Sunday 17 July 2016

Bias



The other egregious example of BBC bias today was the opening discussion on the Nice massacre on Sunday Morning Live.

It was one of those depressing BBC discussions where everyone - from the presenter to all four of her guests - pretty much sang from the same hymn sheet throughout.

All of them spouted the same set of messages: that we shouldn't be divided, we should be united; that "aggressive language" in reaction to such atrocities is harmful; that it's nothing to do with Islam; that Muslims in France feel alienated; that we mustn't play into the hands of the far-right.

SML can be balanced when it tries. Here it seems to have felt it better to be wholly unbalanced and have nothing but like-minded people echoing the views that we've been given in BBC interview after BBC interview in the past few days.

That was obviously a very deliberate decision.

I read the Twitter reaction. For once it wasn't dominated by the usual suspects. It was full of people disagreeing with what was being said and complaining that this discussion of 'chattering class' types proved that the BBC is biased.

Plus, I noted that Tommy Sandhu only read out the blandest selection of those tweets. (Why bother?)

It's the sort of thing that gives the BBC a bad name.

3 comments:

  1. Craig- I think you are just too kind hearted. This sort of programme demonstrates that the BBC is not impartial or benign or benign but misguided or wrongheaded...I am afraid it is a really malign influence in our lives spreading falsehoods that actually weaken us and make us more vulnerable to very dark forces. I am not a knee-jerk BBC hater (I like the idea of a public sector broadcaster) - I used to love it - I have come to this view because I think it is factually correct.

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  2. I don't see much evidence of everyone being divided over this and not united. It's more like a case of the bubble-dwellers and elite aren't liking the way everyone else is uniting.

    This episode is evidence of Mark Easton's statement at the BBC CoJ that the BBC has a duty to educate the public in a certain direction. From the opening of his panel on 'Reporting Race':

    "The first one of the six primary purposes laid down in our Charter is 'To sustain citizenship and civil society'. The fourth purpose is that the BBC must 'represent the UK, its nations, it regions, and its communities'.

    Now, these are clearly noble ambitions - obligations - upon us. But it does mean that the principles which guide our reporting of the world around us are markedly different from those which motivate Messrs. Desmond, Dacre, and Murdoch.

    The sustenance of civil society, and the representation of all the communities in the UK presents challenges for us in many areas, but none more so, I would suggest, than coverage of race."


    This is who they are. This is what they do. They believe they have a divine right to do it.

    The video has been removed from YouTube, or I'd post a link. I downloaded it ages ago and am quoting directly. You really have to hear the way Easton inflects and emphasizes certain words to get the full effect.

    PS: Notice the tacit admission of the dichotomy between maintaining civil society and representing all the various communities within the UK.

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  3. The truth is that muslims are at war with us and their war manual is the koran. We didn't declare war on them, they declared war on us. 1400 years ago. Once that truism is accepted those who are paid to protect us will perhaps begin to do their job and stop vilifying us for reminding them of life's realities.

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