BBC Bias - It's official

The Sunday Times today informs us that a BBC report says that The BBC is institutionally biased...particularly partial in its treatment of single-issue politics such as climate change, poverty, race and religion... the bias has extended across drama, comedy and entertainment, with the corporation pandering to politically motivated celebrities and trendy causes. No surprises there then...
The report also points to the danger of BBC programmes being undermined by the liberal culture of its staff...“There is a tendency to ‘group think’ with too many staff inhabiting a shared space and comfort zone,” says the report. It goes on to highlight a “Roneo mentality” where staff ape each other’s common liberal values.

A particularly telling part of The Sunday Times article is this - After the BBC broadcast a week of programmes to highlight poverty in Africa and a day celebrating the National Health Service, Adam Boulton, political editor of Sky News, told a House of Lords select committee the BBC’s coverage came dangerously close to peddling government propaganda. The programmes came at a time when the BBC was negotiating a new royal charter with ministers. Of course a Rupert Murdoch paper has a vested interest in this area of the BBC.

Other extracts include:
- details of a staff impartiality seminar at which senior figures criticised the corporation for being anti American and pandering to Islam.
- A senior BBC reporter attacking the corporation for giving “no moral weight” to America.
- Executives admitting they would broadcast images of a Bible being thrown away – but not the Koran for fear of offending Muslims.
- The BBC deliberately championing multiculturalism and ethnic minorities, while betraying an anti countryside bias.

So the BBC has said that is has discovered that it is institutionally biased towards anti-establishment views rather than the status quo, towards the left rather than the centre or right, towards environmentalism rather than commerce and towards Islam rather than any other religion. Will it make any difference, I think not? In fact, does the BBC really believe it has a problem or is this report a cover, if the BBC admit to a little problem with presentation they can continue with promoting their own agenda.

PS Would this be the right time for the BBC to release the Balen report?

One example from the report of bias was "Executives admitting they would broadcast images of a Bible being thrown away – but not the Koran for fear of offending Muslims." Does offending Christians not count? Would the BBC broadcast images of the Gurū Granth Sāhib being thrown away? How about the Bhagavad Gita? Should not all religions be shown the same respect or the same lack of respect? Does the level of respect that the BBC shows depend upon how likely they are to receive a death threat?