Anti-NHS Propaganda on the BBC – BBC News Bias
If you’ve been living in Britain since the Conservative Party came to power in 2010, then you’ve probably heard a lot about how terrible the National Health Service (NHS) is, writes Tom Swan on BBC News Bias.
Whether your poison of choice is the TV, radio, or a newspaper, the fight to turn the British people against the NHS has been a long and determined one. This propaganda war has been largely unsuccessful, but that hasn’t stopped the government from persistently trying to lay the groundwork for privatization of a much loved public service. In particular, the media arm of the government, known as the BBC, has been prolific in disseminating anti-NHS propaganda.
For example, BBC Radio 5 Live releases near-daily stories in which critics or complainants are given an opportunity to lambast the NHS in one way or another. Many or all of the complaints are quite genuine. However, the BBC’s unrestrained willingness to meet their propaganda quota by giving every complainant airtime is truly unsavory. Due to the sheer plethora of radio segments that fall into this category, a significant number have made it onto youtube, so here’s a couple for your amusement:
In the above video, the BBC starts with one of their favorite arguments: that the NHS try to silence whistleblowers. However, in most professions, if an employee publicly accuses their colleagues of being lazy, unproductive, and obstinate, it will result in some sort of disciplinary action. This escapes the BBC radio host, who then makes the bewildering claim that “the comments really apply to the public sector”. What a remarkably transparent attempt to forgive, justify, and agree with the comments without any evidence. I bet she earned some brownie points with her bosses though.
Of course, the first guest on the show agrees with the comments fully and adds to them. The second guest nails it when he says “you don’t hear about the good stories” but stops short of accusing the BBC of bias. Despite this belated defense, the story at hand is focused on criticizing the service, and all the host’s questions for the defender are accusatory or negatively worded, e.g. at 4:35 – “Isn’t it all too easy for someone who is lazy to hide in this giant machine, and it’s very difficult to get them out of their job because of unions like yours, perhaps?”. I like how she checked her bias after the question by saying “perhaps”. The question gets repeated in the same ridiculous tone at 8:38 for no good reason.
There’s more – but you’ll have to read it on the BBC News Bias site. Obviously, the contents of this package are clearly written on the label so bear in mind that the authors firmly believe BBC news coverage is slanted in a particular direction. Your comments are awaited with interest.
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I too am sick of the MSM talking down our health service. I recently had to go into hospital, and I received first class service. Yes, the staff were overworked and definitely underpaid, but the treatment I received was second to none, so much so that I wrote to Andy Burnham praising the excellent care and expressing my concerns about the creeping privatisation of the NHS. I received a lovely reply thanking me and saying he is always interested to hear peoples experiences, below is an extract of his intentions.
He has committed to repealing the Health and Social Care Act 2012 and to returning the NHS to its founding principles of co-operation, care and compassion. In particular, Labour would:
· Restore unambiguously the powers and duties of the Secretary of State for Health to oversee and guarantee a national service free at the point of use
· Stop the free-market free-for-all by removing Part 3 of the Health and Social Care Act which turns Monitor into an economic regulator to enforce competition in the NHS
· Strengthen the governance of clinical commissioning groups to prevent any possible conflicts of interest
· Ensure private patients aren’t put before NHS patients by reversing the increase in the Private Income Cap to 49%, set locally by governors and with an overall limit which can’t be exceeded without approval
· Develop the role of public health and health and wellbeing boards within local authorities.
The NHS is not perfect, but its good things are much better then its bad things.
The Nasty Party has always hated the NHS. They prefer to see poor people dying from diseases and injuries which can be easily cured/repaired by the NHS – just so long as they don’t have to contribute to society as a whole. It is a blatant example of Tory greed and selfishness.
Whot they dont tell you is in America the private contactor
over charges and it cost the American people tax payers
two and a half times more than the cost of running our own
nhs isnt it strange when they keep quiet about these companies
who overcharged fraudulently jeff3
You only have to look back over the weekend, news coverage was given to the consumers scramble for electrical goods etc… on Black Friday.
Funnily enough there is little or no coverage on foodbank queues or the amount of people suffering under the coalition’s welfare meddling.
Why would that be I wonder???
This has been going on ever since the Health Bill in 2012. I remember the lunch-time news the day after when they interviewed a woman who had just had a baby. They all drooled on about how great the service had been, finishing with the line “and this has all been made possible by the inclusion of the private sector in the NHS”” or words to that effect.
I know you don’t have time for Wee Eck Salmond but he quoted someone quite rightly when he said the BBC were now a state broadcaster not a public service one, as is their remit.
In fact I stood up for Salmond when Nick Robinson doctored his news report on one of ‘Wee Eck’s speeches.