Bias from the BBC

Andrew Marr seems a bit more left wing in his views. Married to the daughter of Jack Ashley Labour MP and quite a “leftie” in his younger years. I would think he’s a Labour moderate now. His Sunday morning programme almost always has a careful balance of left and right wing interviewees. Though he gives Theresa May more respect in interviews than Corbyn and McDonnell.
Robert Peston (I know he’s ITV now but he still thinks he’s with the BBC) seems to have quite left wing views on the economy.

Henry Porter, writing in today's Observor asks "is the BBC abdicating its responsibilities over brexit?"

"When the BBC is accused of bias, its reaction is always the same – executives and journalists protest that if all sides attack the BBC with equal force all the time then they must be doing something right. This plausible defence isn’t good enough when it comes to Brexit. As we enter the final year before the UK is due to leave the EU, there is a widely held belief among EU supporters that the BBC is guilty of something almost worse than bias – shutting down the story."

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/01/bbc-abdicates-responsibility-on-brexit

Yesterday

Top news story by BBC

Duke of Edinburgh entered hospital for a scheduled operation on his hip

Top news in social media

Top scientists in Portland Down can’t link nerve gas to Russia

Is it any wonder that people are turning more and more to social media for their information?

Tom Mills, writing in the Independent-

"If the BBC wants to know why nearly a million listeners have dropped the Today programme, they might want to look at their political coverage first

An anxiety about appearing out of touch led some time ago to a conscious effort to engage with ‘extreme opinion’ – hence why Nigel Farage became such a popular choice for BBC bookers"

www.independent.co.uk/voices/bbc-radio-4-today-programme-listening-figures-john-humphries-a8474691.html

The Brexit Broadcasting Corporation has a lot to answer for. It may be no coincidence that the BBC audience is predominantly over 55 - and most of the same age group voted to leave the EU, just as in the USA the viwers of Fox News ooverwhelmingly voted for Trump.

I quite agree Varian.

Over the years the BBC gave an inordinate amount of airtime to the likes of Farage, who wasn't even an MP at Westminster; and various ultra-radical Islamists who represented no-one but themselves.

Is the table fair though? Perhaps many others have been invited but chosen not to appear ? Or not been offered enough money to appear ?

I can’t stand that Dimbleby guy .