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I've noticed BBC tends to do that a lot - publish government's stories (mostly in the way they want them published).
by higherpurpose 12y ago
I've noticed BBC tends to do that a lot - publish government's stories (mostly in the way they want them published).
- gmac 12y agoYes. BBC News nowadays is essentially Government Press Release Hour. Probably because the Government is continually holding the threat of a licence fee review over their heads (the BBC is funded by a flat-rate tax of ~£150 per year on each UK household that owns a TV). "Nice little broadcasting corporation you got there. Be a shame if anything were to happen to it". It got appreciably worse after they got in hot water and backtracked over Andrew Gilligan's patently correct claim that Tony Blair knowingly lied to get the UK into the Iraq war. It has also got worse under the present Tory ('coalition') government, which the BBC knows would like nothing better, ideologically speaking, than to eliminate one more public service. Probably a lot of this agenda has been internalised by BBC staff. Nobody ever got fired for broadcasting the Government line, after all. http://www.medialens.org/ http://www.medialens.org/ is great on this stuff.
- jeltz 12y agoIsn't this common everywhere? Lazy reporters turning press releases into articles with the minimum possible work. BBC may be more prone at parroting UK government press releases but this is a part of a much larger problem.