tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272054900018746845.post8484125457113176189..comments2024-01-01T17:21:52.555+00:00Comments on Is the BBC biased?: Nick Cohen on the BBC's crackdown on dissentCraighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08741318067991857821noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272054900018746845.post-71881099338994648522015-03-09T12:59:15.257+00:002015-03-09T12:59:15.257+00:00I have found this whole thing intriguing on a vari...I have found this whole thing intriguing on a variety of levels.<br /><br />Usually matters 'BBC' are relatively polarised affairs, and anything that adversely affects the corporate edifice are very much rounded on by the Guardian, its writers and readers.<br /><br />But there do seem to be cracks appearing more and more often.<br /><br />Perhaps not surprisingly this is more when the dissent is from within, especially if turf wars flare up and when loyalties are called into question and folk are not seen as the required level of 'team player'.<br /><br />Clearly, as you point out, the protagonists at the core of all this have professional histories that also can only be seen as variable on a few counts.<br /><br />As always these will be pounced upon, maybe with a degree of justification, to cast doubts on anything else by association. <br /><br />So it becomes key, if a trial, to try and separate the fact from the opinion, and the intentions from the evidence.<br /><br />Nick Cohen has laid out the runners and riders fairly well, but others have pointed out a few major stumbles on accuracy or extent.<br /><br />However overall there are surely some undeniables and these must form the core focus.<br /><br />No doubts that there was something very dubious going on around Savile, and how 'the top brass' handled it was about as dire as it got. Which included and may evidently still include some mid-level protagonists whose careers ended up as collateral damage either in backwaters or the scrapheap.<br /><br />Whichever way, the message must surely have gone out, and that is any who mess with the hive will not survive. And some characters, either thick, incompetent, unpleasant, devious or a mixture of all these, are still embedded and riding the next wave of gravy whilst keeping 'boat rockers' in check.<br /><br />Hardly the best outcome on any basis for an entity that plays such a influential, if often malign role in how this country is educated and informed. One that still tries to sell itself as the last independent bastion of holding power to account. <br /><br />Any attempting to raise concerns with the BBC juggernaught, public (via the risible complaints pages - I do note with some irony the number of posts on the article comments pages that have been community moderated to oblivion) or employee (QED) should not be confronted by 'sinister treatments of dissent'.<br /><br />So soon after the airy 'carry on as you were' afforded the BBC by The Future of the BBC committee (despite some jaw-dropping testimony published but apparently deemed worthy of a pass), it is hard to be encouraged.<br /><br />I see the comments are still open, and may chip in as, for once, things seem rather less one-sided than usual CiF fare. I wonder how many are from the BBC?Emmahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11550976834509947355noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272054900018746845.post-28915094734794911232015-03-08T17:23:41.774+00:002015-03-08T17:23:41.774+00:00Article by Mark Easton on the BBC website.
http:/...Article by Mark Easton on the BBC website.<br /><br />http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-31628420<br /><br />Notice that there is no criticism of the BBCDADhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07380616722854929936noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272054900018746845.post-84037325949224948362015-03-08T16:19:46.025+00:002015-03-08T16:19:46.025+00:00And Liz MacKean was a target of mine on my old 200...And Liz MacKean was a target of mine on my old 2009-10 blog, where I found her to have produced two of the most biased 'Newsnight' reports I'd ever seen:<br /><br />http://beebbiascraig.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Liz%20MacKean<br /><br />I also bashed her at Biased-BBC. Here's me in the comments:<br /><br />"There's a write-up of Liz MacKean's report on the BBC website. One of the people criticising academies is someone she calls "independent educational consultant Roger Titcombe". Roger Titcombe is a leading member of the anti-academies campaign group, Our Schools Are Not For Sale (OSANFS): <br />http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7381927.stm <br />http://www.nwemail.co.uk/news/barrow/1.509006 <br />http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/8047288.stm <br />To call him "independent" is surely very misleading. <br />The name 'Liz MacKean' on a report always makes me suspicious."<br /><br />I complained about that and got a reply from Liz MacKean herself. I'll post it here if I can find it. I remember thinking it did her credit to reply in some detail, and with (her characteristic) earnestness.<br /><br />I also slagged her off in another couple of comments:<br /><br />"Craig has commented 07 August 2010,13:06:08.<br />On Wednesday Newsnight's Liz MacKean presented a report about 'the growing crisis in foster care'. Liz's concerned voice and the use of sad music gave it the feel of a charity appeal on behalf of the Fostering Network. (A worthy cause, no doubt). <br />http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00tbwf0/Newsnight_04_08_2010 <br /> <br />One key point she wanted to get across was a political one - that, as Emily Maitlis's introduction put it, "many believe that forthcoming cuts will jeopardize the care given to some of our country's most vulnerable children." Liz MacKean made that point again and again throughout her report and ended with pretty much the same words. (The report's statistics were drawn from the Fostering Network and the Labour-leaning think-tank Demos). <br />Like quite a few of Liz MacKean's reports, it had the whiff of propaganda.<br />http://biased-bbc.blogspot.com/2010/08/open-thread_06.html<br /><br />Plus, she also appeared in a Biased-BBC post I did. I described a report she did as "another completely one-sided report from Liz MacKean, which propagandized for keeping speed cameras and against government budget cuts".<br />http://biasedbbc.org/blog/2010/08/21/interviewing-without-due-care-and/<br /><br />I wasn't really a fan, was I?Craighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08741318067991857821noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272054900018746845.post-10703657826794685262015-03-08T15:15:51.689+00:002015-03-08T15:15:51.689+00:00Sounds like business as usual at the BBC. We'v...Sounds like business as usual at the BBC. We've heard the phrase "keep your head down" with regard to several issues over there, haven't we? Peter Rippon certainly got exiled to the archives, and I'm not sure he even did anything wrong either way.<br /><br />PS: Meirion Jones certainly has produced shoddy journalism for Newsnight about voter fraud in the US. He has disputed this, of course.David Preisernoreply@blogger.com