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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?

#51

Post by netsharc »

teamonkey wrote: post #27
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.

There's a "state of the world" forum post from a famous author years ago talking about how the UK used to be the adults in the room, how countries went to them and asked them for advice; and how they were seemingly actively shedding their reputation to be the US's aircraft carrier, opening their legs for any oligarch. I think this was written during Cameron's rule, and of course the facepalming got even harder with BoJo and Liz Lettuce Truss.

Re: What influence has the BBC had on history?

#52

Post by pjc50 »

gadders wrote: post #22
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.

It is grimly funny how the Conservative party (Cameron) looked at the indyref, with its 48/52 win with all three main parties and almost all the media on their side, and decided that this was a big win and they could do it again. But this time the media would be on the other side, and pro-Leave were the ones making all the big undeliverable promises in all directions.

Re: What influence has the BBC had on history?

#53

Post by ad_hockey »

gadders wrote: post #23
quietbritishjim wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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]

The UK. Being educated at Eton is a pretty good proxy for "the elite". We've had seven Eton-educated Prime Ministers in the 20th and 21st Century, and 100% of them were Conservatives.

There has never been an Eton-educated Labour PM and the majority of Labour MPs come from state schools. The political skew among the elites is pretty obvious.

Re: What influence has the BBC had on history?

#54

Post by martinclayton »

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…

An aside:

I always understood that Broadcasting House was inspiration for Room 101 (Ministry of Love) rather than the MoT.

It's well-known that the University of London Senate House building was the inspiration for the Ministry of Truth. Both the interior and exterior have appeared in many films and TV shows. Seems to come out of the visual creative toolbox when there's a need to evoke oppression or technocratic stultification through architecture, which is a shame as it's rather nice to visit!

Re: What influence has the BBC had on history?

#56

Post by ben_w »

gadders wrote: post #43
th0ma5 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, for-profit services often cost more and deliver less than non-profit or at-loss public services which make more sense for commodity services especially those needed to survive like healthcare or infrastructure.

I'm talking about providing less services in the first place, regardless of who does it.

So was the comment you replied to.

More broadly (like "not just UK" broadly) if you get rid of propaganda paid for with your own taxes, what you're left with isn't "no propaganda" but rather "everyone else's propaganda".

If your government is a democracy and you are not an elite yourself, this is bad for you. If you're not in a democracy or you are part of the elite (in this example meaning you can pay for the creation of propaganda to serve your own interests), that's good for you.

Re: What influence has the BBC had on history?

#57

Post by ben_w »

gadders wrote: post #46
matthewmacleod wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are free to not use those services and hence opt out of payment. Of course you know that already - it’s just so that others recognise the bits you conveniently leave out!

People won't come round my house and verify I'm not secretly watching CNN without paying. edit/reading/watching/

Reading?

They never checked if I was reading the BBC website when I lived in the UK without paying the license fee.

Still don't now I'm outside the country.

Re: What influence has the BBC had on history?

#58

Post by gadders »

ad_hockey wrote: post #53
gadders wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

The UK. Being educated at Eton is a pretty good proxy for "the elite". We've had seven Eton-educated Prime Ministers in the 20th and 21st Century, and 100% of them were Conservatives. There has never been an Eton-educated Labour PM and the majority of Labour MPs come from state schools. The political skew among the elites is pretty obvious.

You don't think Eton is being flooded with progressive views? [1]

A far better proxy for "the elite" would be "people who studied PPE at Oxford"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_University_of_Oxford_p...

[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-58244672

Re: What influence has the BBC had on history?

#59

Post by gadders »

gmac wrote: post #49
gadders wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All that shows is that 90% of economists were wrong. I mean I don't think it was massively good (government fumbles saw to that) but the UK isn't doing significantly worse than the rest of Europe, or worse than it was pre-Brexit. Economics isn't a proper science, but even so it's not a democracy - more people saying x rather than y doesn't guarantee they're correct.

Nope. https://www.brexitcost.org/

Yeah, modelling like this to prove a counterfactual seems completely legit.
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