Robin Aitken on the biases of the BBC

On the day that BritainAndAmerica launches its CAN AMERICA TRUST THE BBC? video ad, Robin Aitken, twenty-five years a BBC journalist, warns Americans that the BBC has a number of serious biases.

I was delighted  - as any young journalist would be - when I landed my first job as a reporter with the BBC back in 1978. I felt I was joining the finest broadcasting service in the world, one with a matchless reputation for truth-telling and objectivity.

Twenty five years later, when I walked out of BBC Television Centre in London for the last time, I was a disillusioned man. The BBC turned out to be not the infallible truth-teller of repute but just another player in the media market -  just as biased and one-sided as the rest.

But the BBC isn’t like the rest; and what makes it special also makes it more dangerous and insidious than the others.

Let me explain. The problem is that because the BBC is the best-known, best-respected broadcaster in the world people believe what it says – even when it seriously distorts the news according to its own internal biases.

The BBC has a very strong internal political culture – I call it ‘institutional leftism’. In practice this means that arguments made by groups and individuals who come from the right are often ignored, misrepresented and marginalized. In the process, because the BBC is so powerful the political debate itself gets distorted.

Here are some examples of what I mean.

Anti-Americanism: European intellectuals sneer at America  for its supposed lack of  cultural and political sophistication. Within the BBC the attacks have  reached a crescendo since the election of George W Bush. It portrays him as stupid, dangerous and delusional. One correspondent in Washington told me that when dealing with Bush House – home of the BBC’s World Service – they only ever wanted negative stories about Bush: “it was like dealing with the Taliban” he said.

Anti Christian: The BBC is profoundly secular and regards religious belief as mere superstition. It reserves its harshest criticisms for Christianity and is particularly scathing about the ‘religious right’ . In my book there is a chapter which deals with an edition of Panorama – a ‘flagship’ TV documentary programme – which examined the papacy of John Paul II; it was a programme riddled with inaccuracies and malicious value-judgments. It was a disgraceful piece of journalism – neither fair nor objective and it typifies the BBC’s approach to organised religion.

Anti conservative morality and pro the liberal orthodoxy. The BBC is pro-abortion, pro-gay rights and in favour of single motherhood. Its news output on these issues faithfully reflects its prejudices. Over time its assiduous promotion of these values has helped to win British public opinion round to its own position.

Anti free market capitalism. The BBC is publicly financed; its $6 billion annual revenues come from a tax levied on everyone in Britain who owns a television. This has bred both complacency and antipathy, Complacency towards its audience – who are prosecuted in the courts if they refuse to pay – and antipathy towards the private sector. It is the first to decry ‘cuts’ in the public services; it rarely bothers to highlight tax rises. The BBC has distrust of capitalism in its journalistic DNA.
In short far from being fair and impartial the BBC exhibits a knee-jerk liberalism which falls far short of its own ideals.

CLICK HERE TO BUY ROBIN AITKEN'S BOOK - CAN WE TRUST THE BBC?

Comments

[JF]

A BBC comparable to our own PBS would be acceptable. But since it is not so, a sustained campaign culminating in the privatization of the BBC must be initiated. The BBC has been shown time and again to be a partisan organization. Why not make it a plank of the Conservative Party to eliminate the license fee? The rest will take care of itself.

[Peter Hatchet]

Agreed.

But, as I've mentioned before, let us not flatter the BBC by calling them "Liberals" - they are anything but.

Liberal means giving freedom and liberty to people, not statism and interference.

We must stop humouring the left by calling them "progressive" and "liberal". They are not. We are.

There's a good word for them; "Lefties".

[Wayne Bridges]

Tell us something we didn't know already!

[jack]

"The BBC is profoundly secular and regards religious belief as mere superstition."

- You mean it isn't?

"...in favour of single motherhood"

- What the hell does this even mean?

[Marky Bunny]

I have called it for the last ten years "The Blair Broadcasting Corporation" now it will be simply be the "Brown Broadcasting Corporation". I have to agree it has always been pro-labour, anti-Conservative, anti-American, and anti-Isreal. You only have to look at its biased coverage of the Lebannon last year to see that. I resent to paying £135 a year for the left-wing propaganda we get. If the Tories want a vote winner at the next election, pledge to get rid of TV License fee, and force the BBC to be the same as all the other broadcasters.

[Oba of Benin]

Dear Jack,

I see that you regard religion as mere superstition. You should ask yourself why the BBC chooses to mock christianity but respects 'the prophet mohammed'.

