Cameron and the BBC - the gloves are off

If the BBC did not exist the UK TV market would be controlled by Murdoch via Sky. If you chose not to buy Sky you would get Channel 4 and ITV and I think Mr Murdoch would buy those if he could so you would get Murdoch, or no TV and films at the Cinema only.

And no sport.

So, no choice at all.

Perhaps the Tories do want a right wing controlled media...like we did in Victorian times, which made sure poor people had no voice in the government of the UK.

Katisha Interestingly, the Guardian Media Group makes use of an offshore tax vehicle based in the Cayman Islands.

Strangely, the BBC has never reported on the Guardian when talking about tax avoidance. It prefers to concentrate on people like Sir Philip Green instead. Similarly, for some inexplicable reason it covered Lord Ashcroft's tax affairs quite thoroughly, but gave rather shorter shrift to Lord Paul and the other Labour non-doms.

Longfingernails I see you are repeating your argument that the BBC advertises vacancies in the Guardian as evidence that it is biased towards the left...

Sigh...

What don't you understand about the fact that the Guardian has a well-established Media jobs section which everyone in the media knows about?

HeadFairy I think Michael Crick had a few denigrating remarks a few weeks ago. Nick Robinson often talks disparagingly about "the Tory press" as a monolithic bloc. I remember he was especially smarmy about the Daily Mail and Sun coverage during the election campaign.

It's called Mock of the week though. Crutial word that, mock

edam The Telegraph jobs site has a perfectly good media section.

I don't think the BBC (or any public service) should advertise for jobs in newspapers anyway. A total waste of public money.

I was very glad to hear that the public sector will stop its Guardian advertising as soon as feasible. Anything which contributes to the demise of that commie rag is welcome. Hopefully, the Inland Revenue will go after the Scott Trust and the Guardian Media Group for their industrial scale tax avoidance too. Normally, I support tax avoidance, but in this case, the hypocrisy alone makes it worthwhile to punish them. They have used complex offshore trusts to avoid hundreds of millions in tax liabilities.

hang on a minute, if you're looking to Mock the Week for political impartiality then you're looking in the wrong place? Surely you don't decide how to vote based on what Dara O'Brien thinks do you? I seriously thought you were talking about news coverage. Do you think comedy, which lets face it has always been leftist/radical/anti establishment is too controversial for the BBC, and that they should only show old Bob Monkhouse reruns?

Ian Hislop is not a Tory.

HeadFairy So what if the Daily Mail sneers at the BBC?

The crucial difference is this: no-one is forced to buy the Daily Mail.

As for examples, well, they abound. An average edition of Mock the Week will probably yield a few instances.

longfingernails - I'm sure the BBC advertises jobs in a variety of places but re. the Guardian, because it has a very successful media section on a Monday. If a right wing paper wanted to compete, I'm sure they could.

Just because someone challenges view points/policies does not make then pinko liberals. Just intelligent. [hgrin]

Oh and even if the Beeb where left-wing, there are few, no wait, no broadcasters producing the quality that the BBC does.

longfingernails, can you give me an example of the BBC openly sneering at the Daily Mail? Mind you, it's not like the Daily Mail doesn't openly sneer at the BBC.

My point exactly sylvia. How on earth can anyone expect impartiality? It's up to us to get a broad range of opinions if you want to get the full picture, you can't possibly expect one broadcaster to be impartial.

Why do the BBC sneer openly at the Daily Mail, the Sun, and other right-leaning papers?

I haven't ever heard them do the same with the Independent or Guardian.

Amongst the national newspapers, why do the BBC only advertise for jobs in the Guardian? They shouldn't be advertising in newspapers at all, but if they must, why not the Telegraph, the Spectator, or even the Daily Mail?

But Lib Dem = Tory, doesn't it?

Why should they be impartial?

I have no idea why everyone seems to think that having a view on something is a bad thing these days.

complimentary, I'll go back to my earlier point, how on earth do you guarantee a broadcaster is completely impartial? Force people interviewing for jobs to declare their political alliegance?

To say Sky rarely scrutinize Tories is nonsense. Jeff Randall is one of the most forensic interviewers out there - up there with Paxman, in my book. Jon Craig and Glenn O'Glaza can barely disguise their glee at anti-Tory stories. Adam Boulton is a bit of a Tory but still goes very hard at Tory ministers.

"Questioning" isn't left-wing.

Although there is bias in the interviewing, especially from Andrew Marr, Anita Anand, and Kirsty Wark, John Humphries, Stephen Nolan, Victoria Derbyshire and many others - in general, the interviews aren't too bad.

What particularly gets my goat is the "reporting" more than the interviewing. The BBC don't just report, they interpret, they spin. Often, the spin is by omission. The BBC never ever reports on EU excess, for example. Whenever American news is reported, the BBC is giddy with glee in being anti-Republican.

The vox pops always seem curiously out of kilter with opinion polls too. Yesterday, on the housing benefit report, all three of the "public" asked didn't support the changes. Look at the opinion polls, and you will see that the housing benefit cuts are perhaps the coalition's most popular policy.

The Daily Mail is the best paper around!

The BBC is very biased towards the Labour party and all things left, that is why Cameron and many others can't stand them!.

The've £140 million in loans from the EU and should be called the Brussels Broadcasting Corporation!

They should be impartial but they are not.

Ian Hislop is a Lib Dem supporter - he more or less admitted it during the election campaign.

I must stop using the word "well" :o

Nick Robinson was a shameless Blairite. Yes, I know he was a student Tory, but he was a "wet" even then, apparently.

Andrew Neil is the only obvious Tory on the Beeb (well, maybe James Landale too). The number of obvious left-wingers is massive.

well exactly ladyblahblah