The report reads like a talking points memo written by me when talking about the state-run CBC in my own country.
BBC accused of institutional ‘trendy left-wing bias’
18.06.07
The BBC is criticised for its liberal leanings in an official report published today, leading to claims that the corporation is “institutionally biased”.
BBC bosses have been attacked for not reflecting a “broader range of views” and not thinking outside of its Left-leaning “comfort zone” in its programming.
The report, commissioned by the BBC, also attacks the way the corporation has pandered to politically motivated celebrities such as Bob Geldof and allowed schedules to be hijacked by special interest groups promoting trendy issues.
As part of the report’s investigations, senior figures at the corporation were forced to admit it was guilty of promoting Left-wing views and an anti-Christian sentiment.
An “impartiality summit” held last year among BBC executives – some of the results of which were used in today’s report – also admitted that gays and ethnic minorities were over-represented at the corporation.
It was also suggested that the BBC is guilty of political correctness, the overt promotion of multiculturalism and of being anti-American and against the countryside.
The report, parts of which were leaked yesterday, is believed to recommend staff challenge their own assumptions, claiming there is a culture at the broadcaster which sees it failing to reflect the views of the public on issues such as capital punishment.
Tory MP Philip Davies, who is on the Commons media select committee, said: “This report merely confirms what a load of people have thought for a long time, that the BBC does have an institutional Left-wing bias.”
He said it needed to say how it is going to put its house in order and added that the way the BBC had allowed itself to be used by campaign groups in its programming was “sinister”.
Tory culture spokesman Hugo Swire added: “This is yet another report that suggests the BBC has a problem with partisanship and very fixed views of the world.”
And my favorite part:
Delivering the Hugh Cudlipp Memorial lecture in January, Mr Dacre [Paul Dacre, editor-in-chief of Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail] said: “What really disturbs me is that the BBC is, in every corpuscle of its corporate body, against the values of conservatism, with a small “c”, which just happen to be the values held by millions of Britons.
“It is hostile to conservatism and the traditional Right, Britain’s past and British values, America, Ulster Unionism, Euro-scepticism, capitalism and big business, the countryside, Christianity, and family values.
“Conversely it is sympathetic to Labour, European Federalism, the State and State spending, mass immigration, minority rights, multiculturalism, alternative lifestyles, abortion and progressiveness in the education and the justice systems.”
He added: “The BBC is consumed by the kind of political correctness that is actually patronisingly contemptuous-of what it describes as ordinary people.”
Other highlights:
· During last October’s impartiality summit, hosted by Sue Lawley, executives said they would happily broadcast an image of a Bible being thrown away but would not do the same for the Koran.
· Even one of the BBC’s most senior journalists, political pundit Andrew Marr, admitted it was unrepresentative of British society and had a “cultural liberal bias”.
· BBC Washington correspondent Justin Webb accused his own employers of being anti-American, saying they treated the nation with scorn and derision and “no moral weight”.
The one difference in the report as compared to the Canadian state-run media is that they found no particular bias in their news reporting. Maybe they used Canada’s state-run media’s news reports as a comparative example in order to come to that conclusion. I personally find the BBC News to be abjectly anti-American, anti-conservative, and anti-Christian.
And actually I lied before: THIS is my favorite part of the article:
The BBC denied the report found any evidence of institutional bias or evidence of a Left-leaning bias in its output.
That sounds exactly right.
Let me remind readers that state-run or state-owned media should of course be banned in this country, and that notion enshrined in our constitution.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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