Media Bashing Gets Serious (I)

Three major stories emerged this week about problems with media bias—except that, unsurprisingly, none generated major media coverage in the U.S. The first was about bias at the BBC. An official 80-page report, commissioned by the BBC and written by independent program-maker John Bridcut, found the BBC out of touch with large swathes of the public and guity of self-censoring subjects that the corporation finds unpalatable. The BBC's own controller of editorial policy admitted that people felt that the corporation was guilty of a "bias of omission" by not covering their views.

The report called for the BBC to be more "open-minded" in the views it reflects and warned against "bias of elimination" which it branded "offensive". According to the report, the BBC had "come late" to several important stories in recent years, including Euroscepticism and immigration , which as it happens, were 'off limits' in terms of a liberal-minded comfort zone".

Research for report showed that viewers were "frustrated" by political correctness, and warned that if viewers did not feel that the BBC was reflecting their lives and attitudes, people would lose faith in it. Staff were told to avoid imposing their own liberal assumptions on the audience and told to "embrace a broader range of opinion".

Roger Mosey, former head of television news at the BBC, admitted having sympathy with claims of a "liberal/pinko" agenda at times. He recalled a news item about ethnic communities becoming the majority in parts of east London, where a reporter had told him that they had "worked really hard" to find a white resident who was happy with the situation.

BBC political correctness over Muslim terrorist suspects who were arrested last summer may have gone too far. One member of the public surveyed for the report claimed: "The BBC were saying '21 men have been arrested' and I thought 'what's happening?' So I flicked over to Sky [Television] and it says '21 Asian men have been arrested."

The report also quoted a senior BBC executive as saying that impartiality regarding Africa was "as safe as a blood bank in the hands of Dracula".