The BBC

On Any Questions Farage stated "the Leave majority in this country grows by the month". This is an outright lie.

There has been a consistent and growing remain majority for a very long time, as evidenced by the polls in answer to the question "In hindsight, do you think Britain was right or wrong to vote to leave the EU?"
(Field work dates: 1 August 2016 - 1 October 2019)

The most recent result (excluding don't knows) is 55% wrong to leave , 45% right.

whatukthinks.org/eu/questions/in-highsight-do-you-think-britain-was-right-or-wrong-to-vote-to-leave-the-eu/?removed

These brexiters should not be allowed to distort the truth without being challenged by the BBC.

The Brexit Broadcasting Corporation has allowed the Question Time audience to be selected by Alison Fuller-Pedley for the last twenty years. She is a brextremist, ex UIKP member who has "liked" messages from the EDL and Britain First.

The audience for Radio 4 Any Questions is self selected, so likelier to be less blatantly pro-brexit. However someone who attended last night's AQ (repeated at 1.15pm today) told me that although it was clear that the vast majority of the audience were pro-Remain, the small group of brexiters who had come along to cheer Nigel Farage, were seated at the front where the microphones picked up their loud clapping and cheering. If you listen, you can tell the difference between the sound of a large number of people clapping in the distance and a small number near the stage clapping very loudly.

Andrew Neil
Jeremy Paxman

Robbie Gibb (May's Director of Communication - formerly BBC political editor)
Craig Oliver (former editor of BBC News appointed by David Cameron to be his Press Secretary after the demise of Andy Coulson.
Chris Patton - former Conservative minister appointed as BBC Trust Chair (the 10th BBC Chair to sit in the Commons or House of Lords on the Conservative benches - no former Labour ministers have Chaired the BBC)

Extracts from an article by Ivor Gabor, Professor of Political Journalism , University of Sussex, (the Independent, July 2017):

"When you actually look into it, the BBC has a centre-right bias – which explains its coverage of Corbyn

"the BBC does an excellent job, but many of its journalists have Conservative party connections and most of its panellists are centre-right. This means that they failed to take into account that the centre has moved, and it's actually much further left than they think it is

"The BBC’s political output has long had more than its fair share of Conservatives in prominent roles – none more so than Andrew Neil, who previously worked for the Conservative’s Research Department and who now chairs the holding company that owns the Daily Telegraph and the Spectator. Superb interviewer though he is, it is unusual for any broadcaster, whether left or right-wing, to dominate political coverage as much as Neil does on the BBC, who fronts the weekday Daily Politics show and presents his own programmes on Sunday mornings and Thursday evenings.

"The appointment of Robbie Gibb was unsurprising; he was treading a well-worn path. May’s predecessor David Cameron appointed the then head of BBC TV News, Craig Oliver, to be his Director of Communications and before him the then Conservative Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, appointed Guto Hari, a BBC political correspondent, to head of his media team.

For the most part, its coverage spans no further than from the centre-left to the centre-right........

"This bias towards the centre appears not to be taking into account the rise of Corbyn and his new Labour Party. In support of this contention, I call in evidence the BBC’s two flagship Sunday political programmers presented respectively by Andrews Marr and Neil.

"Both programmes, apart from having big-name political interviews, also include three-person panels of political journalists. I have monitored the panels of the two programmes for the past five weeks and have found that of the 30 possible panellists, 20 have been from the right or centre-right, eight from the centre –left, one from the left and one – the BBC presenter Victoria Derbyshire – of no declared political position.

"In other words, there’s a two-to-one bias to the right or centre-right on these panels, which, given the consistency over the period monitored, cannot simply be attributed to happenstance."

I worked as a report writer at the BBC in the research department. Over the years it has not changed. The Intelligentsia who work there are generally left wing. From uni, they get into the organisation and they all fit in together and I use to smile as they arrived at work all clutching the Guardian ( of course) re the left wing activist who accosted Boris Johnson, if Laura had not revealed his leanings, some other journalist would have done so. The idea that the BBC is stuffed with Torie bemuses me. Can you name a few? Just so I do not disguise my leanings I follow Rod Liddle who was once editor of the Today programme.

Some of the complainant don't seem to understand the roles of reporters and editors when asked their opinions on an issue. It is to give their opinion, based on their knowledge of the issue their insight and their personal biases will inevitably colour what they say. At that point they are not reporting.

It is exactly the same when a presenter interviews someone, if it is on a political issue their personal biases will influence the way questions are framed or the form of interruptions. Even when they are trying to be unbiased, they will not be as on some occasions they may over compensate for their biases and other occasions they may not believe that it interferes with their performances

The balance on the whole is pretty good although I may frequently sputter and rant over the biase of the moment.

I think we all expect what is not achievable, for each one of us to be personally satisfied virtually all of the time.

John O’Brennan
@JohnOBrennan2
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Just one week, and British tabloids have:
1. Contacted Garett Thomas parents to tell them their son was HIV positive.
2. Published story detailing how cricketer Ben Stokes’ siblings were killed, upsetting him greatly.
And then this.
They represent the very worst in our society.
Quote Tweet

Jo Maugham QC

Just received notification from the Mail on Sunday that, in a week in which I have received death threats, they are tomorrow going to publish my private address.

Just look at the cv of Sarah Sands, editor of BBC r4 Today program. Leftie??? I don't think so.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Sands

I see the Mail is threatening to publish Maughan’s private address along with other prominent remainers.

Can’t the police step in?

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His name is spelt John Humphrys!!

Priceless stuff from Humphreys! Those BBC champagne socialist big-wigs must have been choking on their soy lattes this morning.
?

The BBC can be as biased as it likes. Just not on public money.

So BBC bosses wallowed in despair when the country voted leave. Something they are still doing now. Totally out of touch with the general public. Biased broadcasting corporation. Shamefully anti Brexit.

Actually I remember the look on Dimbleby’s face when he realised we had voted to leave was wonderful! brilliant night that was.

Always makes me smile when there is a discussion about the political leanings of the BBC. Half the correspondents say it’s biased to the left - the other half that it’s biased to the right. I worked in the complaints office of BBC TV in the early 1970s during Heath, 3 day week etc and EXACTLY the same arguments were going on then. Which seems to me to mean that the BBC is probably quite even handed

The BBC has changed a lot in the last 30 years.
When I was studying with the intention of working there the pay wasn't so high. But the training and prestige was high.
people would say things like work at ITV for the money but the BEEB was the better quality.

Of course Thatcher started the rot by making it law that the BBC had to buy in a percentage of their output ie programs.
This lead to a lot of new production companies ( not a bad thing )
but then I believe is when the higher salaries started.
It all became more about the companies competing against each other and somewhere along the way the management structure changed too. I am hazy on details at this point but things never went back to the old "Auntie"

I used to defend the license fee believing that it saved us from even more advertising and also the BBC used to produce their programs without having to suck up to the advertisers.
Now that their are channel streaming TV and films I think this would be a better solution.

Pay a subscription fee so still no advertising but also no more license fee.

I should add he has also stated he voted remain and believes the BBC should continue

He would not have been allowed to voice his opinion whilst employed

The BBC's so-called "liberal, left wing bias" (that several pieces of research have disproved) didn't stop John Humphries from collecting his pay cheque every month did it? How brave of him, now that he has left the BBC, to rubbish the hand that fed him.

John Humphries comes from a working class background. Having worked at the BBC for 33 years I think he would have a fairly good idea of the underlying ethos of the organisation.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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?