Wednesday 21 September 2016

BBC - this is unbelieavable!

Ok hold on tight, you may not believe this.
On 14th Sept, I sent this complaint (following up from my previous blog post):
Bias in Brexit reporting and opinion pieces
Full Complaint:
The Gavin Hewitt piece is shallow and misinforming. (Today, the interview with Sir Dyson on the front page is simply a bias of information through selection of what is chosen for the website: where have the pro EU voices gone ? I seem to remember they were the vast majority of business.) Some Brexit facts, let’s repeat them in the face of the brainwashing that is going on: There has been a consultative referendum; A narrow majority to leave the EU; No clarity over a “delivery plan”; Almost unanimously the experts (politicians, economists, academics) are in favour of remaining in the EU; Most business was also pro-EU; The country is still in the EU until it actually leaves (if it does), and this will take many years (if it happens). The BBC is a better public information organisation than the equivalent in many other countries, but if you have lived here enough you will have spotted significant changes following the political fortunes. BBC, remember who deserves and needs to be informed, and who pays you! Stand up to any blackmail from the government! Most opinion pieces (and the choice of people shown, and facts reported) during the last few weeks are very worrying in terms of balanced reporting. Gone seems the desire to dig into issues, investigate and report in an independent manner. The Gavin Hewitt piece makes a curry out of many problems facing EU countries and politicians. It is undeniable that parts of public opinion in every country will have different views on various issues. The piece fails to acknowledge the significant benefits to wide sectors of society that come from EU agreements, and how for large numbers of people (probably a sign (probably a significant majority) things would be better if further progress was made towards a federal or better coordinated union.
Today, I get the following answer:

Thanks for contacting us about BBC News’ coverage of the EU referendum, in particular the result of the vote and the direct consequences over the past few weeks. We appreciate you feel our coverage has been overly negative and biased against the decision to leave the E.U.
We have received a wide range of feedback about our coverage of this story across our news programmes and bulletins. Keeping in mind pressures on licence fee resources, this response seeks to address the key points raised. That said, we apologise in advance if your complaint has not been specifically addressed here.
As you may be aware, Jonathan Munro, Head of Newsgathering at BBC News, appeared on ‘Newswatch’ on 1 July to specifically address concerns raised by our audience about our recent coverage. You can still watch the edition here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07htbgq
During the programme Jonathan Munro addressed criticisms that BBC News’ coverage has been alarmist after the result, featuring too much coverage of people who wanted to remain in the EU. He explained BBC News has looked at reactions from both sides (those who wanted to remain and those who didn’t) and are covering the story of what it looks like to leave the EU from many different angles.
Jonathan explained that he didn’t agree with the suggestion that BBC News are looking only at the negative outcomes of the vote. He explained that we believe our coverage has been balanced and that we have looked at the potential effects Brexit could have on the job market, because technically we still don’t know the full impact.
He went on to explain that BBC News has covered many positive aspects of the outcome. For example, what immigration for non-EU citizens could look like, and what trade deals with places like New Zealand and Canada could look like. BBC News has also covered some positive outcomes coming from the falling value of the Pound.
Jonathan Munro went on to assure viewers that nobody at the BBC thinks that 17 million people of the population are racist. He pointed to examples of where we have interviewed a wide range of voters who chose “leave”. Jonathan added that he didn’t believe the BBC was too ‘London-centric’ and explained that ‘Question Time’, for example, came from both Preston and Birmingham in the run up to the referendum.
We hope this goes some way in addressing your concerns. We believe our coverage of the result has been fair, accurate and impartial. This is a quickly developing story and we will strive to continue to report on it in this manner.


I appreciate (green highlight) that the BBC is getting a lot of complaints. I hope actually that they get a number sufficient to cause great worry. What is unbelievable is that they have taken my complaint as meaning I wanted more "Brexit" strength!!! Now I can only assume one of two things: (a) they don't really read the complaints carefully; (b) they are now so Brexit-biased that my text reads to them as an accusation of supporting "remain" too much?!!
In either case, this is beginning to feel a bit hopeless. Your complaint (it seems) could be taken to mean the opposite of what you say. I will complain now again, and I am curious to see if they have a different standard response for "remainers" that I can treasure. At least I want to make sure the bean-counters record that I was a remain voice.

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