This past week saw Radio 4 broadcast the second series of former BBC Brussels correspondent Chris Morris's Brexit: A Guide for the Perplexed.
I found the last series to be heavily anti-Brexit biased - as you can read here - so I'll admit that I wasn't expecting something particularly neutral or particularly nutritious (mentally-speaking) this time round either.
And, yes, this series followed on - in more ways than one - from the last one.
But if you really want to study BBC bias in action then please listen to the episode on immigration.
If there's one subject guaranteed to bring out the worst of BBC bias other than the EU it's surely immigration, and when the two are combined then the bias is pretty much bound to rocket towards the outer spiral arm of the Andromeda Galaxy and beyond.
As is so often the case with this kind of biased programme there was a sop towards impartiality.
Here it was the presence of Lord Green of Migration Watch - the organisation that has most accurately forecast the massive shifts in the UK's population over the last couple of decades. Chris introduced him as an "ardent advocate" opposed to mass immigration.
In contrast, Madeleine Sumption of the Migration Observatory - whose record of prediction is woeful in comparison and who is pro-immigration - was introduced as a disinterested expert.
Lord Green was challenged by Chris Morris with long, contradicting questions, and Madeleine wasn't - quite the reverse (Madeleine being asked reinforcing questions instead).
In contrast, Madeleine Sumption of the Migration Observatory - whose record of prediction is woeful in comparison and who is pro-immigration - was introduced as a disinterested expert.
Lord Green was challenged by Chris Morris with long, contradicting questions, and Madeleine wasn't - quite the reverse (Madeleine being asked reinforcing questions instead).
And who else did we get? A pro-immigation lawyer, a Polish businessmen running Expat Exit ('stealing' high-powered EU workers - the ones who boost our economy - from the UK) and a small businessman who relies on EU workers and desperately wants the free movement of people to continue.
And crisis, nasty surprises, etc, are all on the cards, apparently.
"Woe, woe and thrice woe!" again.
"Woe, woe and thrice woe!" again.
This isn't impartial reporting. It merely pretends to be impartial reporting.
"Nobody said it would be [THIS] hard"
ReplyDeleteI recall someone from Migration Watch was one of the panelists on Any Questions some years ago. Perhaps I don't listen enough to the BBC though have heard no mention of them till now.
I wonder who has been pushing a stick into the BBC as the other day they did that feature 'telling us' how empty and undeveloped Britain was.
Poetic. Better anyhow than far right, which is the usual lazy knee-jerk labelling.
ReplyDeleteWould this foray into the poetic be an attempt by Beeb, for once in its existence, to avoid the lazy label? Or has Andrew Green managed to put them right?
I think Lord Green is well connected. The BBC always respect power and tend to be rather circumspect about him. They would never call him Far Right. I can't forgive Green for the easy ride he gave Cameron over migration - which was huge under him during an economic downturn. Green has always seemed much keener to criticise the migration policies of Labour.
DeleteA guide for "the perplexed". Typical BBC mind manipulation.
ReplyDeleteDo you remember how the BBC tried in the run up to the Referendum to make out it was all very boring? We heard it in a 100 different forms from the BBC presenters...of course the only reason they were trying to persuade the public that the Referendum debate was boring was because they were scared of British people becoming engaged - in the end they couldn't stop us getting engaged. The Referendum turnout was huge and the public engagement in the debate was unprecedented as we all know who have had fallings out with friends and family.
They are now just trying another bit of mind manipulation: they hope we feel it is all bewilderingly complex. That will help the overall strategy of delay, dilution, diversion and a second referendum to negate the first.
Of course the truth is this is all quite simple: we are leaving the supranational federation of the EU. If the EU wants us to enjoy mutually favourable trade terms then we will - if not, we won't. In the meantime they want to screw as much money out of us as is possible.
Exactly MB. And I find the title "A guide for the perplexed" thoroughly patronizing. It is saying that the confused, perplexed plebs need the BBC experts to explain things to us in slow and easy terms.
DeleteI think Chris Morris goes beyond bias to just lying. I will not be listening to him again. Bias I can discount, but lying is just insulting me.