The BBC does not treat all religions equally.

[Steevo]

They do represent the Left, but as the Left morph in antagonism toward traditional Western values they are not really anti-religious. They are very much anti-Christianity and Judaism, but pro-Islam. They are secular but willing bed partners with the enemy of their enemy.

[HerrMorgenholz]

I just discovered you good folks, but will chime in here for the first time.

Without doubt, the most pernicious aspect of the BBC is the extorted public financing. While we have that in America with PBS, PBS is far from being influential. Leftist, yes, but rarely watched except by children.

I have satellite at my home, and pay approximately $600 per year for the service. That is 300 pounds at today's exchange rate. BBC is one of 300 channels I get, so I think it's safe to say that we pay less for BBC than you do.

[qednick]

"Leftist, yes, but rarely watched except by children" - HerrMorgenholz

The "children" - isn't that the most dangerous aspect of all this?

[John Marsh]

Should civil disobedience be used? Should we stop paying the licence fee?

[Teddy Bear]

John - unless you want to support the corruption and bias spread by this corporation to the detriment of our own society....

A very good site that will empower you is http://www.tvlicensing.biz

[mamapajamas]

gednick, re: ""Leftist, yes, but rarely watched except by children" - HerrMorgenholz

"The "children" - isn't that the most dangerous aspect of all this?"

He's talking about Sesame Street and other educational programming. It's only on the news and political programming that PBS is to the left.

Wait... come to think of it... "Only Cookie Monster can eat cookies! You should eat lots of carrots and beans!"

Never mind. Point understood!

[Beth]

I think you should just keep bringing individual lawsuits against the BBC for fraud. Discredit them publicly by keeping the words "Bias" and "BBC" tied together in the newspapers.

Can an individual sue the BBC in GB? Or are they protected?

[JF]

Beth, you're assuming that the MSM in the UK wouldn't conspire to ignore the lawsuits. They're all in league to cover up the truth.

The only solution is to eliminate the license fee. The only way to cure the plague that is the BBC is to starve it.

[Teddy Bear]

To give you some idea of their present omnipotency; Following numerous accusations of anti-Israel bias, in 2004 the BBC commissioned an ombudsman, Michael Balen to review their coverage of the area. When his report was later requested to be released by numerous members of the public and various organisations under the Freedom of Information act, the BBC refused.

Now after several court cases, and spending hundreds of thousands of license fee pounds later to fight the release of this document, the High Court said last friday the BBC doesn't have to make it public.

Bear in mind the BBC is not a private media company but a publicly supported organisation that in a moral social framework should be totally transparent to its public, and have no problem coming under scrutiny.

They claim they fought this case purely on a point of law, and not because they have anything to hide.

yeah sure!

[Dinesh Patel]

The BBC should be renamed BBCIslam as of immediate effect and funded by the Islamic Council of Great Britain.

[Teddy Bear]

Dinesh, what do you think of the new BBC Logo?
http://www.honestreporting.com/a/images/communiques/upload1/bbcjoke3.jpg

[Teddy Bear]

[Dinesh Patel]

well... at least it's honest!

whoever designed that should design the Olympic logo.

[British Patriot]

It is not just misreporting it is ACTIVELY being used as a tool of Repressive Psychological Warfare using Shame and Guilt on the British Public.This has to be stopped.

Think about it, what Do our Media Show month after Month after Month....Ian Huntley, Fred West, Beverly Allet, the Dunblane Massacre, the Black Panther Murders, the Stephen Lawrence Murder, Dr Shipman Peter Sutcliffe, Damiola Taylor, Chris Langham, MichaelBarrymore, the Guy in the Portugal Maddelaine case, Notice the Link...that's right, ALL AngloSaxon British Murderers, that's all our Govt and Press report. Want to know what the real cause of crime is in the UK.

Here's the Mets 12 Most wanted list..Remember I didn't compile this list, the Police did
http://www.met.police.uk/wanted/

Here's their 15 Most wanted
http://www.met.police.uk/wanted/othercases.htm

Yet More.
http://iamanenglishman.com/rogues_gallery.php

Still not convinced.
http://www.west-midlands.police.uk/wanted/index.asp

Ever see these Innocent British Victims .
http://newnation.org/NNN-UK-Europe.html

More of the Governments Victims that you have never heard of on the News.
http://thefallenlist.blogspot.com/

More Slaughter of the British
http://warband.wordpress.com/
http://warband.wordpress.com/category/paedophilia/

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