The Bashir affair has brought into sharp focus again that BBC journalism is not fair and impartial, as its Charter requires. But after decades of bias in BBC reporting of the EU, what are the chances of genuine change? Much has been written about the Lord Dyson report into the 1995 BBC Panorama interview of Princess Diana. Columnists and politicians …
BBC Ideas: an extravaganza of bias
News-watch has completed its biggest-ever survey into BBC output. It is utterly damning. The focus is BBC Ideas, a group of 600 or so short factual videos for ‘curious minds’ aimed at 18-45 year olds. The project – launched in 2018 – is the brainchild of former Labour culture minister James Purnell during his tenure in charge of BBC radio and education. His bequest to …
Window-dresser Davie’s bogus BBC revolution
Tim Davie, the BBC director general, has been in his post for six months, and on Thursday he delivered to staff his second raft of big ideas for reform. His first proposal, in his first week of office in September, was to make BBC impartiality his number one priority, with a crackdown on biased tweeting by staff. How’s that commitment …
BBC BIAS DIGEST 3 JANUARY, 2021
BBC ‘LAUNCHES BITTER LAST-MINUTE ANTI-BREXIT ONSLAUGHT’: Chris Hastings (Mail 3/1) said that BBC broadcasters and presenters had launched ‘ a bitter last-ditch onslaught against Brexit in the New Year schedules. He added that the UK’s departure from the EU on December 31 had coincided with what critics had said were ‘ill-tempered tirades, offensive remarks and heavily biased reportage’. Among them …
BBC BIAS DIGEST 2 JANUARY, 2020
‘ALMOST HALF OF BRITONS DON’T TRUST BBC’: A report in the Times (£ 2/1) said that, according to a YouGov poll, almost half of Britons thought the BBC no longer represented their values amid declining levels of trust in the broadcaster, down from 62% in 2016. The report said: ‘The results are understood to chime with the unpublished research recently …