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The BBC has never been impartial to internal concerns - domestic politics in particular. Leveson Inquiry recommendations not being implemented is the tip of the

The BBC has never been impartial to internal concerns - domestic politics in particular. Leveson Inquiry recommendations not being implemented is the tip of the iceberg in relation to the extent of client-journalism it engages in with regard to the Conservative party. https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/bbc-under-scrutiny-heres-what-research-tells-about-its-role-uk https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/bbc-under-sc...

geremiiah 9mo ago
I used the BBC just an example. Starmer seems to have the same attitude. If both Farage and Corbyn, and Polanski and whoever is leading the Conservatives and LibDems are attacking me, then I must be super in the middle i.e. I must be so doing it all super right!
- 9JollyOtter 9mo ago
  I don't think Starmer really knows what he is doing one way or another. The Island of Strangers speech out flaked Farage to the right. Dominic Cummings had a bunch of interview appearances online. His experience in office when he was working with Johnson (and many Ministers in general) is that they don't actually understand what they can and can't do in the job. I wouldn't be surprised if a similar situation is present under Starmer.
  - piltdownman 9mo ago
    I mean where is Sir Humphrey Appleby when you need him! Johnson's incredibly colourful reaction to Starmers trade deal, in that he was 'acting like an orange-ball chewing manical gimp', speaks volumes about the discourse around Starmer. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0ld3qkz https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0ld3qkz Hislop is particularly scathing, albeit cynically pragmatic, since Starmers appointment - "“Keir Starmer is the man who likes to sit on the fence unless you don’t like fences and then maybe he can find a hedge, or if you don’t like hedges he’ll find a wall." “People have suggested Keir Starmer is very boring, but I think that’s partly his superpower, in that being interesting in the way his predecessor was manages to lose you elections. “You have to be careful when you dismiss people as boring. Everyone thought John Major was boring, but then you had him for two elections.”
  - chimprich 9mo ago
    I think we can fairly easily dismiss Cummings' views on anything. He was of the opinion that the best thing for the UK economy was Brexit, and that the the best team to carry out that out was to be headed by Boris Johnson. He changed his mind on Johnson, but he seems to be of the view that nothing works and that there is nothing for it but to burn everything down and start again according to the Dominic Cummings vision.
    - 9JollyOtter 9mo ago
      > He was of the opinion that the best thing for the UK economy was Brexit, and that the the best team to carry out that out was to be headed by Boris Johnson. Not exactly. I think you need to listen to the interviews. Dominic Cummins has solid rationale for why he believes what he believes. I would need to listen to them again to remember what he said, but what you are describing was too simplistic. Also his opinions on Brexit have nothing to do with some of the things he said about how COVID was handled. > He changed his mind on Johnson, but he seems to be of the view that nothing works and that there is nothing for it but to burn everything down and start again according to the Dominic Cummings vision. I don't remember him saying that exactly.
      - chimprich 9mo ago
        > That has never been his opinion. There are many interviews with him on YouTube and I suggest you listen to them. I've viewed and read an interminable number of interviews with Cummings. He decided that a) Brexit was a good idea (we can see how that turned out), b) he decided to help get a Johnson government elected, and c) joined his administration as de facto chief of staff and chief advisor. If that's not a tacit approval of Johnson and his government, then what is? Of course, he backtracked later when it was a disaster.
