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Noble Liar
To some, it is the voice of the nation, yet to others it has never been clearer that the BBC is in the grip of an ideology that prevents it reporting fairly on the world. Many have been scandalised by its pessimism on Brexit and its one-sided presentation of the Trump presidency, while simultaneously amused by its outrage over 'fake news'.
Robin Aitken, who himself spent twenty-five years working for the BBC as a reporter and executive, argues that the Corporation needs to be reminded that what is 'fake' rather depends on where one is standing. From where his feet are planted, the BBC's own coverage of events often looks decidedly pecuilar, peppered with distortions, omissions and amplifications tailored to its own liberal agenda.
This punchy polemic - now fully updated to cover the Corporation's tortured relationship with the government and explore the challenges for the new Director-General - galvanises the debate over how our licence fee money is spent, and asks whether the BBC is a fair arbiter of the news or whether it is a conduit for pervasive and institutional liberal left-wing bias.
Robin Aitken, who himself spent twenty-five years working for the BBC as a reporter and executive, argues that the Corporation needs to be reminded that what is 'fake' rather depends on where one is standing. From where his feet are planted, the BBC's own coverage of events often looks decidedly pecuilar, peppered with distortions, omissions and amplifications tailored to its own liberal agenda.
This punchy polemic - now fully updated to cover the Corporation's tortured relationship with the government and explore the challenges for the new Director-General - galvanises the debate over how our licence fee money is spent, and asks whether the BBC is a fair arbiter of the news or whether it is a conduit for pervasive and institutional liberal left-wing bias.
346 pages, Paperback
Published June 30, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 8, 2021
I came into this book looking forward to reading the thoughts of a successful BBC journalist on the institution he previously worked for, even if I knew already that I would not necessarily agree with his overall thesis. It's evident from the title that this is a polemical work, but I had hoped that he would at least attempt to support his argument with facts. It starts off okay, with a chapter on the BBC's treatment of Brexit that provides some evidence, albeit often from questionable sources. But it's downhill from there, with a succession of chapters on what may be termed moral issues (abortion, censorship, feminism, homosexuality are recurring themes) that barely mention the BBC and are not backed up by any facts. Instead, it reads like a social conservative bemoaning the state of Britain in 2020 - which is all well and good, but it isn't the book we're promised.
Anyone can complain that the BBC has failed us in the ways he describes - and I suspect some of his concerns are well-founded - but the reader won't come away with any more details with which to support this point of view. He spends two chapters and a fair portion of the conclusion complaining about Islam - again, without using supporting evidence - and criticising the BBC's treatment of Tommy Robinson, on whom Aitken is far too lenient. And he makes some basic errors too. For example, he claims that in 1973 Britain joined the EEC, which was 'then, allegedly, a purely economic project'. Yet even a brief look at the historical record will show that the EEC was always viewed as a political project, and the debate in Britain and on the BBC over whether the country should join was framed in those terms from the beginning (11 million people tuned into BBC One's coverage of an Oxford Union debate at which then Prime Minister Edward Heath argued that joining the EEC would have a substantial and positive impact on Britain's sovereignty). When he does give us some actual evidence, he completely mangles the execution - so he tells us about BBC liaisons with a pro-European 'propaganda unit at the Foreign Office' in 1970, but tries to use this single incident as evidence that the BBC has been institutionally hostile to Eurosceptics ever since. On a more basic level, he says in his conclusion that 'it was only in 1948 that the BBC changed its motto to "Nation shall speak peace unto nation"'. Actually, this had been the motto between 1927 and 1934, and it was only between 1934 and 1948 that 'quaecunque' was used as the Corporation's motto. If you want to read a book explaining 'how and why the BBC distorts the news to promote a liberal agenda', I would advise you look elsewhere.
Anyone can complain that the BBC has failed us in the ways he describes - and I suspect some of his concerns are well-founded - but the reader won't come away with any more details with which to support this point of view. He spends two chapters and a fair portion of the conclusion complaining about Islam - again, without using supporting evidence - and criticising the BBC's treatment of Tommy Robinson, on whom Aitken is far too lenient. And he makes some basic errors too. For example, he claims that in 1973 Britain joined the EEC, which was 'then, allegedly, a purely economic project'. Yet even a brief look at the historical record will show that the EEC was always viewed as a political project, and the debate in Britain and on the BBC over whether the country should join was framed in those terms from the beginning (11 million people tuned into BBC One's coverage of an Oxford Union debate at which then Prime Minister Edward Heath argued that joining the EEC would have a substantial and positive impact on Britain's sovereignty). When he does give us some actual evidence, he completely mangles the execution - so he tells us about BBC liaisons with a pro-European 'propaganda unit at the Foreign Office' in 1970, but tries to use this single incident as evidence that the BBC has been institutionally hostile to Eurosceptics ever since. On a more basic level, he says in his conclusion that 'it was only in 1948 that the BBC changed its motto to "Nation shall speak peace unto nation"'. Actually, this had been the motto between 1927 and 1934, and it was only between 1934 and 1948 that 'quaecunque' was used as the Corporation's motto. If you want to read a book explaining 'how and why the BBC distorts the news to promote a liberal agenda', I would advise you look elsewhere.
February 17, 2021
This well-written and punchy book outlines why the BBC can no longer report fairly on the world. The author, who spent 25 years working for the BBC, shows how the BBC is in the grip of a left-wing ideology that prevents it from doing so. This book will enlighten you, and maybe correct your view of the BBC!
March 12, 2022
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EMAIL: drojamoherbalremedy@gmail.com
Website;
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Also subscribe to his YouTube channel ::: https://youtube.com/channel/UCCxH_M_q...
🌿 🪴
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews