Friday
Jul242009
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Another BBC 'mistake'
Jul 24, 2009 BBC I was just listening to the BBC coverage of the Norwich by-election on Radio 4. The reporter was talking about Labour holding on to second place, "ahead of the LibDems and the Greens".
The problem with this is that UKIP were in fourth place, 600 votes ahead of the Greens.
Can't mention UKIP on primetime, can we?
Update on Jul 24, 2009 by
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill
I notice that UKIP are complaining that the BBC froze them out in favour of the Greens during the run up to the election too. There's a clear pattern emerging isn't there?
Update on Jul 25, 2009 by
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill
Daniel Hannan has noticed this too and is calling for people to join the boycott of the licence fee.
Reader Comments (5)
Now your getting it. It really is sliced as thin as that. Over and over and over and over.
Every sentence and every phrase.
The BBC's normal soft-left bias can be explained by groupthink: they all think they're unbiased. “Well, I don't know any Tories. Do you, Tarquin?” But there's definitely something fishy going on here. UKIP is the elephant in the Corporation's drawing room. First the unexplained absence of the second-placed party in the post-Euro Question Time, and now this.
And they make such a noise about the BNP. Why not give it this treatment? With such tiny support, it is, after all, more deserving.
The BBC just like the Lib Dems, Greens and Labour just don't get it. They think that just because we are annoyed with politicians over expenses that this same issue is going to form the basis over the way we vote.
Well they are all in for a shock, because this is how I think it’s going to work. The economy is going to be important, and Labour is not trusted anymore. The Lib Dems despite some interesting words from Clegg and sensible worlds from Cable are not going to be trusted as they are far too ready to surrender to Europe and are far to afflicted with climate changecitis. The Greens may pick up a few votes here and there but what they stand for is not important to most people, and we are all getting fed up with being talked at and not having our genuine questions and concerns answered correctly.
After the economy comes our sense of freedom, which covers a multitude of areas such as education, policing, and generally how we live.
Our politicians would do well to read some of Herzberg's work. What they should be able to glean from this is that there are 2 sets of factors that will determine how we are likely to vote. At the moment the BBC et al are so engrossed in their own self importance that they have forgotten all that we have learnt in the last 100 years and more, and cannot see what directly in front of them. And I think it’s going to take a quantum shift to the right to correct this malaise. UKIP are part of this shift.
The BBC have been giving a helping hand to their favourite minor party, the Green party, for years in regard to getting their first Westminster seat.
Here's an example in the run-up to the 2005 general election, where the BBC publicised the Green party's aspiration to get up to 5 MPs:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4315625.stm
I complained to the BBC at the time that they weren't showing similar helpfulness to the other two minor parties, UKIP and BNP, who had arguably just as likely prospects for getting a first Westminster seat.
A boycott withdrawl of the broadcasting fee worked well here in NZ. It didn't change the make up of our BBC equivalent though, it only formed a symbolic pie in the face protest.
Verry satisfying though...