tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272054900018746845.post5046846896273479824..comments2024-01-01T17:21:52.555+00:00Comments on Is the BBC biased?: Cat Among the PigeonsCraighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08741318067991857821noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272054900018746845.post-25595632136847971372018-10-06T21:30:39.948+01:002018-10-06T21:30:39.948+01:00Yes, that's what I was thinking. I don't t...Yes, that's what I was thinking. I don't think the Charter references party support. There's probably some guidance from Ofcom - they've got nothing better to do than provide guidance that can be interpreted 28 different ways. But I suspect this is probably BBC interpretation of the Charter and Ofcom requirements. I think some sort of balance rule applies to all news broadcasters because I think RT were targeted by Ofcom on that front. Monkey Brainsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272054900018746845.post-21577686203363244642018-10-06T17:02:37.092+01:002018-10-06T17:02:37.092+01:00I was wondering the same thing: what law is that? ...I was wondering the same thing: what law is that? Am guessing it may be one of those broadcasting laws that are administered within the OFCOM remit. Other than that, the Charter?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272054900018746845.post-7429274118862559752018-10-06T16:59:14.038+01:002018-10-06T16:59:14.038+01:00Hurl the Burl snaps and bites but he's the far...Hurl the Burl snaps and bites but he's the far wrong when it comes to 'both sides complain, therefore we must be right'. Er, no, Burl. That's a failure of logic. As he himself often points out in his Sunday twitter spats, he knows that often such complaints have no relation to reality and prove nothing. It's not hard to figure out that balance must be assessed by reference to some sort of stable criteria and measurement.<br /><br />I noticed from a tweet quoted on Guido, he'd come up with a new term: non-Brexiteer. Is he being scrupulously correct or does he have some squeamishness or some reason for not using Remainer or anti-Brexiteer? Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272054900018746845.post-86537594688162903812018-10-06T12:13:05.264+01:002018-10-06T12:13:05.264+01:00What do you think about Burley's claim:
&quo...What do you think about Burley's claim: <br /><br />"You do know that political programmes have to by law reflect party support not the position of guests on a vote in 2016?"<br /><br />Hmmm...I've never seen this law. Where is it to be found? <br /><br />If it does exist, how is it defined? By opinion polling? By <br />proportion of elected MPs? Proportion of the popular vote? Proportion of all elected politicians (councillors, MEPs, MSPs etc)? <br /><br />I'd like Burley to explain. Certainly when UKIP were hovering around 13% in the polls they weren't ensuring that one in 7 guests on political programmes were from UKIP. Equally, when back in 1997 Labour had more than twice the number of MPs as the Conservatives, that didn't mean that Labour MPs got invited on more than twice as much as Conservative MPs. <br /><br />So what does Burley mean by "reflecting party support"? <br /><br />In any case, there is still plenty of room for distortion. <br />How many hours of free publicity has Anna Soubry - an insignificant backbencher whose position is supported by probably no more than 10 of her fell Conservative MPs - received from the pro-Remain BBC over the last couple of years? I think if one could be bothered to label Conservative MPs as left/centre/right and also pro-Brexit/pro-Remain plus pro-second referendum and anti-referendum and then looked at the involvement of Conservative MPs on BBC programmes, you would find a disproporionate number of MPs who are on the left wing of teh Conservative Party, who are pro-Remain and who support a second referendum. Furthermore if you then applied Craig's Interruptometer to their interviews you would find they got far fewer interruptions than their colleagues (as we saw recently with Maitlis's disgracefully partisan interviewing of Jacob Rees-Mogg and then Clare Perry). <br /><br />Corbynistas can also justly claim that the same applies on their side. Soggy left Labour MPs (Umuna, Creasy, Cooper, Phillips etc ) get proportionally far more appearances than hard left and they also receive the kid glove treatment. <br /><br />There is also the matter of subject choice. Those hard left MPs often only get the invite to discuss Corbyn's misdemeanours or deselection or some such, rather than the everyday issues of housing, education, taxation and so on. <br /><br />Likewise, Conservative MPs from the right who favour say more robust prison and crime policies don't get invited on to discuss those issues, but might get an invite to discuss "the rise of the Far Right". Monkey Brainsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3272054900018746845.post-10319261342277638802018-10-06T11:31:52.072+01:002018-10-06T11:31:52.072+01:00"Steven Kettle: This is simple for me. I see ..."Steven Kettle: This is simple for me. I see the right complain of BBC bias towards the left and the left complain of BBC bias towards the right. Result = BBC is doing an excellent job of being balanced, I apply the same logic to brexit and arrive at the same conclusion. Keep up the good work."<br /><br />Scroll back in time: "I see that Josef Stalin is criticised from the left by Trotsky and from the right by Bukharin. Comrade, I think he's got it about right."Monkey Brainsnoreply@blogger.com