        9JollyOtter 9mo ago
        > I've viewed and read an interminable number of interviews with Cummings. The statements you have made don't really line up with the interviews I've listened to. The context around the events and what his involvement was and was not, is important. You are leaving out key information that he mentioned in many interview appearances. > He decided that a) Brexit was a good idea (we can see how that turned out) Without re-litigating everything. It may have been different if the politicians and those that worked for them hadn't frustrated the process. I was genuinely disgusted by the attitudes that many of the politicians had after the Leave won. That was my interpretation of what happened. Your obviously differs. It also says nothing about the validity of his other statements, which is what I was referring to. > b) he decided to help get a Johnson government elected Yes, but the way you are talking about it is omitting events both before and after the 2019 General Election. Theresa May had been ousted by the Conservative Leadership. Earlier she ran an awful election campaign, squandered a huge lead in the polls and had to form a coalition Government with the DUP to maintain a majority. Cummins said he was contacted by Johnson because Johnson had a minority government and couldn't call a re-election. His first job was to get Johnson out of that Quagmire, then prepare for re-election. He decided to help Johnson under certain guarantees / conditions. Which tells me that he didn't actually trust Johnson. He claims to have been gradually forced out by Carrie Johnson and his team shortly after the election. If you are being hampered by the Prime Minster's wife on the agenda that you are supposed to implement. It is likely to fail. I've actually experienced something similar in my career where I was being blocked (for political reasons) by another team. It makes getting anything done impossible. So there is no reason to believe he is lying, back tracking or retconning events. This is because his statements about Carrie Johnson's involvement line up with other accounts from other people that I've heard during the time period shortly after his departure. > c) joined his administration as de facto chief of staff and chief advisor. If that's not a tacit approval of Johnson and his government, then what is? Of course, he backtracked later when it was a disaster. It not about it being an approval or disapproval of his government. Often you must work with people that you would rather not to, to achieve things. His feelings about the Johnson government doesn't change his the validity of his statements about how Whitehall operate while he was present. His comments about ossified organisations lines up with my past experience of working in both ossified Public and Private orgs. His account of the events around COVID match up with the timeline of events, and I re-watched old interviews of him and he hasn't backtracked at all or changed his story around what happened. He has mentioned things he couldn't mention at the time e.g. his residence was broken into and he was advised not to mention this at the time. I have no reason to not believe him, since his statements match up with both what I have experienced and a known timeline of events. I think your dislike of Cummins and his involvement with Vote Leave. As a result is clouding your judgement on the validity of his statements about how Boris Johnson behaved and how Whitehall operates. Generally there is a lot of stuff in his interviews that I've seen that quite honestly changed my opinion of him (which was somewhat negative). I believe he is telling the truth.
like_any_other 9mo ago
> client-journalism it engages in with regard to the Conservative party. BBC Caught Altering Budget Article to Be More Favourable to Labour - https://order-order.com/2024/11/01/bbc-caught-altering-budget-article-to-be-more-favourable-to-labour/ https://order-order.com/2024/11/01/bbc-caught-altering-budge... When Ivor Caplin, the former Labour MP that, among other things, attacked Musk for talking about Pakistani rape gangs, was arrested for pedophilia [1], this is the article they published - no photo, no name, no party affiliation, and no followup article - https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg45y4r0yngo https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg45y4r0yngo BBC omits identity of Nigerian murderer from article about how he killed his wife [2,3], making it entirely about "gendered violence" instead. Readers can't make the incorrect inference if you simply withhold information from them. BBC omits all criticism of Starmer from their reporting on his meeting with Trump [4]. The famous Trump capitol speech splicing: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/11/03/bbc-report-reveals-bias-donald-trump/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/11/03/bbc-report-revea... When Farage's private bank account was closed due to his politics, the BBC first simply took the bank's word that this was entirely due to financial considerations. When Farage obtained internal documents of that bank, explicitly saying he met financial criteria for an account, but it was closed despite this due to his politics, the BBC issued a correction article trying to imply his politics were merely "also" considered [5]. BBC uses all-white stock photos to warn about obnoxiously loud phone use on trains [6]. But makes sure to use a racially-diverse cast for the 1066 Battle of Hastings [7]. This is not the only such instance, nor a coincidence, by their