BBC biased or incompetent?

The lunchtime news from the Brexit Broadcasting Corporation featured a series of "vox pops", as usual involving Leave voters.

Typical comment "we should just get on with it, it's dragged on too long and we need to get it over and concentrate on other things"

Naturally, the BBC don't challenge any of these statements and explain that far from "getting it over" a catastrophic no-deal brexit, or indeed any kind of brexit, would only be the beginning of years and years and years of wrangling over trade negotiations and chaos, and inevitable bitter arguments about who to blame.

For anyone who thinks "getting on with it" is the same as "getting it finished", it needs to be pointed out that if you are, like so many of us are "fed up of brexit", the only way to actually put a stop to this nonsense is to Revoke Article 50.

If only the BBC were not so hellbent on promoting brexit, they might be prepared to explain this.

Indeed. As for Isobel Oakeshott- the word traitor has been bandied around far too much in last few years. But in her case, it applies 100%. And yet, she was still invited many time on QT after her rôle in Cambridge Analytica and Aaron Banks was discovered- and motivated partly for her Brexit views, but also for money, for a book.

The point is that during these years leading up to the fraudulent referendum the only other MEP invited to speak on QT was Tory ultra-brexiter Hannan ( no-one is talking about leaving the single market). He appeared once, Farage 29 times. MPs from other parties appeared but NO MEPs, as has been previously explained.

Matters relating to the EU should have been discussed by MEPs from all parties on QT but that clearly did not suit the agenda of the Brexit Broadcasting Corporation.

2016 ( not 2017)

The figure of Farage on QT relates to the years up to and including 2016. They were not collected in 2010 but include his appearances in that year and between 2010 and 2017.

Jura

"So POGS, could you respond directly to Varian's '"How can anyone possibly excuse the BBC inviting Farage onto QT 29 times before the referendum ."'

why would they have invited him so often. Or Isobel Oakeshott for that matter, again and again?"
---

Another ' So POGS' start, I am noting this on a regular basis.

Jura I answered the question varian posed ' directly' . I refer back to my 4th August posting to varian the following :-

"How can anyone possibly excuse the BBC inviting Farage onto QT 29 times before the referendum ."
--

You gave the impression Farage had been on Question Time 29 times prior to the Referendum as though it were an advantage to promote the UKIP party and sway the referendum result.

I am reminding those who did not see the original Huffington Post article it was a number gained by delving back 6 years earlier to 2010.

It puts a different slant on things because using the referendum is a tad disengenuous as it was 6 years after the Huffington Post collected it's data.

Happy to be corrected."
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In other words the statement about the referendum was bunkum, we did not know in 2010 there would be a Referendum in 2016.

Conveniently using figures going back as far as 2010 sound plausible if there is no mention of that fact or unless you read the article. Stating ' before the Referendum' was set to give the impression the figures were fairly current, during the Referendum campaigning. A good ploy but a tad disingenuous, in my opinion. .

If I were trying to be clever I could say/ask why did the B B C Question Time programme have the Tory / Pro EU Ken Clarke on the show 59 Times but I wouldn't because it has no bearing to the Referendum which is the focus I take issue with.

I will happily repeat another point. The QT panel usually consists of 3 left, 2 right wing panelists. It should either have 2 from left and right or 3 from left and right. Then you have the issue of where politically Dimbeby and Fiona Bruce seem to sit, that would no doubt cause another argument.

So POGS, could you respond directly to Varian's '"How can anyone possibly excuse the BBC inviting Farage onto QT 29 times before the referendum ."'

why would they have invited him so often. Or Isobel Oakeshott for that matter, again and again?

Does it have to be “either/or”?
Both, all too often it seems.

I am no supporter of Farage but perhaps he kept being invited onto QT because he gave what newspaper editors call "good copy". He would answer questions, whether people liked the answers or not. How many party notables (from all parties) have we seen dodging questions and merely repeating the party mantra

All the news channels in this country have been biased for years. BBC is the worst. I actually stopped watching. I go online to read news. The only television news I watch is Euronews and occasionally Channel 4.

