Monday, May 15, 2006

How the BBC helps the NuLabour Government

In the morning I some times wonder if I've woken up in some Orwellian Soviet Block country and am listening to the state broadcaster.

The Today program ( radio 4) has a regular habit of announcing what a government minister is going to say or a review they are going to start. Of course this is of great benefit to the government as they get the headlines without any specifics that an opposition spokesman ( if one were ever invited to speak ) can counter. The examples for Today are:

1) Antony Blair says the Human Rights Act needs to be changed ( Legislation he introduced and was warned about at the time. Review/abolition was in the Conservative manifesto last election - but this isn't pointed out by the BBC comrades ). Tony's serious - he's even written a letter to the new home secretary who's currently John Reid.
2) A review of how Islam is taught in Universities ( does Govt actually have any power here at all ? ) and how British-ness is taught. Again no opposition spokespersons about - the nearest thing to dissent was a quote from Trevour Philips (Labour supporting chairman on CRE ). The inconsistency about teaching British values and supporting Multicultralism was lost in the interview as to a lesser extent was the fact that the teaching of British history in schools is now disfunctional ( the interviewer tried to point this out - but failed to follow up the utter waffle that came in reply - certainly wouldn't have happened if the discussion had been about David Cameron's saddle bags). ( A direct result being the lack of British Indentity our citizens now have. )

The BBC are in my view systematically biased in allowing this sloppy style of journalism to continue. Their motives for continuing a system of reporting that so favours the NuLabour government can only be speculated about.

1 comment:

wonkotsane said...

I saw something not long ago where a group had decided to test the BBC's impartiality. They used proxy servers to submit a range of responses to a BBC Have Your Say article - half of the responses were pro-government policy and half were against government policy. Two or three anti-policy responses were published and all of the pro-policy ones were.