own admission: Moffat even talks about the idea he mentions above — the excuse of “historical accuracy” that some people often give to justify an all-white cast — “[W]e’ve kind of got to tell a lie: we’ll go back into history and there will be black people where, historically, there wouldn’t have been, and we won’t dwell on that. We’ll say, ‘To hell with it, this is the imaginary, better version of the world. By believing in it, we’ll summon it forth.’” [8,9] "Piers Wenger said failing to update the classics with diverse characters would be a dereliction of duty" - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/02/24/bbc-drama-boss-defends-woke-adaptations-classic-novels/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/02/24/bbc-drama-boss-d... They cropped a photo to remove a weapon from a protester: https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/bbc-cropping-out-weapon-black-lives-matter-protest-DWyXS8_2/ https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/bbc-cropping-out-weapon-black-... They instruct white parents to teach their children about white privilege, and to examine their biases if their toddler has only white friends: https://www.bbc.co.uk/tiny-happy-people/articles/zrgcf82 https://www.bbc.co.uk/tiny-happy-people/articles/zrgcf82 They had and defended a no-whites-allowed internship (despite BAME-workers already being slightly over-represented at the BBC [10]): https://metro.co.uk/2018/01/19/bbc-criticised-for-banning-white-job-applicants-for-trainee-role-7243601/ https://metro.co.uk/2018/01/19/bbc-criticised-for-banning-wh... They censor their own shows to be more racially sensitive on re-broadcast - without mentioning it until pressed: https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/01/the-bbc-quietly-censors-its-own-archives/ https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/01/the-bbc-quietly-censo... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivor_Caplin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivor_Caplin [2] https://www.surinenglish.com/malaga/benalmadena-torremolinos/man-arrested-for-killing-his-wife-and-20250209115745-nt.html https://www.surinenglish.com/malaga/benalmadena-torremolinos... [3] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyw7g4zxwzo https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyw7g4zxwzo [4] https://x.com/chrismid/status/1950163250852540547 https://x.com/chrismid/status/1950163250852540547 (contains links to full Trump-Starmer meeting and the BBC articles, on the off chance you don't trust a random tweet) [5] "On 4 July, the BBC reported Mr Farage no longer met the financial requirements for Coutts, citing a source familiar with the matter. The former UKIP leader later obtained a Coutts report which indicated his political views were also considered." - https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-66288464 https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-66288464 [6] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce83p1ej8j7o https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce83p1ej8j7o [7] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/07/racially-diverse-cast-to-play-anglo-saxons-in-1066-drama/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/07/racially-diverse... [8] https://www.themarysue.com/steven-moffat-on-doctor-who-diversity/ https://www.themarysue.com/steven-moffat-on-doctor-who-diver... [9] https://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/moffat-on-diversity-in-doctor-who-we-must-do-better-80637.htm https://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/moffat-on-diversity-in-doctor-... [10] https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/670266/BBC-advert-white-people-ethnic-equality-staff-job-internship https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/670266/BBC-advert-white-pe...
dijit 9mo ago
The thing is, the BBC is incredibly partial, depending on which area of the BBC we're talking about. BBC News on the web vs BBC News the programme, vs BBC worldwide (which is a seperate org inside the BBC), then there's regional BBC and the prime time talk shows (the hard hitting Andrew Neil and co). So, when someone says "the BBC is biased against the left" or "the BBC is biased agains the right"; ironically they can both be right, and it's not an indicator of impartiality. It depends on which section of the BBC we're talking about. And you're totally blind to the bits of the BBC you agree with; you will think those bits are the impartial ones.
- nephihaha 9mo ago
  The BBC is institutionally biased in two major ways: * Pro the royal family since it is chartered by them. * Against Scottish independence since it would lose 10% of its funding.
  - Incipient 9mo ago
    I don't think there is anything wrong with the national media service being 'pro the nation' (counting the UK as the nation for arguments sake). That said however they can't make things up, or overtly bury critical stories...but putting a softer slant on them wouldn't be unreasonable.
    - nephihaha 9mo ago
      It is a loyal state broadcaster. If it had been up to the BBC, then the Prince Andrew story would have been buried. They tried to bury it several times but the Americans don't take orders from Buckingham Palace. Their coverage of the Scottish independence referendum was laughably biased and often clueless. They do seem to have an odd attitude towards Nigel Farage (UKIP & Reform) though, and kept putting him on Questiontime and the radio. It seems unclear why they would promote him so much given much of their other content.

