The BBC

I hate the way people being interviewed are never allowed to finish a sentence anymore without endless rude interruptions.

If you read Irish and French newspapers (the latter in translation if need be), not only do you get a wider range of stories about Europe and the world but people are allowed to answer questions fully and the interviewer listens to what they say.

The two presenters on Womans Hour have obviously been threatened with job loss given how they fall over themselves to aggressively 'put the other side' over. BTW, I'm on the BBC is right wing side, ha, ha.

I meant, of course, listen to as well as read other European news sources.

I agree with you notentirelyallhere. I've almost given up on British news sources. Foreign media give a much more balanced and informative view. It's tragic really because the BBC used to have such a good international reputation but its news output is pathetic.

BBC - outdated and should be scrapped.
The public who scrape the money together to pay this tax, sorry licence fee, have to fund very brazen plugging on the BBC programs, Unfair and biased reporting, game show prize money, outlandish wages to so called 'stars', advertising - of their own programs etc. They don't show the sport that my DH wants to see. They broadcast around the world - and I you and I are paying for this too, let the rest of the world pay if they want it.
If these staff at the BBC really loved their jobs they would do them for the same wages that average Joe is paid. I don't view any of them as stars they are simply vastly overpaid people. Get rid of the lot of them.

Floorflock, you have written exactly how I feel about the BBC.
I think it should be funded by advertising the same as other channels.

The BBC is far from perfect, and I too loathe the One Show with the celebrities, insincerity and brash reporting, but that is just my taste, and I too switch to The Repair Shop which is a lovely heartwarming programme. However, the more the backbench Tories and right wing press campaign against it, the more I support it. I am disturbed by the right wing over representation on QT, Farage who is not the leader of a political party, has been on far more than the leader of the Green Party, and last night's attempt at balance was laughable; the 'leftie' was a self confessed communist celebrity who was out of her depth. I do agree that the coverage of European news is very poor, and needs to be addressed. I generally quite like Laura Kuennsberg, but her handling of the incident in Whipps Cross Hospital was not what I would have expected, more of a Sun reporter's type of nastiness.

They broadcast around the world - and I you and I are paying for this too, let the rest of the world pay if they want it.

Goodness me! I've always understood the BBC World Service to be a jewel in the BBC crown. It keeps ex-pats in touch with the home country, it acts as something of an ambassador and showcase for Britain and it keeps people in countries where the news is censored in touch with the reality of events. How sad that people think that foreigners shouldn't have access to it.

MaizieD I really don't see why UK subjects should be the ones to fund this. All other channels fund themselves through advertising. The BBC, with help from the govermnent, tax the public to fund this overpriced white elephant. Don't forget they have supported many 'dubious' characters who worked there too (Jimmy Saville and many others) If this had been a public company they would have been forced to close down instantly through the scandal.

I watch the political programmes on the BBC, such as the Daily Politics and tend to think that they are fairly even handed most of the time.

My main beef is the lack of decent contributors from the right in any Brexit debates - Mark Francois for example and Tim Martin (Wetherspoons). Even Andrew Neill is reasonably balanced in that he can give representatives of all political persuasions a hard time if necessary.

Still agree with you Floorflock, and as for the BBC world service being ‘a jewel in the crown of the BBC’, well words fail me. We frequently look at the BBC world service when we’re abroad and I’m afraid we find it to be a roundabout of the same ‘news’ items which goes on all day. You will see exactly the same items at 9.00pm as were on at 9.00am. Lots of their reporting on the world service isn’t news either, it’s small item coverage about something the BBC has decided it wants to report on ie house building in another country or whatever. I gues they have to make use of their correspondents in different parts of the world so they ask them to do a short documentary type article on whatever. It’s not news. Gone are the days when people around the world are glued to the radio (tv) at a certain time every day to hear the latest truthful account of the situation in Britain ie the Second World War.

As I've posted on another thread I'd be willing to pay to watch BBC. Here in France we are within reach of the satellite but we have to pay for French tv via the equivalent of rates regardless of whether we watch French tv or not.

I can watch programmes on I Player on my computer but have to use a VPN in order to do so. A VPN isn't necessary to listen to the radio.

I wish that I could pay to watch the Beeb but I can't. Perhaps they too will introduce subscription programming.

I wish that there was some way in which I could pay the Beeb but there isn't.

I cannot agree with you Dinahmo when you say "Andrew Neil is reasonably balanced "

Andrew Neil, a former chairman of the Association of Conservative Students, is the chairman of The Spectator magazine and never makes any attempt to disguise his pro-brexit Tory views.

