Do you support the BBC industrial action today?

Cleaver

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

I generally like the BBC

Which could really be the quote that represents 95% of the nation. Most people spend about 0.5% of the household income on the BBC and don't really give much of a stuff about half the stuff that goes on there as it's such a small part of their lives. Conspiracy nuts then presume that this means that they are being 'brainwasher' or are 'left-wingers', when really it just means that you enjoy Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Gardeners Question Time and Masterchef.

And going back to amcluesent's comment again (as it's a good example of this type of thing), if you've decided that you don't like people of the Islamic faith then you can probably find examples in any public body that helps fuel your dislike, whether it's educational policy, health policy, local government initiatives or the BBC.

I'm always fascinated by the BBC hatred on this forum. It's something I've never ever come across when speaking to people in the real world. This forum and The Daily Mail I guess.

Loughton_Monkey

Cleaver wrote: »

Which could really be the quote that represents 95% of the nation. Most people spend about 0.5% of the household income on the BBC and don't really give much of a stuff about half the stuff that goes on there as it's such a small part of their lives. Conspiracy nuts then presume that this means that they are being 'brainwasher' or are 'left-wingers', when really it just means that you enjoy Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Gardeners Question Time and Masterchef.

And going back to amcluesent's comment again (as it's a good example of this type of thing), if you've decided that you don't like people of the Islamic faith then you can probably find examples in any public body that helps fuel your dislike, whether it's educational policy, health policy, local government initiatives or the BBC.

I'm always fascinated by the BBC hatred on this forum. It's something I've never ever come across when speaking to people in the real world. This forum and The Daily Mail I guess.

I think the disjoint is explained like this:

Light Entertainment: BBC is wonderful.

News, Current Affairs: BBC is a bit of a fish out of water.

Investigative Journalism: BBC is ludicrous.

Those of us old enough to remember the Falklands war will remember that the drama was so interesting, most of us couldn't get enough news and so we would watch every news broadcast, whether on ITV or BBC. It turned out that whatever you watched on ITV today, became the 'News' on BBC the following day.

LSEdwards

Cleaver wrote: »

I genuinely wonder whether I watch a completely different BBC to everyone else. I agree a bit on some of the current affairs stuff, but their news output is fine. Can you link to some clips of the news which shows all the presenters as Labour supporters? How do you know this? Why would they all be Labour supporters?

Having spent time in the US, the BBC news output seems about as neutral as you can get, but I'm sure someone will be along in a moment to call me a brainwashed leftie. Maybe I don't watch the news with enough of a critical eye, but when I tune in to BBC news, ITV news, C4 news or SKY news they all just seem to tell me what's going on that particular day. I sometimes think the standard of the story is not very professional, or I sometimes question whether a certain story should be getting the coverage it is, but I can't say I see that much political bias from any of the channels.

And the fact that people like amcluesent think that the BBC provides "oral relief to Islamist' says far, far more about him and his views than it does the BBC.

Just take today's news as an example. What was the lead story all day? It was that Andy Coulson had been interviewed by police. Not arrested, not even charged, but interviewed. What happened to innocent until proven guilty?

Where was the coverage that Government spending is planned to rise every year until 2015? Not a sausage. Instead we get blanket coverage of cuts. Government spending is not being cut overall, it is increasing. Just one stupid scare story after another.

'490,000 civil servants face the axe'. Utter rubbish. Potentially a reduction of 490,000 posts, which requires a natural wastage rate of 2% over four years, compared to the actual staff turnover of 8%. If the public sector behaves responsibly then very few people should need to lose their jobs through compulsory redundancy.

331 managers paid over £100,000, excluding the "talent". The BBC sometimes is its own worst enemy.

Some of their output is excellent, but they let themselves down in so many areas that sympathy is in short supply in the current climate.

Cleaver

LSEdwards wrote: »

Just take today's news as an example. What was the lead story all day? It was that Andy Coulson had been interviewed by police. Not arrested, not even charged, but interviewed. What happened to innocent until proven guilty?

And what is the main story on the ITV website as I type this at 23.15? Oh, it's Andy Coulson. http://www.itv.com/news/

And what is the in the main headlines of C4 News right now? Oh, it's Andy Coulson. http://www.channel4.com/news/

And what is the main story on the Sky News website right now? Oh, it's Andy Coulson. http://news.sky.com/skynews/

And what is the second main news story on Yahoo UK News right now? Oh, it's Andy Coulson. http://uk.news.yahoo.com/

And so on, and so on, and so on. Are they all Labour-loving news agencies? I presume you think they all are?

