People don’t change their opinions just because they are told not to express them. If the BBC is concerned that their presenters may be biased, maybe it would be more effective let them display that in personal posts, so that the public can make allowances.

Yet someone like Nick Robinson is clearly a Tory (was heavily involved with young tory stuff) so we know what his bias would be. Does that impact what he does on the BBC, probably.

Does he expect you to put it in a public database?

No, but then I’m not spending government money, nor accused by the public of being overpaid or subject to Bias. We expect publicly reviewable records for elected officials and others in positions of significant power – I’m not sure this is unreasonable. What would of course be better would be for the BBC to argue that all media organisations (over a certain size?) should require this sort of transparency. Personally I’d have no objection to being like Norway where everyone’s income is public, although in a global world its perhaps not that much help atleast until the US starts to be a bit clearer about who’s pulling strings.

And does he then expect you to knock off for the day and then not go home and go on STW “and express a personal opinion on matters of public policy, politics, or controversial subjects”?

mine does… largely disregarded from what I can see by some of the most millitant in the company. as a general rule I don’t post anything easily identifiable to me (and therefore linkable to the company) which would meet those criteria.

Crazy.

Will they be accused of bias for reporting successful trials of vaccinations, given so many people now seem to think they are part of a left wing “Great Reset” agenda??

Yet someone like Nick Robinson is clearly a Tory (was heavily involved with young tory stuff) so we know what his bias would be. Does that impact what he does on the BBC, probably.

It will be a while since he was young tory – even by tory standards! I’d suggest that plenty of people were in favour of one part 20+ years ago who no longer see that party as representing the same views never mind whether their views may have changed. i’m sure thats true of all sides…

Will they be accused of bias for reporting successful trials of vaccinations, given so many people now seem to think they are part of a left wing “Great Reset” agenda??

I think you need to look at what bubble you are listening to if you believe that any meaningful number of people believe this. Not everyone who is concerned about a vaccine believes its part of a conspiracy. And a lot of the “not about a vaccine noise” is people arguing for opening society today rather than waiting – not any actual opposition or concern about vaccines in general or this one in particular other than timing.

More than one in five (23 percent) said they believe that COVID-19 is a “bio-weapon intentionally spread by the Chinese state to weaken Western economies,” with 17 percent believing that the virus was intentionally released as part of a “‘depopulation’ plan orchestrated by the U.N. or New World Order.”

From a hope not Hate survey in the UK

Maybe it’s you that’s in the bubble poly.

it specifically mentions avoiding ‘virtue signalling’

I wonder if they will ban the wearing of symbols? No red ribbons for World AIDS Day? No poppies for Remembrance Day Month? No Livestrong bands?

Poppies could very easily be argued to be virtue signalling. Bet it won’t count though, cos… you know….

Poppies could very easily be argued to be virtue signalling

They have added a specific exception for that form of virtue signalling (sadly it has become it nowadays especially amongst that breed of tory MP who happily voted for restricting the ability of the soldiers to sue the MOD for failing them).

Yup, poppies need to be as big and as sparkly as possible otherwise you’re not a true patriotic Brit.

mine does… largely disregarded from what I can see by some of the most millitant in the company. as a general rule I don’t post anything easily identifiable to me (and therefore linkable to the company) which would meet those criteria.

Whereas our social media policy is that if you are saying anything that could be linked back to the company you just leave a disclaimer that the views are your own and not that of the company.

https://inews.co.uk/news/media/bbc-staff-suspended-attend-lgbt-pride-events-ban-new-impartiality-rules-742247

Politically Neutral presenters and staff it affects.

Yup, poppies need to be as big and as sparkly as possible otherwise you’re not a true patriotic Brit.

And gay/trans etc need to be as ‘invisible‘ as possible. Preferably sacked. Is the message I’m getting from that ^ news story.

Letting it sink in. What if they sacked people for attending a Church parade?

This feels like an emerging dystopia that I somehow naively didn’t imagine in our lifetimes. Frankly horrific.

Remember when “virtue signalling” used to be known as “empathy”? Different times.

[triggered.gif]

From a hope not Hate survey in the UK

Maybe it’s you that’s in the bubble poly.

@grum – entirely possible I live in such a bubble – but I have quite a large interaction with all sorts of people in many ways, outside the people I actually enjoy talking to and so find the %ages suggested rather surprising. So that always makes me suspicious of any study claiming rather crazy statistics etc. Even their own analysis highlights surprise, inconsistency (people who said they didn’t know what QAnon is and then saying they strongly support QAnon) and that the answers to the questions tell little about what they mean! Almost like they needed some clickbait article to write. The mechanics of the survey are not entirely clear but it looks likely Hanbury Strategy pay people to answer survey questions on line… but you can probably get a feel for who they are from this: https://goodlawproject.org/news/hanbury-strategy/ although obviously I accept the fact I’d put more faith in the good law project than Hope not hate may just be another aspect of my bubble.

Couldn’t the Beeb just play the GINO at it’s own game? Dismiss and then re-hire their employees as ‘contractors’? Employees avoid tax, Beeb can pay these ‘independents’ what/how they like and the employees are fully free to post what they like on social media.

Anything to stick two fingers up to De Pfeffel and his court of cretins.

Remember when “virtue signalling” used to be known as “empathy”? Different times.

Ah yes, but that was back in the good old days before Leave and Trump legitimised being an arsehole.

Matthew 6:5

It’s obvious that Johnson /Cummings want the BBC gone

You only have to see how terrified they are of having ministers on Newsnight or grilled by Andrew Neil

Cummings will use his 80 seat majority to degrade the BBC to a simple government propaganda mouthpiece

I know it’s not a laughing matter but I did enjoy a tweet from Gary Lineker today(?)

Video of some republican saying that this election is “literally” fighting satan

Lineker said:
“this is nuts”
“for balance; this is not nuts”

reminds me of the Dennis Skinner classic “half the members opposite…” sketch

… and if they had the bottle (and a different head), BBC being rigorously impartial could be really good

😁

Doesn’t seem right that the new lockdown guidelines are all leaked to a chosen few in the media prior to the press conference.
Seems perfectly reasonable that the new lockdown guidelines are all leaked to a chosen few in the media prior to the press conference.

— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) October 31, 2020

The BBC is a government propaganda channel, plain and simple.

The sooner it’s gone, the better.

The BBC is a government propaganda channel, plain and simple.

That others are claiming it’s an ‘anti govt left wing rats nest’ suggests you are both wide of the mark there…

That others are claiming it’s an ‘anti govt left wing rats nest’ suggests you are both wide of the mark there…

This is often trotted out, and obviously I am biased, but it doesn’t necessarily follow that the truth is somewhere in the middle. See the climate change ‘debate’ for instance.

People think the BBC is left wing because it isn’t saying exactly what the Daily Mail and their far right YouTube channels tell them. It might have been once, but it definitely isn’t now, IMO.

The BBC represents the conservative (small c) British Establishment. It’s probably true that, over the years, that has mostly aligned with the Conservative Party, but left wing/right wing comparisons are too simplistic.

People don’t change their opinions just because they are told not to express them. If the BBC is concerned that their presenters may be biased, maybe it would be more effective let them display that in personal posts, so that the public can make allowances.

You’re right, individuals will always hold views, the beeb aren’t asking them to stop having opinions they’re asking them to stop tweeting them.

It’s worth noting the BBC charter has ‘impartial news and information’ front and centre, not ‘bias with a caveat’. https://www.bbc.com/aboutthebbc/governance/mission
It’s written into the organisations core values. And is of course undermined if their news staff go on to publicly display their personal bias…

As for Linekar, he falls under ‘light entertainment and sport’ doesn’t he? So I think there’s a bit more leeway there… I don’t think he’ll been seen as doing any harm really.

And this:

It’s obvious that Johnson /Cummings want the BBC gone

They most definitely do!
Part of how they achieve that goal is by chipping away at the idea of BBC impartiality (which they’ve been doing for some time already), which is of course helped by political editors and reporters sharing their personal views on social media…

I’m discouraged from using eye-rolling or other problematic emojis so I’ll restrict myself to saying impartially that this is complete bilge. https://t.co/RxlcGFvVfI

— Huw Edwards (@huwbbc) November 1, 2020

I see Huw is making a very personal bid for Welsh independence there

It’s a great idea. I work in the industry and millennial ‘journalists’ seem to have none of the bitter cynicism that their older colleagues have towards both sides of the political establishment, and seem to think their jobs are to be left-wing activists. They only pursue stories they are interesting in advocating for, and have a one dimensional view of the world.

