Brussels Broadcasting Corporation

[-:Undertaker:-]

http://conservativehome.blogs.com/thetorydiary/2011/12/cameron-enjoys-his-best-ever-newspaper-coverage-but-the-bbc-is-spinning-for-brussels.html

Cameron enjoys his best ever newspaper coverage but the BBC is spinning for Brussels


http://conservativehome.blogs.com/.a/6a00d83451b31c69e20154381ce71d970c-500wi


If you read ConHome's front page today you'll get links to probably the best press that Cameron has enjoyed since becoming Prime Minister. Each columnist is competing to outdo the others. "Genius," declares Peter Oborne. Cameron has been braver, in a sense, than any previous Prime Minister, says Charles Moore. And the most surprising bouquet of all comes from one of the PM's most relentless critics... "Today I salute Mr Cameron," proclaims Simon Heffer. Yes, Simon Heffer.

The feeling is not shared at the BBC. George Osborne has just told John Humphrys not to be so gloomy about the outcome. Mr Osborne challenged the Today programme interviewer about his wholly negative questioning. Sometimes it is right, he said, to reject a deal if it isn't good enough for Britain and the BBC should recognise this.

The BBC's coverage over the last 24 hours has been doom-laden. Even the contributor on Thought for the Day was talking up the isolation theme, warning it can be "scary". Today's other main guests of the day were Lord Heseltine (groan) and the Editor of the pro-€uro FT.

Tory MPs have noticed. Karl McCartney tweeted that there were two ways of describing the EU outcome. You could emphasise the Labour line that Britain was isolated (although let's not give up on the CHUKS group) or you could stress that the PM had defended Britain's interests. Karl concluded: "So no prizes for guessing which one the BBC led with on 1800 news bulletin last night. & they wonder why we accuse them of inbuilt bias".

Quoted in the Daily Mail, Peter Bone MP has also slammed the BBC's coverage:

"‘The BBC seemed to be using language that suggested it was a disaster. It was being pro-EU and anti-British, and it was in marked contrast to how other major news organisations reported it. ‘In fact, it was a triumph for Britain and a triumph for the Prime Minister. When it comes to Europe, the BBC is institutionally biased.’"

The negative headlines are expected in the Guardian/'Independent' and the Daily Mirror, but as for the BBC which claims to be impartial and is funded by the taxpayers by force.. the show of bias is ridiculous. Headlines such as 'Britain isolated' and so on, it really takes the biscuit. I have to say, Sky News is also strangely acting the same way but at least Sky News is a service which you choose to pay for, as are the Guardian/Independent and Daily Mirror.

But why would the BBC choose to cover the story in such a way? apart from being left wing and generally anti-British (the two often come together after all) the BBC is funded by the European Union to the tune of £150 million a year along with the fact that it has a former EU Commissioner (Lord Patten) as it's head of the BBC Trust. In accepting the £150m a year from the EU, that buys a lot of favourable coverage.

Not mentioning the fact that Lord Patten has an EU pension which forbids criticism of the EU project.

Thoughts?

[Chippiewill]

This is the impression I got, I would expect the absolute opposite from the BBC which at times is the most impartial of the new outlets but their coverage of this is almost as bad as RP and Fox news.

Perhaps to some it wasn't the best outcome but the tone of the interviewer was questionable at best.

If the BBC are to continue to do this then I say they should have their state funding removed, I like what they do however I'm not really liking the idea of a VVendeta kinda vibe I'm getting off of this.

[jam666]

I would expect the absolute opposite from the BBC which at times is the most impartial of the new outlets

The BBC has never been impartial on anything, infact its so biased towards the left I literally cannot stand to watch it and refuse to do so.

You could say Sky is right wing but they are hardly the next FOX and offer two sides to every story (although similar to the BBC in this veto case).

As for ITN, well thats similar to the Brussels Broadcasting Corporation :P. only difference been it isn't funded by the tax payers!

[Ajthedragon]

I wanted to shout at the television at thecoverage. This was about as bias as you get, are the BBC still bitter about the freeze on the television licence? Clearly.

Frankly for once I agree with the Daily Mail. "The day he stood up for Britain".

And that's from a pro-EU who as of this weekend thinks we have no choice now but to leave. It's Germany's Union, not ours, apparently...

[FlyingJesus]

To be fair the whole point of free press is that they're allowed to put whatever bias they want on stories

[GeorginaxD]

To be fair the whole point of free press is that they're allowed to put whatever bias they want on stories
Yes, but I believe the BBC shouldn't be biased as it is funded by the tax payer.

[FlyingJesus]

I agree that some of their reports do go a bit too far one way or the other but there's literally no way of having an unbiased story without simply having a bullet-point list of the facts, which no-one would want toread :P

[GommeInc]

I agree that some of their reports do go a bit too far one way or the other but there's literally no way of having an unbiased story without simply having a bullet-point list of the facts, which no-one would want toread :P
Strangely they've bullet-pointed some of their articles to avoid bias :P They're usually decent enough at making their reports unbiased, but they've let slip lately. They seem to be writing pro-EU articles these days, but I guess the EU is a bigger topic than the on-going cases of Apple suing Motorola and vice versa. Heck, the latest EU based article seems to be in support of Clegg and his disappointment over the veto, and how it will hurt Britain (not sure who he is though, looks like Cameron's tea lady).

[Fez]

"The BBC is not impartial or neutral. It's a publicly funded, urban organisation with an abnormally large number of young people, ethnic minorities, and gay people. It has a liberal bias, not so much a party-political bias. It is better expressed as a cultural liberal bias." - Andrew Marr.