The Biased Broadcasting Corporation

The website Biased BBC over the past few days has been offering the opportunity to vote on which of the forms of bias readers think the BBC is most prone to reveal.

That it is biased emerges all in sorts of ways - its prejudice against the state of Israel and for the Palestinians, shown in the insistence to call terrorists militants, for example,or its evident bias against Christians, even to the extent of removing them from the supervisory board over a period of months and reducing religious broadcasting generally. Its coverage and tenor in the US elections indicated a strong preference for the Democrats and Obama. They favour Labour and the LibDems, and grant the latter significance out of all proportion to their size.

I first became aware of what looked like bias during the dog days of the Major government in the order in which opposing politicians were interviewed. This is important in that the last to be interviewed is always able to have an opportunity to criticise opponents without fear of come-back. I noticed that virtually without exception Conservative ministers would be interviewed first, often on the telephone, and then a Labour spokesman in the studio replied and had the last word. In my naivety I expected the reverse to happen when Blair and company came into power, but the "batting order remained the same, and it still remains the same.

In fact there are so few exceptions that I can only conclude that it is a policy decision.

The Biased BBC site offers four categories of bias
1)Bias by omission - things not mentioned, or not mentioned prominently (Obama gaffes overlooked, for instance.)

2) Bias my misrepresentation, fastening on emphasising successes of favoured groups or problems of others.

3) Bias through prejudice - violently opposed to BNP, but much more kindly disposed to ultra left activities, for instance.

4) Bias through manipulation - method of introudcing speakers or interviewees, order of interviews, as I noticed, etc.

It is possible that the bias is partly subconscious - they feel drawn to support those "who are like us", or who behave like us or believe the same as us. That is, that the bias is not entirely deliberate, but just happens.

I suspect that in the Biased BBCsite invitation to choose which form of bias best describes the BBC, many will choose "all those above".