Thread by @shaunjlawson

The BBC is a state propaganda service, and has proven itself as such for well over a decade. Thanks to the BBC:

- We didn't know Iraq didn't have any WMD, because it preferred a drumbeat to war instead

- Much of the public still thinks Labour "maxed out the credit card"

- The victims of austerity, including the hundreds of thousands who died, weren't covered AT ALL

- The BBC reinforced the nonsense narrative about a 'coalition of chaos' under Ed Miliband

- Brexit happened because the BBC never discussed the actual, real issues

- Other than one interview by Eddie Mair, the truth about Boris Johnson was NEVER told

- The reality of his Brexit 'deal' was NEVER explained

- The reality of why Theresa May couldn't get her deal through Parliament was NEVER explained

- Donald Trump was normalised

- The appalling Katty Kay tried to both sides the first Presidential debate, in which Trump insulted Biden throughout and even exposed him to Covid

- Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters were all demonised and treated as some evil enemy

- Rishi Sunak was hailed as Superman

- Laura Kuenssberg described an attempted coup against the US in the following terms

https://twitter.com/bbclaurak/status/1346907138678018051

- John Humphrys spent day after day, week after week, month after month, lying to the audience about Brexit

- Racism profiteer and Brexit supporter Andrew Neil was continually amplified

- Nigel Farage was popularised, despite never having won a single parliamentary election

- Menthorn Media, with clear links to the far right and Britain First, took over the production of Question Time

- Fiona Bruce thought it was funny to spread salacious nonsense to the audience about Corbyn and Diane Abbott before the latter's appearance

- Someone claiming 80K was the 'average salary' was allowed to do so unchecked and unchallenged

- Purdah laws were broken all over the place by the BBC in 2019, with zero consequences whatever

- Economic migrants, refugees and asylum seekers were ALL lumped into one category

- Climate change truth tellers and climate change deniers were treated as equivalent

- Alan Dershowitz was treated as an 'expert commentator' on Ghislaine Maxwell

- All sorts of 'unfortunate errors' were made against Labour and for the Tories throughout the 2019 GE campaign

- The lies of the right wing press are routinely amplified every single day in unquestioning, unserious 'newspaper reviews'

And many, many, many more. Even when the BBC Trust ruled against Kuenssberg, her lies about Corbyn stayed on the BBC website.

It's not the 1980s any more. There aren't four terrestial TV channels and little other choice by way of what we might term stationary leisure activities any more.

There's a massive array of choice along with alternative media and the internet itself.

And the BBC isn't more accurate or honest than those other options. It is entirely dependent on government fiat... and therefore in the government's pocket.

We haven't learned about partygate through the BBC.

We didn't learn about the Tories sending tens of billions to their pals through the BBC either.

It spent much of 2020 and 2021 desperately saying nothing about that monumental national scandal and state-sponsored fraud.

Occasionally, you get something different. @BBCRosAtkins exemplifies what the BBC is *supposed to be*, but no longer is in any substantive way.

But I'm sorry. We don't need a poll tax for the right to watch television in 2022. Least of all when it pays for propaganda.

We don't need a poll tax to fund a corporation which has wilfully, laughingly enabled the ongoing destruction of the UK over the past 12 years, and facilitated mass public ignorance on just about anything to do with politics and public policy.

We don't need a poll tax to punish extraordinary numbers of women with criminal records or worse, nor to subject viewers and listeners alike to blanket, two-day-long coverage across all channels of the death of a 99-year-old.

Increasing mental health issues during a pandemic.

Murdoch will be beside himself with glee, of course. However, he's also 90 and might not even be around by 2027.

It's up to the left, liberals, moderates, you name it, to develop their own media, just like they have in the US. And to help the public educate itself.

That used to be the BBC's remit. Now, its response to the government telling it to jump is to ask: "How high?"

It has done this TO ITSELF. I lament the passing of what it once was. I won't lament the passing of what it now is: a smug, self-satisfied national disgrace.

Only a week or two back, it cancelled the voices of scores of Jewish socialists expelled from Labour by Keir Starmer.

Because we musn't have anything that challenges bullshit, false narratives, must we? Let's amplify and parrot those lies instead.

#ItWasAScam

And yes, I know it does important work in other areas. Frankly, whatever.

If it's that good at what it does, it'll find alternative funding. Like, y'know, every other media organisation.

But as far as BBC News and Politics goes: fuck them.

And SHAME ON THEM for their self-serving, Tory-enabling lies. Lies which have killed plenty, and will continue to do so.

The role of journalism is to speak truth to power. It is not to parrot power's lies and punch down on its countless victims.

The BBC doesn't do much by way of credible journalism any longer. So it shouldn't receive public funding any longer. Period.

I'll leave you with an article about the consequences of non-payment of the poll tax for women. Outrageous and indefensible.

independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…

PS. Oh yes, how could I forget?

Climate meltdown is fast approaching. Labour wanted to do something about it: to help humanity have a future.

THIS was Emma Barnett's treatment of that issue in front of the nation. Nobody should publicly fund THIS.

https://twitter.com/ianbirrell/status/1204155490558775308