Letters / Biased BBC
The BBC is one of my favourite institutions. That is why, for years, I have sent comments and complaints to it when it makes mistakes.
Those mistakes usually have to do with bias against the Labour Party and trade unions, and partiality to the Tories.
I remember an occasion in 1984, following a news programme about the miners, when they wrote back to me to admit that they had got something wrong.
Nowadays, however, the BBC complaints department is in a state of collapse.
I have phoned it four times during the past few weeks, usually about bias against Labour. I give examples of their bizarre responses, in their own words.
First, I complained that John Humphries had giggled while reading out a particularly scurrilous attack on the Labour Party, I think from the Daily Mail.
The BBC’s response: “Such reactions would be related to the abrasiveness of the comments, in a way which they possibly couldn’t print that, and not directed towards the Labour Party Conference.”
Secondly, I asked how long the BBC would go on referring to Ed Miliband’s failure to mention the deficit in his conference speech. I reminded them that Andrew Marr went on about Miliband’s experience with a bacon roll for weeks.
The response: “We note you were disappointed that Andrew Marr didn’t question Labour leader Ed Miliband on forgetting to mention the deficit in his speech to conference during their interview on 28 September. Whilst we appreciate your concerns, it’s not possible in the time available for us to raise every single issue that our audience would like to be covered in an interview.”
(By the way, BBC Radio News is still referring to Miliband’s error tonight, 7 October. No such never-ending references to Cameron’s gaffe about the queen.)
Thirdly, I wrote to point out that BBC commentators had constantly stated that Labour at its conference was playing to its core vote, but had said no such thing about the Tories.
The response: “When we refer to ‘core voters’ we are generally referring to those that usually vote for a particular party.”
That was of course my point.
Finally, I phoned about a case where a news presenter had made a complimentary remark about Nigel Farage. I asked if that betokened a return to the pro-UKIP approach by the BBC that won that party the European elections. I asked for a response.
The member of staff told me that no responses were ever sent to such enquiries. He got heated when I told him that I had had many responses over the years (albeit mainly nonsense).
The bias is bad enough, but these crass responses are irritating. We pay for the BBC; I wish they would take their tasks more seriously.
Brian Smith
Weisdale
Become a member of Shetland News
Shetland News is asking its many readers to consider paying for membership to get additional features and services: -
- Remove non-local ads;
- Bookmark posts to read later;
- Exclusive curated weekly newsletter;
- Hide membership messages;
- Comments open for discussion.
If you appreciate what we do and feel strongly about impartial local journalism, then please become a member of Shetland News by either making a single payment, or setting up a monthly, quarterly or yearly subscription.
Already a member? Sign in to hide this message.
