In its first major ruling on BBC impartiality, media and telecoms regulator Ofcom – which became BBC complaints watchdog under the new 2017 BBC Charter – has starkly rejected any suggestion of bias in the Corporation’s news and current affairs coverage of Brexit. Ofcom claims that requirements of ‘due impartiality’ in the Brexit debate were met in the 50 hours …
BBC pushes ‘Fake News’ Brexit fears
BBC Director General Lord Hall of Birkenhead has declared that the Corporation is on a mission to counter fake news. He publicly announced this back in the summer at the Prospect annual conference – the day before the white-collar trades union announced it would be campaigning for a Brexit ‘people’s vote’. Others who addressed the conference included arch-Remainers Hilary Benn …
BBC Brexit negativity hits new low with Peter Lilley ‘reality check’ ambush
The BBC’s visceral negativity towards Brexit was displayed on Monday in an extraordinary attempted ambush by Today presenter John Humphrys and the BBC’s ‘reality check’ correspondent Chris Morris. The intended victim of this double onslaught was Peter Lilley, now Lord Lilley, and the subject was a report he had written suggesting that life outside the EU could be prosperous and …
BBC Bias: Pantomime villains poisoned the UK-EU relationship
BBC bias seems to be sinking to new depths each week. It has become an advanced case of infestation by deathwatch beetle. The question is not any more, ‘is it biased?’ but rather, ‘what is not?’ Take Doctor Who on BBC1. Once it was an original, entertaining, and exciting sci-fi show brimful of intriguing ideas. Not now. Led by a …
Can Podcasts Save Radio 4 Today?
The BBC Radio 4 Today programme is in dire trouble. It is haemorrhaging listeners and, according to latest reports, more than one million have deserted over the past year, bringing the weekly audience down to 6.7m. This should, of course, be a matter of urgent and very significant concern. The reality is that in the UK, only the BBC – …
BBC climate alarmism: ‘never let the facts get in the way of a good scare story’
How idiotic has the advocacy of climate alarmism by the BBC become? Last month, as was reported on TCW, BBC News Director Fran Unsworth issued a formal directive stating, in effect, that alarmism is proven and cannot be challenged on the BBC airwaves. One of her key minions, James Stephenson, the BBC’s overall editor of News and Current Affairs, has …
John Simpson lambasts BBC licence fee payers for their bias
John Simpson, the BBC’s veteran and rather pompous world affairs editor – who can forget his claims of liberating Kabul in 2001? – has been sounding off in Radio Times. The full article can be read here. His scatter-gun target? Well, it seems just about everyone, and certainly the majority of those who contribute to the licence fee income which …
Still blustering over Sir Cliff: The BBC’s arrogance knows no bounds
This is a guest post by Kathy Gyngell, from The Conservative Woman We have chronicled the saga of the BBC’s gross and inept intrusion into Sir Cliff Richard’s privacy from day one on TCW. In July Mr Justice Mann vindicated Sir Cliff and held the BBC to account over their coverage of the raid on his home. Since then the …
BBC ‘hardline’ bias brackets Brexiteers with extremism
Craig Byers, of Is the BBC Biased, has astutely nailed down that the BBC’s use of ‘hardline’ in the EU debate is deeply slanted. The adjective, he spotted, was reserved especially for those who the Corporation perceived are most opposed to staying in the European Union. He also noted that its derogatory application was much broader – it boiled down …
Time for a re-think on BBC1 Question Time?
There have been 1,369 editions of BBC1’s Question Time since its launch under Sir Robin Day in September 1979, and it has an estimated weekly audience of 2.4m in its 10.40pm slot on Thursdays. David Dimbleby has announced he is leaving the show after 25 years in the chair, following 10 years by Sir Robin Day (1979-89) and four from …