The BBC Board ensures the implementation of the BBC Charter which states it is the mission of the BBC to:
" provide impartial news and information to help people understand and engage with the world around them: the BBC should provide duly accurate and impartial news, current affairs and factual programming.."
Does the BBC do this? In particular, has the BBC been biased about Brexit?
Bias can operate in several ways, the most obvious is to argue the case for one side with vigour and persuasiveness whilst damning the other side. This is obvious bias.
Another form of bias that is far less obvious is Bias by Omission. The IEA Report: In Focus, the case for privatising the BBC has identified "Bias by Omission" as a major form of bias practised by the BBC. Of 4275 guests invited to speak about the EU between 2004 and 2015 on the flagship Radio 4 Today Program only 132 supported leaving the EU (3.2%) One third of the pro-withdrawal speakership was repeat appearances by Nigel Farage!
Where the omission of news is systematic the BBC can be accused of actively suppressing news or suppressing the context of news items so that they appear more important or significant than is truly the case. The suppression of news or the context of news can be more pernicious and cumulative than direct bias. George Orwell mentions that this technique of news suppression was used by the BBC in WWII for propaganda against enemies of the UK - has the BBC turned this weapon against its own country?
This suppression of news does not look like bias to viewers and listeners because, in isolated instances, it seems like editorial selection or simple incompetence. If suppression of news is used systematically it is then clearly bias.
A systematic suppression of news by the BBC, the UK's premier News Broadcaster, would be an abuse of the Charter. Worse still, because the Charter apparently guarantees the impartiality of BBC Broadcasts, other radio and TV news networks will be inclined to use the BBC coverage as their standard for impartiality. BBC bias will tend to spread to infect the whole of the Nation's news coverage and body politic. If such bias were to occur it would be an outrageous violation of the trust lodged in the BBC and its staff.
What should be done about the BBC will be discussed after considering some examples of news items and what has been suppressed:
The greatest bias of all is the almost complete omission of the role of the "European Movement" and its Bilderberg Group from any reporting on Brexit. The European Movement actually set up the Remain campaign in the UK - see The Funding of the StrongerIn Campaign. The European Movement set up the Bilderberg Group in the 1950s to provide funding and support but whenever its Multinational Corporate Members such as Renault-Nissan, Goldman Sachs, RyanAir, Airbus etc. speak out against Independence for the UK their affiliation is never mentioned. The European Movement is a foreign organisation that is meddling in UK politics but gets a free pass from the BBC. For goodness sake, the "European Movement" hosts the campaign for a second referendum, set up the Remain campaign and is the heart of pro-EU activity in the UK but the BBC suppresses almost any mention of it! Even when BBC Today interviewed Stephen Dorrell, current chair of the European Movement, and Lord Adonis, current vice chair, on the same day in the same programme they made no mention of the European Movement.
No-one wants "No-Deal"
The BBC is now suppressing all discussion of the advantages of "No-Deal". Few proponents of No-Deal are being invited to speak and presenters are simply repeating the mantra "No-one wants No-Deal". As the 29th March approaches BBC Journalists are being nakedly biased with "Crashing out of the EU" (Kirsty Walk, Newsnight 20/3/19) being used instead of "No Deal" and John Humphreys (Today 21/3/19) describing the largest group of MPs who voted Leave and support No Deal as "Extremists".
In many ways "No-Deal" is Brexit. It is fully leaving the EU and a "deal" is about discussing continued degrees of association with the EU. It should also be remembered that during the Referendum the People were threatened with an immediate melt-down of the economy in 2016-17 costing about £140bn whereas with "no-deal" they are being threatened with £120bn loss. Clearly people wanted Brexit despite £140bn loss so the claim that "no-one wants no deal" is BBC Remain bias.
