Thread by @docrussjackson

THREAD

For all those denying any #BBCBias on @BBCNews & @BBCPolitics shows, here's some of the formal 'corrections & clarifications' to "mistakes" made by the @BBC in 2019, which all *completely coincidentally* helped the Tories by damaging @UKLabour's reputation.

The audience laughing at Boris Johnson during the @bbcquestiontime Leaders Debate about his response to a question about 'trust' was *accidentally* edited out.

When Boris Johnson completely messed up Remembrance day by setting off to early then laying a wreath upside-down, the @BBC *accidentally* showed footage from the previous year.

Also, Fiona Bruce on @bbcquestiontime saying Vote Leave did NOT break the law - when they DID.

The @BBC *accidentally* massively inflating allegations of antisemitism within @UKLabour.

The @BBC *accidentally* amplifying a tweet from a fake Tom Watson @twitter account, *accidentally* misrepresenting @UKLabour MP's views on Brexit and *accidentally* misquoting criticism of Labour's New Green Deal proposals.

The @BBC *accidentally* failing to correct a guest's assertion that a @UKLabour MP was facing deselection when she wasn't.

The @BBC *accidentally* claiming a union official was being readmitted to @UKLabour when she'd never left.

When @HackneyAbbott said @UKLabour were level pegging in the polls on @bbcquestiontime, Fiona Bruce *accidentally* said Labour were definitely behind - when Labour were level pegging.

When criticising @UKLabour's 'Race & Faith' manifesto, the @BBC's Victoria Derbyshire *accidentally* said there was NO mention of Islam, when it made explicit mentions of both Muslims and Islamophobia.

@UKLabour @BBC On the relentless & disproportionate attention @BBCNews & @BBCPolitics gives to @UKLabour & antisemitism compared to other parties:

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1203970689738379270

@UKLabour @BBC @BBCNews @BBCPolitics Here's @bbclaurak chatting with Jeremy Hunt about his 'unquestionable' commitment to the #NHS.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1204161434084663300

An article considering some of the structural & institutional factors that constrain the @BBC’s journalism, suggesting that its intimate relationship with elite power has long undermined its ability to act as a reliable & independent check on power.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.117…

Here's a selection of other peer-reviewed articles addressing other aspects of the institutional & structural bias of @BBCNews & @BBCPolitics, including its worryingly disproportionate use of right wing newspapers & right wing think tanks who often refuse to reveal their funders.

Also extremely concerning is the fact that there are numerous senior & high profile known right wing presenters & editors on (combined with the complete absence of ANY known left wing presenters or editors on ANY) national @BBCNews or @BBCPolitics shows.

#BBCBias

In June 2019, more than half of all guests who appeared on the @BBCPolitics flagship political shows were Tories:

Tories 50.17%
Labour 14.03%
LibDems 2.85%
Brexit 2.46%
SNP 1.75%

Why has our @BBC faciltated a hard-right takeover of Britain?

#BBCBias

thenational.scot/news/17754210.…

As @BBC Director General Tony Hall has done just this week, back in 2017, right after an election in which clear @BBCBias was again observable, BBC chair David Clementi called for an end to 'abuse' of BBC journalists.

Let's talk about David Clementi...

theguardian.com/media/2017/sep…

@BBC Chairman Clementi spent 22 years at investment bank Kleinwort Benson, was chairman of Prudential & Virgin Money, ex-Deputy Gov of Bank of England, advised Thatcher on the privatisation of BT & encouraged her to press ahead with the privatisation of more than 50 companies.

Reported hate crimes in England & Wales have doubled since 2013, to 103,379 during 2018/19:

76% race-related

14,491 sexual orientation

8,256 disabled people

3,530 Muslims

1,326 Jews.

So why has @BBCNews ignored most hate crimes & focussed relentlessly on just one type?