Unsurprisingly he has recently been voted "the nation’s favourite political commentator" in an exclusive Express.co.uk poll that saw the veteran broadcaster scoop a massive 69 percent of the ballot. A weapons-grade interviewer!’ Andrew Neil crowned top Brexit commentator in poll.

www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1180229/brexit-latest-andrew-neil-politics-latest-laura-kuenssberg-bbc-boris-johnson

This poll was, of course not a poll of the nation, but a poll of the readers of the Express, the only national newspaper which is more brexitty than the Daily Mail or The Sun.

He holds a childish grudge against Dr Vince Cable, who was his tutor at Glasgow University and clearly did not rate his efforts very highly and has recently carried out a vicious vendetta against Carole Cadwalladr, the brave investigative journalist who exposed the illegal activities of Cambridge Analytica and the Leave campaign, calling her "Carol Codswallop, the mad cat woman". Neil is so biased he would not be out of place on Fox News.

I think we have to assume that as Brexit supporters think the BBC are lefties, remain supporters, and the Remainers think the BBC is right wing, Tory, Brexit supporting....well they must be somewhere in the middle! Channel 4 news is ok sometimes, but I don't like Jon Snow. I heard him once on Desert Island Discs ( outed as a Radio 4 listener) and he was a complete arse, really pompous.

I think that the truth is not that the BBC are politically neutral or anything like it.

During the run up to the 2016 referendum, time and time again expert opinion on the Remain side was "balanced out" by ignorant rantings and sound bites from the leave side.

If you had a debate on the BBC about whether the Earth was round or flat, the BBC could easily find proper scientific evidence that it is round (OK, spherical). The BBC, in an attempt to find "balance" would then scour all the dark places on the internet until they came up with a flatearther, who they would invite along and give him equal time and equal billing.

Since the fraudulent referendum, the BBC have at least acknowledged that this spurious attempt at balance did give an undue prominence to utter rubbish. Unfortunately too late. The damage was done and so they still parrot nonsense about "honouring the result of the referendum" and "respecting the will of the people".

There is no doubt that in the past there was a very left wing bias at the BBC. It probably began in the 60s with the comedy programmes created by Cambridge graduates with satirical attacks on the establishment. It might at some point have swung back to the centre but in recent years it has begun to exhibit a real right wing bias. The problem with this bias is, it is not linked any creative or comedic output, but is now rooted in the factual reporting of news. It is a much more dangerous bias than any seen before.

Trisher, a balanced post.

Varian, you seem to see everyone who doesn’t agree with you as ‘ignorant’ (ignorant rantings) as you mention in your post. I’ve learnt to take your posts with a pinch of salt.

I think, and I do accept that not everyone will agree, that the BBC in recent years has had a strong right wing brexitty political bias,

However, because most influential BBC opinion formers work in London, there is also a "social liberal" bias which results in what the Daily Mail would charecterise as "political correctness".

The loudest voices are simultaneously pro equal marriage, very anti discrimination against anyone on the basis of racie or religion, but also very pro-brexit, constantly parroting the mantras about "honouring the referendum" and "will of the people" whilst ignoring all the evidence that our democracy wads high jacked in 2016 by foriegn interference and dark money.

Up until 2016 the BBC took more copies of the Guardian than any other paper: 250 per day. Why was that, I wonder ?

But did the BBC take more copies of the Guardian and the Mirror than the number of copies of the Telegraph. Daily Mail, Express, Sun, etc?

The University of Loughborough looked at the tone of coverage of the EU Referendum in the papers and claimed that, weighted by circulation, Leave has an 82% to 18% advantage over Remain.

Dominic Lawson, the former editor of the Sunday Telegraph, said yesterday that that the views expressed by papers were “important” in the vote’s outcome: “Remember this could be really close… very serious politicians have been ringing up editors and asking them to back their side."

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/which-newspapers-support-brexit_uk_5768fad2e4b0a4f99adc6525

Love the Beeb but have to say, they seem so left wing and biased now, not reporting things that don't "suit" their agenda.

Anyone else seen the interview with the now retired John Humphries who says that he is now "free from the BBC thought police which has tried to mould the nation into it own liberal/left image". He said his bosses badly failed to read the nations mood on Europe and could not grasp why anyone would vote leave.

Just read it sunseeker - cue the liberal, leftist posters accusing him of being a fascist......and so it goes!

I think the recent remarks by Laura Kuenssberg has shown her right-wing bias. Very disappointed in that.

Isn't it funny how when someone agrees with what is said the centralist London elite (like John Humphries) are immediately right, but if someone says something vaguely left wing or socialist they are castigated for being part of that elite. And how would John Humphries know a flying fuck about ordinary people and how they voted?
There is of course the wider debate to be had about what happened to the socialist policies our society was built on after WW2, and the right wing propaganda which has steadily and persistently undermined those policies and changed our values.