The huge advantage in funding enjoyed by the Remain side in the Referendum has been suppressed which has led to the coverage of Arron Banks' activities as if it gave Leave a tremendous advantage (see Arron Banks and US Banks). The Electoral Commission figures for funding are scarcely in the public domain due to this suppression:
The news in early September that the Commons Brexit Select Committee reported that Barnier was ready to do a Canada Plus Free Trade Deal was simply suppressed (See Article by Robert Peston).
"The Queen and Bono etc. avoid paying taxes!"
The Paradise Papers etc. are another example of news suppression, the BBC Broadcasts covered the various leaks but scarcely mentioning the fact that billions of pounds of UK corporation taxes are lost annually as a result of EU sanctioned money transfers via Luxembourg and Holland - see The Lux/Swiss Leaks and Paradise Papers. The BBC suppressed the fact that Rona Fairhead, then Chair of the BBC Trust, was deeply involved in expediting the Corporation Tax avoidance described in these leaks in her role as a Director and auditor of HSBC Private Bank (Suisse). The BBC suppresses the fact that the EU Single Market, with free movement of capital, invites tax avoidance. It suppressed proper coverage of Jean-Claude Juncker's role in the scandals which even the fanatically pro-EU Guardian covered.
The BBC has never summarised the constitutional future of the EU. The preambles to the EU Treaties make it clear that one Nation is the goal of the EU, they say that the signatories are:
"RESOLVED to achieve the strengthening and the convergence of their economies and to establish an economic and monetary union..
RESOLVED to establish a citizenship common to nationals of their countries..
RESOLVED to implement a common foreign and security policy including the progressive framing of a common defence policy..
DETERMINED to lay the foundations of an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe,..
RESOLVED to ensure the economic and social progress of their States by common action to eliminate the barriers which divide Europe"
All five EU Presidents in the Five President's Report say that political union is the final state of the EU.
It is clear that the Referendum was about independence but the BBC has suppressed the EU constitutional impetus entirely, making it seem as if Remain favour a static EU.
"The voters simply ignored the experts in the Referendum"
There was much astonishment voiced by BBC journalists and editors about how the public had simply ignored the experts on the economy. But as the economic picture clarified after the Referendum the BBC suppressed any coverage of the fact that the experts were actually wrong. The "experts" changed their economic predictions within weeks and months of the referendum but the BBC have conveniently suppressed any clear coverage of this fact. See Remain Predictions for Brexit.
The
Treasury, IMF etc. now regard productivity as a bigger problem for the
UK economy than Brexit - here is the current Treasury prediction:
Notice that no-one is now predicting the absolute calamity that the "experts" predicted, the Treasury graph above goes well beyond Brexit to 2021 - this means Remain voters can stop worrying about economic disaster after Brexit, it will not happen. But the BBC has suppressed this news.
The suppression of news about the "experts" being wrong is even affecting academics - in November 2017 the Rand Corporation used the Treasury pre-Referendum reports as if they were valid estimates of the effects of Brexit and the BBC reported this as NEW data about the impact of Brexit.
The experts predicted a loss of £2000m a week, a loss that we already know was a lie, but the BBC has suppressed this and focussed entirely on vague promises by some Leave campaigners about funding the NHS. Most Remain voters still believe that the expert predictions are yet to be fulfilled, the BBC having suppressed coverage of the fact that the predictions applied to now, the negotiation period, not post-Brexit. This is truly a huge story that has been entirely covered up.
"The Chairman of Social Mobility Board Mr Milburn said the current focus on Brexit meant ministers were unlikely to have the energy needed to tackle one of the biggest challenges facing the UK."
Which should have read: Alan Milburn, ex-director of the Goldman Sachs/Richard Branson funded anti-Brexit organisation "UK-EU Open Policy" attacked the government for focussing on Brexit. The BBC suppressed the fact that Milburn is a campaigner for the reversal of Brexit.
"Prices have risen due to the huge fall in the pound since Brexit"
The BBC suppressed the fact that although there was a sharp fall in the pound immediately after the referendum the total fall was not exceptional and was part of a Balance of Payments Crisis.
