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| Fifth Column |
| Bias at the BBC |
| 2005-06-04 |
| This is a very readable and enjoyable description of what a biased news organization looks and sounds like. Do yourself a favor and read it all. Edited for the conclusion... Few with a grip on reality believe that there is a cabal at BBC House wringing their hands and plotting the renationalization of the coal industry or state-mandated racial sensitivity training for all 6-year-olds. But there is little doubt that, as Mr. Aitken puts it, a center-left groupthink dominates at the BBC and colors its entire output. It's not deliberate. It's worse. The producers just can't imagine that someone could possibly oppose European integration or any of the other left-wing causes because to them, and their friends, these are self-evident truths. It simply doesn't even occur to them that reasonable people could disagree with them. The influence of this groupthink goes far beyond the BBC and now permeates the cliquish world of British broadcasting in general. Almost everyone in the television business has worked for the BBC at some point, sipped the Kool-Aid, and now carries the torch of institutional leftism. With few exceptions, every newscast in the country looks and sounds like a knockoff of the Ten O'Clock News, and the nation is not better for it. Mr. Aitken is said to be the first BBC insider ever to come out of the conservative closet, and he is now putting his opinions into book form. He says that he tried to convince his bosses at the BBC of the problem, going to the trouble of documenting the bias for its Board of Governors, but none of them could be bothered. If for nothing else, Mr. Aitken deserves high accolades for his contribution to the lexicon and his willingness to challenge a status quo that serves no one except the people who perpetuate it. The good folks chronicling events at this "news" service are here. |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #4 Oh how I miss the Cold War era BBC World Service! Listened to them on the shortwave whilst stationed in West Germany '86-'89. They had a mission then, now they are no better than Air Amerikka (tm) World |
| Posted by: Bodyguard 2005-06-04 22:22 |
| #3 MSBBC |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2005-06-04 11:57 |
| #2 There is a US book out several years ago - "Bias", I think, that came to the same conclusion. Plus, as the new church of the inquisition, they are ALL on a hunt for SIN! There's SIN, I tellya, right here in River City! |
| Posted by: Bobby 2005-06-04 11:46 |
| #1 It simply doesn't even occur to them that reasonable people could disagree with them. Everyone I know voted for McGovern! |
| Posted by: Pauline Kael 2005-06-04 10:01 |