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BBC chief Mark Thompson admits 'Left-wing bias'
2 Sep 2010The BBC was guilty of a “massive bias to the Left” in the past, director general Mark Thompson has said.
He said staff were “quite mystified” by the rise of Margaret Thatcher but that there was “less overt tribalism” among its journalists.
Conservative commentators have long criticised the BBC for being a hotbed of Left-wingers and an internal report from 2007 said it had to make greater efforts to avoid liberal bias.
Mr Thompson told the New Statesman: “In the BBC I joined 30 years ago, there was, in much of current affairs, in terms of people's personal politics, which were quite vocal, a massive bias to the left.
“The organisation did struggle then with impartiality. And journalistically, staff were quite mystified by the early years of Thatcher.
“Now it is a completely different generation. There is much less overt tribalism among the young journalists who work for the BBC.”
The 2007 report criticised the BBC for coming late to several important stories including Euroscepticism and immigration which it described as “'off limits' in terms of a liberal-minded comfort zone”.
Mr Thompson described relations between the BBC and the Labour government in its last few years as “quite tetchy” and said he was optimistic of a good settlement in forthcoming licence fee discussions with the coalition.
He told the magazine: “What we want is an effective and businesslike relationship with government - it's not about personal relations.”
Reader views (30)
Good, they should espouse left wing views, right wing views are disgusting, reactionary and anti progressive.
Furthermore nearly every other form of news media is almost laughingly biased to the right, because they are owned by rich people who don't like the idea of little people having a choice.
- Kerry, Purley, 02/09/2010 18:33
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YOUR TELLING US< BUT YOUR NOT THE ONLY ONE. One famous news caster is so biased on another channel, we at home fall about laughing.
- alan, England, 02/09/2010 18:12
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The BBC should not favour any party,nor should they exclude the views of minor parties.They really need to kick politically correctness out,but this will never happen as they try to front an image.Freedom of speech for all,equal coverage and an investment in jounalists with at least some integrity would be a start.
- dave, london, 02/09/2010 17:31
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Experienced students of management will confirm that you cannot reform an organisation as institutionally biased as the B.B.C.
It has to be broken up and sold off.
Simply pointing out that we are not a Brussels-loving Socialist Republic which measures distances in kilometres will get nowhere.
The B.B.C's love of Mad Al Gore is eternal and cannot be broken.
And somebody should tell the Chinny git on Coast that sea levels are not rising and man-made global warming is now disproved,not that the U.K. could do anything about it if it wasn't.
- Alan, Llandrindod Wells, Wales, 02/09/2010 12:34
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".. we should be able to read, listen, or view views from both the left, or right."
- Charles Ackroyd, Highgate
The point is the BBC should be neither and it most certainly should not be implementing it's own political policies.
A publicly funded body should represent the public; given that 90% of the UK is white and 70% Christian, does the BBC fulfil this requirement? I hardly think so.
The BBC's own political policy dictates that every single news item or programme must have the representation of a minority in it. If it wants to represent the minority, let it be funded by the minority.
Stop the TV tax now, more socialists wasting some else's money.
- Frank, Home Counties, England., 02/09/2010 12:28
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I think the BBC sees itself as a champion of the poor and the disadvantaged but confuses that with taking very left wing stances on current issues. Their reporting is for example, outraeously pro-palastine, pro-labour, pro-public sector. They also over report issues that distort fears of the public.
- Paul, London, UK, 02/09/2010 11:55
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But dear old Aunty Beeb just wouldn't be the same without Kirsty Wark and her rabid red cardy!
- Tel, Chelmsford, 02/09/2010 11:46
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So what's new?
- Ted, Orkney, 02/09/2010 11:28
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Their only interest is in their own personal gain and stature... if the Nazis took over tomorrow they would be falling over themselves to please them... Thomson is just a disgusting kleptocratic coward.
- moronamid, London England, 02/09/2010 11:06
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The BBC DG says they are biased yes we know that but what is going to be done about it! The coverage of the Blair book seems like the same old bias to me so no change then!!
- margot parker, Kettering, 02/09/2010 10:44
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What a pity that the current BBC leadership hasn't got a clue about leadership or presentation and because of their ineptitude a great British institution is at risk.
- Bloke, Lambeth, 02/09/2010 10:40
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OK, who are the pro Tory BBC presenters?
I don't think they are:
The Dimblebys
Paxman
Andrew Marr
Kirsty Wark
James Naughtie
John Humphrys
Peter Sissons
Sarah Montague
In my view the BBC is more overtly left wing than it has ever been, the Guardian on Screen. It won't change, it's not in its culture. And if any of you have read Mandy's book you will see that BBC presenters have been helping Labour for years.
- Stephen C, London, 02/09/2010 10:40
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There is simply no need for a state sponsored BBC in modern Britain. The only other countries that support state sponsored TV/Radio are those whose 'democracy' is questionable, and those with absolute dictators. The previous arguments, used by BBC executives, that only a state sponsored BBC can maintain journalistic integrity and the quality of TV programmes has shown to be absurd. You don't need to be a political activist to recognise that the BBC has had a left wing bias for most of it's existance. Time it was scrapped altogether.
- paddy, Brixton SW, 02/09/2010 10:08
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It doesn't matter as ALL the mainstream media report rubbish. There are no news stories relating to 'real life'.
