Cameron and the BBC - the gloves are off

[LadyBlaBlah]

www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2010/10/bbc-cuts-cameron-brussels

So why does he hate the BBC - is it just because it is public funded or is it because of his dealings with Murdoch?

Whichever, I would imagine this is a real problem with voters

On an aside, I have noticed that they refuse to put anyone of worth on Question Time, and do reluctantly on Newsnight to defend their policies

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.

But Lib Dem = Tory, doesn't it?

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?

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.

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.

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 - 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.

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.

Ian Hislop is not a Tory.

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?

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.

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

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.

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?

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.

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.

Interesting sidestep Longfingernails.

How does advertising in the industry-known Media Section prove left-wing bias?

Katisha I refuse to accept that the Guardian media supplement adds anything to the recruitment process. Are you really suggesting that if they only put vacancies on the BBC's own website, it would lead to a lower calibre or quantity of applicants?

I also do not believe that advertising in the Guardian leads to better applicants than advertising in the Economist, for example.

I see the Guardian Media Group also has an offshore tax vehicle in Luxembourg.

Strangely, I did not learn this fact from the BBC over the years, either.

I agree with Huddspur I think we need to look at privatising some bits of the BBC

Perhaps the BBC doesn't have sufficient evidence to get through the rigorous editorial policy to use Guardian Media Group's tax arrangements when discussing tax avoidance... it's not always a left wing consipiracy you know.

Why is it the right wingers are so paranoid about left wing bias in the media anyway, your lot are in government anyway, what more do you want? To control the way we all think too?

I think your panaoia is getting the better of you LFN. The Media Section has been going for years. If I were looking for a media job I would certainly be buying it, although I am not normally a Guardian buyer.

You may "refuse to accept" that it produces any useful applications, but upon what evidence is this refusal actually based?

'Why is it the right wingers are so paranoid about left wing bias in the media anyway'

because it influences the way the public thinks. Even after all of the left wing bias, the public still voted for the Coalition. But the left wing bias gave the Labour party more votes than it would otherwise have got. Bias on the EU and global warming and many other issues, distorts the public debate and influences public opinion. If equal time was given to all sides, then that would be fine.

Katisha Have the BBC ever done experimental trials with other newspapers, internet recruitment sites, or their own site to assess the impact of advertising in the Guardian?

I certainly can't remember it - and I have been following media trends relatively closely, though not slavishly, over the last few years.

Out of interest, what is ITV and Channel 4 considered - left or right wing?