The two go hand in hand.
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The BBC is a toxic organisation, level pegging with most newspapers
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Culturally, I think it needs a revamp, but in terms of political lean, I can’t remember where I read it but essentially there was an analysis that suggested that a reason why different people can simultaneously think that the BBC is either right-wing or left-wing is that it depends on the content they churn out. The BBC is made of so many units, and each one can have their own political lean internally, and the effect of any institutional political lean is probably less obvious in terms of output, except with top-down direction about axing of individual programmes.
The very fact that the BBC is accused by both left and right of bias is testament to its objectivity.
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Or it’s lack of it? A lot of the problem with BBC News output is the “both sides-ism” that they insist on. The balancing view to truth is not lies. They have also been guilty of passing off opinion as fact.
There are far worse broadcasters than the BBC but I do think their reputation for impartiality and reliability has been tarnished globally. It’s a pity, because that reputation for being the gold standard of truth and objectivity has incredible soft power potential.
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Thanks for replying for me. I would also say that that one-liner is exactly something the BBC would print/air nowadays, which speaks to the intellectual weakness it has. In just chucking all possible views out there, they have, in my opinion, failed at the basic journalistic duty of fact-checking and rigorous questioning.
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In part, they don’t have anything like the resources that they used to. There are far fewer subject specialists and they are up against the onslaught of automated news.
I would like to see them taking a step back and looking to be the authoritative source and certainly label opinion as such.
One sad thing is that they have stripped out many of their specific opinion pieces. I used to regularly watch Mark Kermode’s film review section on the news. It was just a 15 minute slot but it did provide a reasonable curation of current film releases. They binned that along with many of their other specialist presenters.
I suspect that the Conservative government really wanted them to be a state broadcaster; reading out official government press releases without comment.
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No, because either the claims of favouring the left are made in bad faith or they reflect a small % of their output to a small audience (@Klopptimist when making the argument usually refers to radio 5 live and I think the Stephen Nolan show - compare that with the content of the flagship news/ politics shows on the main channels.)
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I haven’t lived in the UK for over 12yrs now and perhaps the institution is in decline , but for it to be described as a ‘toxic organisation’ , well I just can’t imagine that kind of criticism tbh. I remember Blair’s Govt. going to war with them over Iraq and the dodgy dossier and the shameful way that Greg Dyke was defenestrated. Maybe that marked the beginning of them trying to play the both sides game.
Whatever , watching from afar the greatest institutions that the UK has (BBC /NHS) being hollowed out and becoming scapegoats for politicians disgusts me. If Starmer has anything about him , he will make it a priority to rehabilitate the both of them.
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I think that tarnishing of their reputation is more locally in the UK, than global. I would think overseas, a lot more people would look at the bbc and think that is a more reliable a trusted source for news than their local media.
Not too sure a lot of foreigners would look at Fox news, or CNN, or NBC and think they are trustworthy like the BBC
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I didn’t say it was toxic. It’s just not that gold standard for news that it once was.
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The “flagship” Today programme has been drifting steadily rightward over the last few years.
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They still have a legacy reputation globally but I don’t think it is the source of authority that it used to be. The World Service coverage is very anodyne and they actively block access to stories that are only intended for UK consumption.
At one time, you could speak to people living in oppressive regimes and they regarded the BBC as being absolutely the most credible news source. Much of that dates back to the second world war and Hugh Greene’s broadcasts in German. Those were factual, complete and were able to put out information withheld by the Nazis. They were able to do that because it was demonstrably credible.
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I know it wasn’t you , it was a previous post.
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It was also the case during the cold war.
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It’s useful to remember here that a lot of right-wing rags and in general commercial media enterprises have a vested interest in trashing the BBC. The sooner that they can get rid of it, the sooner they have one fewer competitor for the latter, and for the former, closer control of the narrative for the former.
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Seems very important.
https://x.com/shashj/status/1823745872003260524
It’s just Russia being dicks. It’s not as if this is new, after their recent botched assassination operation of the Rheimmetal CEO, the metro sabotage in Paris and the very many other instances of terrorism and sabotage recently (most of which have beeb averted by police thankfully).
https://x.com/dw_politics/status/182371094922178563
There are just too many Russian operatives in Germany (and much more pro-Kreml Russians living there) (Austria even worse) so they have a lot of people to do stuff like this).
https://x.com/shashj/status/1823746591250936034
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It seems to be showing two areas on the NINA app:
- edit: this is actually a separate area to the bsse mentioned on the news.
“New Delhi’s concerns—from threats to the Bangladesh Hindu community to potential new surges of refugees crossing the border—are real and understandable.”
Is it? In my view, it’s a rather sardonic framing of the situation. Mr. Kugelman failed to mention, or simply chose not to mention, the fact that all the atrocities, including, but not limited to looting and vandalizing houses and institutions of religious minorities, happened because the law enforcement agencies and the Army didn’t prevent those.
He also failed to mention or simply chose not to mention, the fact that we might not have gone through such an ordeal if the Hasina Regime wasn’t so emboldened and vicious with the explicit and unconditional support of the Modi Regime. Over four hundred were murdered in one month. Nearly ten thousand were arrested in little over a week. Mr. Kugelman should have let these simple facts sink in.
Religious and other minority groups in Bangladesh are insecure and vulnerable. But so are most of the Bangladeshis. Remember the night of August 7 when bandits swept across Dhaka? It’s because we live in an environment of lawlessness with the thieves & thugs enjoying impunity. This is what he should have focused on. It’s concerning that he doesn’t have a grasp of the real issue, and yet he is the eyes and ears of the US administration for this region.
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Well, it’s not exactly breaking news, but still…
Another local group, Odhikar, says over the past 15 years, 704 people have fallen victim to enforced disappearance. While some have returned home, the bodies of others have been found, often showing signs of torture. It’s thought 150 individuals remain unaccounted for, not including those who went missing during the student-led protests that began last month.
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