| Attacks on the BBC 12:13 - Mar 12 with 1299 views | DJR |
In order to bring some balance into the matter, perhaps there are some similarities between Tory attacks on Gary Lineker and the BBC and the way the Blair government (with Alastair Campbell at the forefront) went against Andrew Gilligan and the BBC for the claim that the Iraq dossier had been sexed up.
It was undoubtedly the case that it had been sexed up because there were no WMDs, and the West had total control of the airspace anyway. It subsequently emerged that much of the intelligence in the report had been plagiarised. This from Wikipedia.
".. much of the work in the Iraq Dossier had been plagiarised from various unattributed sources including a thesis produced by a student at California State University. The most notable source was an article by then graduate student Ibrahim al-Marashi, entitled Iraq's Security and Intelligence Network: A Guide and Analysis.
Whole sections of Marashi's writings on "Saddam's Special Security Organisation" were repeated verbatim including typographical errors, while certain amendments were made to strengthen the tone of the alleged findings (e.g., "monitoring foreign embassies in Iraq" became "spying on foreign embassies in Iraq", and "aiding opposition groups in hostile regimes" became "supporting terrorist organisations in hostile regimes")."
So it was not so much sexed up as made up, but the Blair government were desperate for intelligence to win over a sceptical public, and with a headline in the Standard later in the day that suggested London could be under attack from WMDs within 45 minutes, the Dodgy Dossier certainly did the trick.
Nevertheless, the BBC took the full heat at the time and was certainly bowed for a period of a few years. It is now clear that the Hutton Inquiry was a whitewash but its severe criticism of the BBC led to the resignation of the Director General, Greg Dyke.
And I've always thought that since then the BBC has a very passive and cautious news organisation, in a way that, say, Sky News is not.
[Post edited 13 Mar 2023 9:39]
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| Attacks on the BBC on 18:38 - Mar 12 with 1099 views | BlueBadger |
The nature of BBC funding makes it uniquely vulnerable though. Years of right wing propaganda about the licence fee being a 'tax' rather than 'massively good value, when you look at what's on offer' doesn't help here. |  |
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| Attacks on the BBC on 18:55 - Mar 12 with 1062 views | Churchman |
| Attacks on the BBC on 18:38 - Mar 12 by BlueBadger |
The nature of BBC funding makes it uniquely vulnerable though. Years of right wing propaganda about the licence fee being a 'tax' rather than 'massively good value, when you look at what's on offer' doesn't help here. |
It doesn’t help but it has to be accepted that in principle if a licence fee is compulsory if you have a tv, it is in a sense a form of tax. If you don’t use it, why should you pay towards it? It may be a poor point, but it’s worthy of discussion.
However, a bit like Obamacare or membership of the EU, isn’t the best solution to reform it rather than scrap it as Trumpster and the tories did with the above? But the tories never create, they only destroy. They’d never say a word if they had the BBC people in their pockets as much as they’d like.
So with the bbc, how do you make it truly neutral? I don’t know but if that is the aim, I’m sure there’s a way to achieve it.
The BBC is important. If correctly used and funded, especially things like World Service/foreign channels, its reach is enormous.
For me, politics is muddying areas it shouldn’t including BBC. It goes back to another post of mine in another thread - we need a reset on so many things. |  | | |
| Attacks on the BBC on 18:56 - Mar 12 with 1059 views | Churchman |
With Sky, you can virtually see the dreaded hand of Murdoch! | | | |
| Attacks on the BBC on 19:19 - Mar 12 with 1006 views | ClareBlue |
If you travel abroad the BBC is genuinely respected as an unbiased professional broadcasting operation that is trusted. That's increasingly rare in the media world. A tweet by some with a profile in sports critising a policy of the government shouldn't lead to undermining this. |  | | |
| Attacks on the BBC on 20:00 - Mar 12 with 960 views | You_Bloo_Right |
| Attacks on the BBC on 19:19 - Mar 12 by ClareBlue |
If you travel abroad the BBC is genuinely respected as an unbiased professional broadcasting operation that is trusted. That's increasingly rare in the media world. A tweet by some with a profile in sports critising a policy of the government shouldn't lead to undermining this. |
Can't the BBC just fact-check Lineker's statement? |  |
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| Attacks on the BBC on 20:22 - Mar 12 with 900 views | ghostofescobar |
| Attacks on the BBC on 18:56 - Mar 12 by Churchman |
With Sky, you can virtually see the dreaded hand of Murdoch! |
Murdoch hasn’t had anything to do with Sky for years now, I think. Wasn’t it all bought by Comcast? |  |
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| Attacks on the BBC on 21:11 - Mar 12 with 824 views | Ewan_Oozami |
What's Gary Lineker got to do with BBC News? |  |
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| Attacks on the BBC on 22:13 - Mar 12 with 743 views | Swansea_Blue |
| Attacks on the BBC on 20:00 - Mar 12 by You_Bloo_Right |
Can't the BBC just fact-check Lineker's statement? |
They could, but there are those at the top of the organisation and those in the Tory Party they are running scared of who don’t want them too. Because it’s true. |  |
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| Attacks on the BBC on 23:17 - Mar 12 with 667 views | Churchman |
| Attacks on the BBC on 20:22 - Mar 12 by ghostofescobar |
Murdoch hasn’t had anything to do with Sky for years now, I think. Wasn’t it all bought by Comcast? |
You are right. Comcast bought it in 2018. Apols - poor assumption on my part. Maybe his spirit still lurks… | | | |
| Attacks on the BBC on 09:38 - Mar 13 with 447 views | DJR |
| Attacks on the BBC on 23:17 - Mar 12 by Churchman |
You are right. Comcast bought it in 2018. Apols - poor assumption on my part. Maybe his spirit still lurks… |
I never watched Sky News when it was owned by Murdoch, so can't comment on how objective it was then, but I have done since and find it much more willing to criticise the government than BBC news. Beth Rigby, for example, tells it like it is. In contrast, say, Laura Kuenssberg's tends to so hedge her comments that her observations on events really aren't worth listening to. | | | |
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