with James harding being head of bbc news , learnt his trade with murdoch and co , is it any surprise that we see a shift to manufactoring news events-his pal Laura Kuntsburg ‘persuades’ a dullard mp from cardiff to ‘resign ‘ on air –just before PMQ on wed, –her twitter feed earlier contains her glee at this prospect…..so not content with owning/controlling nearly all print media, the so called impartial state funded broadcaster has becme another barking dog……

Yes, deliberately timing a story for maximum political impact is not something an impartial broadcaster should be doing.

Of course those of us in Scotland haven’t thought the BBC was impartial for ages 😉

.so not content with owning/controlling nearly all print media,

I am not sure who you are aiming that at

Standards at the BBC have slipped and Edukator has made me reconsider my opinion of them

WHilst they are still largely impartial they are also conservative [ small c non political] and largely dollop things up in the consensus manner in a pro western way.
I guess this is inevitable

The today programme has become terrible with some real low prow media discussion of “celebrity” programmes and navel gazing mixed with interviews that are so pointlessly hostile/interrogatory that the politicians evade everything and you learn nothing from them. Ask them open questions and let them explain their policies and views not everythign can be explained in 140 characters/ a neat soundbite.

Of course those of us in Scotland haven’t thought the BBC was impartial for ages

55% of us think it’s just fine thanks 😉

55% of us think it’s just fine thanks

Fair point 😀

Though you have to admit the “Lift and Shift” thing is pretty dodgy and should be stopped? I saw this myself, on the referendum night show I was on. The program for the rest of the UK (the one I was on) came from the big atrium and was presented and staffed by English people flown up for the event, the producer kept cracking oh-so-funny jokes about paying for his fried supper with funny money. The program for the Scottish audience was relegated to a smaller downstairs studio.

Laura Kuntsburg

Is that you trying to be ‘witty’? If so, as someone who has worked with Laura, it somewhat devalues the rest of your comment.

If the ‘dullard’ shadow minister was going to resign anyhow, then I can’t see the harm in getting him to do it for your bulletin. If he wasn’t, then it does raise some questions about the calibre of Labour MPs.

If journalists simply sat around waiting for press releases and briefings from government and the other parties, there would be even more complaining about poor reporting.

There is a fine line between reporting it and shaping it though. The arrival of 24-hour news has been the biggest driver of this, with newsrooms desperate to extend the natural life of a story by finding a different angle for the next morning.
Day today ringing truer every year:

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IEwBrJzhlg[/video]

I opened this thinking it was going to be about the news reporting motorists driving through a large puddle near Hyde Park. Thought it must be a slow day for news if that is one of the main stories of the morning.

The thing is, there’s no such thing as an impartial broadcaster or journalist. It’s not possible, even if that’s what you aspire to be.

Everything is filtered, and in the case of the BBC that’s through the thick lens of the British establishment.

It dutifully fulfills the role of a state broadcaster while presenting itself as this beacon of independence and impartiality which ‘holds power to account’ etc.

It’s a clever illusion which has been maintained since the origins of the BBC and its role in the 1926 General Strike.

Of course those of us in Scotland haven’t thought the BBC was impartial for ages

Population of Scotland : 5.295 million
population of Yorkshire : 5.288 million

Do you get big budget news coverage of Yorkshire politics north of the border?

Investigate journalists – good bunch.
I’m less keen on the rest.
Unplugging oneself from the day-to-day news is probably a healthy move.

While I’m very concerned about the fate of the BBC at the hands of the scum currently running our country, I can’t get too vexed over this one.

The population of Iceland is about 330k. They jailed their dodgy bankers and the people now own the banks.

You don’t have to be big to be smart.

Copa –very pertinent, they were used as a pure propaganda machine in the general strike–the only national broadcaster,-a big advantage –today we have print media dominated by a handful of arch conservatives, murdoch also has sky news, itv is a lesser version, and the BBC has been cowed into becoming a blatant propaganda machine for the tory party—-the lack of any pretence of impartiallity is the thing.

The population of Iceland is about 330k. They jailed their dodgy bankers and the people now own the banks. You don’t have to be big to be smart.

A slightly bizarre spin on the economic disaster that befell the Icelandic people due to lack of financial regulation. Any state that is forced to take over the running of its entire retail banking system, defaulting on foreign liabilities estimated at more than 150,000 quid per head of population, can hardly be considered a glowing example to small states everywhere. The people took ownership of nothing except massive debt, and only because the alternatives were even worse.

The fact that their banking system was effectively propped up by the British government to the tune of billions in loans and compensation for depositors is also ironic.