Oct 06 2007
The BBC gets caught out fiddling the news
I was not surprised the BBC and their partners were caught fiddling the news, although a little surprised that they thought they would get away with it by misrepresenting the Queen’s behaviour. It is is a regular part of the BBC’s approach to politics that they skew things to suit their view of the world. Let’s hope the departure of a senior figure leads to a cleaning up of their ways of treating news stories and interviews.
Let us consider the contrasting ways they treat two MPs interested in economic affairs, Vince Cable and myself.
Vince Cable is currently the Lib Dems Treasury Spokesman. I am currently the Conservatives Economic Policy Review Chairman.
Vince Cable was for two years the Chief Economist of Shell International (1995-7). The rest of his career was,according to his biography, spent as a "Finance officer, economics lecturer,Diplomatic service".
I have been the chairman of companies, including a large Stock Exchange listed industrial group, an executive Director of a bank, and an adviser to several overseas governments on privatisation and private finance. I am a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford.
Practically every interview I have heard with Mr Cable on the BBC includes reference to his being former "Chief Economist of Shell" (not "Shell International"), often in the introduction. The BBC try to position him as an indepedent expert who comes from the pedigree of a senior position in a large company. They usually buttress his authority by calling him Lib Dem "Shadow Chancellor" in an unusual inflation of titles.
They do not refer to him as "left wing", " Euroenthusiast", "interventionist" or other ways of describing his political position. I have never seen or heard him introduced with footage or references designed to belittle him or his party.
In contrast I have never been introduced on the BBC as a former senior industrialist/company chairman/bank Director,nor with reference to my current links with the academic world. I have never been asked to draw on my business experience to answer a question in a way designed to give me more credibility with the audience.
I am usually defined by a series of perjorative nouns and adjectives summing up the BBC’s rather distorted view of my political position. Why is it "right wing" for example to want to keep the democratic right to make most government decisions here in the UK?
I do not mind if the BBC does wish to knock or test the credibility of all MPs on air, as many in the audience like to see MPs being given a hard time. What I do object to is when different rules apply to people who come from different parties. The last person to be treated as well as Mr Cable was Sir Menzies Campbell as Foreign Affairs Spokesman for the Lib Dems before he became Leader. The one good thing about the large number of easy interviews he was given when he was treated as some kind of wise statesman outside normal party knock-about was it helped him end up as Leader!
John Redwood has been the Member of Parliament for Wokingham since 1987. First attending Kent College, Canterbury, he graduated from Magdalen College...
The anti-Conservative bias in the BBC is clear for all to see and hear on a daily basis. This is totally unacceptable from a so-called public broadcasting organisation paid for by a compulsory licence fee, which is in effect a tax. The BBC has squandered its right to retain its current position as it has become little more than a state propaganda tool. It fails in its duty to produce an unbiased and objective presentation of news and current affairs and as such presents a threat to our democracy.
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John, I have noticed over many years that you get very bad press from the BBC. There is a reason for this of course. You are not a compliant political figure. They don’t enjoy debating you because for one you always know more about the subject matter in hand than the interviewer and two you don’t suffer fools lightly. The way the BBC twists any report about you is a disgrace. Often the distortion is subtile and only sharp-eyed people can spot it. Such distortion is usually done by use of hyperbole and little tags and buzz words used to denegrate you. Nontheless the BBC have failed to stop you getting your message across John. Whenever I see a John Redwood interview on TV I know I’m going to get serious political comment. Keep up the good work John and stuff the BBC!, they don’t even respect our monarch.
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I’m coming to the conclusion that BBC TV has had a malign influence on the nation since the 1960s. While their ‘left’ political bias is unwelcome, their sustained attack on traditional british values has had a marked negative effect on our society.
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I agree there is a bias within the news media. The BBC has had it for years but in my opinion the political reporting on Sky has gone the same way.
I have noticed that news in general has been dumbed down recently, perhaps along the lines of the Sun and Star style of reporting. I also believe that since the advent of twenty four hour news channels, some journalists have almost set themselves up to make or drive the news agenda instead of just reporting it.
I do believe that this government have politicised many public bodies including the BBC and the police. Stinks of a Starlinist state to me.
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I’ve raised the subject of BBC bias on their message boards, but it simply isn’t recognised. Their standard response is to say that for any interview there are equal numbers of complainants from all parts of the political spectrum. There are a few BBC interviewers who manage to at least appear impartial, but they are in the minority.
Like most of the electorate, I like to see all politicians being asked searching questions. In return they should be given the courtesy of a decent hearing without endless interruptions. However, if the interviewee avoids answering a question, I see no problem with them receiving the full force-10 Paxman treatment.
As a state-funded broadcaster, I assume it’s incumbent upon the BBC to show no political bias (much in the same way as is expected of the Civil Service)? Why isn’t it enforced? Is there an ‘OfBeeb’ to whom we can complain?
