Cookie Notice

WE LOVE THE NATIONS OF EUROPE
However, this blog is a US service and this site uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and analyze traffic. Your IP address and user-agent are shared with Google along with performance and security metrics to ensure quality of service, generate usage statistics, and to detect and address abuse.

Saturday 18 July 2020

Keep pushing the BBC - they're wobbling

I wouldn't wish redundancy on anyone who doesn't welcome it, so there is no rejoicing at the downsizing of some 520 news staff now starting at the BBC. But for those fortunate enough to keep a job at the woke behemoth, it's only the foretaste of the chill wind that will blow. I have a feeling in my bones that peak woke has passed, in the UK anyway, and we are now tentatively starting on the pushback.

Charles Moore in the Telegraph describes perfectly today how the BBC has become the enemy of the decent majority in the UK. Moore is old enough to remember a Fleet Street ruled by the tyranny of print unions that had 'captured' the nationals. In those pre-internet, four-channel days of warbling Trimphones the 'Sun' sold some three or four million copies daily - or it did when the chapels allowed it to be printed. Rupert Murdoch and Margaret Thatcher fought that battle. We now need to fight the same battle to end the woke tyranny spearheaded by the BBC - a tyranny that has spread like a plague
Nowhere is this alliance between militant wokery and management cowardice more obvious than in the civil service. Diversity is a tool of producer capture. It allows aeons of management time to be spent thinking about the composition of the workforce rather than the needs of the “consumer” – the Government and the voters who elect it.

I was recently informed that a concept called “reverse mentoring” has entered the civil service. Senior staff of 30 years’ experience are each assigned to a young employee in, say, IT, who observes them at work and reports on whether they exhibit “unconscious bias”, “micro-aggressions”, and other sins which cry to Heaven for vengeance.
The Spectator this week carried several pieces -  one by Stephen Daisley cuts to the heart of the BBC's vulnerability, that having abandoned impartiality it has forfeited its place in the institutional Pantheon
The BBC has a different role, one so important that we are compelled by law to fund it. Yes, it informs, educates and entertains but, as I have argued on CoffeeHouse before, its real service is to national unity. The Corporation cannot unite us while becoming a mouthpiece for one side of a culture war.
Douglas Murray pens a hard-hitting piece for the Speccie, which also featured the resignation letter from Bari Weiss, forced from her job at the New York Times.  Murray writes
Publications like the NYT, who profess to be most opposed to ‘fake news’, continuously turn out to have been the era’s biggest purveyors of the thing they complain of. And campaigning journalists, imagining that they are acting in the name of decency, turn out to behave so indecently that they bully out a minority, dissenting opinion from their ranks.
And indeed Charles Moore is amongst those that make direct comparisons between the NYT and the disgraceful witch-hunts at the BBC such as those championed by Emily Maitlis. Andrew Neil's position at PHG effectively makes him the Speccie's Chairman, a job that has no editorial control, but has nevertheless provoked ill-informed probing, which may have found ears within the woke echo-bubble that is W1A - for Neil's outstanding politics programme itself fell victim to the corporation's axe

Elsewhere, the TPA carries a piece on the BBC's appalling waste - a throwback to the Fleet Street printworks that carried hundreds of unnecessary printworkers when the job could be done by a few dozens, even printing three million papers a day. Which reminds me that I visited the Wapping works back in the 1980s one chill dark November night as the Sun was being printed and one thing that struck me, apart from the size of the rolls of paper, was how much machinery there was, and how few people.

Finally, the rapid growth, funding and public support for the #DefundTheBBC movement must be causing a few wobbles in W1A - Calvin Robinson in Spiked gives an inside view.

It seems the BBC has stumbled into the cardinal error for a news organisation - that of becoming the news, rather than reporting it.

36 comments:

Scrobs. said...

Good post, Raeders!

And, nowhere, did you mention the toxic word 'bias'!

The under-managers at the BBC would would be wetting their knickers with dribbling joy at your skills in inference by omission!

Doonhamer said...

Is there an on line petition to add name to?

Anonymous said...

The smaller that the echo chambers become, the louder the racket within.

There's a big, big world out there, and it is moving on.

DiscoveredJoys said...

There are people who wish to reform the BBC and keep 'the good bits'. I suspect that the rot has gone too far.

