I’ve seen the phrase “Brits Broadcasting Communism”. I’ve also been ‘reminded’ that the BBC is no different from other networks in the world and it’s broadcasts are favourable to the people of Britain and/or the govornment.
I happen to believe it is impartial and covers news objectively. Am I wrong? Not that I pay close attention but I never detect any kind of favourability in the news coverage I see on it.
Noone is perfect. BBC does strive to present an objective view of events. However, since objective sometimes means telling multiple sides of a story (sarcasm) many people find them to be biased. Much the same way CNN is seen as biased for daring to suggest that *maybe * the President has his facts wrong, or *maybe * civilians actually get killed in a war, etc.
Well at least, when they do no better job than CBS when checking their sources, as has occurred here – they don’t seem to continue to cover it up by calling the source “unimpeachable” – they seem to fess up with “elaborate deception” – even though their source wasn’t even an employee - so how “elaborate” the “deception” was is still out there somewhere. Here’s the latest BBC overstep of which I’m aware -
It appears that when the BBC used “elaborate deception” in this context, the BBC means they talked to him on the telephone and “Finisterra” (a false name and not one even appearing at Dow) told BBC he represented Dow – nothing more, nothing less – Not very “elaborate” or “deceptive” as I see this - But again, sloppy or not, this doesn’t compare to CBS / Dan Rather -
Anyway - I’ll also add the BBC biggie from last year, the Hutton Report, indicating at least BBC negligence and leading to the “resignations” of two senior BBC executives and BBC reporter, Andrew Gilligan. According to the Hutton Report, BBC’s internal inquiry into the accuracy of Gilligan’s story consisted of asking him whether the story was accurate - to which he replyed “yes.” According to the Report, this was passed on as a ‘satisfactory internal inquiry’ -
Is the BBC “objective”? No- it’s absolutely biased toward the left.
On the other hand, are they generally accurate? Yes- and that’s more important. That is, they undoubtedly seek out news that will discredit the Right, which is regrettable. But if they find such news and report it, it’s almost always true.
Avenger - Just curious, how do you account for BBC’s ‘systemic lapses’ - like the ones mention above? Please look again at BBC’s “elaborate deception” - which is really a telephone conversation and a false name. Look at BBC’s ‘satisfactory internal inquiry’ - which according to the Hutton Report amounts to asking a reporter if a report is accurate - to which he answer “yes.”
Now, if you account for these ‘errors’ as simple innocent, non-gung ho biaed negligence on the part of BBC - hopefully you will show similar ‘systemic lapses,’ involving similarly weighed issues and players, which initially find ‘for’ those similarly situated companies and governments. Once you do please post 'em and link 'em here -
The Hutton report is widely regarded as deeply deeply flawed as you are probably aware. The actual evidence presented to the enquiry (as opposed to the conclusions of the honourable judge) showed that Gilligans report on the BBC radio 4 Today programme was correct in its assertions. The allegation that is less supported by actual evidence (although probably true), namely that Alistair Campbell was personally responsible for altering details of the ‘intelligence’ (and I use the word loosely) dossier was not carried by the BBC at all, but in a subsequent Mail on Sunday article also authored by Gilligan.
The other thing is clearly a piece of extremely poor journalism and must have been extremely embarrasing, but I don’t really see the agenda?
You assert that the BBC is ‘absolutely biased towards the left’. No, it’s not really clear what you mean, that is an entirely arbitrary statement. I mean, for a start, your location is in the US, where they think John Kerry is a leftie, so you might want to start by defining what you mean by ‘left’.
I also can’t see the bias towards the left. Could you give us a concrete example to discuss please? As others have said, UK politics are some way to the left of the US, and this could be the reason for your perception of the BBC as left-wing.
See Liz Curtis’s book Ireland the Propaganda War for evidence - LOTS of evidence - that the BBC’s “impartiality” was certainly a myth when it came to reporting events in the north of Ireland.
I’ve always felt that the BBC was pro-Government biased, and thats it’s become stedily less so over the years. Northern Ireland, the Falklands conflict and the Gulf War being the most clear examples of this. Do you think the BBC’s reporting currently shows a clear bias?
I think you’re wrong here; like the others have said; most of UK politics is somewhat to the left of the USA. I’ve heard the BBC criticised as being ‘too conservative’ by socialists and ‘too liberal’ by Tories - I think this is probably a fair indication that it Isn’t exactly in bed with anyone.
Fully agreed - as with CNN for American politics, I feel that if all the major parties worry that the BBC are out to get them, then it suggests they’ve got the balance right.
Well, apart from falling into the mindless trap of endless selective quotation, there’s also immense factual inaccuracies. They suggest that the whole Bhopal fiasco was ‘covered up’, by it being at the bottom of the BBC News front page. Sadly, I think they may have just not got there early enough - when I looked (after being prompted by this board ) it was the top story.
) it was the top story.