Impartiality is in our genes, so it's only right to point out that the BBC is under fire from the Corbynistas again, this time over BBC reporter/presenters' comments on Twitter.
It's another of the remarkable turnabouts of the past couple of years that BBC staff are now getting slammed from the Left as well as the Right for their tweets.
The interesting thing in the past - as painstakingly documented by David Preiser - is that it was a Herculean, maybe even a Sisyphean task, to find even one 'right-wing tweet' from a BBC reporter. They almost invariably came 'from the Left', reflecting the BBC's tendencies towards left-liberal groupthink. (We've posted countless examples of that too).
But, oh my, the Corbynistas are on the case now! Oddly, however, it only seems to be Laura Kuenssberg and Nick Robinson whose tweets really get their goat. They haven't, as far as I can see (and I keep on looking) found many other examples of 'right-wing tweets' from BBC staff (except for one apparently far-right-supporting QT staffer) - so the contention that BBC people almost invariable tweet 'from the Left' still seems to stand.
The tweet that has caused the biggest 'stink' over the past week came from Nick Robinson:
That went down like a lead balloon with Corbyn supporters, and calls for Nick Robinson's sacking have piled in again (which much take him straight back to 2014 and the cybernats calling for his head in huge numbers over the Scottish referendum). Nick has defended himself by saying that Mr Corbyn wouldn't disagree with a word of his tweet. So is that just Nick stating utterly non-contentious facts about Jeremy Corbyn, or is it Nick being rude about Jeremy Corbyn? (I have to say that I first read it as the latter).
The great irony here, as regular readers might remember, is that it was Nick Robinson who (apparently) broke rank with the BBC a year or so ago and, in contrast to his latest protestations, said that he thought the BBC had been biased...against Jeremy Corbyn. The Corbynistas seem to have forgotten that.
Classic comments in the thread. His respondents moaning about how Theresa May is also short on details about Brexit, that the BBC is a 'Tory mouthpiece', and the one who posted the bio details about him being a Young Conservative (there's always one who has to do this), reveal the fallacy of Complaints From Both Sides.
ReplyDeleteWe all saw Robinson's overt anti-Brexit bais (anti-Brexit voter, anyway) live on the air during the BBC's vote night coverage. No impartial reporter would belittle voters on side the way he did. He repeated that same viewpoint (and it is a viewpoint, not factual reporting of evidence) recently in a discussion with Charles Moore in the Spectator. There's no mistake here, no way I'm only inferring or imagining it or claiming to read his mind.
As for anti-Corbyn bias at the BBC, though, yes, it's real. But it's limited to certain quarters, like Marr and Robinson. With Marr, anyway, it's pro-Labour bias.
I have never had any doubt that the BBC has a strict soggy-left policy and will punish ANYONE who deviates from the narrow confines of that policy whether they be Corbyn or Farage. Of course they are happy to have on right wing and left wing comedy acts like Peter Hitchens or Russell Brand but they won't let anyone from the sensible right put their case in a straightforward fashion and people to the left have to watch their words (they can criticise Tories and "capitalists" but not super-rich media types).
ReplyDeleteI am sure for most Corbynistas almost any position to the right of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov is right wing bias. This hardly validates the now standard “complaints from both sides” defence that the BBC resorts to whenever they are challenged.
ReplyDeleteOf course they are! I watch the BBC news and the Andrew Marr show and at times I have to turn the channel over. The presenters need to focus on the policies of the Labour. They presenters frequently prevent Labour guests from answering questions. They ask questions relating to hearsay when they should be asking questions which assist the viewers in forming opinion's based on fact. My friend is a conservative voter and she believes the media are unfair when interviewing labour MPs or reporting issues in relation to the Labour party. I have other friends who have switched off from politics because of poor presenting/reporting by the BBC. Please find some integrity and engage voters by offering unbiased coverage regarding all the political parties.
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