More bias at the Beeb

I'm rather surprised to see that no-one at Biased BBC has spotted the latest blatant example of Auntie's unashamed partisanship. I'm talking, of course, of the Today programme's attempt to rewrite the now-defunct European constitution.

Who have they chosen to start the task? Er, none other than arch Eurosceptic David Heathcott Amery. Surely they've also got an Europhile on board too? Someone to put the alternative side? Well, the answer to that would be no.

Another example of the BBC's flagrant right-wing and anti-European bias, I think you'll agree. Or am I missing something?

Comments

[Nosemonkey]

Just because they employ ONE eurosceptic to do something related to the EU in their reporting doesn't mean that they aren't still Europhiles...*

* standard response #4657

Sadly, until EVERYONE at the BBC is fired and replaced by an approved list of eurosceptic, anti-PC free-marketeers, the complaints won't stop. But then you'd just get a version of Biased BBC set up by a europhile lefty.

Personally I always found it offensive that they employed Kilroy, and always found his tone and views reprehensible. My simple solution? I didn't watch it, and got value for money out of my license fee by listening to the umpteen radio stations, using the stupidly good website, and watching the various genuinely good programmes the corporation produces.

In short - I still can't see what all the fuss is about. Don't like the BBC's news output? Fine - go and watch ITN or something. Only a tiny, tiny fraction of the license fee goes on news (and that's rapidly diminishing anyway) - and the Beeb produces something like 200 hours of programming a day across its various TV and radio stations. You've got more than enough there to get your hundred quid a year's worth.

As for the complaints that no one should be forced to pay for the BBC if they don't watch it - I've not had to visit a doctor or call the police in over a year; I don't have school-age children; I've never had to have an operation (NHS or otherwise). By the same logic I should get a sizable chunk of my tax money back, because the vast majority goes on stuff I never have call to use.

What do I get out of my £100 a month Council Tax? The rubbish taken away. That's about it. For - over the course of a year - twelve times the BBC license fee. Add in Income Tax and National Insurance, God alone knows how little return I get. But that's not the point of taxation, is it?

The anti-license fee thing - for all its high moral claims about monopolies and choice and so on (which I can see the case for, honest) - seems largely to be an objection to the very concept of state-funded anything. If so, fine - let's take it to extremes and scrap universal funding for the BBC, NHS, comprehensive schools, university funding, road maintenance, rubbish collection, street lighting, the national parks, the armed forces etc. etc. and replace them all with pay for usage instead. It'd suit me fine. But the entire country would go to shit through under-funding within six months.

[Blimpish]

"Sadly, until EVERYONE at the BBC is fired and replaced by an approved list of eurosceptic, anti-PC free-marketeers, the complaints won't stop."

Ah, dreaming of the day...

Incidentally, the objection to the license fee needn't be an objection to state-funded everything, although I grant you, the way it's often expressed probably is. Television broadcasting is not a public good anymore, and can be paid for directly. You might say that serving up dollops of quality culture IS a public good, which would be under-served by the market, but it is the BBC who give us Eastenders and Popstars, so permit me some scepticism. More generally, with an increasingly fragmented cultural scene, and an unwillingness to promote any commonality besides 'tolerance' and 'understanding' between 'communities', the cultural role seems pretty much a relic (sadly so, but if it is so, there's no use pretending otherwise).

[Bishop Hill]

We should focus on what unites us not what divides us. You think they're right wing. I think they're left. But we can agree that the licence fee should go so that we are not supporting the opposing point of view.

Splendid.

[Tim Worstall]

"If so, fine - let's take it to extremes and scrap universal funding for the BBC, NHS, comprehensive schools, university funding, road maintenance, rubbish collection, street lighting, the national parks, the armed forces etc. etc. and replace them all with pay for usage instead."

I’ll vote for you, with one slight reservation. Are you really certain that you want the guys with all the guns to have to go looking for their wages?

[lenin]

Good piece, but surely it's David Heathcoat-Amory?

[Third Avenue]

Lenin - we're both wrong (although me more than you!). It's David Heathcoat Amory. Why blogs need sub-editors.