Monday 19 September 2016

Does this sound biased to you?


Frances O'Grady

Were I an obsessive-compulsive blogger about BBC bias I'd probably record all manner of BBC news stuff while I'm away in order to monitor it when I get back. 

Not being in any way obsessive-compulsive then (and, be warned, it's no longer on the BBC iPlayer and I can't find the report on the BBC website)...

Let's just go back BBC One's Evening News on 11 September.

There was a Brexit-related report from the TUC Congress. The focus was the TUC's concern that Brexit doesn't "damage workers' conditions or rights" (as Mishal Husain read it).

The report from John Moylan featured Frances O'Grady, head of the TUC, and her "fears" that workers' rights "enshrined in EU law...could be eroded" (in JM's words.)

Cue Frances worrying about whether workers will "pay the price for Brexit".

John then returned to report the TUC's calls for the government to back "really big infrastructure projects to boost the economy."

He then went to a local firm for whom "investment has been the secret of its success". It exports to the EU and is "worried about how Brexit will effect that in the future" (again, in JM's words).

Cue Karl Schwick of Reflex Nutrition talking of the challenges and "costs" and "layers of complexity" that "will definitely impact our growth into the EU". 

Then it was back to the TUC Congress and Len McCluskley bashing bosses.

And then came John's closing words: 
Many trade union members were among those who voted to leave the EU. The task for unions now is to insure that workers don't lose out as a result. John Moylan, BBC News, Brighton.
Now, I know (from having read about it somewhere) that some trade unions (including the RMT and ASLEF) were for Brexit. Why didn't we hear anything from them?

It all felt rather like a party political broadcast from the Continuity Remain Party. 

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