share of BBC content needs supporting as a separate entity if possible.
As I understand it the cultural etc parts of the BBC are already a separate (and highly profitable) entity.
Yes but the perception is of the BBC as a whole, they need to have BBC News under it's own management team independently with oversight unrelated to any one political party or ethos.
The weapons-grade hypocrisy that continues to flood from the WH vs a mealy mouthed critique of an edited speech.
This asymmetry tells you everything you need to understand about this story.
The right (Trump, Mirage, Putin…) all get to lie, cheat, corrupt hourly. But the BBC can’t even slightly misstep and heads must roll!
This is the enshitification of our institutions, our political discourse and our collective need for journalism to protect our democracy.
The BBC needs to get rid of the right-wing shills masquerading as Board members and senior executives. Starmer needs to act.
I’d be interested to know who gave Trump this bit of information as we all know he only watches Fox Lies. I also believe it’s time members of the BBC Board were thoroughly investigated. Robbie Gibb is a big Tory donor and appears to interfere where he has no right. I won’t be returning to BBC News until it’s clear that impartiality has returned and that won’t be before Chris Mason and Laura Kuensberg are given training!
Training as in P45 hopefully!
heaven (or someone!) preserve the BBC from privatisation
I hadn't thought of that as the underlying object 😳
The BBC lost its way many years ago - late 90s imho - when they stopped reporting facts to us so we could decide & instead served up their opinion we were supposed to devour.
My moment came in 2008. Our local Look North did a 60 second article on 600 job losses. They followed it with 15 seconds on 800 job creations. That was the hard evidence that stopped me watching any BBC journalism. That said, for those interested, take a moment to disect any current news on the Beeb and you will hear all points being prefaced with: maybe, could, might, possibly etc. What we are now served is opinion/interpretation not bare facts and those opinions are corporate opinions towing a political line.
RIP news impartiality. You've been dead 30 years on the BBC but the thickos have now noticed...
Being accused of bias by the Telegraph is like being called dodgy by Jimmy Saville.
It's just deflection whilst they hide in plain sight
I take a slightly different view. (I often do.) I think the BBC does have major problems in its news coverage, but the problem isn't bias - although that it likely to be a contributory factor - but that critics from all sides have thrown the word 'elite' at it* so it has turned to ratings chasing entertainment.
I notice from people I know - so, not the scribblers in national newspapers - that the response to something they don't like is to call it a conspiracy or bias. I'm amazed (not really) by how many people have strong views about things that they haven't actually seen.
But, to get back to my main theme, it's entertainment that is the problem. News and analysis is sometimes dull, you have to live with it. Now, there's a clear desire to get the Gotcha!Yes, they want that moment when somebody is on the ropes. It may please the crowds, but it doesn't enlighten.
And here's the big problem: government isn't actually that exciting, much of it is mundane. Minority parties can just chase headlines by being outrageous. I mean, isn't that what Ed Davey and Nigel Farage do?
Trying to put me in my place, someone told me that I just wanted news to be all analysis. Actually, I want it to be better analysis. Listeners need the context to understand what politicians are saying.
That said, my big gripe - and it's enormous, it's a real Burj Khalifa of a gripe - is that I can sense that so much news is driven by press release. Some obscure - maybe newly-formed - think tank comes out with some wacky proposal and it makes the main news. That's where I feel the real problem is (and it's also something the left could think about if that's the way it's going...)
*Being elite isn't necessary a problem (ask an elite athlete), being elitist maybe is a problem.
As someone who doesn’t have a tv license so hasn’t been watching the news for some time, I have absorbed the failings and inbalance third hand but I do want a public broadcaster that has strong ethics and standards. These still exist here and there, often on the radio. Funding is a major problem, I think the entertainment side is still excellent and is able to sell its products worldwide. The news needs to be supported by government without bias and agendas.
This development is sickening and chimes with all the other right wing problems - privately run utilities, ppp in the nhs etc.
The U.K. is running to keep up with the Trumpire.
That Andrew Marr reference at the beginning has taken me back to when my ex cleaned the house to the lulling of his voice. I still suffer from PTSD from that experience.
Anyway, the events of the past few weeks ending on this whole BBC debacle are suspiciously similar to the plot of season 5 of Slow Horses. I think we’ve reached the blind your enemy stage now.
The bbc became compromised the moment it started ignoring its charter. The constant platforming of Reform and farage, no pushbacks on interviews. Chris Masons orgasms on anything to do with reform. The hiring of former gbeebies editor McAndrew. And now Trump trying to influence bbc policy and succeeding. The way forward is clear to anyone. Strip the bbc of Johnson's appointments. Tell the likes of Kuessenburg and Mason to do their jobs properly or else they'll be fired, end the obvious reform bias, and grow a bloody spine!!
Pretty much spot-on as usual. Just another thought though - doesn't all this mean that Robbie Gibb is going to be untouchable (if the Beeb survives this as I hope it will) for fear of further 'left-wing bias' accusations?
What I would dearly like is a clear out of clearly biased useful idiots to the global right wing shouty mob. A national broadcaster has to be a) impartial b) able to stand up for its impartislity c) block and refuse to entertain those whose views are widely seen as offensive. I wish the former Boris' Broadcasting Chums (including Board members) could be defenestrated as too costly, in financials and reputation, to the organisation. Subscription model and ads rather than licence fee, so people who don't watch or listen can cringe in peace at its antics. I wrote in my comment on Willy and Bill's post that if it absolutely has to be funded nationally, make it from general taxation and subject to the same rules as the NHS has to observe to get funding. And, from what my care team have been telling me, for them that means no recruitment, budgets slashed, staff leaving under voluntary redundancy. Oh dear. Sorry Boris' luvvies. You're too expensive. Bye bye.
In Scotland the BBC has been anti Scottish since 2010/11 when WM announced there would bean Independence Referendum held in 2014. And it has got worse every year.
I gave up on broadcast media years ago.
BBC = Biased Broadcasting Corporation.
Boris Johnson stuffed the hierarchy with Tories. LK is both a Tory and a patsy.
And they long ago became boosters for Reform and right wing orthodoxy.
That Trump has brought this out into the open courtesy of some dodgy editing takes irony to a new level.
The hierarchy should all go. And a broom out of the news stable is needed.
Oh! And QT needs to be cancelled.