It's Friday, time to start chilling down, and what better way to start than to read this article by Johann Hari in the soon to be extinct Independent. Johann is very concerned that the much loved BBC is going to be broken up by the evil Tories. Now read on.... Peter Sissons has had another excellent pop at the BBC. Bias is a curious beast. I don't watch Eastenders but I believe that London Mayor Boris Johnson made a cameo appearance in "The Vic". Big deal, eh? Well, it bothers the BBC who ran an item on it this morning pointing out that a/ Their hero Red Ken never got on despite seeking appearances, b/ That Boris was "a national joke" and c/ Is this how we are going to treat "our coming Tory masters"? d/ It was all simply too awful. Bias can take many forms. One the most basic is the use of language; consistently misrepresenting a subject can render coverage totally one-sided. In the case of the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, which is taking place today, the BBC decided some time ago that the treaty itself was about "simplifying the EU". Liz McKean on Newsnight last night deployed the phrase at the beginning of her report; and it's also here, on the BBC website. I've heard it used in almost every report about the topic, to the point of it being a mantra. Somebody, somewhere in the ranks of two thousand BBC journalists decided it was the correct description.
HARI UP JOHANN!
>> FRIDAY, OCTOBER 02, 2009
Let's start with the good news. The BBC works. For just £2.60 a week, the British get a package of the best television and radio in the world. We get the best comedies, the best drama and the best news. There's a reason why we have won seven of the past 10 international Emmies, and the BBC News website is the most popular on earth. As soon as he took power, Nicolas Sarkozy asked how he could make French broadcasting more like ours. It is a model for the world of how to create journalism that isn't contaminated by either corporate advertisers and proprietors on one side, or state ownership on the other. Three independent polls have found that a large majority of Brits would happily pay more for it.
BBC: Overpaid execs, too much opinion
Peter Sissons, the retired BBC news presenter, last night attacked the corporation for paying huge executive salaries while allowing BBC newsrooms to become "factories" run by "poor kids". The presenter, who left the BBC during the summer, also said that there was far too much opinion on BBC news programmes, and not enough straight reporting of facts.
See also: The BBC became too PC for me, says veteran Sissons
Sissons, 67, who is writing an autobiography covering his career first at ITN, where he was happiest, then from 1989 at the BBC, told a Media Society dinner last night that the huge gulf between the salaries paid to the top tier at the BBC and everyone else was a real problem, especially in the 24-hour newsroom at BBC Television Centre...
"And then there are these panjandrums on huge numbers. If you tried to devise a way of undermining morale, you couldn't find a better way. They [top executives] are working in the public service, and all this is taking place after we've found MPs with their snouts in the trough. Public service is taking second place to their pecuniary interests."
Sissons also criticised the growing tendency of BBC journalists to offer analysis and opinion on news stories. "I say go back to basics. Report on the news," he said. "The term reporter is the noblest word in the language, not this term 'correspondent'. Increasingly, reporters are being invited by presenters to give their opinion. Far too much opinion is creeping into news reporting, with pay-off lines, to steer the viewer into what to think. Let them make up their own minds on the facts."OUR TORY MASTERS
"SIMPLIFYING THE EU"
But I despise the EU, hate the whole exercise and want out. And to me - and those like me on sites like the excellent EU Referendum - the treaty is anything but "simplification". That's what Brussels itself calls it, the propaganda it has rammed it through by using. The reality is that every aspect of Lisbon is a stupifyingly complex, labyrinthine, anything-but-simple, slow motion coup d'etat through which the unelected and undemocratic ruling elite at the Barlaymont is creating further integration in the moves towards a Stalinist superstate. If you doubt me, you can read the document here.
The BBC loves the concept of "simple" because it wants with every sinew to allow the EU to ram through more measures on climate change, and because it will make the sainted Tony Blair the first EU president. What can be more "simplifying" than that?
Friday, 2 October 2009
What say you, dear reader? I can but wish that Johann's worst nightmare comes true.
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