That takes the biscuit.

[Captain Colonial]

It always amuses / irritates / annoys / infuriates me when I hear someone say the BBC is leftish / liberal in their bias.  This is only true part of the time and certainly not now.  The BBC are currently centre leaning slightly to the right because the Tories are in office.  When Labour are in power, the BBC are centre leaning slightly to the left.

 

This is because which party in power has the reigns on the license fee / income stream / Sword of Damocles for the BBC.  You’ll notice that party in power will generally threaten the BBC financially / operationally straight after an election because the winning party (wrongly) felt somehow slighted by the media coverage, and the BBC in turn will kowtow to the government and their coverage will have a very, very slight pro-government stance - until the government drops a brick on their own foot, which they always do.

 

People shouldn’t confuse the BBC reporting on government ineptitude or corruption as anti-left or anti-right.  They’d get barbecued if they didn’t cover it and any news organisation is bound to cover the government screws up more than anything the opposition does simply because what the government messes up affects us all directly.

 

The BBC is however majorly biased in one way - towards the upper middle class, and that’s absolutely inevitable.  Most of the people in the middle and major positions at the BBC went to public schools.  The BBC is a global flagship organisation that attracts the best and the brightest.  They’re hardly likely to hire people who graduated from a polytechnic or centre for excellence for those positions.  Their bias is neither left nor right - it’s the old school tie, the MCC, Eton and Harrow, Oxford and Cambridge.  That upbringing and background inevitably colours the BBC’s decision-making and output.  They are the broadcasting civil service and like the proper civil service, they bend in the direction of the prevailing breeze while having deep roots that anchor it in place to weather any storms.
 

I understand some people do not like the BBC News and that’s fine.  In my many travels around the world, I have seen and heard news broadcasts globally and not one of them has the quality and standards of the BBC in my experience.  What’s the alternative - a broadcaster whose output is influenced or control by advertising revenue or ownership?  It’s far from perfect, but we would all be poorer and compromised without it.

 

/imho

//awaits inevitable backlash

///erects flame shield

[Alan France]

Are you saying that W1A wasn’t a documentary? Gutted.

[Blatman]

3 hours ago, Captain Colonial said:

Most of the people in the middle and major positions at the BBC went to public schools.

 

Sorry, proof? Plenty of my acquaintances were "middle" a few years ago.None of them went to public school. Most of them, like me, went to comprehensives.

I will stipulate that the BBC favour A/B/C 1's but the reason why that might be bears closer scrutiny. It is NOT simply because it's an old boys club. It's waaaaay too big an organisation for that.

 

3 hours ago, Captain Colonial said:

The BBC is a global flagship organisation that attracts the best and the brightest.  They’re hardly likely to hire people who graduated from a polytechnic or centre for excellence for those positions

Yes is *should* be a global flagship. No, it doesn't attract the best and the brightest. It attracts everyone. Sometimes the proletariat sneak in  

And remember in large organisations like the Beeb the adage that people are promoted to one rung above their competency sometimes holds true, which is both funny and very worrying. Lets hope the staff know what they're doing... you know, staff... those comprehensive educated, media studies graduates who will get so far (thankfully) and do a competent job reigning in the head-slappingly idiotic decisions of the recently promoted or 20 year seen-it-all-before journeyman manager who started at 18 with the sole intention of retiring on a BBC pension and refuses to do anything except the bare minimum. But I digress...

 

3 hours ago, Captain Colonial said:

Their bias is neither left nor right - it’s the old school tie, the MCC, Eton and Harrow, Oxford and Cambridge.  That upbringing and background inevitably colours the BBC’s decision-making and output.  They are the broadcasting civil service and like the proper civil service, they bend in the direction of the prevailing breeze while having deep roots that anchor it in place to weather any storms.

 

And that is a great point. I would contend that it is BECAUSE the very senior management have standards in education and politics that they bring these standards to bear on the organisation for which they have stewardship. What if the BBC were REALLY placed in the hands of the people? It would undoubtedly be a disaster. It REQUIRES a certain level of education, intelligence and learned leadership skills that many of us will never have. I'm really very sure that, despite being reasonably intelligent and with the experiences of life and work, I could never acquire the leadership skills required. It's just not in me. But it is found in publicly educated university graduates BECAUSE they aspire to lead and we should give them the benefit of the doubt. I sure very very few leave education with the sole intention of becoming despised by the masses just because of the school they went to, their accent or their aspiration to take on leadership roles in society. I'm also sure that the vast majority of us have little idea of what it actually takes to do these high profile, thankless jobs and no Captain C, Chairman of the WSCC does not count as "experienced in leadership". This lot are far better behaved than the clawing masses...although there are one or two exceptions...   

[Captain Colonial]

34 minutes ago, Blatman said:

And that is a great point.

Oooooo, flattery from @Blatman *faints*

 

34 minutes ago, Blatman said:

and no Captain C, Chairman of the WSCC does not count as "experienced in leadership"

...and rapidly returned to consciousness and normality...

[Blatman]

The ying and yang of debate  

Can I be ying?