Does the BBC have a Pro-EU Bias?

[Magilla]

If I stole a tenner off you and gave you a fiver, which of the following is biased towards me:

 

- Generous man hands out fiver

 

- Thieving crook steals £10 and only returns a fiver

 

As has just been pointed out, you get back far more than the fiver.

 

Again, grasping at straws.

[chalga]

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jun/20/bbc-europe-sceptics-anti-eu-referendum

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday 20 June 2015 10.00 BST

 

 

On Thursday, eurosceptic MPs tabled an amendment to the referendum bill designed to establish a regulator to ensure balance in the BBC’s coverage of the vote on UK membership of the EU.

 

Their implied attack on the BBC is not surprising as the corporation is one of the few mass media outlets with any hope of providing balance given the europhobic stance of many of the best-selling newspapers. But the proposal is bizarre in view of the BBC’s gentle handling of eurosceptics when they appear in broadcasts.

 

When eurosceptics feature on BBC programmes, they are rarely pressed on their assertions with the same vigour as other politicians. They are never asked how their wish to be part of the single market but outside the EU, like Norway or Switzerland, represents an improvement on the current situation.

 

Nor are they asked about how the UK would still have to abide by regulations over which it would all lose influence, how it would need to make a sizeable contribution the EU budget and how it would still need to accept EU immigrants (which are a larger share of the Swiss population than is the case for the UK).

 

And when eurosceptics stress the export opportunities available outside the EU, the BBC never asks why membership impedes our global exports, nor points out that an exit would exclude the UK from existing EU trade treaties and that negotiating new ones would take many years.

 

You could put the BBC’s shallowness on the EU down to cutbacks in its research base and the dismissal of knowledgeable staff. Some independent experts I speak to are appalled by the ignorance of BBC staff who approach them for comments.

 

Another reason could be fear of the eurosceptic influence on the negotiations over the BBC charter renewal set to take place later this year.

 

It could also be down to editorial policy and the stance of some presenters. Today programme presenter John Humphrys was quoted last year as saying the corporation had “bought into the European ideal” without evening out its coverage. Later that year, he asserted wholly incorrectly that the European Commission does not balance its books.

 

 

It’s not just Humphrys. On a 13 June broadcast of the Today programme, a eurosceptic MP wanted the government to not put civil servants in front of the media during the referendum purdah the eurosceptics are seeking, nobody asked whether they would be forbidden to answer factual questions. When a eurosceptic on the same programme two days later referred to the colossal costs of abiding by EU regulations, nobody pointed out that the basis of such spurious calculations is the assumption of no UK regulations at all as the alternative.

 

There’s evidence of this approach stretching back to 2011 and the notorious Newsnight episode when Jeremy Paxman allowed eurosceptic commentator Peter Oborne to abuse a European Commission official, calling him “the idiot from Brussels”. Paxman then joined in with “Mr Idiot in Brussels, would you like to respond?”

 

 

I am no starry-eyed europhile. As a former European Commission official, on my own initiative I did the work that established that the UK would be the largest net contributor to the budget which was the basis of Margaret Thatcher’s negotiation of the rebate. Later, I spent many years at Barclays and as an adviser to the City of London, fending off continental efforts to curtail the competitiveness of the City.

 

But at a time when Britain’s largest selling newspapers are predominantly eurosceptic, the BBC’s duty to inform has rarely been of greater importance and its frequent failure to live up to this duty on the EU debate saddens me. Eurosceptics want to cow one of the few mass media outlets that might take a balanced approach and so far seem to be succeeding.

 

The chairmanship and staffing of the BBC regulator the eurosceptics dream of would be hugely controversial, as would the implied breach of the BBC’s editorial independence.

 

But perhaps given the BBC’s repeated failure to challenge their viewpoints, an attempt to ensure its coverage of the EU is balanced is not such a bad idea.

[Magilla]

Good post, exposing the real fact that the Bliar Broadcasting Corporation is undoubtedly pro EU.

 

If you're blind, yeah.

[Car Boot]

Smash the BBC TV licence fee!

Can't pay - won't pay!

 

NO to the EU - NO to the BBC.

[WiseOwl182]

As has just been pointed out, you get back far more than the fiver.

 

Again, grasping at straws.

 

Ok, I nick your tenner, and in exchange I give you back a fiver and let you buy stuff from me.

 

---------- Post added 03-03-2016 at 20:15 ----------

 

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jun/20/bbc-europe-sceptics-anti-eu-referendum

 

.

 

The Guardian, defending the BBC as being unbiased on the EU. Shock horror.

Edited March 3, 2016 by WiseOwl182

[chalga]

Ok, I nick your tenner, and in exchange I give you back a fiver and let you buy stuff from me.

 

---------- Post added 03-03-2016 at 20:15 ----------

 

 

The Guardian, defending the BBC as being unbiased on the EU. Shock horror.

 

It's a guy talking to The Guardian,or are you going to call him biased now?

[WiseOwl182]

It's a guy talking to The Guardian,or are you going to call him biased now?

 

The Guardian have their own agenda. That's fine, don't get me wrong, I can choose not to buy it. I can't choose not to fund the BBC without the threat of a prison sentence.

[Car Boot]

Big international Pro-EU companies paying virtually no tax in the UK but having £millions of revenue in sales, whilst the BBC is to charge £145.50 per annum for households which use the iplayer to watch non-live 'catch up' content...

 

Smash the BBC! Smash the EU - by any means necessary!

[chalga]

The Guardian have their own agenda. That's fine, don't get me wrong, I can choose not to buy it. I can't choose not to fund the BBC without the threat of a prison sentence.

 

So basically,you're ignoring what this guy is saying about the BBC being soft on Eurosceptics because he's saying it to the Guardian?

[WiseOwl182]

So basically,you're ignoring what this guy is saying about the BBC being soft on Eurosceptics because he's saying it to the Guardian?

 

No, I'm ignoring it because the Guardian can cherry pick articles, and authors, that suit their own agenda. If it's published in the Guardian, it's almost certainly leftist with pro-EU sympathies.

 

One guy's opinion piece in the Guardian is not an authoritative conclusion on whether or not the BBC has a pro-EU bias, no matter how much you want it to be.