Download The BBC: Myth of a Public Service by Tom Mills PDF

By Tom Mills

ISBN-10: 1784784826

ISBN-13: 9781784784829

The BBC: the mouthpiece of the Establishment?

The BBC is among the most crucial associations in Britain; it's also essentially the most misunderstood. regardless of its declare to be autonomous and neutral, and the consistent accusations of a liberal bias, the BBC has constantly sided with the elite. As Tom turbines demonstrates, we're in simple terms getting the scoop that the institution desires aired in public.

Throughout its lifestyles, the BBC has been in thrall to these in energy. This used to be real in 1926 whilst it stood opposed to the staff through the common Strike, and because then the company has persevered to mute the voices of these who oppose the established order: miners in 1984; anti-war protesters in 2003; those that supply possible choices to austerity economics considering 2008. From the outset a lot of its task has been scrutinised by way of the key prone on the invitation of these responsible. because the Nineteen Nineties the BBC has been built-in into the marketplace, whereas its independence from executive and massive enterprise has been progressively eroded. The BBC is a crucial and well timed exam of a very important public establishment that's regularly less than probability.

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Example text

The BBC’s point of contact with the Cabinet during the strike was J. C. C. Davidson, who was responsible for the government’s public relations and was Mitchell-Thomson’s deputy at the Supply and Transport Committee. 7 What this meant was that the BBC was afforded a large degree of operational autonomy, remaining formally independent, but on the tacit understanding that it would broadly serve the political purposes of the government. There were those in government who favoured a more robust approach.

This formal power was never exercised during the General Strike, but it did not need to be. The threat itself was a powerful inducement for compliance. The BBC’s point of contact with the Cabinet during the strike was J. C. C. Davidson, who was responsible for the government’s public relations and was Mitchell-Thomson’s deputy at the Supply and Transport Committee. 7 What this meant was that the BBC was afforded a large degree of operational autonomy, remaining formally independent, but on the tacit understanding that it would broadly serve the political purposes of the government.

Accuracy has always been taken seriously, and this has for the most part at least prevented the BBC from propagating the egregious distortions and falsehoods so typical of the reactionary press. But, as will be extensively detailed here, impartiality has been routinely construed in a manner skewed towards the interests of powerful groups. What lies behind this partial reporting? The journalist Roger Bolton, who was twice fired from the BBC over his coverage of Northern Ireland, has remarked that ‘either [the BBC] is independent, or it isn’t’,8 and put in such stark terms, the simple answer has to be that it is not.

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