So according to the latest YouGov poll...
...nearly half of Leave voters think the BBC is biased against Brexit and only 13% of them give the BBC believe the BBC to be unbiased over Brexit.
Not surprising that of course - though the 5% of Leave voters who think the BBC is pro-Brexit is quite something!
The more interesting finding is that - despite Lord Adonis and Alastair Campbell - there's no equivalent result among Remain voters. Nearly three times as many Remain voters think the BBC is unbiased. And most startling of all, more Remain voters (14%) think the BBC is anti-Brexit than pro-Brexit (13%) - so Lord Adonis and Alastair Campbell are a minority of a minority of a minority here!
Wonder what the BBC Press Office will say about this one?
Nothing.
ReplyDeleteIf they say nothing, that will be quite unique as the BBC usually likes their polls.
DeleteMaybe on rare instances they do not like them, BBC 'editorial integrity' kicks in and no space or time can be found?
Oddly, this very day on the subject of Brexit, the BBC has found two chaps they seem to like very much on this very issue, and are promoting them oodles.
One is Tony Blair, and the other is a young fellow called Femi who ticks many boxes and also is a law student.
Everyone from Lord Adonis to Paul Mason and James O'Brien seem to love him lots too.
Wonder what may link all these folk?
"Fifty-percent of Remain voters don't think the BBC is pro-Brexit and only forty-five percent of Leave voters think the BBC is anti-Brexit; we think 'we got it about right'".
ReplyDeleteIt's even more interesting when you look at how the people polled rated other news sources.
ReplyDelete33% consider the Guardian to be anti-Brexit and the BBC is a close second on 27%. Sky News by the way is on only 11%.
Now, I think most sane and rational people will accept that the Guardian is most definitely anti-Brexit. That leads one to the following conclusions:
1. If 33% can assess the Guardian's coverage accurately, why can't 27% assess the BBC's coverage correctly.
2. If 67% of respondents can't work out that the Guardian is anti-Brexit, when its coverage is probably 90% plus anti-Brexit what does that mean? It likely means that (a) people take the question to mean "completely" anti-Brexit and one or more exceptions lead them to discount bias (b) people are tribal about their news sources and reluctant to criticise them and (c) the vast majority of people never read the Guardian or even look at its front page (where the bias is least obvious) and genuinely don't know (indeed this is the case with the Guardian where 58% "don't know").