The director general of the BBC admitted today that his organisation had been guilty of a “massive bias to the left” but said “a completely different generation” of journalists now works at the broadcaster. Mark Thompson told the right-of-centre Spectator magazine that there was an institutional bias when he joined the organisation, reinforcing the findings of a 2007 internal report which concluded that greater efforts were required to avoid liberal bias.
“In the BBC I joined 30 years ago, there was, in much of current affairs, in terms of people’s personal politics, which were quite vocal, a massive bias to the left,” Mr Thompson said. “The organisation did struggle then with impartiality. And journalistically, staff were quite mystified by the early years of Thatcher. Now it is a completely different generation. There is much less overt tribalism among the young journalists who work for the BBC,” he added.
Outlining his hopes for the relationship between the national broadcaster and the new Conservative-led coalition government, Mr Thompson said: “What we want is an effective and businesslike relationship with government - it’s not about personal relations.”
(Source: AFP)
on Sep 2nd, 2010 at 17:18
Thompson is playing to the sensibilities of the current government, nothing more, during a time of budgetary stress and government pressure. He offers no evidence whatsoever to support his “thesis”–and he can’t because there isn’t any. But he does the institution itself as well as its long serving professional staff no favors with such an outrageous statement. For one thing, he calls into question the BBC’s hard-earned reputation for excellence in news gathering, reporting and analysis. It’s as if he is now acknowledging that it was all done with mirrors, that its critics and apologists on the right were correct all along, and that today’s BBC (under his leadership, of course) is a far better iteration. The truth is that today’s BBC has lost its way, compromised its public service principles by substituting commercial media mores in many respects. And in doing so it has lost its focus–its soul, if you will–and become far too much like its supposed competition. In leaving those important principles behind, it has relinquished its unique position on the media landscape and played right into the hands of those who would diminish it and even eviscerate it in the name of “competitive fairness”. That is not to say that the BBC had no need to move with the times, but in many ways it has moved without thoughtful consideration and aped those who were quite a few notches below it. It’s management should have sought to beat them, not join them.
on Sep 2nd, 2010 at 17:57
I couldn’t agree more! As a listener of the BBC since a few decades, I fully agree with you John.
on Sep 2nd, 2010 at 18:07
Well said, John!