THE BBC’s blatant political and cultural bias is now a major national scandal... the Budget bias case should be pursued until the BBC makes a formal apology on air.
THE BBC’s blatant political and cultural bias is now a major national scandal. The latest example – huge prominence given to an attack on the Budget by a clearly biased think-tank – has rightly outraged Ministers.
The offence was made considerably worse by the description – later dropped – of the think-tank involved as ‘independent’.
The assertion is absurd. Its director, Torsten Bell, was a senior aide to failed Labour leader Ed Miliband.
The Corporation has again broken the bargain on which its existence is based. Under its Charter and Agreement, which require it to be impartial on matters of major controversy, it receives the licence money collected for it by the State under the threat of prosecution.
How can the State justify this, and why should TV owners be prepared to put up with it, if the money is used to promote any particular interest or cause?
On many issues – from manmade global warming to drug legalisation – the BBC makes no attempt to be or even look impartial. Yet the Corporation is also a valuable and irreplaceable institution. The Budget bias case should be pursued until the BBC apologises on air. But this is not enough. Its system for dealing with complaints is a disgrace.
Initial queries do not even go directly to the BBC but are handled by service company Capita. The few which make it past Capita’s time-wasting battle screens are brushed aside by an Executive Complaints Unit (ECU) which seldom accepts that anything is wrong.
This is because the BBC is so isolated from reality that it is unaware of its own bias, much as a goldfish is unaware that it is a goldfish. Beyond the ECU lies Ofcom, which has not shown so far that it is up to the task. A specific complaints tribunal, empowered to issue public rebukes, independent of the BBC and governed by an impartial board, is needed, for the good of broadcasting and the country.
Without such a body, it is hard to see how the licence fee can be sustained much longer.