For instance, what is all the white stuff coming out of the back of airplanes. I woke up this morning and it was a blue sky day. 30 or so planes later and a massive white cloudy grid has appeared over the parts of the sky I can see, same thing happened yesterday. A quick look at the Bristol area on sat24.com confirms.
I know jet planes create condensation trails that evaporate in a matter of minutes but these trails had been there all day yesterday (and probably today too).
- bobby, berks, 02/09/2010 10:07
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The combined readerships of the "right wing press" is still a fraction of the number of people who get their news and current affairs information from the BBC. And people choose to pay for their newspapers, unlike the Beeb which you have to pay for if you own a television. If it is to be publicly funded, it should either strive to be scrupulously unbiased or at least represent a much wider range of views. It's not there to "balance out" the right wing press or provide a platform for the metropolitan left to push its views on the rest of the nation.
- Kevin T, Beckenham, Kent, 02/09/2010 10:03
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What Thompson doesn't seem to appreciate is that you can have left wing views (or, for that matter, right wing views) but still adhere to the BBC's guidelines on impartiality. It is a calumny to suggest that BBC staff in the past were biassed. They may have had their views, but very few in my long experience allowed those views to colour their approach to programming.
- Alex, London, 02/09/2010 10:00
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Mark Thompson deserves the award for the most overpaid man in Britain. Has he nothing better to do than pontificate about the built in bias at the BBC? It has always been there and always will.
- Simon Ellis, London, 02/09/2010 09:49
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The BBC is a political party which has no MPs, but which supports MPs & activists of all sorts whose views echo the BBC line.
Staff from The Guardian & Independent, two low circulation papers, are massively disproportionately represented . A recent Any Questions boasted that 3 out of 4
panelists were from the Guardian.
We all know the BBC line on Israel (they have spent millions stopping the Balon Report being published), Man Made Global Warming , immigration (good), Islam (very good), the EU (vitally important & enormously good).
I'm a great BBC fan, but it must be purged of superannuated Student Union lefties, & be more representative of the people who are forced to pay for it.
- The Convenient Truth, Reading, England, 02/09/2010 09:34
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Strange how the BBC now admit bias now that we have a new government in power, must be a license review on the horizon.
- shallotman, Basildon, 02/09/2010 09:33
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Manda London UK, when one cannot put up a rational response to another's views, always resort to personal insults, I was merely suggesting that we should be able to read, listen, or view views from both the left, or right.
- Charles Ackroyd, Highgate, 02/09/2010 09:19
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Got news for you Thompson.
They got even more biassed since you arrived.
Not surprising really - Public Sector, overpaid, Gold
plated pensions .... all the usual.
- Anglo, Sussex England, 02/09/2010 09:04
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"The organisation did struggle then with impartiality."
Umm ... anybody notice any difference now?
Pander to the minorities, become a minority.
Stop the TV tax now, banish the biased BBC.
- Frank, Home Counties, England., 02/09/2010 08:56
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I believe it should be a criminal offence for anybody caught reading any material other than that produced by Rupert Murdoch.
- Matilda Mcarthy, Chelsea, 02/09/2010 08:49
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Charles of Highgate. Given your name and address you are another champagne socialist - the type that proliferates in NW3 and its environs (I know). As for the BBC being biased to the left, it is, if you can't see it, quite wrong to use the national tv channel for left wing propaganda. It has made the BBC disreputable and people have lost faith in them giving us an unbiased and fair coverage. We don't pay our licence fee for that. The BBC have lost their good name.
- manda, London UK, 02/09/2010 08:48
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Not much change then. Still massively left-wing, anti-Israel, anti-US, pro Islam organisation.
- Adam, Harrow, uk, 02/09/2010 08:48
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We must stop all this left wing bias,scrap the BBC, and ban publications like the Daily Mirror, it is vital for us Britons only to read, and watch newspaper's, and TV programmes produced by Mr (should be Lord) Murdoch.
- Mathew Lonsdale, NW1, 02/09/2010 08:44
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What a laugh, we all saw the BBC Journalists air kiss their way through labour conferences and say things like when we win live on air - apparently without repercussions and if rumours be true, with much back slapping congratulations. The current BBC attacks on coalition and William hague show its inability to be fair and balanced - this statement is an insult to our intelligence.
- christian Ball, London, UK, 02/09/2010 08:43
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Let us hope this perceived bias continues,this in itself goes someway to give us, the general public a balance from the predominately right wing press,or do those complaining think the British people should only hear the views of the right?
- Charles Ackroyd, Highgate, 02/09/2010 08:34
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Does he really think we are all stupid?
Why is the BBC better known in the present day as the 'anti-British Broadcasting Corporation"?
You only need to watch the gong-wanting Andrew Marr who fawned over Labour Ministers, MP's and now former Labour Prime Ministers to gain an insight into the biased organisation.
If it's too much for Thompson to deal with then move on!
As for terrestrial programme content just look at yesterday evening's schedule when there was NOTHING worth watching on any channel.
If the present PM can tear himself away from his paternity leave following his 6 week holiday break then he would do well to close at least one terrestrial TV channel down and now.
- Mike, Sutton, 02/09/2010 08:29
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BBC TV still has a massive bias to the left!
- Tojo, Hythe Kent, 02/09/2010 08:19
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