(not satire – it’s the BBC!)
Have a look at the extraordinary last paragraph of this article on the NHS, in which the BBC is clearly reporting pure government propaganda as fact:
BBC: The Conservative and Lib Dem coalition government has increased NHS spending each year during the current Parliament and both parties are committed to the founding values of the NHS that no-one, regardless of income, should be deprived of the best care.
Now compare these quotes from Tory Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt from a couple of years ago and the (strangely anonymous) BBC reporter’s (supposed) own words from the article:
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These are not facts. They are the opinions of a government minister being reported as facts by the BBC. And they’re not even true.
That’s not news. It’s propaganda.
But this is the supposedly unbiased and impartial BBC we’re talking about.
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Thanks to Eoin Clarke for the heads up on this.
Please feel free to comment. And share. Thanks:
Pride's Purge 
The paranoia generated by the threat of losing funding,plus the recruitment pool from those similarly educated,as those who hold power,leads to a blurring of truth and propaganda.
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What’s new? The BBC (and other media organisations) do it all the time. It was most stark during the Scottish referendum campaign when 99% of the media were opposed to independence, and virtually all the reporting was blatantly biased and stuffed with propaganda from the ‘No’ side.
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Just in case the BBC try and change the article and pretend it never happened…
http://www.changedetection.com/log/uk/co/bbc/uk-politics-29345395_log.html
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Slightly OT: It’s possible of course that a large chunk of that was down to people within the media that genuinely saw independence as a bad thing.
And it wasn’t just them, it was also politicians abroad with no direct stake in the outcome as well as those at home that opposed independence.
What got me personally were the accusations of negativity. If you see something as potential disaster then how on earth are you supposed to dress that up positively, other than ‘don’t do this and avoid this pitfall’?
On a personal level I don’t particularly oppose independence for Scotland, but I have a hard time trusting the SNP, especially when they want to rather bizarrely hand over their hard fought freedom to Europe.
They couldn’t even rely on support from Europe either with politicians there telling them they’d have to join the queue like every other country. All those shaky assumptions by Salmond start mounting up and sooner or later people will notice that.
If they had thought up a better strategy than ‘it’ll be alright on the night’ when it came to financial matters then they may well still have won. Fix that problem and they probably will next time around, with or without the reporting in the media.
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So seurrup… You think it’s the job of journalists to bias their reporting according to whether they personally think something is a good thing or a bad thing?
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No, but neither do I expect them to invent something to make it look better than it really is, just for the sake of avoiding ‘negativity’ or for ‘balance’.
A problem is a problem, and if they’s what they saw when they looked at what was happening then that’s what I would expect them to report.
All the rose-tinted glasses in the world won’t change reality, and despite the efforts of some to persuade them otherwise all the problems would still have been there no matter how hard they wished otherwise.
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You seem to have just agreed that reporting bias was driven by the personal opinions of journalists and/or those who influence them. I’m not disagreeing that it happened, I’m disagreeing that it SHOULD happen.
Nobody is born with rose-tinted glasses… and nor is reality unchangeable.
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Part of the problem is that many journalists are Oxbridge educated.So their view on life is similar to the ConDems.
The BBC have been right winged for a very long time,even when it is right winged,the Tories write letters of complaint if it strays from the right to the centre.
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What evidence do you have that the BBC’s statement about NHS spending is based on something Jeremy Hunt said two years ago?
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8gcmMGQcVA Jackie Bird says Andy Murray says UK is stronger as result of vote – but did he?
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The wordings are virtually identical. For example:
“…..founding values of the NHS that no-one, regardless of income, should be deprived of the best care.”
Even the placing of the relative clause ‘regardless of income‘ between the commas is identical.
The quote about spending is also wrong and has been challenged by many experts. See the link in the blogpost.
But much more importantly – this paragraph is presented as a fact, when it’s not a fact. It’s an opinion. A government minister’s opinion.
Call me old-fashioned, but I think BBC journalists should be reporting facts – not government minister’s opinions. Unless of course the opinions are attributed and put between speech marks.
The reporter could have asked for a quote from Jeremy Hunt or a government spokesperson and placed the quote in speech marks. The BBC reporter didn’t bother, he or she simply reported it as fact. Of course, an Oxbridge and public school educated BBC journalist might mistakenly think what a Tory government minister says about the NHS is fact. If that’s the case – he or she should be sacked immediately because a competent journalist’s job is to see through the spin and report the truth.
This is not just about politics and misleading the public. It’s about professional competence too.
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Similarly, nor should BBC journalists be reporting their own opinions unless they are clearly stated as such, and yet they frequently do.
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Ben Chu fact -checked this in the Independent yesterday an concluded that NHS spending has increased by 3.9% since 2010. You are biased yourself if you claim that everyone agrees with you that the BBC article is wrong or simply echoing propaganda.
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dadge – The point isn’t whether political propaganda statements are true or false, it’s that if the BBC report such a statement they must also report the source, and definitely not report it as if it were an objective fact.
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One might ask why a tennis player would have a clue whether it’s stronger or not……
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Typical!
FF….why are you on your high horse again?
There is no ‘ope for you……innit 🙂
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PW – What is your criticism? It’s a perfectly reasonable question to ask.
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How very odd – me and my family have always seen the BBC as lefties!
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He certainly did not, in that interview or any other that I have heard anyway. Jackie Bird has been disgraceful throughout the referendum campaign. The BBC must be very proud of her.
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you guys? should find a room and read the volumes by the Galsgow Media Group – analysing the media over 30 years now
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