And here Peter Oborne offers his own account of the @BBC's right wing bias. He suggests it always tends to support the Govt of the day - but what we're witnessing now is unprecedented, sinister & catastrophic for Britain's most vulnerable, & our democracy.
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Another example of what's wrong with @BBCNews/@BBCPolitics was when @bbclaurak - having been told by two senior (undisclosed) 'Tory sources' - uncritically reported the lie that Matt Hancock's assistant had been punched by a bussed-in @UKLabour supporter.

indy100.com/article/laura-…

'Imagine Corbyn had hid in a fridge, expelled former ministers or angrily snatched a phone because it showed a picture of a sick child left on a hospital floor, or @UKLabour had doctored films - @BBC would cancel shows for a "Corbynastrophe" special.'

independent.co.uk/voices/general…

"Two days before the election, the first five minutes of the @BBCNews was about a @UKLabour MP saying in a secretly recorded phone call he didn’t think Labour could win. So a historically crucial period in history was reduced to office tittle-tattle."

@mrmarksteel

Here's a few recent questions from the increasingly farcical @bbcquestiontime, which out of the tens of thousands who apply to be in the audience, mysteriously manages to attract an endless supply of known Tory & right wing activists, many of whom make multiple appearances...

Despite @BBC guidance on applying to be on @bbcquestiontime suggesting audience members don't apply more than once in 10 years, well known Tory canvasser Ryan Jacobsz, who accused Corbyn of antisemitism in the #bbcqt Leaders Debate, has been on #bbcqt asking questions four times.

In June, Chomsky pointed out that despite Bernie Sanders being by far the most popular political figure in the USA, "you hardly see a mention of him anywhere" on National US broadcast news, & "the @BBC is the same": Sanders is almost invisible hete too.

mronline.org/2019/06/21/sti…

@BBC A special mention goes to @Emmabarnett for 'Most Ridiculous/Revealing Question From A @BBC Journalist', when she asked @AngelaRayner during a @bbcquestiontime election special whether @UKLabour would “nationalise sausages” if they won the election.

standard.co.uk/news/politics/…

@BBC @Emmabarnett @AngelaRayner @bbcquestiontime @UKLabour Here's another possibly Freudian/unconscious mistake from @BBC political correspondent Alex Forsyth: “They (Tories) have done a relentless focus on Boris Johnson’s promise to take the UK out of the EU if he wins the majority *that he so deserves*.”

https://twitter.com/i/status/1204842268890402818/video/1

@BBC @Emmabarnett @AngelaRayner @bbcquestiontime @UKLabour The relationship between journalist's beliefs & news decisions is strongest in systems where partisanship is an acknowledged component of news coverage, but it impacts on news decisions in ALL news arenas, even those bound by law or tradition to a policy of political neutrality.

@BBC @Emmabarnett @AngelaRayner @bbcquestiontime @UKLabour Finally, I want to make something crystal clear. Britain NEEDS the @BBC. It’s an amazing institution, with some brilliant people & it makes a fantastic contribution to our society, culture, & country. It helps to bring & hold the country together - especially in times of crisis.

The @BBC’s mission is "to act in the public interest, serving all audiences through the provision of impartial, high-quality & distinctive output & services which inform, educate & entertain", & these foundational principles are honourable, & as needed today as ever before.

The @BBC has five public purposes:

1 To support learning for people of all ages

2 To show the most creative, highest quality & distinctive output & services

3 To reflect the United Kingdom, its culture & values to the world...

4 To reflect, represent & serve the diverse communities of all the UK’s nations & regions &, in doing so, support the creative economy across the UK

It's last public purpose is, arguably, its most important &, given the most right wing govt in UK history, currently most needed:

"To provide impartial news & information to help people understand & engage with the world around them".

Sadly, as this thread, & the known political allegiance of the overwhelming majority @BBCNews & @BBCPolitics presenters & editors shows, it is failing in this purpose.

