Alarm bells

Comments both here and elsewhere, as well as the evidence of our own ears and eyes, have convinced both me and Sue that the BBC has pretty much gawn mad since the EU referendum. 

It has not only subjected us to an absolute deluge of negativity about the result and its consequences but done so in such a sour and sullen way (by and large) that its own bias has rarely ever seemed so obvious before.

As David Keighley writes, over at News-watch, "Clearly, there was – for the first time – an attempt at least to talk to the ‘exit’ side [during the referendum]. But since the result was announced, any semblance of balance seems to have evaporated."

I will admit I was seriously hoping to hang up my blogger's coat for a while after this referendum and just think happy thoughts for a few months, but the BBC's passive-aggressive (and at times simply aggressive) coverage of the 'Leave' vote and the aftermath have been so extraordinary that I'm keeping my blogger's coat on for a while longer and am about to roll my sleeves up again and crack on.

Here are some of things David is regularly seeing across the Corporation's vast output:

• the vote for ‘exit’ was ultimately based on a form of senile dementia, coupled with hatred of immigrants, and thus on xenophobia and racism;
• that the young have been deprived of their EU birthright by selfish, reactionary pensioners;
• that Nigel Farage was the prime mover in an unleashing of ‘hatred’. Presenters such as Martha Kearney now routinely dismiss his approach with derogatory adjectives such as ‘sneering’;
• to report in close detail any sign of economic unease and magnify it to the maximum extent;
• to root out with tireless zeal all those who say that ‘Brexit’ is so difficult to achieve and such an inconvenience that it will require at best a snap general election and at worst a second referendum to deal with the issues involved.
• To support in every way it can the cause of those wanting a second referendum because basically the first time round the electorate did not know what they were voting for.

I bet most of those will ring a bell with you too. They rang alarm bells with me.