I offer an example of the BBC message creep (or should that be Creep's message?). Terry Wogan and his Posse were a much liked breakfast program on Radio 2. But it played to the sensibilities of the unreconstructed audience too much and the Posse part was disbanded producing greyer flatter broadcasts. Then our Tel was exiled to a Sunday morning radio program and Chris Evans took over the daily slot, increasing the amount of virtue signalling to protect his place. He too was displaced in due course for being too uncontrollable perhaps?

So now the breakfast program on Radio 2 is dire but on message. And in a masterful stroke the BBC honoured Sir Terry by renaming a building 'Wogan House'.

And that is why I think the BBC must be disbanded. Reform will take too long and meet too much resistance. Better to get rid and start again (if still needed).

Span Ows said...

Good post and I agree entirely.

Doonhammer, there are/were too many petitions that won't get enough names because they are not focussed enough and "auntie" still has mammoth support for the drama/sport/documentary side (even though, as mentioned many times before by various, even those are infused with the bias [sorry Michael])

There is a Gofundme but that is more aimed at decriminalising the non-paying of the BBC poll Tax.

https://uk.gofundme.com/f/defund-the-bbc

Doonhamer said...

Span Ows, thank you.
More and more I find I have less and less desire to watch or listen to BBC.
It seems to be infected by a rot which spreads and bespoils even niche corners with political message, terrible frontground noise, mumbled speech, terrible lighting, hackneyed predictable news and documentaries, patronising interaction with general public, etc. etc. --- you know the rest.
Fyfe Robertson, Ludovic Kennedy, Bill McLaren,you are sorely missed.
I would stop paying the license tax, but I am an aging minority in my household.

Stephen J said...

My son has cancelled his BBC licence and informed them that he has done so and why (the usual).

I gather that the licence covers areas that are not within the BBC's remit. Live broadcasts being one that is affected, even if dreamt up, made and shown by a different organisation.

I would be happier if the BBC licence covered ONLY the IP that was actually made by the BBC. If that was the case, I would cancel my licence immediately. In the meantime, I will just choose to not watch it.

Of course, the government see no problem with the BBC model, since it uses the same approach for all its financial dealings.

Gun... Meet head.

DJK said...

Revolutions eventually consume their children, so today's woke will be out-woked and denounced in their turn, until the whole thing collapses from its internal instability.

We gave up our BBC license five years ago. Don't miss it at all. For entertainment, Netflix is far better, with many excellent foreign language series, most of which would never have been seen on the BBC. That to me is true diversity, not the woke BBC kind which makes every time and place full of identikit race/gender quotas, spouting left-wing platitudes.

Anonymous said...

DP writes
I wouldn't mind left wing platitudes, if there was truth somewhere. But the fact is that Leftist ideas have been the greatest mass murderers in history.
Even ignoring that, the BBC is full of sneering commentators, who are generally uneducated in everything but the agitprop they acquired at university- and sneering at that.

DP.

Dave_G said...


A true indication of change at the BBC would be their dropping the "science is settled" attitude and debating like an adult.

But what is even the JUSTIFICATION for having a 'BBC' when Government diktat could allow them to demand access via ANY outlet if the need arose? BBC productions are less 'BBC' than simply them funneling the funds to the right external production team - something any broadcaster can do.

BBC bias is now open, obvious, insulting and controlling. Our Government and media simarly insult us by referring to Russia as being 'controlled and evil' and quietly smirking as they do so.

Anonymous said...

Biassed BBC writes

The biased Far Left BBC continues to re announce ‘job losses ‘, closing programmes and then ‘saving ‘ them as though we care about them . The truth is that the social campaigning propaganda onslaught is being noticed by more and more people who are forced by law pay for the poison .

https://biasedbbc.org/blog/2020/07/17/weekend-thread-18-july-2020/#comments

Is the BBC announcing job losses to guilt shame the government o offset their extravagent life styles and salaries, the re-employing them later - backdoor. It wouldn't surprise me, as the BBC, like its Far left ideological fellow travelers, is adept at re-writing history.

DP

Anonymous said...

The BBC are not stupid. They know that they are despised by a majority the population. But they carry on regardless, as they know that they wont get this chance of broadcasting left wing propaganda world wide, hiding behind a global BBC reputation, and funded by the UK tax payer.

Stephen J said...

I believe that it was Margaret Thatcher who said something about socialists and other people's money.

Whilst that sentiment from her might constitute a pots and kettles comparison. It is not a lie.

John Brown said...

