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The BBC


Dougie Do'ins
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1 hour ago, House of Dirk said:

No problem with it's creative output, it is the news and current affairs coverage that is absolute bollocks.  How anyone could think it is remotely left wing completely suspends my belief.

 

It's Liberal. So if you're to the right of that, especially if you have right wing social views, then you could believe the BBC has a left wing bias.

 

The BBC is firmly pro establishment. If the current status quo was slightly to the left, they'd probably be the same. But we have a political system/situation at the moment where a far right Tory party is seen as centre right, and a party putting forward Social Democracy is seen as far left. 

 

The BBC is basically the same as The Guardian. Right wing economics (bar a few token exceptions), centre left (ish) social views. Recycle your quinoa packaging, but support an economic system that leads to nurses having to go to food banks and disabled people killing themselves.

 

But yeah, decent wildlife documentaries.

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1 hour ago, Champ said:

I think you’d be hard pressed to find much criticism of the natural history output but it’s a very different story when it comes to the news department.

 

Maybe I wasn’t previously paying so much attention but when it comes to Brexit, the Labour Party, climate change, austerity, to name just the first few to come off the top of my head time and again there appears to be clear examples of bias, misinformation and misrepresentation on an almost programme by programme basis, prime examples being John Humphreys’ hectoring and bullying of Remain supporters, the lack of reporting of the People’s Vote march last month, the way in which various right wing lobby groups are given prominent airtime with no explanation about how they’re funded, the list seems endless.

 

I was always a staunch defender of the BBC but in what appears to be its fear of offending its paymasters it risks losing all integrity in its news and current affairs departments and potentially undermining its credibility altogether 

Great post, Champ. The bit in bold especially. That Tax Payers Alliance gang that is funded by rich Tories is on the news or QT every 25 minutes. It's disgraceful shit.

 

 

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28 minutes ago, Jairzinho said:

 

It's Liberal. So if you're to the right of that, especially if you have right wing social views, then you could believe the BBC has a left wing bias.

 

The BBC is firmly pro establishment. If the current status quo was slightly to the left, they'd probably be the same. But we have a political system/situation at the moment where a far right Tory party is seen as centre right, and a party putting forward Social Democracy is seen as far left. 

 

The BBC is basically the same as The Guardian. Right wing economics (bar a few token exceptions), centre left (ish) social views. Recycle your quinoa packaging, but support an economic system that leads to nurses having to go to food banks and disabled people killing themselves.

 

But yeah, decent wildlife documentaries.

Post of the year/decade/century.

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9 hours ago, Jairzinho said:

 

It's Liberal. So if you're to the right of that, especially if you have right wing social views, then you could believe the BBC has a left wing bias.

 

The BBC is firmly pro establishment. If the current status quo was slightly to the left, they'd probably be the same. But we have a political system/situation at the moment where a far right Tory party is seen as centre right, and a party putting forward Social Democracy is seen as far left. 

 

The BBC is basically the same as The Guardian. Right wing economics (bar a few token exceptions), centre left (ish) social views. Recycle your quinoa packaging, but support an economic system that leads to nurses having to go to food banks and disabled people killing themselves.

 

But yeah, decent wildlife documentaries.

Thanks; nailed it perfectly there for me in terms of a reasoned response.

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Jairz is spot on. It's public sector at the end of the day and it's filled with managers who are onto a good screw and wouldn't last five minutes anywhere else. They protect their position by toeing the line. If Corbyn got in things would shift left there in their output, no doubt.

 

It's like any department. Under Labour job centres used to call people clients and now they call them claimants.

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I always think it’s a weird thing with conservatives and the Conservative party we have these days (and the same goes for many similar parties in the west).

 

The BBC is a national institution - preserving those used to be a conservative priority.  Now the Tories would ditch it in a second if they thought they could get away with it.

 

It’s the same with the civil service, it used to be a real conservative institution. The civil service was rammed with University educated public school types, as well being seen as a vocation to strive for.  It’s been demonised for a couple of decades by the Tories as full of wasters and nothing more than a drain on taxpayers.

 

The Labour Party under Corbyn is probably more conservative than the Conservative Party.

Half the Tories would sell off village greens to a Moldovan company to build high rises given half a chance.

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Indeed, Jose. It's why proper conservatives like Oborne, Hitchens, etc have no time for the current Conservatives. The social policies are more left wing (because "who fucking cares?"), and the economic policies more right wing.

 

I guess, more accurately, the social policies simply aren't of any importance to them. The importance of family, national institutions, etc. All irrelevant. Traditional conservative values. 

 

 

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13 hours ago, Jairzinho said:

 

It's Liberal. So if you're to the right of that, especially if you have right wing social views, then you could believe the BBC has a left wing bias.

 

The BBC is firmly pro establishment. If the current status quo was slightly to the left, they'd probably be the same. But we have a political system/situation at the moment where a far right Tory party is seen as centre right, and a party putting forward Social Democracy is seen as far left. 

