BBC political bias

[Imbroglio]

I've heard many people lamenting the political bias of the BBC.

My impression is that they were noticeably pro-remain, but otherwise represent a broad range of views.

What do you think?

[dons tin hat]

They have definitely been more pro TM than JC recently. The reporting of her dismal interview with Paxman was made out to be a rip roaring success.

Maybe it depends on what programmes you listen to/watch. I listen to a lot of R4 comedy, much of which is pretty stinging about May and the Tories.

Both Tory and Labour supporters tend to complain the BBC is biased against them, which suggests they are doing something right.

I think they were rather left leaning in the Blair years (before the wheels fell off) and it can have a bit of a London-centric view even now.

But a major broadcaster striving for balance is definitely an asset.

Where was May's performance made out to be a roaring success (links)?

I think a lot of the allegations of bias are based on false equivalencies. Labour mixing up spending plans is hotter news politically because economic stewardship is a hotter political issue for Labour, as is defence and security. The NHS, education, benefits etc are hotter issues for the tories. That is politics. They Tories don't get scrutinised properly on their hot issues by the right wing press but I think the BBC does a good job - today for example, there was a long piece on Today about hospital capacity, health inflation etc.

I agree about Remain - but so were the experts, the informed comment, the forecasters so I think that was fair reporting probably, although it was hard as there were so few convincing well informed people on the Leave side (IMO).

Today they have led not with a poll showing a hung parliament, but the fact that the pound fell on the news.

They could have just reported 'poll shows hung parliament' and mentioned the pound within it, but instead they led with the bad news about the pound. Implication: JEREMY CORBYN IS BAD NEWS.

But I think we have to ask how neutral we want them to be. A truly neutral article would just have read 'OPINION POLLS RELEASED' and listed the figures of all the latest opinion polls with no context or discussion of associated events. It would have to be purely factual. But would it really be informative news?

I think what I'm trying to say is that the very act of choosing headlines and putting news items in order of importance is biased by nature. There is no way to do it neutrally unless you reduce everything to the most inoffensive of facts e.g. 'MAY GIVES SPEECH. CORBYN ALSO GIVES SPEECH.'

Also there is a lot of different output - I listen to R4, regularly look at the BBC News homepage and follow BBC News on Twitter. I rarely watch the news unless I'm led to a particular item by social media.

Mouton, I see what you mean - but read up on that poll and its margin of error - and I cannot remember a single poll ever being the headline and not sure it should be, even in these cirx when Labour has been behind for so long? Even the average of five are not usually BBC headlines?

People watch one programme and complain the BBC is biased, the BBC has to be even-handedover its output, not every other second.

wtf imablackstar, are you going round all the threads (no matter how unrelated) and posting up EXACTLY the same message. or this a particularly clumsy cunning plan from a Labour activist. You do realise that, both times you've posted this, it has nothing to do with the thread?

https://www.reddit.com/r/Documentaries/comments/5hdhoh/londoncallinggbbcbiassduringthee2014scottish/?st=J3DK6URT&sh=7eb7c43c

Documentary on BBC bias during Scotland's independence referendum.

I think there's a marked Tory bias at the BBC - just look at the people presenting their current affairs output :

Nick Robinson (ex leader of the Conservative youth wing)

Laura Kunnsberg - found to have breached impartiality guidelines in an interview with Corbyn

Andrew Neil - Openly Tory and former mouthpiece of Rupert Murdoch and currently chairman of The Spectator.

Evan Davis - advocated the mass privatisation of public services in a 1998 book.

As soon as he left Newsnight Pacman described himself as a lifelong Tory.

The mere fact that the BBC favours right-wing reporters and presenters is bad enough, but this study by the University of Cardiff suggest that the Tories get disproportionately large amounts of BBC airtime

And Matthew paris.

To be honest, if I was in a crowd and I supported the abysmal tories, I certainly wouldn't be whooping and cheering for them on TV.

Why do you think 'shy tory' is a phrase and Rudd encouraged people to do what they needed to do in the 'privacy of the polling booth'?

Rudd encouraged people to do what they needed to do in the 'privacy of the polling booth

My first reaction when she said that was, why is she encouraging people to take a dump in the polling booth?