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The BBC


Dougie Do'ins
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Nothing to see here so consider yourself told...

 

No laughing at the back by the way

 

 

 

 

At the BBC, impartiality is precious. We will protect it

 

Fran Unsworth

 

Those who criticise our election coverage by focusing on a couple of mistakes ignore the overall quality and evenness

Fran Unsworth is the BBC’s director of news and current affairs

 

 

In these febrile and politically polarised times it’s hardly surprising that the BBC, which seeks to represent the nation in its entirety, is a lightning rod for political discontent. People have never been shy of letting us know what they think of our coverage and, in an age of social media, that feedback comes faster than ever. Sometimes it’s from people who’ve actually watched or listened, but nowadays often it’s from those simply consuming others’ impressions of it.

 

Throughout this election campaign, the BBC’s priority has, and will continue to be, its audiences. Millions have tuned in, and the BBC is consistently rated best for its coverage, ahead of our competitors.

We’ve put party leaders under audience scrutiny with a special Question Time, a seven-way debate, with a head-to-head debate to come this Friday, as well as debates between the parties in each nation of the UK. We’ve broadcast hundreds of hours of programming, with comprehensive outside broadcasts taking a wide range of channels and programmes around the UK.

We’ve ramped up our Reality Check service, fact-checking campaign claims. The Really Simple Guide and the Policy Guide have given online audiences an overview of the choices they face; Your Questions Answered has allowed audiences to put questions directly to the BBC’s experts; and Electioncast has offered an irreverent view of the campaign trail.

But some people have chosen to ignore all of this and focused instead on a couple of editorial mistakes that they suggest are either emblematic of all our election coverage, or damning evidence of an editorial agenda that favours the Conservative party.

Conspiracy theories are much in vogue these days. But we are a large organisation that employs thousands of independently minded journalists. Our editors employ their judgments on their own programmes for their own audiences. These aren’t the ideal conditions for a conspiracy. And we would be particularly inept conspirators were we to produce and broadcast a two-hour leaders’ special debate – a debate in which the prime minister was robustly challenged by the public – run highlights of it on our evening bulletins, cover it in full online and yet rely on a clumsy one-second edit in a short news summary the next day as a means to convey our supposed support for the governing party.

 

Similarly, to suggest this is in some way linked to an editorial mistake made a fortnight previously by a different team in an office hundreds of miles away, in which an archive cenotaph clip was wrongly used in a news package (about an event broadcast in its entirety by us the day before) is fanciful.

 
Our audiences want us to be impartial. That means fighting for their interests, not taking sides, and being the trusted place to find out what’s happening.

As we set out at the beginning of the campaign, BBC impartiality does not rely on a stopwatch. We’re not trying to include voices from opposing sides in every single news report, programme or tweet. On some days one party may be in the news more than the others. There is no exact mathematical formula when it comes to this. But over time achieving fair and proportionate coverage will be the standard we hold ourselves to.

Party leaders, and their agendas for government, must all receive scrutiny. We’re as disappointed as our audiences that the prime minister, unlike all his fellow leaders, has not yet confirmed a date for his Andrew Neil interview. The logistics of pinning down party leaders is highly complex; if we had to wait for confirmation of the date and time of every interview by every party before anyone appeared anywhere, hardly anything would get on air. But let’s be clear: we’ll clear our schedules and we’re ready at any time, and any place, for a half-hour interview in which Neil scrutinises Boris Johnson.

This campaign has been unlike any before it. Information is routinely weaponised. Our impartiality is precious to us and we will protect it. We are well aware how news footage can be used to unintended political ends. This week, at our behest, Facebook has removed political adverts by the Conservatives that gave the false impression our presenters were supporting their political agenda. We will do the same if any party distorts our journalism or jeopardises our impartiality.

I don’t necessarily subscribe to the view that if we get complaints from both sides, we are doing something right – though we do receive roughly equal volumes of audience feedback suggesting we favour opposite sides of the political spectrum.

And to those who have suggested we are somehow cowed or unconfident, let me assure you – we are not.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/04/bbc-impartiality-precious-protect-election-coverage

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Now on Politics Live today;

 

City AM (pro business London based paper) guy and FT (young right winger) Sebastian Payne laying into Francis O'Grady (TUC) ably aided and abetted by Jo Coburn.

 

 

EDIT:

SHOCK: (Not blaming BBC for this) No Conservative representative available to answer questions on transport. 

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5 minutes ago, VladimirIlyich said:

Seeing as so many right wing extremists get air time,do left wing extremists get time as well? You know,like communist party members? That would seem to be the most balanced way of doing things. I mean,the British Communist Party has as many MPs as UKIP doesn't it?

 

Yes, Labour are on TV all the time.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Non-payment of BBC licence fee 'could be decriminalised

 

Watching TV without having paid the BBC licence fee could be decriminalised, according to reports.

 

Boris Johnson is looking into reviewing whether people who do not pay the £154.50 fee for watching television or BBC iPlayer should be prosecuted, The Sunday Telegraph said.

 

t comes after Downing Street refused to appear on BBC Radio 4‘s Today programme due to what they believe is its pro-Remain bias.

 

Last financial year, 25.8 million households had TV licences bringing in £3.6bn for the BBC.

 

A review may recommend replacing the existing criminal sanctions for non-payment of the TV licence fee with a civil system of fines.

 

In the run-up to last week’s general election, Mr Johnson said he was “looking at” abolishing the BBC licence fee altogether.

 

He said that while the Tories were currently “not planning to get rid of all TV licence fees”, the current system “bears reflection”.

 

The current royal charter – which sets out the governance of the BBC – runs until December 2027.

 

A BBC spokesman said: “The government has already commissioned a QC to take an in-depth look at this matter and he found that ‘the current system of criminal deterrence and prosecution should be maintained’ and that it is fair and value for money to licence fee payers.

 

“The review also found that non-payment cases accounted for ‘a minute fraction’ – only 0.3 per cent – of court time.

 

“Decriminalisation could also mean we have at least £200m less to spend on programmes and services our audiences love.”

 

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/bbc-licence-fee-decriminalisation-boris-johnson-tv-iplayer-a9247481.html

 

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Via the BBC

 

Map of Cayman Islands

 

One of the world's largest financial centres and a well-known tax haven, this British overseas territory in the Caribbean has more registered businesses than it has people.

Tourism, banking and property are big money earners, making the islands financially self-sufficient. Discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1503, Grand Cayman and its sister islands, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, boast beaches, coral reefs and abundant marine life. However, Hurricane Ivan pounded the main island in 2004.

Once a dependency of Jamaica, the Cayman Islands came under direct British rule after Jamaica declared independence in 1962. Granted greater autonomy in 1972, the islands gained a high degree of self-government under the 2009 constitution but its first premier, McKeeva Bush, was ousted in a corruption scandal in 2012.

Sometimes criticised as a haven for tax evaders, the Cayman Islands feature in the 2017 leak dubbed the Paradise Papers, which reveal the financial dealings of politicians, celebrities, corporate giants and business leaders.

 

Strong and stable, can we get Cayman done?

 

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  • 1 month later...

Apparently studies have shown that football fans are at risk because of high blood pressure during games. 

 

Scientists discovered after testing Brazil fans during the 2014 world cup semi fi............ I don't need to go on. 

 

Fuck the BBC. 

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