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What influence has the BBC had on history?

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Re: What influence has the BBC had on history?

#21

Post by Angostura »

Peteragain wrote: post #17

The BBC gets to say what history is because it documents the now. Farage does not have the popular support tha Corbyn had (has?) but you'd never believe it counting the number of interviews Farage gets with the BeeB. The game, as with Wikipedia, is to convince everyone you're unbiased and truthful and then sell us something. The question really is the relationship between the people's will (assuming you think democra…

The polling suggests Farage absolutely does have that support. BBC coverage reflects that. And I hate the man

Re: What influence has the BBC had on history?

#22

Post by gadders »

pessimizer wrote: post #2

https://www.cambridgeclarion.org/press_cuttings/mi5.bbc.staf... > At the last count, in 1984, the BBC had a staff of almost 30,000. We have discovered that all current affairs appointees, together with many of those involved in the actual making of programmes - including directors and film editors - are vetted. > We have also established who runs the system. It operates, unknown to almost all BBC staff, from Room 105…

>>the BBC coverage of the Scottish independence referendum, Corbyn, and Brexit was embarrassing.

Yes, they were clearly pro-Remain and anti-Corbyn and anti-Scottish independence.

>> The Prescott memo is just the latest observation of how the BBC has been used as a tool to propagate elite opinions and accomplish intelligence objectives.

Yes, it demonstrated examples of bias in favour of those elite opinions.

Re: What influence has the BBC had on history?

#23

Post by gadders »

quietbritishjim wrote: post #5
pessimizer wrote: post #2

https://www.cambridgeclarion.org/press_cuttings/mi5.bbc.staf... > At the last count, in 1984, the BBC had a staff of almost 30,000. We have discovered that all current affairs appointees, together with many of those involved in the actual making of programmes - including directors and film editors - are vetted. > We have also established who runs the system. It operates, unknown to almost all BBC staff, from Room 105…

> propagate elite opinion I can't speak of the MI5 accusation but the elite opinion one is comically of the mark. The (economic/political) elite famously hate the Beeb for its "leftie" views (really, it's just being balanced and telling the facts that they object to). The Tories would love an excuse to tear it apart but historically it's been too popular for them to get away with that. If you had meant intellectual e…

[flagged]

Re: What influence has the BBC had on history?

#24

Post by lmm »

t43562 wrote: post #19
lmm wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're supposed to be defending democracy in the cold war, excluding people based on their political views amounts to surrendering.

That's a very purist viewpoint. The other side hired people to work against Britain and managed to get them into sensitive organisations, particularly the security services of course. Should Britain have surrendered to that in the name of purity?

Excluding foreign agents is perfectly reasonable. Excluding anyone with communist views is not.

Re: What influence has the BBC had on history?

#25

Post by ZeroGravitas »

pessimizer wrote: post #2

https://www.cambridgeclarion.org/press_cuttings/mi5.bbc.staf... > At the last count, in 1984, the BBC had a staff of almost 30,000. We have discovered that all current affairs appointees, together with many of those involved in the actual making of programmes - including directors and film editors - are vetted. > We have also established who runs the system. It operates, unknown to almost all BBC staff, from Room 105…

Somewhat off on a tangent but George Orwell got mentioned (possibly ”invoked") and he literally sent names of communists that couldn't be trusted to be involved in broadcast to the government:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orwell%27s_list

Re: What influence has the BBC had on history?

#26

Post by gadders »

benrutter wrote: post #10
pessimizer wrote: post #2

https://www.cambridgeclarion.org/press_cuttings/mi5.bbc.staf... > At the last count, in 1984, the BBC had a staff of almost 30,000. We have discovered that all current affairs appointees, together with many of those involved in the actual making of programmes - including directors and film editors - are vetted. > We have also established who runs the system. It operates, unknown to almost all BBC staff, from Room 105…

> The Prescott memo is just the latest observation of how the BBC has been used as a tool to propagate elite opinions and accomplish intelligence objectives. Of course you like it, it's for you. I think this kind of criticism is in bad faith. Because there's an implication that you're comparing the BBC to some kind of ideal unbiased news outlet. In reality, the alternatives to the BBC are much more obviously nefariou…

>>how would you describe Fox News, the Daily Mail, The Times (UK), or even CNN?

"I'm not forced to pay for those via a tax" would be the key difference.

Re: What influence has the BBC had on history?

#27

Post by teamonkey »

moltar wrote: post #12

When the Soviet Union fell apart BBC opened a number of journalism schools in Russia. The schools were sponsored by George Soros. My dad attended one of those and then was called into FSB office (former KGB) to be questioned. My suspicion to this day is that these schools were both a spy front and long-game propaganda, where they were teaching how to make news more western-aligned. Why would BBC want to teach their m…

The UK government used to greatly believe in “soft power” in that their global influence would be improved through familiarity with British media, values and teaching, using the BBC World Service and organisations like the British Council.

So yes, essentially propaganda, but in the same way Hollywood is.

Re: What influence has the BBC had on history?

#28

Post by suddenlybananas »

notepad0x90 wrote: post #15
moltar wrote: post #12

When the Soviet Union fell apart BBC opened a number of journalism schools in Russia. The schools were sponsored by George Soros. My dad attended one of those and then was called into FSB office (former KGB) to be questioned. My suspicion to this day is that these schools were both a spy front and long-game propaganda, where they were teaching how to make news more western-aligned. Why would BBC want to teach their m…

The goal there is similar to why the US state department sponsored the Tor project. They want a democratic society in Russia, and they want the Russian people to have friendly views of the west. The objective wasn't so much to teach them their ways, but to establish rapport with the journalism community in Russia. Journalists decide if for example Putin's power grabbing and dictatorship is covered as a negative or a…

>They want a democratic society in Russia

They don't give a damn about democracy. There's a reason they stole plenty of elections across Europe and Latin America. Hell, they even helped steal the 1996 Russian election.

Re: What influence has the BBC had on history?

#29

Post by owisd »

gadders wrote: post #26
benrutter wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Prescott memo is just the latest observation of how the BBC has been used as a tool to propagate elite opinions and accomplish intelligence objectives. Of course you like it, it's for you. I think this kind of criticism is in bad faith. Because there's an implication that you're comparing the BBC to some kind of ideal unbiased news outlet. In reality, the alternatives to the BBC are much more obviously nefariou…

>>how would you describe Fox News, the Daily Mail, The Times (UK), or even CNN? "I'm not forced to pay for those via a tax" would be the key difference.

You’d be forced to pay way more than the cost of the licence fee in punishing austerity if it was up to the Mail and the Times. The per capita cost of Brexit that they campaigned for far exceeds the licence fee.

Re: What influence has the BBC had on history?

#30

Post by ekianjo »

croes wrote: post #4
beejiu wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keeping out communists from a state broadcaster at the height of the Cold War sounds sensible.

Being a communist doesn’t mean being a foreign agent

Debatable since foreign powers were clearly trying to grab influence thru the funding of communist parties in western countries
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