In that same speech Today editor Jamie Angus also addressed the issue of political bias. In a shock move, he denied there was any.
However, he did admit that the BBC appears to biased on some social issues:
“Where people have caught us out in the past has been on things like cultural issues where I think there is an apparent bias. I feel uncomfortable sometimes with coverage of right to die.
“I think too much of the BBC’s output, across the board, I am including drama, factual, not just news, has taken the standpoint that liberalising euthanasia is broadly a good thing and not too much to worry about.”
Angus also pointed to the BBC’s coverage of abortion reform but said he made “real efforts that we don’t fall into that groupthink, consensus. These are non political issues, they are every bit as tricky. One of the issues about common backgrounds is a lack of diversity on some of these social issues”.
That's a welcome admission from a senior BBC editor of something that's been blindingly obvious for some time.
What a shock. Nice of him to defuse the entire issue of bias with a topic that surely doesn't rank very high in the complaints department. It probably spikes when they make the occasional splash, as with Terry Pratchett, but I'm sure we can name half a dozen issues that get many times the amount of complaints.
ReplyDeleteNow that he's admitted it, of course, we're expected to go back to believing there is no far-Left bias at the BBC on any other issue, never happens, there is no groupthink, they all leave their opinions at home.
Every single time we get an admission of bias, accidental or on purpose, we're supposed to pretend it's been addressed and it's an outlying incident. Pile up enough anecdotes, though, and at some point it will become data.