Auntie Beeb consults Tweedledee and Tweedledum, economic experts.
Current example, right now on PM, Radio 4’s prime time news programme. The subject is Mandelson’s speech on the need to cut public expenses. The people invited to discuss it both agreed on this need, one being from the Adam Smith institute — last seen helping the looting of Iraq — the other some out of office New Labour hack. The whole debate was about whether or not Mandelson and Labour were serious about this spend cut, not about whether or not it was a good idea. Granted, the news “hook” on which this debate was hung had this assumption built in, but that should not stop the Beeb from going beyond the story. This sort of lazy reporting probably isn’t the result of conscious bias, but rather from the fact that most, if not all BBC reporters and editiorial staff share the same affluent, middle class liberal background, where it’s axiomatic that public spending cuts are good things.
Cassandrina
September 15, 2009 at 2:13 amYour article does not give a full picture of the day.
For instance the Naughtie interview on the morning Today programme was so reverential to Mandy that it was remeniscent of his infamous Neil Kinnock interview.
The whole day on radio 4 until 5pm was indicative of a typical Soviet propaganda campaign without the martial music.
The bbc will get worse in its government support to protect the jobs of its presenters and editors until someone wakes up and goes on the attack.