I think 520 BBC news staff have been made redundant so that different staff can be engaged.

I see that not only are the BBC interviewing left wing activists and presenting them as if they are random people off the street but are now happy to employ these people as reporters.

The “news”, which is very selective, is delivered in a patronising way with phrases like “We will now turn our attention to…”

I have no problem with BBC bias with news analysis provided it allows programmes to be made with alternative views. The BBC is large enough and well enough funded to be one organisation with two cultures.

The BBC clearly hate the English and have been gaslighting us ever since the EU referendum was announced if not before.

It even exists in their sports reports. I have no objection to being informed that the England team played badly and were poor and deserved to lose. But I do not expect a BBC reporter to say that they were happy the opposing team won.

Greg T said...

What utter fucking lying trash
Would you prefer faux news & DrGoeebels, or Pravda - because that's what you will get

The BBC is irreplaceable, stupid morons

I HATE any braidcast or programme with interspersed adverts
REMINDER: I do not have a TV

Stephen J said...

Greg...

Even more reason to "defund the BBC" then.

If it is irreplaceable, it will get even more financial support than it currently extracts from our forced subscriptions.

DiscoveredJoys said...

@ Greg T

Nothing and no-one is irreplaceable. We may or may not appreciate the replacement but the world is a very different place than it was when the BBC was founded.

Mark said...

@Greg T

The reason why you are so butthurt is that your head is jammed so far up it.

Nigel Sedgwick said...

Well, Greg T writes above: "The BBC is irreplaceable, stupid morons"

Now, this could be interpreted as the BBC being stupid morons of such class that they are irreplaceable.

However, I will treat it in the manner that Greg T probably intended - and with which I have a bit of agreement. The BBC is irreplaceable, but ...

What we actually need is the creation of BOBC: The British Other Broadcasting Corporation. BOBC should be funded with half of the licence fee, such that the BBC start getting only half of what they currently get. Half of all the equipment (transmitters, studios, channels, etc) should be transferred from the BBC to the BOBC. Half the technical staff should be transferred too. The BOBC and the BBC will continue to carry no advertisements.

Concerning journalistic, editorial and creative staff, for 5 years, BOBC shall be staffed (in those categories) only by those who have been 'driven out' of or otherwise disadvantaged by the BBC and the like: for Wokeness and its fellow-travelling politics. BOBC's equivalent of Panorama shall be called "What You've Been Missing on the BBC for Years".

I look forward to waking every morning to BOBC Radio Delta's "Now!" programme.

And I look forward to dropping off to the BOBC Worldly Service - who shall, of course, have half the current BBC's world-wide transmitters and other channels. The half BOBC gets shall be for coverage eastwards between longitude degrees 0 and 179 East; the BBC shall retain for coverage westward between longitude degrees 0 and 179 West. Those westward between longditude degrees 179 West and 179 East (so 2 degrees of longditude)

The founding Chairman of the Board of Trustees of BOBC shall be Rod Liddle, and the founding Director General shall be Andrew Neil. Trevor Phillips shall be the first BOBC Head of Educational Programmes and Melanie Phillips shall be the first BOBC Head of Religious Programmes. There shall be no diversity coordinators nor diversity quotas. Journalistic/artistic recruitment shall be entirely on well established appropriate journalistic/artistic merit - evidenced by at least the last decade of employment (yes, that long) being outside the BBC.

Keep safe and best regards

Thud said...

Greg, fox for all its faults allows the views of the left to be represented by individuals without patronising or insulting them, you seem to fit in with the Beebs worldview and attitude perfectly,thanks for the reminder.

Nick Drew said...

@ I have a feeling in my bones that peak woke has passed, in the UK anyway

I know what you mean, there is clear evidence of over-reach (trans rights on a self-ID basis is in many ways the perfect reductio ad absurdum) and it's also clear that Starmer sees the dangers of the Labour Party being seen by electors as the Woke Party

But ... to your qualifying comment: just check out what's happening in US universities. Frightening - and with obvious potential for contagion

Bloke in Callao said...

Greg T.- So you weren't one of the 520 then.

Anonymous said...

The BBC is essential to the UK Government - since its inception in fact. The word 'control' is probably the most accurate way to measure its worth. Democracy is one thing as it determines the direction of travel between elections, but influencing the population is the job of the BBC and it is there all the time. On a given day the world will produce x amount of news; the BBC will then filter and omit, you get their version or none.