geremiiah 9mo ago

I used the BBC just an example. Starmer seems to have the same attitude. If both Farage and Corbyn, and Polanski and whoever is leading the Conservatives and LibDems are attacking me, then I must be super in the middle i.e. I must be so doing it all super right!

9JollyOtter 9mo ago
I don't think Starmer really knows what he is doing one way or another. The Island of Strangers speech out flaked Farage to the right. Dominic Cummings had a bunch of interview appearances online. His experience in office when he was working with Johnson (and many Ministers in general) is that they don't actually understand what they can and can't do in the job. I wouldn't be surprised if a similar situation is present under Starmer.
- piltdownman 9mo ago
  I mean where is Sir Humphrey Appleby when you need him! Johnson's incredibly colourful reaction to Starmers trade deal, in that he was 'acting like an orange-ball chewing manical gimp', speaks volumes about the discourse around Starmer. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0ld3qkz https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0ld3qkz Hislop is particularly scathing, albeit cynically pragmatic, since Starmers appointment - "“Keir Starmer is the man who likes to sit on the fence unless you don’t like fences and then maybe he can find a hedge, or if you don’t like hedges he’ll find a wall." “People have suggested Keir Starmer is very boring, but I think that’s partly his superpower, in that being interesting in the way his predecessor was manages to lose you elections. “You have to be careful when you dismiss people as boring. Everyone thought John Major was boring, but then you had him for two elections.”
- chimprich 9mo ago
  I think we can fairly easily dismiss Cummings' views on anything. He was of the opinion that the best thing for the UK economy was Brexit, and that the the best team to carry out that out was to be headed by Boris Johnson. He changed his mind on Johnson, but he seems to be of the view that nothing works and that there is nothing for it but to burn everything down and start again according to the Dominic Cummings vision.
  - 9JollyOtter 9mo ago
    > He was of the opinion that the best thing for the UK economy was Brexit, and that the the best team to carry out that out was to be headed by Boris Johnson. Not exactly. I think you need to listen to the interviews. Dominic Cummins has solid rationale for why he believes what he believes. I would need to listen to them again to remember what he said, but what you are describing was too simplistic. Also his opinions on Brexit have nothing to do with some of the things he said about how COVID was handled. > He changed his mind on Johnson, but he seems to be of the view that nothing works and that there is nothing for it but to burn everything down and start again according to the Dominic Cummings vision. I don't remember him saying that exactly.
    - chimprich 9mo ago
      > That has never been his opinion. There are many interviews with him on YouTube and I suggest you listen to them. I've viewed and read an interminable number of interviews with Cummings. He decided that a) Brexit was a good idea (we can see how that turned out), b) he decided to help get a Johnson government elected, and c) joined his administration as de facto chief of staff and chief advisor. If that's not a tacit approval of Johnson and his government, then what is? Of course, he backtracked later when it was a disaster.
