Evidence of BBC bias?

mrochester

mrochester

mrochester

Soldato
Joined
29 Sep 2003
Posts
5,834
Location
Newcastle upon Tyne
I see a lot of people claim that the BBC is biased (mostly to the left).

Watching the Graham Norton show there was a joke at the beginning of the show first showing Jeremy Corbyn (with the comment ‘wishing there was a bigger party’) followed by Boris Johnson and a comment about lying.

Would this indicate bias in any particular way to you?

My point was that it was a joke at the expense of both parties and therefore showed no bias either way. Another persons point was that calling someone a liar was more slanderous than a simple comment about wishing for a bigger party. My retort was that this persons own bias (to the right) was what made them think the joke was biased.

If I am trying to decide whether something is biased one way or another I always try and start from the middle ground. It seems a lot of people don’t even attempt to start from this point and simply declare anything they don’t agree with as biased without a critical assessment of the situation, context or content.

Thoughts?

M.
 
So you're saying that one instance of equal treatment on Graham Norton makes up for years of stacking programmes like Question Time with mostly remainers and being heavily pro-EU in general?

The left are probably just mocking Jeremy Corbyn because they know he's on the way out of the door, when he lost to Theresa May in 2017 media outlets like the BBC were promoting it as a great victory for him. If they hadn't been wearing rose tinted glasses back then they might have known that doing better than Ed Milliband did was no great victory and made Labour realise they needed a leader who was electable. I think at the time they cared more about overturning Brexit than helping Labour win a GE.
 
mmj_uk said:
So you're saying that one instance of equal treatment on Graham Norton makes up for years of stacking programmes like Question Time with mostly remainers and being heavily pro-EU in general?

The left are probably just mocking Jeremy Corbyn because they know he's on the way out of the door, when he lost to Theresa May in 2017 media outlets like the BBC were promoting it as a great victory for him.
Click to expand...

The question is whether the above is an example of BBC bias. The point one person has made was that it was because calling someone a liar was more slanderous than the comment made about the Labour Party.
 
mrochester said:
The point one person has made was that it was because calling someone a liar was more slanderous than the comment made about the Labour Party.
Click to expand...
There were jokey comments about the three major party leaders, to suggest there was bias there is utterly ludicrous.
 
Feek said:
There were jokey comments about the three major party leaders, to suggest there was bias there is utterly ludicrous.
Click to expand...

That was my point, and my suggestion that their thinking it was biased because of their own bias and viewpoint was met with much hostility!

It seems people are loosing the ability to see and analyse things from a neutral standpoint.
 
A lot of it is based on colloquial and hearsay evidence of what's gone on over at BBC broadcasting house over the years. One story in particular that springs to mind is the 'champagne bottles in the hallways' when Tony Blair won the 1997 election doesn't help it's image and plenty of it's top news talent have some very lefty backgrounds e.g. Andrew Neil Marr and employing New Labour shills like Alan Yentob. To be fair though CH4 are much worse IMO.
 
Last edited:
mmj_uk said:
So you're saying that one instance of equal treatment on Graham Norton makes up for years of stacking programmes like Question Time with mostly remainers and being heavily pro-EU in general?
Click to expand...
Uh huh. Um hmmm. Please. Do tell us more about this.

HNSAJRD.png
 
jsmoke said:
Gut instinct, I would say generally yes the BBC dislike the Tories.

But I could be wrong.
Click to expand...
Not Nick Robinson. He's a fully paid up Tory party member.

Oh sorry, "was" before he got his job as a BBC political commentator ;)

But he still hates Labour. He made his contempt for Corbyn known in a couple places.
 
FoxEye said:
Not Nick Robinson. He's a fully paid up Tory party member.

Oh sorry, "was" before he got his job as a BBC political commentator ;)

But he still hates Labour. He made his contempt for Corbyn known in a couple places.
Click to expand...

Your right I know little about this, I was mainly going on typical rumours. After some digging it seems there are plenty of conservative/public school/establishment higher ups in the BBC.

I guess their stance is meant to be center ground but they are people after all so biases will creep in here and there now and again.

I can't say I watch the BBC often anyway.

Non partial news would be a robot giving reuters alerts.
 
As commented, Nortons just a jokey comedy show ... bias examples on the (bbc) news / documentaries are more pernicious eg. the often/recently qouted "well deserved victory" one.
 
FoxEye said:
Not Nick Robinson. He's a fully paid up Tory party member.

Oh sorry, "was" before he got his job as a BBC political commentator ;)

But he still hates Labour. He made his contempt for Corbyn known in a couple places.
Click to expand...
I don’t think contempt for Corbyn qualifies you as a Labour hater.
 
mrochester said:
I see a lot of people claim that the BBC is biased (mostly to the left).
Click to expand...

Part of the problem is that there is little data.

For example, take Question Time. How often has there been a right-wing majority panel on Question Time? How often has there been a left-wing majority? How about pro- and anti-Brexit? How often and how quickly does the presenter interrupt each side? Without actual data we cannot say for sure.
 
robfosters said:
I don’t think contempt for Corbyn qualifies you as a Labour hater.
Click to expand...
There was a recent BBC article I read in the last couple days which said people didn't trust Labour's election promises because they "weren't stupid".

There's plenty of ass-kissing going on now Boris is on the throne.

However, I have found the BBC is alsmost always pro- the government of the time. Maybe it's survival instinct.

Especially, curiously, when there is a change the UK will launch military action. The BBC then falls over themselves to paint the (potential) other party as the worst thing since Hitler, and deserving of every missile we (might) reign down on them.

In fact I'd say the BBC is pretty pro-war, when we're starting it.
 
Freddie1980 said:
A lot of it is based on colloquial and hearsay evidence of what's gone on over at BBC broadcasting house over the years. One story in particular that springs to mind is the 'champagne bottles in the hallways' when Tony Blair won the 1997 election doesn't help it's image and plenty of it's top news talent have some very lefty backgrounds e.g. Andrew Neil and employing New Labour shills like Alan Yentob. To be fair though CH4 are much worse IMO.
Click to expand...


From Quora.

Andrew Neil- Member of the Glasgow University Conservative Club, worked for the Conservatives as a research assistant, worked for News Corp and was a contributor of the Daily Mail.
 
jsmoke said:
From Quora.

Andrew Neil- Member of the Glasgow University Conservative Club, worked for the Conservatives as a research assistant, worked for News Corp and was a contributor of the Daily Mail.
Click to expand...
OTOH he did tear Boris a new one for not appearing on his show. The prospect of which seemed to terrify Boris.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom