and what is their political allegiance?

I believe the BBC are politically neutral (correct me if I'm wrong) but are Sky the same? If not, then maybe they should have a little sign in the corner of the screen saying so?
Like in newspapers and magazines where you see an article that looks like a "factual feature" but has the word "advertisment" across the top so that you know when you read it it's not written by the paper/mag and has a hidden agenda . . . . .

Sky is owned by the Murdoch empire, who currently back Cameron.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/has-cameron-done-a-deal-with-murdoch-1819010.html

And the Murdoch empire, or News Corp, own many of the papers we read and channels we watch.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_corp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch#Political_activities

Media in possible political bias shocker.

>I believe the BBC are politically neutral

<cough>

I believe the BBC are politically neutral

…………

Which party are the BBC supporting then? 🙄

Labour. With maybe a little bit of liberal.

Bollocks – why were they endlessly repeating the 'bigot' non-story yesterday then if they are supporting Labour?

It's not an official policy is it? But i'd suggest you can tell where a lot of peoples sympathies lie (cough, nick robinson). That's not to say they're not about a gazzilon times more impartial than any other media outlet.

The BBC politically neutral – only if you are a dyed in the wool leftie Guardian reader:

"Ah, well – I had been up for most of the night but I was doing this Five Live breakfast programme with our colleague at the time – it was a bloke called Peter Allen so – I had to get a bit of sleep, and I do remember I walked back into – we were broadcasting then from Broadcasting House in the centre of London – all very upmarket in those days – and the corridors of Broadcasting House were strewn with empty champagne bottles – I will always remember that (Allen laughs) – er – not that the BBC were celebrating in any way shape or form (Allen, laughing – "no, no, no, not at all") – and actually – I think it's fair to say that in the intervening years the BBC, if it was ever in love with Labour has probably fallen out of love with Labour, or learned to fall back in, or basically just learned to be in the middle somewhere which is how it should be – um – but there was always this suggestion that the BBC was full of pinkos who couldn't wait for Labour to get back into power – that may have been the case, who knows? but as I say I think there have been a few problems along the way – wish I hadn't started this now…"

Jane Garvey, BBC

Let's see how they celebrate on May 7th this time.

Grum – 2 points:
1. How could they not report the biggest political story of the day?
2. It is more of a general left-wing bias rather than bias for a particular party as such ( especially as some parties have repositioned themselves more than once in the last decade ).

From your own quote:

think it's fair to say that in the intervening years the BBC, if it was ever in love with Labour has probably fallen out of love with Labour, or learned to fall back in, or basically just learned to be in the middle somewhere which is how it should be

Any evidence of this supposed left-wing bias?

Grum, several daily newspapers tell us on a regular basis that the beeb is leftist, so it must be true, right?

😉

No Grum, that's evidence of back-pedalling when you realise you've just let the cat out of the bag.

To follow on from your selective quote ( with one of my own ):

um – but there was always this suggestion that the BBC was full of pinkos who couldn't wait for Labour to get back into power

As far as Murdoch's concerned, This is a very telling rticle by David Yelland

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/apr/18/clegg-media-elite-murdoch-lib-dem

Oh dear Rupert, have you backed the wrong horse?

the sad fact is murdoch and the other right wing media barons just love to whip up stories about immigrants, economic collapse, broken britain etc etc

so they can force the easily led public into the hands of the politician in their pocket, in this case cameron

in a nation where the x-factor is the most watched tv programme it really cant be that hard a job

if you really want to see how murdoch would like this country to be just watch fox news……

he also owns the sun and the times

Fox news is terrifying! Its like a party political broadcast for the la-la-loopy, gun toting psychopath party. Never let a fact get in the way of gitting yourself a damn good Lynch mob going

It makes the most rabid Daily Mail editorial look like a quaint ecclesiastical discussion round at the vicarage over a nice cup of tea

Whichever political party's in power, the BBC get criticised by them, and the opposition, for not being balanced wrt that party's views.

Kinda indicates that the BBC, as an organisation, does a reasonable job of being even-handed IMO.

I think the BBC is quite openly left of centre. As such, they would naturally be more politically aligned to labour and the libdems.

After the shafting the Beeb got over David Kelly I'd be very surprised if they were biased in favour of Labour.

All TV news in this country is pretty neutral in my opinion, even Sky.

You might suspect a certain correspondent votes a certain way, but it rarely informs their work. Paxo is mean to everybody, for example.

Fox News ticker from the Simpsons: –

Do Democrats cause cancer? Find out at Foxnews.com. … Rupert Murdoch: Terrific Dancer. … Dow down 5000 points. … Study: 92 percent of Democrats are gay. … JFK posthumously joins Republican Party. … Oil slicks found to keep seals young, supple. … Dan Quayle: Awesome

Seems a pretty accurate representation of Fox News to me.

the sad fact is murdoch and the other right wing media barons just love to whip up stories about immigrants, economic collapse, broken britain etc etc

Which is funny, when you consider that Murdoch himself is an immigrant, who laid off a load of his workers meaning they ended up on the dole… 🙄

I think many in the Beeb are hoping for a Labour win, as The Tories have designs on carving up the BBC and orchestrating the end of PSB, which would fall rather nicely into Murdoch's hands….

Can't say I blame them. In light of that, however, I'd say the Beeb appears to be surprisingly neutral.

A traditional Labour-supporting BBC employee:

There aren't many newspapers or TV news channels that don't have a particular political slant. Sky is definitely to the right of the BBC, but you could just as easily say that the BBC is to the left of Sky, it depends on your point of view really. Although Sky in the UK is pretty fair, unlike Fox in the US which is just a joke.

Anyway, clearly Sky is slightly right wing, but you're fooling yourself not to think the BBC (and Channel 4 news) aren't slightly left/liberal. What they are not is party political – but they do have a bias toward a certain viewpoint.

Traditionally the newspapers in this country are quite openly partisan but broadcast media (TV, radio) is expected to at least make a pretence of impartiality. The general perception seems to be that the BBC is somewhat liberal or left of centre but unlike newspapers it seems that they can get into trouble for being too partisan and any bias the organisation as a whole seems pretty slight compared to News International's or the Mirror Group.

I believe the BBC are politically neutral (correct me if I'm wrong)

The BBC have definite Labour leanings, tempered a bit by a tendency to go after whatever party is in power. During Blair's reign they seemed like a component of the NuLab marketing machine at times however they're definitely less pro-Brown (which is also probably true of NuLab as a whole).

If the beeb are left wing, why the hell does Andrew Niel get so much air time?

The beeb is now like any organisation where the pay of the desision/policy makers has grown so far apart from those recieved by the masses, that they are now out of touch with reality.

The beeb have been accused by different parties of bias for as long as I can remember. Most politicians seem to think that anyone not showing them total support is biased against them, hence Thatcher's apparently frequent question "Is he one of us?", part of which quote was the title of Hugo Young's brilliant and remarkably unbiased biography. I remember reading it and thinking how anti Thatcher it was before realising that it was simply well balanced in a way that the newspapers of the day were not.

I am old enough to remember hearing Brian Redhead's spat with Nigel Lawson and can't better the summary of it which appeared in Redhead's obituary in the Indeopendent which reads as follows:

After Nigel Lawson's 1987 budget Redhead interviewed the Chancellor and challenged him over unemployment. Lawson dismissed the criticism as that of 'a lifelong Labour supporter'. Redhead asked for a minute's silence 'while you compose an apology for daring to suggest you know how I exercise my vote, and I shall reflect on the death of your monetary policy'

http://bbcpioneers.blogspot.com/2007/11/lefty-beeboid-family-snap.html

As far as I can remember, which is quite a long time, whoever has been in Government has accused the BBC of being biased against them. That's healthy, I do worry about News International's smooth skinned little protege and his chums getting in and closing down the BBC. Is a Sky subscription cheaper than the licence fee?

WTF was that flashy? 😆