      - 9JollyOtter 9mo ago
        > I've viewed and read an interminable number of interviews with Cummings. The statements you have made don't really line up with the interviews I've listened to. The context around the events and what his involvement was and was not, is important. You are leaving out key information that he mentioned in many interview appearances. > He decided that a) Brexit was a good idea (we can see how that turned out) Without re-litigating everything. It may have been different if the politicians and those that worked for them hadn't frustrated the process. I was genuinely disgusted by the attitudes that many of the politicians had after the Leave won. That was my interpretation of what happened. Your obviously differs. It also says nothing about the validity of his other statements, which is what I was referring to. > b) he decided to help get a Johnson government elected Yes, but the way you are talking about it is omitting events both before and after the 2019 General Election. Theresa May had been ousted by the Conservative Leadership. Earlier she ran an awful election campaign, squandered a huge lead in the polls and had to form a coalition Government with the DUP to maintain a majority. Cummins said he was contacted by Johnson because Johnson had a minority government and couldn't call a re-election. His first job was to get Johnson out of that Quagmire, then prepare for re-election. He decided to help Johnson under certain guarantees / conditions. Which tells me that he didn't actually trust Johnson. He claims to have been gradually forced out by Carrie Johnson and his team shortly after the election. If you are being hampered by the Prime Minster's wife on the agenda that you are supposed to implement. It is likely to fail. I've actually experienced something similar in my career where I was being blocked (for political reasons) by another team. It makes getting anything done impossible. So there is no reason to believe he is lying, back tracking or retconning events. This is because his statements about Carrie Johnson's involvement line up with other accounts from other people that I've heard during the time period shortly after his departure. > c) joined his administration as de facto chief of staff and chief advisor. If that's not a tacit approval of Johnson and his government, then what is? Of course, he backtracked later when it was a disaster. It not about it being an approval or disapproval of his government. Often you must work with people that you would rather not to, to achieve things. His feelings about the Johnson government doesn't change his the validity of his statements about how Whitehall operate while he was present. His comments about ossified organisations lines up with my past experience of working in both ossified Public and Private orgs. His account of the events around COVID match up with the timeline of events, and I re-watched old interviews of him and he hasn't backtracked at all or changed his story around what happened. He has mentioned things he couldn't mention at the time e.g. his residence was broken into and he was advised not to mention this at the time. I have no reason to not believe him, since his statements match up with both what I have experienced and a known timeline of events. I think your dislike of Cummins and his involvement with Vote Leave. As a result is clouding your judgement on the validity of his statements about how Boris Johnson behaved and how Whitehall operates. Generally there is a lot of stuff in his interviews that I've seen that quite honestly changed my opinion of him (which was somewhat negative). I believe he is telling the truth.

like_any_other 9mo ago

> client-journalism it engages in with regard to the Conservative party. BBC Caught Altering Budget Article to Be More Favourable to Labour - https://order-order.com/2024/11/01/bbc-caught-altering-budget-article-to-be-more-favourable-to-labour/ https://order-order.com/2024/11/01/bbc-caught-altering-budge... When Ivor Caplin, the former Labour MP that, among other things, attacked Musk for talking about Pakistani rape gangs, was arrested for pedophilia [1], this is the article they published - no photo, no name, no party affiliation, and no followup article - https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg45y4r0yngo https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg45y4r0yngo BBC omits identity of Nigerian murderer from article about how he killed his wife [2,3], making it entirely about "gendered violence" instead. Readers can't make the incorrect inference if you simply withhold information from them. BBC omits all criticism of Starmer from their reporting on his meeting with Trump [4]. The famous Trump capitol speech splicing: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/11/03/bbc-report-reveals-bias-donald-trump/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/11/03/bbc-report-revea... When Farage's private bank account was closed due to his politics, the BBC first simply took the bank's word that this was entirely due to financial considerations. When Farage obtained internal documents of that bank, explicitly saying he met financial criteria for an account, but it was closed despite this due to his politics, the BBC issued a correction article trying to imply his politics were merely "also" considered [5]. BBC uses all-white stock photos to warn about obnoxiously loud phone use on trains [6]. But makes sure to use a racially-diverse cast for the 1066 Battle of Hastings [7]. This is not the only such instance, nor a coincidence, by