In a conversation on the BBC blog Will & Testament, I made the following comments which relate to some of my earlier articles regarding the BBC:

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To understand the BBC, you must understand the UK. I would describe Britain as having one foot in America, one foot in Europe. This is evident culturally and politically. To that extent, you have people in Britain who identify more with more American ideas and those who identify more with European ideas. The dominant trend among more educated, thinking people in Britain – the kind who are journalists – is to identify more with leftwing European politics. If you were to take a poll of BBC journalists, perhaps using a quiz of this nature, you’d find that the vast majority will reveal themselves to be centre/left, to some degree. In some of the newsrooms I’ve been in, a ‘conservative’ would have a tough time. They’d be a minority.

And this is the case across the board in ‘thinking’ circles in Britain. Why else would there be such a revolt against Channel Four for screening Martin Durkin’s ‘The Great Global Warming Swindle’ to give the other side of the story on climate change? No matter what one thinks of the claims of that documentary (and they’re controversial), the network was deluged with calls and the regulatory body Ofcom recieved hundreds of complaints about its airing, some from fellow journalists. In the worldview of Britain’s liberal media, there was no room for such a documentary. (Doubt that? Check your local listings for similar content.)

But our principal criticism should not be levelled at the BBC. It should be levelled at the British government who, despite the pantomime of a costly, lengthy and involved Charter Review, did nothing to change the way the BBC is funded and instead continues to issue its funding by means of government agents collecting it from citizens involuntarily, under ultimate threat of imprisonment, whether the populace agrees or not. That is what’s dispicable. The Balen Report is an indictment, yes, but only because the BBC is given the status of an ‘official’ broadcaster, of the sanction of government, under the guise of being in the “public good”.

The long and the short?: Perhaps unbalanced journalism would not matter quite so much were it not done with the incredible arrogance of using my money, whether I wish to give it or not.

John Wright