The public broadcaster’s tilt to one side
By Ivan Morgan
Great Britain’s BBC news has been rocked by scandal, with top officials resigning in the face of evidence that the BBC deliberately doctored footage of a Donald Trump speech to give the impression he incited violence (he did not) on January 6, 2021, the day Trump supporters stormed government buildings. People died.
In my opinion this scandal is the tip of the iceberg. As a journalist and a lifelong newshound, I have been noticing for years how the “news” on BBC has become more and more biased.
People believe journalists should be unbiased. That is, of course, nonsense. They are, however, supposed to be fair. They are supposed to not allow their natural bias to affect their work. Yet I have watched as systemic bias has been taking over the Beeb news.
You are reading a privately owned newspaper. The publisher can report, print or say whatever he wants in these pages, and you are free to read it or not. However, the professionals who write this paper are fair. Do they have an agenda? Absolutely! They are dedicated to showing their readers the communities they live in. Without bias. If they lost touch with their readership, they’d go bankrupt.
Public broadcasters don’t face those challenges. They don’t have to rely on ratings like private media does. In Britain, households pay £174.50 ($322.10 Canadian) a year for a TV licence to watch TV, streaming etc. That money funds the BBC. In other words, every household pays for the public broadcaster, which is supposed to serve the ratepayers.
It’s a little different in Canada. Our public broadcaster is paid out of your federal taxes – $1.38 billion a year (side note – this paper isn’t costing you anything – just sayin’).
Because public broadcasters get their revenue from the taxpayer, they have a duty to give even, balanced and unbiased news coverage to all. Not just how they cover a story, but what stories they think are important. The BBC does not. Many Britons are demanding a thorough investigation of the BBC. The Trump scandal is not a lone issue.
Bias has crept into every part of BBC’s newsgathering. The left wing – some would say “woke” – bias is unmistakable, with many “news” stories being more self-righteous lecturing opinion than balanced reporting. Coverage of citizen protests, conservative politics, or other such issues that don’t reflect the new BBC bias but do reflect opinions of many people who pay the rates has been sparse and negative.
One critic has pointed out that the BBC no longer reports or reflects the opinions of a large percentage of the people who fund it. Many say the BBC has become the communications branch of the current government. Many Britons feel they are paying hundreds of dollars a year to be lectured by folks who don’t see the world as they do. They see the BBC as a boutique news agency speaking to 20 precent of the population.
It’s a tricky and sensitive issue, but also one of vital importance to any functioning democracy. If we are to have a public broadcaster, it must be fair and balanced. Free speech, and freedom of the press, are vital to any healthy democracy. All my life I have regarded the BBC as a trustworthy source of information. I don’t anymore.
The news is the news. It must be factual, fair and accurate. It has to be trustworthy, regardless of your own political opinion. It’s not there for you to like or agree with, it’s there for you to trust. Not manipulation or political and ideological agendas just, as the saying goes, the facts. Then you make of it what you will.
Opinion is another ballgame. This column is only my opinion. It’s not news. I am free to interpret events as I see them. You are free to read and ponder what I say. Maybe I am right, maybe not. As a columnist writing an opinion, I am free to use anger, outrage, praise or even humour to get my point across. For example, I can use sarcasm (see below).
Thank God what’s happened to Britain’s public broadcaster hasn’t happened in Canada!
Ivan Morgan can be reached at ivan.morgan@gmail.com