Konservativ journalist i vänsterflocken

Ni missade väl inte HAX underhållande lilla välskrivna text om Sveriges Radio.

Stoff ur en ny bok på temat vänsterjournalism, "Can We Trust The BBC?" av f d BBC-jounalisten Robin Aitken (amazon), nämns i en intressant längre Daily Mail-artikel. Robin beskriver ensamheten i en närmast homogen vänsterradikal journalistkår. Efter ett bombattentat riktat mot Margret Thatcher ska en kollega ha sagt "Pity they missed the bitch".


Några avsnitt ur artikeln:

But I soon began noticing bias in the subjects chosen, the people interviewed and the tone of voice.

I wrote to Phil Harding, the BBC's director of editorial policy, using the Macpherson Inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence as an analogy.

If the Metropolitan Police was "institutionally racist", I wrote, the BBC was "institutionally Leftist".

He was reluctant to engage and eventually told me he could devote no more time to my views, while Mark Damazer, deputy head of news, accused me of feeling frustrated about my career progress and attacked me for impugning the integrity of my colleagues.

Both allegations were false; I enjoyed my career and never doubted the integrity of my colleagues - they truly believed they were acting impartially, they just didn't recognise their bias.

'Neutral' for BBC journalists is left of centre for everyone else; everything is seen through the distorting prism of the progressive agenda.

As one senior news presenter told me: "Anybody who attacks the Labour Government is always coming from the Left, and the Tories are written off as insane or - if there's the slightest chance of them getting anywhere - evil."

But Damazer wasn't interested in my views.

As I was so "disaffected", he suggested I consider leaving the BBC.

The situation was becoming Kafkaesque. I was trying to get the BBC to be true to its obligations and being treated like a mad dissident. Privately, though, many colleagues agreed I had a point.

Om konsekvensen av ifrågasättande av fundamentalistisk islam:

In 2004, TV presenter Robert Kilroy-Silk wrote about the Arab people and asked: "What do they think we feel about them? That we adore them for the way they murdered more than 3,000 civilians on September 11 and then danced in their hot, dusty streets to celebrate the murders? That we admire them for being suicide bombers, limb amputators, women repressors?"

Kilroy-Silk's TV career ended the next week.

In a statement, the BBC's director of television, Jana Bennett, said: "Presenters of this type of programme have a responsibility to uphold the BBC's impartiality.

"This does not mean that people who express highly controversial views are not welcome on the BBC, but they cannot be presenters of a news, current affairs or topical discussion programme."

...men när ämnet är påven skrev en BBC-journalist:

"The Pope's approach to AIDS has been outrageous. He has called for a ban on the use of condoms in fighting the disease in Africa...The orders from Rome are verging on the wicked."

A controversial view? Certainly among Britain's four million Catholics. An impartial view? Certainly not.

När Blair tagit över efter Tory-perioden och Clinton var president i USA menar Aitken att en hård kritik mot Gulf- och Falklandskriget byttes mot neutralitet inför britternas medverkan i balkankriget.

Vi har naturligtvis en direkt motsvarighet i vår Public Service och i SVT och SR, och formuleringar likt den här ovan levereras ju inte sällan av Bo-Inge Andersson.

Med tanke på många liberala journalisters, tycks det, nästan komiska panik för att deras informations-, agenda- och åsiktsmonopol nu hotas av bloggar är en BBC-journalists beskrivning av sin uppgift rätt träffande:

"It's the whole thing that 'we know best' and it's our responsibility to educate the poor unfortunates beneath us in how things should be."

Haha! Spricker dom inte snart, i sin uppblåsthet?

Artikeln avslutas med följande antagligen även i vårt land angelägna råd:

"The BBC is a profoundly influential opponent of nearly everything conservatives believe, with the Right forced to accede feebly to the Left-liberal consensus.

If the time comes when British conservatives feel like fighting back, broadcasting policy might not be a bad place to start.

Uppdatering: Kom precis på att BBC själva erkänt bias (Daily Mail):

BBC executives admitted the corporation is dominated by homosexuals and people from ethnic minorities, deliberately promotes multiculturalism, is anti-American, anti-countryside and more sensitive to the feelings of Muslims than Christians.

Andra bloggar om: samhälle, media, bbc, Robin Aitken, journalistik, mediekritik, storbritannien, public service