The Great Debate about the BBC and Licence Fee

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  • It isn't just Brexit though, there's a lot of bias through omission: A prime example being the Syney knife maniac tackled by bystanders. He was yelling "Allahu akbar" but not a mention of that in the BBC coverage even though it is very germane to the incident.

  • Maybe this is coming to a head long before the next charter renewal. If MP's decide that the BBC got the current charter under false pretences they might just tear it up and start again. Parliament is in a Bolshie mood at the moment so all bets are off.

  • The BBC may also be losing the EU grants shortly. Then again, the EU may pay them even more to continue their EU propaganda. Nobody can be sure of anything these days. Uncertainty reigns in every sphere thanks to our rogue Parliament.

    Mark Twain — 'Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.'

  • I tried to watch Newsnight last night, I just had to switch it off. The BBC isn't even trying to pretend they're impartial when it comes to all things Brexit.

    I watch Newsnight, Question Time and Channel 4 News purely for intellectual sado masochism. The bias is so predictable and unsubtle that a satirical programme (eg Not the 9 Oclock News) would have no scope for sending it up. At least with Fox News the right wing bias is undisguised and there was some virtue to being that way balance against the champagne socialism (and Remaining in the EU) that characterises pretty much all of the media on both sides of the pond.

    I don't mind opinion. My objection is the twisting, invention or ommission of facts to suggest that the opinion is the only fair and right one.

    When you say "bbc isn't even pretending to be impartial" that's because it doesn't need to; the majority of viewers are taken in by the BBC's contrived image of probity (accents, music, clothes, studio decor).

  • I don't want it to go like America with the likes of Fox News and CNN, but perhaps it will, at least if it does, hopefully the BBC will be privatised by then and talking of which:

    TV licences: Call for government and BBC to save free over-75s licences

    The BBC and the government should find a way to save free TV licences for all over-75s, a committee of MPs has said.

    The House of Commons media select committee said the new position, where only those claiming pension credit will be eligible, was an "absurd situation".

    The BBC said it will continue to scrap free TV licences for up to 3.7m people.

    Free licenses aside, Damian Collins the chair of the media committee has said the licence fee is unsustainable in the long term with younger people watching streaming services. I agree.

    So the BBC should make its "impartial" programming while it still can.

  • Privatise the BBC and let viewers who want to watch it pay for it

    As to so called BBC bias, everybody who's views they don't feel the Beeb expresses scream "bias"

    Political parties in power all jump on the bias bandwagon

  • Alastair Campbell was always at their throats, so I agree the BBC used to get everybody's backs up, but apart from a few exceptions, the BBC crossed the impartiality line some time ago and have gone made over Brexit.

    I'm not sure if I'm in favour of full privatisation, but perhaps forty percent could be put out to market, leaving the government with a controlling block of shares, at least initially, with a view to perhaps full privatisation later down the line. Something like the 80's privatisations which were done in stages.

  • Remember Mrs T was always after the BBC, her man with the Denis Healey eyebrows who's name I forget was her warrior

    I do not see any anti Brexit bias there, as a committed Remainer I would say it's the opposite

    But then that is the point, they cannot please everybody as they try to stay impartial

    My only complaint with them is their dogged attempt to be politically correct

  • I hardly think the BBC can be considered politically impartial, when every one of it's political programs has a preponderance of Remainers on them. The statistics are there for all to see. Does the one Leaver versus 4 Remainers upset the Remainers?

    Mark Twain — 'Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.'

  • I hardly think the BBC can be considered politically impartial, when every one of it's political programs has a preponderance of Remainers on them. The statistics are there for all to see. Does the one Leaver versus 4 Remainers upset the Remainers?

    I have seen plenty of Leavers on TV, Farage especially enjoys an open door

    Mind I could not say on which channel

    If any of them choose not to appear perhaps they are frightened of being questioned

  • I guess many Leavers have been 'non-platformed', and not just by the BBC. Only one view is permitted, and that is the Remain/climate change/world government view.

    Royal College of GPs cancels Julia Hartley-Brewer invitation

    From your link

    "Hundreds of family doctors had called for the college to withdraw the invitation. A petition, signed by 729 medical practitioners, read: “This person [Julia Hartley-Brewer] has expressed views that are highly controversial regarding immigration and expressed that she could not see anything in the ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech that he [Enoch Powell] had got wrong.”

    729 doctors reckon she is a racist, a very good reason for anyone not to want to listen to her

    But then of course racism was the main reason for people voting Leave in the referendum

    The chickens are slowly coming home to roost

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