To help save the @BBC, I implore ALL @BBCNews & @BBCPolitics staff & supporters to undertake a period of self-reflection & critical, rational, evidence-based analysis of its recent output, in order to make it truly impartial.

Because without the @BBC, we’d all be much worse off.

@BBC @BBCNews @BBCPolitics PS

Public access link to the excellent: “Public Service” & the Journalism Crisis: Is the BBC the Answer?

It argues that the @BBC's "intimate relationship with elite power has long undermined its ability to act as a reliable & independent check on power."
researchgate.net/publication/32…

And ex-Goldman Sachs banker Richard Sharp, who gave the Tories over £400,000, is now @BBC Chair, & the new Director General Tim Davie stood as a Tory councillor & was deputy chair of the Hammersmith & Fulham Conservative party!

Can't wait for Paul Dacre to become @Ofcom Chief!

BONUS QUOTE:

Given the new @BBC Chair gave the Tories £400,000, & the new Director General used to be a regional Tory Party Deputy Chair, & Paul Dacre is Boris Johnson's favourite to be @Ofcom Chief & BBC regulator:

A few anti-Left corrections & clarifications I missed:

In relation to @UKLabour's tax plans, *accidentally* saying the wealthiest 1% in the UK 'carry about 27% of the tax base', when this refers to just income tax - about 75% of Govt money generated by tax are from other taxes.

Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg *accidentally* totally misrepresenting Rebecca Long-Bailey in a tweet which made RLB look like a total idiot, & the @BBC doubling down by kindly explaining that Kuenssberg didn't mean to give the impression that she gave.

*Accidentally* allowing a contributor to make a completely misleading Culture War-fueling claim about Britain abolishing slavery 50 years before the USA did, *coincidentally* during a debate about the Last Night of the Proms.

*Accidentally* fueling Culture War anti-migrant sentiment by stating that under EU law refugees are required to claim asylum in the first safe country they arrive in. They are asylum seekers until they get refugee status, & there's no such legal requirement for them to do so.

*Accidentally stating “there are former Labour ministers and former Labour Prime Ministers who are on the phone, texting their successors all the time on behalf of companies that they have an interest in."

*Accidentally* editing an interview to make it seem as though an interviewee was claiming that “every day” people in the Labour party told her “Hitler was right, Hitler did not go far enough”, which is NOT what the interviewee said.

*Accidentally* falsely claiming that Jeremy Corbyn was not being allowed to stand as a Labour candidate in the next GE “because he refused to accept a highly critical report by the Equality & Human Rights Commission on antisemitism within Labour during his leadership.”

*Accidentally* failing to challenge Nadine Dorries' unhinged, misleading, & unevidenced rant about Sue Gray & Keir Starmer being 'personal friends', & Sue Gray being 'politically motivated' when writing her report into #Partygate last year.

*Accidentally* reinforcing the Big Lie about Jeremy Corbyn’s “refusal to offer up any kind of apology” for any antisemitism in Labour, & *accidentally* questioning whether he would refuse to apologise “as he has all the way up to now”.

(Corbyn apologised on numerous occasions).

*Accidentally* claiming a Labour Council “lost hundreds of millions by investing in solar farms which saw very poor returns”, when NONE of its solar investments have ever lost money and continue to perform well.

*Accidentally* claiming there had been “several demonstrations across Britain during which people voiced their backing for Hamas” despite very little evidence of any significant support for Hamas during these demonstrations.

*Accidentally* saying Bethlehem is “in the West Bank in Israel” when it's in the Israeli-occupied West Bank of the State of Palestine.

*Accidentally* saying Andy McDonald had been suspended by Labour for ‘an alleged antisemitic remark’.

Andy was suspended for saying ‘We will not rest until we have justice. Until all people, Israelis & Palestinians, between the river & the sea, can live in peaceful liberty.’

*Accidentally* saying the union Unite was being investigated for fraud, bribery and money laundering, when it was an individual who worked for Unite who is being investigated on these allegations.