Radio Times article heralds unashamedly biased reporting on the BBC
The caption on this picture reads: “Nick Robinson, former Young Conservatives chairman and current BBC political editor, taking a selfie with some young Tories (Photo courtesy of theblueguerilla.co.uk). Perhaps you’d like to dream up your own caption for this image of wild-eyed, slack-jawed decadence (he’s the political editor at the BBC and people still think it’s left-wing; the mind boggles).
Vox Political is grateful to Beastrabban\’s weblog for the following – and deeply concerned about its implication.
In his latest article, the Beast writes:
“The Radio Times Looks Forward to Biased News
“There was an article in last week’s Radio Times… which threatened to make such bias official.
“Written by one of the news staff, the article suggested that the impartiality customarily expected of the Beeb would soon be a thing of the past. It had gone from American broadcasting, which had suffered no loss of audience as a result.
“American news broadcasting, the article claimed, had been enlivened and invigorated [bolding mine] by presenters and news anchors with a distinct, unconcealed bias.
“How would the British public react, it asked, if a reporter or news anchor over here made various critical remarks about the state of the three main parties?
“It then gave examples of the type of comments that could be made. The article left you in no doubt that the period of official impartiality on the Beeb was limited, and that with a few years it would be gone.”
You are strongly urged to read the rest of the article. It concludes: “It’s not the Beeb I want, and the movement to embrace blatant party political bias should be stopped now, long before it gets started.”
Hear, hear. Vox Political has two complaints against biased reporting by the BBC, under consideration at the moment. This revelation could have a huge bearing on the way those complaints are handled.
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Yes and no. Of course any overt political bias is wrong, but the way the BBC currently behaves is actually more insidious. It *pretends* to be even-handed while quite blatantly favouring the right, and that can make the bias more difficult to notice unless the viewer is really concentrating.
In that light, an end to the pretense would arguably be less dangerous than what is happening right now – bias in the style of Fox News Channel is almost impossible not to recognise.
The BBC needs a political editor that is neutral, only in the sense that they make effort to spear all political parties when there’s something to spear them for. If you’re not going to hold half of the political establishment to account, then you’re only doing half of your job. If one party is misbehaving more than another it should be speared more than another. Dare I say Hislop for BBC political editor? Open up the grubby undercurrents of politics to the whole electorate, the people who are supposed to have this sort of information to make informed decisions of who to vote for. Then again it might not be the most inspirational message for getting more people out on polling day.
Hislop? I’m not sure that would be a good choice as he has proved to be more ‘establishment’ than expected in the past.
How about, “I came, I saw and I conquered” for the selfie? Famously last used by Clinton on the death (murder) of Gaddafi.
Really? I didn’t know that about Clinton. It seems to show very bad taste.
Currently taking them on over Robinson’s news reporting on 11th September. I’m looking forward to seeing how they come back to this:
https://www.change.org/p/the-bbc-immediately-suspend-nick-robinson-pending-investigation-for-breach-of-bbc-trust-charter-article-44/u/8435799
I’m at the higher stage of their own complaints procedure over this.
We all know the BBC are sided with the Torys I spotted that long ago
you don’t need to be in Stine to work that out itv are better
I don’t think ITV are better, though!
Its a shame and a tragedy that people just don’t feel the BBC are that good any more. Fr international news I watch AL jAZEERA…its more balanced in its news reporting and actually reports on things that the beeb ignores..eg the massive protest march right past its doors in the summer that didn’t get a mention on the news.
Enter the British equivalent of Fox News – we all know how impartial they are!