Auntie Pravda seems to have got to the point where she needs a major shake-up. The numerous incidents over the summer from Blue Peter fakery to mis-representation of the Queen has left a once great broadcaster tarnished almost beyond recognition.
Overall I still think the licence fee represents good value for money and I’d hate us to reach a situation where the entire radio and TV spectrum is funded by commercials. But the BBC has to improve its game in all sorts of respects, otherwise eventually I think that’s exactly what will happen.
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An interesting post, as ever, which will be forcing me to listen rather more carefully to introductions on the BBC! One point about the treatment given to Sir Menzies, however, is that it utterly failed to prepare him for the more knockabout role he subsequently had to endure as a party leader. So the BBC, in fact, was partly responsible for his poor showing as Liberal head honcho - every cloud…….
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The problem with the BBC is that ‘centre left’ is their ‘centre’.
So to them Tony Benn is a moderate left winger, Tony Blair and David Cameron are right wingers and John Redwood is an extreme right winger.
But then if you advertise your jobs in The Guardian what do you expect?
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It is not surprising that the BBC has a leftward bias, as recruiting is through Guardian advertisements, and interviewing is by executives from the same source.
The Corporation is a self-perpetuating left wing organisation, which will only change when it draws from a broader political spectrum.
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John,
I’ve recently become a regular reader and enjoy the opportunity to hear your views without the short time allowed by broadcasters. I used to be a BBC Radio broadcaster (1986-92 on BBC Radio in the North East) and I do not subscribe to the view that the organisation is universally anti-tory. There are more Conservative thinkers at the BBC than we really think. However, the senior figures do tend to inhabit a media luvvie world that trickles down into everyday programme making. Your example about Vince Cable is a perfectly valid and specific example of bias but I bet that the people making the programmes didn’t even consider it! The disgraceful re-hashing of the pictures from Wales was quite different. It was a deliberate and calculated bias that deserved more than the grudging apology given. Loved the stuff on Northern Rock by the way, very useful to feed into the debate in the North East!
Reply: Thanks Graham. Yes the BBC bias is often unthinking. I was listening to a Radio 4 News Quiz yesterday - the jokes were anti Tory MPs and anti free enterprise, not anti Labour MPs and socialism.
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One day it we will be able to do something about the BBC. On that day they will be compliant and grovelling, trying to pretend nothing is wrong.
At that time we must remember the last 20 years and act. The BBC is a direct threat to the function of democracy in this country and must be treated accordingly.
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On this page of the BBC website:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7028677.stm
The video headlined: “Ruth Kelly dismisses new opinion polls” describes the poll showing The Conservatives and Labour level is described as “the grimmest”. Not “the grimmest for Labour”, just “the grimmest”. This instinctive bias is becoming seriously damaging to our democracy.
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Boys Boys - in all your rants about the BBC, not one of you come up with a good radical answer to the problem of BBC Bias.
I keep telling the husband we should change our licence payment to half - at the same time we tell the BBC they will get the FULL amount as & when they start and keep up ‘non biased’ and ”a” political broadcasting. Even if it was only 10/15% of the licence fee payers doing this (and I would bet more would do it if asked) - there would, I am sure be a positive result - I hardly think they could afford to take that many people to court - and if they are promised full payment on delivery of the request to stop the Biased Broadcasting - we cannot be accused of refusing to pay anything as we have paid half up front…
Love your Blog Mr R!
Anyway enough ranting from this old bird….
Reply: We don’t offer law breaking on this site! We are in the business of law changing - and repealing. There are many things we can do about the BBC, starting with a proper debate about what is Public Service broadcasting in an age of pluralist media and the web. We can move on to making sure the BBC does not use taxpayers money to compete unfairly in the commercial world. The BBC needs to come up with a working definition of public service broadcasting, explain how it is different from what commercial TV can provide. They then need to prove they can live up to its ideals which must include fairness when treating people with differing political views.
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[...] Redwood. He is upset at the way that the BBC treats him compared with our very own Vince Cable. On his blog he complains that the BBC are nicer to Vince than to [...]
The point you are missing is that Vince Cable would have continued being the Chief Economist of Shell International if he hadn’t been elected as an MP. You portray as a minor part in a minor career. In reality, Shell International is a large corporation, it was the culmination of a successful private sector career and Vince Cable has been featured and mentioned in many news sources, including the Times and the Economist. So when you look at it properly, it has nothing to do with alleged left wing preferential treatment. Vince Cable is a moderate centre left economic liberal, not left wing. If you have a problem with the BBC’s own handling of you, that is a separate issue but why drag someone else into it?
Reply: It is a question of bias. Cable is a Lib dem MP, I am a Conservative. I too had a “successful” private sector career, and could have remained as a Director of a bank and a Chairman of a quoted industrial company if I had not become an MP and a Minister. I was a Director and Chairman for longer than Cable was Economist in part of the Shell empire. Cable is treated as if he were some kind of expert, not as a politician, whereas I am treated as a politician. They should either treat us both as politicians, or both as experts owing to our previous careers.
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