According to the BBC on May 25, in Minneapolis, a black man was "killed" by a white police officer who kneeled on his neck for 8 minutes.

Twenty-four hours on his autopsy revealed he had no injuries to his neck, head, chest, shoulders or back. It also says he had severe arterial sclerosis, sickle cell disease and was positive for Covid-19. He also had a lethal level of fentanyl in his blood. Cause of death: cardiopulmonary arrest.

The reason most people don't know about the autopsy result is news of it could change the narrative of a racist white police force destroying innocent black lives. In this case BBC filters and omits to protect a narrative.

Steve

Anonymous said...

Steve

18 July 2020 at 18:07

The BBC will only ever report on what they consider to be a Socialist viewpoint. If only people would wake up!

Span Ows said...

Greg T: "Would you prefer faux news & DrGoeebels, or Pravda - because that's what you will get

Get? You clearly have NO idea. I know you're not joking, nor am I. In fact your tirade would seem to make you a "little Englander", no?

Stevem indeed, and it wasn't hidden, it was made public, something the media, after all the attention on the death, should have diseminated. They are evil.

Greg T said...

Well my LWB Land-Rover, which arsehole Khan is proposing to steal is irreplacable.
I regard the BBC in the same light.

Span Owls
No - I am so not little-englander that I regard Brexshit as a total disaster.

Anonymous said...

Stingey, your problem and that of your ilk, is that you cant get your way so you stomp around like a child.

But you're a grown man (I presume) so fuck off; we dont run our society based on the whinges of the entitled.

If the BBC is so good, and so revered, it will have no problems with a subscription model with millions of customers as yourself.

Or so you fear, that as usual, you're a loud but small minority?

Mark said...

Troll, you've no more got an LWB land rover than I've got a DB5 with an ejector seat!

Raedwald said...

Uhm, Greg T's ancient Landy has often featured on here in the past, though I suspect it's almost as arthritic as Greg himself lol ..

Nessimmersion said...

Anyone else noticed the screaming hypocrisy of BBC Washingtoncorrespondent Jan Sopel high mindedly condemning bias in the American press then going on to deliver a nightly 5 minutes on everything Trump has done wrong today because orange man bad.

Span Ows said...

Nessimmersion, 09:46, been like that for years/decades. Mark Fat-Boy Mardell was a peach: Obamaessiah worship for all 8 years. literally nothing bad.

DeeDee99 said...

You'd think, after all the years of incessant left-wing propaganda and bullying, the Not-a-Conservative-Party would summon up the courage to scrap the licence poll tax and make the BBC compete with the likes of Netflix.

But they haven't and don't appear to be planning it any time soon.

Can someone please find the Prime Ministers spine from wherever it's been stashed and reinsert it. Preferable with a very hefty shove from behind.

Lord Haw Hall said...

If the BBC, as they claim, are so universally admired, they will easily thrive on a subscription only model. Available to everyone. In every country.

If they are not as admired as they like to claim, they will disappear.

It is a fairly simple test. One the BBc themselves seem to be pretty unwilling to undertake.

John Brown said...

Greg T @ 18 July 2020 at 11:11

“Would you prefer faux news & DrGoeebels, or Pravda - because that's what you will get.
The BBC is irreplaceable, stupid morons”

The BBC doesn’t use “faux news” to bend the news to its views. It achieves its objectives by the use of highly selective news and interviews.

The BBC fails in its duty to be a broadcaster funded by a tax on every TV in the country because it only chooses news which suits the narrative and belief of half the country.

Anonymous said...

Nessimmersion said @ 09:46

'Anyone else noticed the screaming hypocrisy of BBC Washington correspondent Jan Sopel..'

Oh yes. Sopel is the BBC's North America Editor no less - his TDS is as obvious as his drinker's nose. Sopel's glaring omissions during the impeachment hearings earlier this year included him going AWOL at critical moments. Nothing was mentioned about the way the Democrats were behaving: Trumps 4th and 5th Amendments Rights were comprehensively denied. (The Bill of Rights applies to every citizen, including the President).

Should the BBC be explaining the absence of 'due process' with regard to the impeachment of the 45th the President of the United States?

Steve

Nick Drew said...

On the subject of Peak Woke having maybe passed - the Beeb itself is showing signs ...

http://www.cityunslicker.co.uk/2020/07/bbc-bad-and-very-good.html