Just as evidence, as these links will change, here is a screenshot from all these news site's front page:

LSEdwards wrote: »

Where was the coverage that Government spending is planned to rise every year until 2015? Not a sausage. Instead we get blanket coverage of cuts. Government spending is not being cut overall, it is increasing. Just one stupid scare story after another.

Are you purposefully being obtuse? You think that the BBC is alone in reporting cuts? Seriously, in your objective and critical opinion all the major news media outlets - Channel 4, ITV, Sky, The Times, The Sun, The Mirror, The Telegraph and all the rest - are all reporting this increase in funding? None of them are refering to 'the cuts'? It's just the BBC calling them cuts, right? All the other news agencies are printing or reporting verbally on the massive government investments in public services are they? All talking about government investment at the moment? The BBC are a lone organisation reporting cuts, whilst all the other agencies are all glowing about the government's increase in spending? Can you link to one or two stories from any news agencies about how government spending is increasing every year until 2015?

LSEdwards

Cleaver wrote: »

Are you purposefully being obtuse? You think that the BBC is alone in reporting cuts? Seriously, in your objective and critical opinion all the major news media outlets - Channel 4, ITV, Sky, The Times, The Sun, The Mirror, The Telegraph and all the rest - are all reporting this increase in funding? None of them are refering to 'the cuts'? It's just the BBC calling them cuts, right? All the other news agencies are printing or reporting verbally on the massive government investments in public services are they? All talking about government investment at the moment? The BBC are a lone organisation reporting cuts, whilst all the other agencies are all glowing about the government's increase in spending? Can you link to one or two stories from any news agencies about how government spending is increasing every year until 2015?

You have a fair point, the BBC is not alone in being inaccurate and unbalanced in its reporting. Doesn't make it right though.

Cleaver

LSEdwards wrote: »

You have a fair point, the BBC is not alone in being inaccurate and unbalanced in its reporting. Doesn't make it right though.

So why did you single out the BBC specifically? If every single news agency is reporting cuts and you feel they should be reporting increased investment by the new government then your issue is with the media as a whole, not with the BBC.

By the way, I think the reason every single media outlet is reporting that the government is cutting is because they've just annouced some of the biggest cuts in spending for decades and decades. Seems quite logical to me. To report these as increased investments wouldn't be accurate, hence why they're not doing it.

I'm not making a political point and judging whether the cuts are right or wrong here by the way, I'm merely saying that the government are cutting spending and that all news agencies are reporting this.

And your view on the Andy Coulson issue? You said that the BBC was completely wrong in reporting this, but as shown above all news agencies are covering it as one of their main stories, just like the BBC. So are they all wrong in doing this, or do you still just have an issue with the BBC?

LSEdwards

Cleaver wrote: »

So why did you single out the BBC specifically? If every single news agency is reporting cuts and you feel they should be reporting increased investment by the new government then your issue is with the media as a whole, not with the BBC.

By the way, I think the reason every single media outlet is reporting that the government is cutting is because they've just annouced some of the biggest cuts in spending for decades and decades. Seems quite logical to me. To report these as increased investments wouldn't be accurate, hence why they're not doing it.

I'm not making a political point and judging whether the cuts are right or wrong here by the way, I'm merely saying that the government are cutting spending and that all news agencies are reporting this.

And your view on the Andy Coulson issue? You said that the BBC was completely wrong in reporting this, but as shown above all news agencies are covering it as one of their main stories, just like the BBC. So are they all wrong in doing this, or do you still just have an issue with the BBC?

I agree with you that all news agencies are correct to report on spending cuts, and this is and should be the main story. However, it would be nice, just once or twice, to put the cuts in context and to give a wider view. Even with the huge spending cuts, total government spending is continuing to increase at an alarming rate.

Yes, I do expect the BBC to hold to a higher standard than other news organisations. We all should, given their huge budget and guaranteed income from the license payer. What I see every day is that the quality of BBC journalism in the recent past has fallen to below that of other organisations.

With regards to Coulson, yes I do think that much of the reporting is contrary to natural justice. It has certainly been given a lot of prominence by all media organisations.. but then they always were overly concerned with media stories.

Andy_L

olly300 wrote: »

The beeb is suppose to be moving people outside London to save money.

AIUI many of the staff said "no thanks, family are based in London, please make me redundant instead" so the BBC would have to pay redundancy & then recruit & train new staff

Wookster

I have just seen that Paul Mason (Economics Editor) is striking. That just goes to show how good his economic knowledge is.

(Not).

Cleaver

Wookster wrote: »

I have just seen that Paul Mason (Economics Editor) is striking. That just goes to show how good his economic knowledge is.

(Not).

Is Paul Mason's attitude to striking and his knowledge of economics linked? Not sure how you've made that connection.