Boris Johnson pulled interview after criticism by head of news, says Channel 4. One other journalist said that by doing so Johnson, who had been accused by Dorothy Byrne of avoiding interviews, had in effect , "shot himself in the foot"

You can listen to Dorothy Byrne's witty and hard-hitting MacTaggart Lecture here-

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XIEFKEw4co

(She describes herself as the first "old lady" to be invited to deliver the prestigious lecture at the Edinburgh Festival. She doesn't look that old to me!)

Boris Johnson is a “known liar” who is copying Vladimir Putin’s approach to the media, according to Channel 4’s head of news and current affairs, who called on broadcasters to aggressively challenge the prime minister’s falsehoods.

Dorothy Byrne said Johnson’s shift towards publishing his own videos on Facebook rather than giving sit-down interviews to journalists reminded her of the Russian president, “who also likes to talk directly to the nation”.

She also said television producers should be more willing to directly accuse political leaders of lying. “If we continue to be so polite, how will our viewers know that politicians are lying?” Byrne asked.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/aug/21/boris-johnson-media-strategy-vladimir-putin-channel-4-news-chief-dorothy-byrne

The Brexit Broadcasting Corporation has on its website a handy guide to brexit jargon, eg

Withdrawal agreement
No deal Customs union
Political declaration
Backstop plan
Irish border

It's called "our guide to Brexit jargon" and suggests you enter the word or phrase you are looking for.

I entered "Revoke Article 50", but that drew a blank so I just entered "Revoke" and yet again I got-

Search
No terms found.


www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-49427007

Echo, echo, echo.

Oh dear (sigh)

It was during the years leading up to the fraudulent referendum of 2016, particularly the years 2010 - 2016 that the constant promotion of liar Farage by the BBC had the most effect.

During these years not one pro-EU MEP was ever invited onto Question Time.

There were no Liberal Democrats (not even Sir Graham Watson, leader, then president of the ALDE, the large influential group of Liberals in the European Parliament, who is a brilliant speaker.)

There were no Greens.

There were no Labour MEPs.

There were no SNP or Plaid Cymru MEPS.

There were no Conservative MEPs apart from the brexiereemist Daniel Hannan who appeared once.

Just Farage, Farage and more Farage to make sure that everyone who ever watched QT got a dose of the Farage lies.

The Brexit Broadcasting Corporation does indeed have a lot to answer for.

I hear an echo.

This Huffington post reference,which I assume you mean, shows the excessive representation of Farage and UKIP over the years from 2010 onwards. It was published in 2017.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/question-time-ukip-nigel-farage_uk_58d95295e4b03787d35ae186

varian

"How can anyone possibly excuse the BBC inviting Farage onto QT 29 times before the referendum ."
--

I am not 'suggesting' anything.

You gave the impression Farage had been on Question Time 29 times prior to the Referendum as though it were an advantage to promote the UKIP party and sway the referendum result.

I am reminding those who did not see the original Huffington Post article it was a number gained by delving back 6 years earlier to 2010.

It puts a different slant on things because using the referendum is a tad disengenuous as it was 6 years after the Huffington Post collected it's data.

Happy to be corrected.

The figures speak for themselves
m.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/question-time-ukip-nigel-farage_uk_58d95295e4b03787d35ae186

Are you suggesting that the BBC had Farage on QT 29 times in the years before the referendum because they were pro-EU and thought Farage would turn voters against leaving the EU?

It is again your belief that 'everybody' who does not agree with you must by default therefore read the right wing press. It is a form of self - conceit and refuses to accept that others who do not agree with you have a brain and will read comments/articles etc. from left and right media sources to make their assessments. Not everybody is indoctrinated by their left/right wing political opinions.

Thanks for that POGS. Spot on.

The political bias of the BBC in particular is easy to discern. Along with Sky and Channel4 I have noted reporters giving us their views of the news. They are prone to give their opinions rather than report what happens and at times one or two have almost rejoiced in belittling Conservative politicians and Farage. They are biased in favour of Remain too, so add fuel to the Project Fear fire with every gloomy pronouncement and as much self-satisfied anti-Brexit spin as they can get away with.

"These are two separate things POGS."

How?

You have been extremely precise in what you say varian.

varian Sun 04-Aug-19 14:30:25

"How can anyone possibly excuse the BBC inviting Farage onto QT 29 times before the referendum ."
--

Before the referendum and dating back to to 2010?

Happy to be corrected.