Their social media feeds are filled with opinionated content, making it impossible for them to be expected to carry out impartial interviews.

Whilst the BBC was always considered “left wing”, news rooms across the country are now dominated by a single woke world view. You even find young Daily Mail reporters slagging their own publication off on public forums with statements like “I’m left wing really, just doing it for the £££” – I read the riot act to a recent City journalism grad for this recently.

The problem is serious. The issue isn’t that these journalists are too liberal, is it that they are totally illiberal in their opinions and have no ability to understand that people can have divergent views, and not hate each other for it.

…AND the idea that the BBC is a government propaganda channel is completely silly. The left think its a tory mouth piece and the right think the BBC is the UK hub of the Communist party.

People like Laura Kunnesberg do an EXCELLENT job under incredibly difficult circumstances.

The BBC, from top to bottom, in front and behind the cameras, the news in particular, is in the firm control of the Tory party. If you don’t believe me, google the new DG. There may be a few “lefties” hiding away in there, but the current govt has a strong grip on the purse strings, and a firm and ever increasing hold on the dangly bits, that balanced and fair reporting is a thing of the past.

People like Laura Kunnesberg do an EXCELLENT job under incredibly difficult circumstances.

You were so convincing up until then. Now you’ve just admitted to trolling.

The BBC, from top to bottom, in front and behind the cameras, the news in particular, is in the firm control of the Tory party. If you don’t believe me, google the new DG. There may be a few “lefties” hiding away in there, but the current govt has a strong grip on the purse strings, and a firm and ever increasing hold on the dangly bits, that balanced and fair reporting is a thing of the past.

You’ve no idea what you’re talking about and have cleared never worked anywhere near a BBC news room. You’d be hard pressed to find a single Brexit/Tory voter outside the crew room or outside of engineering.

Laura Kuennsberg looks like she’s going reenact ‘that’ scene from When Harry Met Sally every time she interviews a member of Boris’s rabble, or Boris ‘Richly Deserved Victory’* Johnson himself.

*To quote Kuennsberg herself.

Impartial my arse.

Whilst the BBC was always considered “left wing”, news rooms across the country are now dominated by a single woke world view.

Yeah, this is the main problem we face in society right now. The news media is too woke. Someone should tell Andrew Neil. Perhaps him being pretty much the face of BBC politics for years passed you by?

I found this interesting, insightful, if not entirely convincing. Can BBC Bitesize now produce a similar video arguing white privilege is an unhelpful confection? Then I can weigh up both and come to a more considered, better informed view. https://t.co/2fjydJkEIR

— Andrew Neil (@afneil) August 6, 2020

Andrew Neil has been an outlier over the years and hence his departure. Totally spot on with that BBC bitesize thing as well. More or less nail on the head with the problem.

Joe
Free Member

…AND the idea that the BBC is a government propaganda channel is completely silly. The left think its a tory mouth piece and the right think the BBC is the UK hub of the Communist party.

Means absolutely nothing. Trump’s fans think every news outlet except from Fox are the Radical Left Fake News Media. Everyone else knows that Fox aren’t even really a new channel. The truth isn’t “somewhere in the middle”. Even before gaslighting became tactic number one, that wasn’t true but now?

And Laura Kuennsberg might as well be part of number 10’s press office. Endless streams of leaks direct from Cummings to her, actual illegal announcements when voting was in progress in the last election, repeats stories from westminster with no fact checking (remember “Matt Hancock was attacked by a protestor”? Even after she knew it was completely made up she was still talking about the “grim scenes” and not about how she’d been lied to by a government minister and had repeated it to the nation)

I’m not sure it’s personal bias though, it could equally be purely cynical/commercial.

Andrew Neil has been an outlier over the years and hence his departure.

Laura Kuenssberg seems to be doing a fine job of carrying on his legacy. And the current head of the BBC is a former conservative councillor. I think your own bias is very obvious.

The political leanings of junior employees is by the by when the boss is a Tory, installed to get the BBC in line, in the face of government threats to the license fee if they don’t.

Joe
Andrew Neil has been an outlier over the years and hence his departure.

I thought it coincided with those pics of him with Epstein. Dunno if they’re true or fake though – wasn’t interested enough to follow up.