Tough luck, media stooges: There’s ANOTHER petition to rid the BBC of Laura Kuenssberg

Last Updated: May 11, 2016By
Look out, Laura: There's another petition calling your reporting into question.

Look out, Laura: Another petition is calling your reporting into question.

What’s interesting about this is that the comments seem to be entirely reasonable and free of the sexist/misogynist abuse that invaded the 38 Degrees petition.

Why?

Is it reasonable to suggest that the people launching this abuse may have been supporters of Ms K, determined to cast her opponents into disrepute?

One supposes we will just have to see.

The petition on the Change.org site runs as follows. Please sign, if you are so inclined – but I urge everybody to keep their comments within the bounds of decency. No sexism; no misogyny.

I don’t think for a moment that any of you are responsible for such behaviour, but let’s make sure of it.

In fact, perhaps the site’s moderators should follow up any such instances and find out exactly who is behind it.

The petition states:

Since the arrival or Laura Kuenssberg, and Jeremy Corbyn as Leader of the Opposition, we have seen a more partisan position from the BBC’s political editor.

For many years we have enjoyed a relatively impartial BBC, [but] a report in 2013 titled ‘BBC Breadth of Opinion Review Content Analysis’ alerted the BBC to a potential shift with regards to impartiality in favour of the Conservative Government (attachment below).

The appointment of Laura Kuenssberg has not redressed the balance and improved impartiality; there are many examples of this. Under Laura Kuenssberg’s editorial lead we have seen far more attention and criticism levelled at the opposition than we have [towards] scrutiny of the government.

We would ask that the BBC organises an independent enquiry to see if this assessment is fair. The review would be limited to four weeks and take into account all of Laura Kuenssberg’s efforts as political editor and would assess whether the editor has been balanced or not.

The full findings of the independent enquiry (with references cited) should be published.

Should the independent review find Laura Kuenssberg to have been less than impartial and/or find her to take a partisan position, we would ask that she is moved to a role that is more suitable.

“BBC Breadth of Opinion Review Content Analysis – In 2013, researchers at Cardiff University undertook a major content analysis of BBC coverage – funded in part by the BBC Trust. They studied the impartiality of BBC reporting across several areas, including business and economics, and politics.

“The findings revealed that:
“◦Tories get more airtime than Labour
“One of the most striking findings was the dominance of party political sources. In coverage of immigration, the EU and religion, these accounted for 49.4% of all source appearances in 2007 and 54.8% in 2012. In reporting of the EU the dominance was even more pronounced with party political sources accounting for 65% of source appearances in 2007 and 79.2% in 2012.On BBC News at Six, business representatives outnumbered trade union spokespersons by more than five to one (11 vs 2) in 2007 and by 19 to one in 2012.
“◦When it comes to the Financial Crisis, BBC coverage was almost completely dominated by stockbrokers, investment bankers, hedge fund managers and other City voices. Civil society voices or commentators who questioned the benefits of having such a large finance sector were almost completely absent from coverage.”

Source: Petition · James Harding, Director of News and Current Affairs: We ask that the BBC review the current political editor; Laura Kuenssberg’s position · Change.org

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15 Comments

  1. Brian May 11, 2016 at 1:48 pm - Reply

    Very recently, she has changed tack, perhaps as consolation she will be just as vehemently articulated against her own views to preserve her position.

  2. hayfords May 11, 2016 at 2:05 pm - Reply

    There is now another petition praising her.

    /www.change.org/p/the-bbc-we-wish-to-praise-the-bbc-political-editor-laura-kuenssberg-for-her-election-coverage

    • Mike Sivier May 12, 2016 at 10:36 am - Reply

      Seven supporters at time of writing.

  3. Chris Trout May 11, 2016 at 9:52 pm - Reply

    Full (apparently leaked) set of 38 Degrees comments here. This is all the comments. There is apparently one that could be construed as sexist, but I gave up looking for it after a bit. 38 Degrees are not playing with a full deck.

    https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/e83cce2f-9558-4947-b971-3374d1dc1190/BBC-Laura-Kuenssberg-38-degrees-petition-comments.html

  4. John May 12, 2016 at 10:48 am - Reply

    7 signatures – after 22 hours!
    What does that tell everyone?

  5. mrmarcpc May 12, 2016 at 1:27 pm - Reply

    Link to new petition doesn’t work!

    • Mike Sivier May 12, 2016 at 3:46 pm - Reply

      Yes it does.

      • matt May 13, 2016 at 12:59 am - Reply

        No it doesn’t.
        “This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below”

        NoSuchBucketThe specified bucket does not existe83cce2f-9558-4947-b971-3374d1dc11901D6A93926DF9540D4glzRVrOZgrwyyluSbrWlwboYlnifpckxRqUXsOEccV27cesW04TTMo31LSf1XwAVJFb5ZUMsnU=

        • Mike Sivier May 13, 2016 at 10:12 am - Reply

          Yes it does.
          Or at least, it works fine for me and the nearly-15,000 people who’ve signed it.
          Have you considered whether the problem is at your end?

  6. mrmarcpc May 12, 2016 at 3:51 pm - Reply

    I’ve clicked on Chris’s link, it doesn’t.

    • Mike Sivier May 13, 2016 at 10:20 am - Reply

      It did. I think somebody must have forced its removal.

  7. mrmarcpc May 12, 2016 at 5:21 pm - Reply

    I’ve signed Change.org’s petition, can new petition linked be reposted and I’ll try again.

    • Mike Sivier May 13, 2016 at 10:17 am - Reply

      That is the other petition!

      • mrmarcpc May 13, 2016 at 3:06 pm - Reply

        I already knew of Changes link, I was referring to Chris’s, someone’s got rid of it, will there be a new one created?

        • Mike Sivier May 14, 2016 at 12:38 pm - Reply

          I don’t know.

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