BBC Bias
The Telegraph reports:
The report, commissioned by the BBC Trust, found the broadcaster had been “slow” to catch up with public opinion on immigration and leaving the European Union.
Stuart Prebble, a former ITV television executive, said the BBC had probably been too swayed by the views of politicians, who were also reluctant to discuss immigration for fear of causing offence.
It said Helen Boaden, the former director of BBC News, “accepts that when she came into her role in September 2004 there had been a problem in the BBC’s coverage of immigration. She was aware, she told us, of a ‘deep liberal bias’ in the way that the BBC approached the topic”.
A useful admission. Was it deliberate?
It also said the BBC was “slow to give appropriate prominence to the growing weight of opinion opposing UK membership of the EU, but in more recent times has achieved a better balance”.
The review also identified problems with so many BBC journalists working in a big building and reinforcing each other’s prejudices.
“A large group of people working together are in danger of becoming more homogenous in their thinking, not less, and so less able to see when the output reflects a narrow outlook,” he said.
That is the danger in NZ. Not deliberate bias, but just group-think that is hostile to other views.
I support marriage equality. But I think it is a fair point that if there was a journalist in say the press gallery who didn’t support marriage equality, they’d be very loath to express their view.
I recall a journalist friend whose politics are right-leaning. In their first media job, they were in an office where any view that wasn’t left leaning was met with hostility and even anger.