 

The BBC is basically the same as The Guardian. Right wing economics (bar a few token exceptions), centre left (ish) social views. Recycle your quinoa packaging, but support an economic system that leads to nurses having to go to food banks and disabled people killing themselves.

 

But yeah, decent wildlife documentaries.

 

If a national broadcaster wants / needs to be seen as balanced it will naturally drift toward this position if political forces are aligned as they are at the moment.

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3 hours ago, Jairzinho said:

Indeed, Jose. It's why proper conservatives like Oborne, Hitchens, etc have no time for the current Conservatives. The social policies are more left wing (because "who fucking cares?"), and the economic policies more right wing.

 

I guess, more accurately, the social policies simply aren't of any importance to them. The importance of family, national institutions, etc. All irrelevant. Traditional conservative values. 

 

 

Good postings in this thread. 

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The BBC's documentary department is still a standard bearer (even if they do give a lot of airtime to dumbed-down docs by the likes of Stacey Dooley), and they've produced some quality dramas and sitcoms down the years, but there has been a noticeable shift towards junk consumption of the sort you find on the commercial channels. For whatever reason, that kind of crap draws in viewers. Also, their news output is starting to mimic Sky with its sensationalist bollocks and agenda-driven approach to political reporting.

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1 hour ago, Trumo said:

The BBC's documentary department is still a standard bearer (even if they do give a lot of airtime to dumbed-down docs by the likes of Stacey Dooley), and they've produced some quality dramas and sitcoms down the years, but there has been a noticeable shift towards junk consumption of the sort you find on the commercial channels. For whatever reason, that kind of crap draws in viewers. Also, their news output is starting to mimic Sky with its sensationalist bollocks and agenda-driven approach to political reporting.

So in reality, the bbc isn't that far away form any of the commercial channels and it's only going to get closer as time goes on. We'll still be asked to shell out for it though.

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The BBC (as in the creative staff, presenters etc.) might be liberal, but its news and politics output has taken a definite lurch to the right in recent years - beginning with Cameron's appointments to senior editorial positions and several alleged "threats" to "reform" the charter. Apologies for just posting links, but the articles are a bit long.

 

https://www.ft.com/content/7ba884c2-176d-11e6-b197-a4af20d5575e

 

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/may/13/tory-officials-threatened-bbc-miliband-tom-baldwin-licence-fee

 

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/conservative-rift-has-emerged-over-undemocratic-plan-to-reform-the-bbc-a7018936.html

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I think the Natural history stuff is overrated to be honest. I've grown up with Attenborough and there's only so many times you can watch a crab taking a shit on Christmas Island. This kind of stuff was and is pretty standard fair on the discovery channel so it's not exclusive or the special preserve of the license paying model.

 

The more I think about it the more I realise I watch hardly anything on the BBC. I used to love things like Questiontime but its nosedive in quality is the stuff of legend. 

 

I really liked Killing Eve but that was made for BBC America I think, which has an advertising funding model.

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5 minutes ago, Section_31 said:

I think the Natural history stuff is overrated to be honest. I've grown up with Attenborough and there's only so many times you can watch a crab taking a shit on Christmas Island. This kind of stuff was and is pretty standard fair on the discovery channel so it's not exclusive or the special preserve of the license paying model.

 

The more I think about it the more I realise I watch hardly anything on the BBC. I used to love things like Questiontime but its nosedive in quality is the stuff of legend. 

 

I really liked Killing Eve but that was made for BBC America I think, which has an advertising funding model.

Same here but it's become unwatchable now. Wasn't there some accusation that they were up to some sort of audience manipulation not so long ago ?  

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I always feel that the BBC's harshest critics must have not seen television in other countries. Do me a favour, next time you're in Spain or Italy or France or wherever, stick the telly on and watch their terrestrial (or equivalent) channels. You'll never have a bad word to say about British TV ever again.

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33 minutes ago, Strontium Dog said:

I always feel that the BBC's harshest critics must have not seen television in other countries. Do me a favour, next time you're in Spain or Italy or France or wherever, stick the telly on and watch their terrestrial (or equivalent) channels. You'll never have a bad word to say about British TV ever again.

That's like when I used to turn my nose up at my nan's chicken and leek soup and she'd talk about starving Africans, one's not really got anything to do with the other.

 

The Beeb's quality of output has declined massively down the years IMO. Can't remember the last time it churned out a good comedy for example. Its flagship shows such as Casualty and even Eastenders are shadows of their former selves.

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BBC Four, BBC Two, Radio 6 and 5Live are all that BBC has to offer in terms of quality output. The rest can just do one. 

 

BBC 1 does have the off programme/series worth watching. Like Dave the Chimp last week or Killing Eve (which was ace) but the majority is brain numbing zombiefying shite. 

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