BBC accused of 'institutionalised leftism'

[RogueTrooper]

A former BBC correspondent has accused the corporation of "institutionalised leftism" in a new book exposing what he sees as systematic political bias.

Robin Aitken, who worked for the BBC for 25 years including a stint on Radio 4's Today programme during the Iraq war, said the BBC's alleged political stance "undermines its solemn pact with the public to present the news impartially".

"The scandal is that leftwing voices are not balanced by rightwing voices," Aitken says in an interview with the Daily Telegraph. "If that is not reformed, then it's hard to justify allowing the BBC to hold on to its monopoly.

"In 25 years, I met only a smattering of Tories in the organisation. I stood outside the prevailing centre-left culture, and that was an uncomfortable place to be."

http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1485066,00.html

Does this not sound familier? I am sure there was a US journo who did this about one of the US networks.

[tjwmason]

1. Not the first time either

Rod LiddLe was sacked after writing an op-ed piece which was harshLy criticaL of the Countryside March, he has subsequentLy said exactLy the same thing about dear Auntie.

[Briar]

2. Melanie Phillips

has, predictably, been channelling this nonense in the Daily Mail today.

Reminds me of the neocon complaint that Liberals dominate American Universities - and it probably springs from the same strategy.

[mrfrapp]

4. Grrrr! Melanie Phillips!

Melanie Phillips was interviewed in the Independent last week moaning about being a target for the left and claims that she's hated by liberals because she's interested in "truth and morality". It's impossible to argue with schoolboy logic like that.

The hilarious thing is that she actually thinks she's a liberal herself.

[RogueTrooper]

7. I have just read her article here

http://www.melaniephillips.com/articles/archives/001198.html If you dare ;-)

hmmmmm. I wonder if the Daily Mail has ever apologised for all the jew-hating it used to dabble in?

[bennywhale]

11. It is a centrist viewpoint that the Beeb takes. It can't be expected to

extremist and irrational views such as that of the Daily Mail.

By anti right wing, do they mean anti-imperialist, anti-racist, anti elite rul, anti-hereditary priviledge.

Cos thats what these extremists represent. The majority of Britain sits in the centre.

[RogueTrooper]

12. It is the fact

that the BBC do not say EXACTLY what these crazy wingnuts want them to say. It means running EVERYTHING the BBC does past them for prior approval. This has nothing to do with the political belief of BBC staff.

They are just fascists.

[Vladimir]

3. This from a man who didn't like the McPherson report

because it didn't focus on how much crime is comitted by black youths...

[Anarcho-Socialist]

5. The left and right have different views about what 'impartiality' is

A news programme that gives both sides equal time of a major issue is often construed by conservatives as 'biased' whilst liberals and socialists see it as 'balanced'. To give a non-conservative viewpoint equal time as a conservative viewpoint is deeply offensive to Tories, who tend to have an absolutist view of society and politics.

[LeftishBrit]

6. Rod Liddle has been one of my pet hates....

ever since he wrote an exceedingly nasty article about (and against) disability rights for the "Spectator".

And Melanie Phillips seems to be the nearest thing we have here to the Christian-Right propagandists in America.

Ugh.

[mr blur]

8. If President Blair starts acting

like his fellow god lover over The Pond then it couldn't be long before others started trotting out the kind of drivel that we're used to hearing about in the US. How long before some cretin starts baying for prayers to be made compulsory in school and blaming the lack of religious enforcement in school for the rise of the Chav/yob/hooligan or whatever the Mail is calling them this week. The Tories lost the election so it must be the media's fault. Morons. They'll get what they want, of course, which is a few column inches in the obvious newspapers.

[T_i_B]

9. Channel 4 News leans way further left IMHO

but the Tories never say a thing about that. If anything it seems to be more about the Tories aversion to state broadcasting then any actual bias.

[Taxloss]

10. Another prat misunderstands that one's personal political beliefs

do not translate to the screen. The editorial staff of the BBC are certainly mostly left-wing; it attracts the best and the brightest of people who want to be working for low pay in a creative area. Their right-wing graduate counterparts are in the City. Shall we talk about "institutionalised rightism" there? Or in the courts?

What Robin fails to understand or does not point out is that the majority of the editorial staff of the Daily Mail or the Telegraph would also come up as left-wing if polled, but those papers don't seem to suffer from "institutionalised leftism". And the BBC has some extremely right-wing, or at least pro-establishment, instincts - look at its obsequy towards the royals, for a start.

[Kipling]

13. The BBC's instincts...

Are those of middle-class moderate liberals. Left-wing, but also pro-establishment. In favour of the monarchy, want to be nice to poor/black people as but not actually go near them, against the Iraq war.