It will be superfluous to join the chorus of the indignant voices that have just “discovered” or are simply gloating at the latest scandal about the BBC bias. Daily Mail being what Daily Mail is, its thirst for scandals paid off this time. The mere fact of BBC bias is hardly news to anybody, and BBC’s tooth and nail fight against publication of the damning report is admission of guilt enough.
Of course, the arrogance of this fine establishment after the fact leaves one breathless. I do not know whether this quote from Andrew Marr is precise:
The BBC is not impartial or neutral. It’s a publicly funded, urban organization with an abnormally large number of young people, ethnic minorities and gay people. It has a liberal bias not so much a party-political bias. It is better expressed as a cultural liberal bias.
I also don’t know whether this quote is absolutely true:
One veteran BBC executive said: ‘There was widespread acknowledgement that we may have gone too far in the direction of political correctness.
But if it is, it shows how far the BBC establishment has gone in its self-delusion.
No, it is not about bias. There are quite a lot of biased media around, and it would be hypocritical to blame BBC alone. Although, as a taxpayer-funded organization BBC could do better, of course. But Fox, to take one example, is no less (rather more) biased, for that matter, although Fox is not funded by taxpayers.
What really takes the cake is the insistence of BBC in defining itself as a liberal outfit. To remind ourselves:
Adjective: Liberal
1. Showing or characterized by broad-mindedness
2. Having political or social views favoring reform and progress
3. Tolerant of change; not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or tradition
Could BBC that enforces a perverted politically biased dictionary like in the famous case of the “terrorist – militant” pretend to be broad-minded?
Could BBC that fights publication of a report on its bias pretend to be tolerant of change, favoring reform and progress, fighting orthodoxy?
But first of all, liberal means tolerance of a dissident view and freedom of information, and BBC has consistently proved that it is anything but tolerant. Its Big Brother behavior, arrogance, filtering of information and hypocrisy explain only too well how the word “liberal” became an expletive so beloved by right wing and left wing extremists.
Feh…
Cross-posted on SimplyJews
In my opinion (and to repeat, this is just my opinion) there are more liberals on Fox then there are conservatives on CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, NPR combined – to say nothing about The New York TImes, Washington Post, Time and Newsweek MAgazines.
“Big Brother behavior, arrogance, filtering of information and hypocrisy explain only too well how the word “liberal†became an expletive so beloved by right wing and left wing extremists.”
There was a time when the Democrats were the cutting edge of liberal – at least when it came to the flowering of Socialism and social programs (lets not talk about Civil Rights as both parties would argue that they were the ones who spearheaded that).
The writings of Adalai Stevenson were inspiring and full of vision (very unlike Democrats of today).
But that was 50 years ago.
OTOH, 140 years ago, the Republicans with their anti-slavery platform were the liberals.
But we all know times change and when a movement is fulfilled/transformed/lost, the group that is custodian to this movement either finds something new to be liberal about or they calcify and it becomes the diglossic form called Liberal (capitalization intended).
Just as the Democrats have become.
I was a Democrat, yet I still am a democrat. I had wished to vote for McGovern and Carter, just as I voted for Mondale … and George Bush.
Times change. The term liberal is an internal thing and has no affiliation to any party.
These days, I am a Conservative (Capitalization intended) which is the new liberal.
Or should I say ‘neo liberal’?
All I want for Christmas is my…own non-biased, news/information, media format. I’m so sick and tired of Liberals and Conservatives. Just shut up, you are destroying our nation. I wish I had a few million dollars to start my own media company.
“I’m so sick and tired of Liberals and Conservatives. Just shut up, you are destroying our nation. ”
Part of the cause of the breakdown of political dialogue is saying ‘Just shut up’.
Shout-downs only inflame the issue further.
I agree that news needs to be unbiased, but as you will find, choosing which articles are headlines and which are not is also a form of passive bias. For example, Foleygate made BIG headlines. Yet, when dictator Kim Jung Il set off his Nuclear Bomb, that receive tertiary coverage (compared to Foley).
You seem unhappy with ‘Liberals and Conservatives’. Over time, I think, you will find you will be liberal about some things and conservative (small caps intended) about others – if you are like most people. Once that happens, you will (surprise!) figure out which political party you are most comfortable with. Of course that can change, as it did for me.
It would be interesting to see where you stand about bias and politics 10 years from now.