I can understand why, Ubes, and if it was a commercial station doing it, no problem. It's witty. They'll irritate a load of viewers who'll go elsewhere, and keep the ones they identify with. The problem is that the BBC is the national media station and it pisses off a lot of people with this sort of stuff (and Naga laughing at the national flag) who have to pay a hefty licence fee to fund the salary of the BBC fat cats doing this. That enrages people, and ultimately it's counter productive to the BBC when they're trying to renegotiate their licence fee. From my point of view, the licence fee should be abolished. Let the BBC survive by like a commercial tv station or by subscription. It would have to mend its ways to keep people watching.
I agree the BBC should be defunded, in which case they’re helping the cause by doing this sort of stuff. Whilst nonetheless amusing, you can easily imagine the motive of whoever came up with the idea was to stick a finger up at a Tory for coming up with such an idea.
Yeah, it's quite clever and I'm sure gave the BBC exec who orchestrated it a lot of short term pleasure. Newsnight was run by an ex Guardian manager anyway. But it's really unwise for a funded, national institution to do this. If it happened now, it would be interesting to see how Tim Davie, the current DG of the BBC would deal with it. He's on record as recognising the political bias problem and says he's aiming at reform.
The BBC has always been scrupulously even-handed politically. Davie has been appointed to ensure bias towards the Tories.
Complete nonsense (but if you say it often enough, someone might believe you). Newsnight in particular has a huge left wing bias. Mark Thompson, the Director General of the BBC, said in 2010, "In the BBC I joined 30 years ago [as a production trainee, in 1979], 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 nothing's changed
There are as many complaints from the left about BBC bias towards the Tories as there are from you lot about left-wing bias. That tells me they're getting it about right. Get over it.
It's interesting that none of the Left want the BBC defunded because it's a good way of getting others to pay for putting out their propaganda.
No it's because they recognise it as a great national institution. They don't want the NHS to be sold off either.
No one wants the NHS sold off that I've ever come across. The Left think the BBC's a great national institution because it's full of middle class socialist wannabe's . "The BBC broadcaster Andrew Marr, has pointed to the diverse nature of the BBC, which he describes as employing, “an abnormally large proportion of younger people, of people in ethnic minorities and almost certainly of gay people”, which is what he suggests fuels the BBC’s “innate liberal bias”." It's good to have that mix but it's gone too far and it doesn't represent the population as a whole. The BBC is no longer a great national institution. It's malfunctioning badly in certain areas and has a lack of impartiality (look at the antisemitic approach on the Muslim bus attack in Oxford St). People just aren't going to pay for that and there's a crisis coming unless there's a change to fairness.
I see Macron is as popular as ever! Did anyone see the demonstrations on the news where they pulled down the EU flag? I think he has royally shot himself in the foot with this latest stunt.
