One third of viewers say BBC ‘ineffective’ at being independent from UK Government

24 comments

1. Jimmy saville should’ve been a bigger deal than it was. We literally all paid tax to fund our own epstein shit.

2. It’s intrinsically linked

3. Trouble with standing in the middle of the road is that you’ll get run over …

4. Yeah this is the Nat Onal though so they just want an SNP version

5. Worth noting that Boris stuffed its board with Tory cronies before he left, and it’s been mostly hostile to labour, albeit not in the overtly Fox newsish way that GB news is, so I wonder where the perception comes from? Is it not rabid enough in peoples eyes?

6. So two thirds of viewers think they _are_ independent? The BBC isn’t perfect but it’s such an important cultural and political establishment. They might not always get the balance right but they’re always close to the Centreline, which provides a really useful anchor to stop the political rhetoric becoming too polarised, like in the US.

7. You can see how badly the BBC tows the national line in their coverage of important national events and figures with close ties to the UK.

   The biggest clue is how favourably Trump is being portrayed at this point in time. There is so much more criticism they could be giving, but for whatever reason, don’t. The next being Israel too.

8. The left and the right complain about the BBC’s coverage, so it’s probably doing an ok job.

9. Thought the figures should be higher. BBC hasn’t been independent for decades

10. There has been severe medalling with the BBC’s independence over the last 15 years.

    You can see that in the way the editorial content has slid from supposed neutrality to a more obvious right lean.

    Senior appointees have largely been at the behest of the government whom it needs to fund most of its output.

    The purpose of to inform entertain and educate has largely disappeared to soup of reality shows.

    There is virtually no global journalism output, no overseas reporters, no investigative journalism and the quality for Panorama is pathetic these days.

    It’s by design … more enshittening

11. The BBC is used for Britains ‘soft power’, to think it is immune from government influence is naive.

12. People don’t know what they want. They want the BBC to be independent, but they also don’t want to pay muh 200 quid that helps keep it (relatively) that way. They hate ads, but they also hate ad-free public broadcasting.

    Some issues make you genuinely think democracy is overrated and this is one of them. People want whatever seems like the most selfish, greedy, short-sighted shiny thing in front of their faces at any given time.

13. Totally agree. And the answer is to get it sorted, not to destroy it. It’s so hugely important!

14. The BBC isn’t perfect, but having lived on three continents it’s the closest to perfect that you’re ever going to get.

15. It’s perfectly independent from the UK Government. What it isn’t independent from is whichever sacks of shift Tufton Street have appointed their preferred puppet. The BBC will stick by those ghouls whether they’re in Government or not.

16. The BBC is also incredibly sycophantic towards the monarchy. Almost every day there’s a North Korea style fluff piece about some royal doing next to nothing.

17. The Beeb needs reform to make it truly independent from our government and other governments. There was a story recently about the BBC Middle East chief’s connections with Mossad for example.

18. Unfortunately imo the BBC always tries to take the middle ground of an argument no matter daft it is. Eg climate change is a scientific fact and the beeb will have a professor with multiple degrees explaining the facts and then there will be someone with zero clue given equal time saying it’s all made up an it’s still cold in winter.

    Could say the same for Brexit, immigrants etc

    And look at how much airtime Farage got when they were in the infancy with no councillors or MPs.

    At some point the BBC has to just state facts and dismiss bullshit.

19. > at being independent from UK government

    The clue is in the name, *British* Broadcasting Corporation.

    They have represented, and will always represent, the ultimate interests of the British establishment.

    In other areas impartiality is a principle they try to adhere to, but the BBC has never taken an oppositional stance to British imperial or interventionist wars.

20. We are ruled over by the bourgeoisie. The government represents the bourgeoisie. The media represents the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie needs us to stay compliant so they can continue to treat us as ‘human resources’ with very few real rights.
    What this to change? Join up with local socialist/communist/ anarchist groups. Fascism is at the door.

21. Just scrap the license fee already as few under the age of 40 watch it regularly…

22. So two thirds say they are effective?

23. Independent from the Tory party they mean.

24. Certainly not ineffective in noshing Farage off.

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