Criticism of the BBC

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Historically, there has been criticism of the BBC for various policies or perceived biases since its inception^[1] and more recently over its coverage of events in the Middle East^[2] and the alleged "sexing up" of the case for war in Iraq in which the BBC was heavily criticised by the Hutton Inquiry,^[3] although the latter charge was much disputed by the British press.^[4]

1 Impartiality Seminar
2 Cleaning up
3 "Dumbing down"
4 Funding
5 9/11 Conspiracy Theories
6 References
7 See also

[edit] Impartiality Seminar

On Friday 22 September 2006 the BBC's Board of Governors held an "impartiality seminar" which was streamed live on the internet. The previous day the then Chairman of the Governors, Michael Grade, explained the thinking behind the seminar in an article in The Guardian newspaper.

In the seminar there was a hypothetical discussion including senior BBC executives about what they would allow controversial Jewish comedian Sacha Baron Cohen to throw into a dustbin on the satirical television show Room 101. It was imagined that Baron Cohen would wish to throw into Room 101 kosher food, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Qur'an, and the Bible. There was also a hypothetical discussion about whether a Muslim BBC newsreader should be allowed to wear a headscarf.

In the seminar former BBC business editor Jeff Randall claimed that he was told by a senior news executive in the organisation that "The BBC is not neutral in multiculturalism: it believes in it and it promotes it." Political correspondent Andrew Marr said that "The BBC is not impartial or neutral. It's a publicly funded, urban organisation with an abnormally large number of young people, ethnic minorities and gay people. It has a liberal bias not so much a party-political bias. It is better expressed as a cultural liberal bias".^[2] (Similar claims could also be made of wikipedia.) These comments were reported in the UK national press a couple of weeks later. At the seminar Helen Boaden (Director of BBC News) said that the BBC must be impartial on the issue of multiculturalism.

The Mail on Sunday (which was not present at the seminar) claimed that it was "secret" and that a senior executive at the seminar admitted "There was widespread acknowledgement that we may have gone too far in the direction of political correctness. Unfortunately, much of it is so deeply embedded in the BBC's culture, that it is very hard to change it".^[2]

Helen Boaden responded to press criticism of the seminar in a post on the BBC's Editors Blog. Peter Horrocks (Head of Television News) also blogged about the question of what was suitable attire for newsreaders in another post on the Editors Blog.

Mark Thompson (Director General of the BBC) reponded to press criticism in an article in the Daily Mail as did Mark Byford (Director, Journalism) in an article ('BBC "not crammed full of soft liberals" says deputy chief') in The Sunday Telegraph.

[edit] Cleaning up

The National Viewers' and Listeners' Association was formed in 1965 by Mary Whitehouse to "clean up" the BBC claiming that it "was responsible for the moral collapse in the country".

[edit] "Dumbing down"

In the past few years, there have been claims that the corporation has simplified, or "dumbed down" its programmes in an effort to reach a broader audience, particularly the Breakfast, Six O'Clock and Ten O'Clock news programmes. The former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw,^[5] claimed that BBC newsreaders "prance around studios", and that he would prefer it if they were to "actually sit at a desk and read the news".

[edit] Funding

Main article: Television licensing in the United Kingdom

The fact that BBC's domestic services are funded by television licence fees is criticized by its competitors and others on a number of grounds.^[6]

[edit] 9/11 Conspiracy Theories

On 1th February 2007 BBC Two broadcast an examination of various conspiracy theories about 9/11. This lead to conspiracy theorists alleging on blogs that the BBC had reported that World Trade Centre 7 had collapsed before it had actually done so.

In two posts on the BBC Editors Blog Richard Porter, Head of News, BBC World, addressed these claims, and denied that the BBC was part of any conspiracy or cover up. He also reported that the BBC "no longer have the original tapes" of the BBC World coverage of 9/11.^[7] The BBC retains a full archive of all other BBC coverage of 9/11 (BBC World is the BBC's international television channel which relies to a large extent on material gathered by the BBC's domestic television news services).