their own admission: Moffat even talks about the idea he mentions above — the excuse of “historical accuracy” that some people often give to justify an all-white cast — “[W]e’ve kind of got to tell a lie: we’ll go back into history and there will be black people where, historically, there wouldn’t have been, and we won’t dwell on that. We’ll say, ‘To hell with it, this is the imaginary, better version of the world. By believing in it, we’ll summon it forth.’” [8,9] "Piers Wenger said failing to update the classics with diverse characters would be a dereliction of duty" - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/02/24/bbc-drama-boss-defends-woke-adaptations-classic-novels/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/02/24/bbc-drama-boss-d... They cropped a photo to remove a weapon from a protester: https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/bbc-cropping-out-weapon-black-lives-matter-protest-DWyXS8_2/ https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/bbc-cropping-out-weapon-black-... They instruct white parents to teach their children about white privilege, and to examine their biases if their toddler has only white friends: https://www.bbc.co.uk/tiny-happy-people/articles/zrgcf82 https://www.bbc.co.uk/tiny-happy-people/articles/zrgcf82 They had and defended a no-whites-allowed internship (despite BAME-workers already being slightly over-represented at the BBC [10]): https://metro.co.uk/2018/01/19/bbc-criticised-for-banning-white-job-applicants-for-trainee-role-7243601/ https://metro.co.uk/2018/01/19/bbc-criticised-for-banning-wh... They censor their own shows to be more racially sensitive on re-broadcast - without mentioning it until pressed: https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/01/the-bbc-quietly-censors-its-own-archives/ https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/01/the-bbc-quietly-censo... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivor_Caplin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivor_Caplin [2] https://www.surinenglish.com/malaga/benalmadena-torremolinos/man-arrested-for-killing-his-wife-and-20250209115745-nt.html https://www.surinenglish.com/malaga/benalmadena-torremolinos... [3] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyw7g4zxwzo https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyw7g4zxwzo [4] https://x.com/chrismid/status/1950163250852540547 https://x.com/chrismid/status/1950163250852540547 (contains links to full Trump-Starmer meeting and the BBC articles, on the off chance you don't trust a random tweet) [5] "On 4 July, the BBC reported Mr Farage no longer met the financial requirements for Coutts, citing a source familiar with the matter. The former UKIP leader later obtained a Coutts report which indicated his political views were also considered." - https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-66288464 https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-66288464 [6] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce83p1ej8j7o https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce83p1ej8j7o [7] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/07/racially-diverse-cast-to-play-anglo-saxons-in-1066-drama/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/07/racially-diverse... [8] https://www.themarysue.com/steven-moffat-on-doctor-who-diversity/ https://www.themarysue.com/steven-moffat-on-doctor-who-diver... [9] https://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/moffat-on-diversity-in-doctor-who-we-must-do-better-80637.htm https://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/moffat-on-diversity-in-doctor-... [10] https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/670266/BBC-advert-white-people-ethnic-equality-staff-job-internship https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/670266/BBC-advert-white-pe...

dijit 9mo ago

The thing is, the BBC is incredibly partial, depending on which area of the BBC we're talking about. BBC News on the web vs BBC News the programme, vs BBC worldwide (which is a seperate org inside the BBC), then there's regional BBC and the prime time talk shows (the hard hitting Andrew Neil and co). So, when someone says "the BBC is biased against the left" or "the BBC is biased agains the right"; ironically they can both be right, and it's not an indicator of impartiality. It depends on which section of the BBC we're talking about. And you're totally blind to the bits of the BBC you agree with; you will think those bits are the impartial ones.

nephihaha 9mo ago
The BBC is institutionally biased in two major ways: * Pro the royal family since it is chartered by them. * Against Scottish independence since it would lose 10% of its funding.
- Incipient 9mo ago
  I don't think there is anything wrong with the national media service being 'pro the nation' (counting the UK as the nation for arguments sake). That said however they can't make things up, or overtly bury critical stories...but putting a softer slant on them wouldn't be unreasonable.
  - nephihaha 9mo ago
    It is a loyal state broadcaster. If it had been up to the BBC, then the Prince Andrew story would have been buried. They tried to bury it several times but the Americans don't take orders from Buckingham Palace. Their coverage of the Scottish independence referendum was laughably biased and often clueless. They do seem to have an odd attitude towards Nigel Farage (UKIP & Reform) though, and kept putting him on Questiontime and the radio. It seems unclear why they would promote him so much given much of their other content.