The Pound fell 20 cents between 2014 and the referendum and has recovered since the referendum. The rise and fall around the referendum was short term speculation, the long term fall is a result of the UK-EU balance of payments crisis. That the BBC did not stir up a moral panic about the large falls in the pound in 2010 or 2014-15 and ascribed all of the fall in the pound in recent years to Brexit is plain and obvious bias.
The BBC reported the fall in the pound as if it were "Poundmaggedon" and always suppressed the historical context of the fall - it was similar to the fall in the previous year - and suppressed the financial context of the fall (the ongoing Trade Deficit).
As late as 9th January 2017 Kamal Ahmed, the BBC Economics correspondent claimed that manufacturing in the UK had only increased because of the fall in the pound after the referendum (the £ was only 6 cents down from June 2016). The BBC and hence other Broadcast Media were so emphatic that the Referendum had caused the pound to plummet disastrously that Remain voters will, to this day, look at anyone who questions this narrative as possibly insane (when of course, the facts show the opposite).
"Hard Brexit or Soft Brexit"
Hard Brexit is a Remain propaganda term. The real terminology is WTO Brexit or stay in the Common Market - See WTO Option. The word "hard" is obvious campaigning against Brexit.
"The divorce bill could be 100bn euros!"
Firstly "divorce" is a pejorative, Remain propaganda term, the UK is leaving the EU. Secondly, much of any payment would have happened for as little benefit had the UK remained in the EU and thirdly, the BBC had access to authoritative publications such as Brexit and the EU Budget that put any likely bill at 15-60bn euros, not 100bn! The BBC suppressed the fact that authoritative sources all denied a 100bn euro bill.
"Britain might stay in the Single Market"
The term "Single Market" is EU terminology for "Common Market". The Referendum was to reverse the 1972 European Community Act through which the UK joined the Common Market. As it said in the principle government pamphlet of the 1975 referendum, the UK was joining the Common Market:
"The Labour Party manifesto in the election made it clear that Labour rejected the terms under which Britain's entry in to the Common Market had been negotiated, and promised that, if returned to power, they would set out to get better terms."
That the BBC suppress the fact that "Single Market" is the EU term for the "Common Market" is simply bias.
"Balance of payments crisis with EU? What crisis? Oh that.., its nothing"
The total absence of any real analysis of the Trade and Current Account Deficits from BBC coverage of Brexit, even when the present negotiations with the EU are all about trade and primary income, shows clear and obvious bias. The economics editors know what is happening but coverage is being suppressed deliberately. See UK-EU Trade and Balance of Payments Crisis. Given that the UK is, according to its government, committed to Brexit the BBC can only do justice to the problem of the Balance of Payments Crisis by asking Brexit favouring economists to describe the situation (not by asking Remain economists to explain why it does not matter to them). The Trade Deficit with the EU directly costs the UK economy 4% of GDP per year - see Have economists and economics journalists sold out?. Have you heard this on the BBC news?
"How would hard Brexit affect your grocery bill?", "will the City move to the EU?", "will Vauxhall move to the EU?" etc, etc
The context of all of these stories has been suppressed by the BBC. They are covered as disasters for the UK economy when, even were there to be an impossible, total loss of food, car and financial services exports to the EU this would only constitute 9% of UK exports! BBC economics staff are fully aware of this fact but connive at suppressing the context of the stories.
"The NHS Crisis is caused by an ageing population"
Suppressing the IFS finding that the NHS Crisis is 60% due to population growth. See Causes of pressure on NHS.
The BBC sources much of its reporting from IFS studies but has simply omitted population growth.
"JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs predict..."
These two US Banks provided the initial finance for StrongerIn. The articles on BBC News covering the dire predictions for Brexit of these banks (such as 9 am 25/1/2018) never provide the context - Tony Blair is JP Morgan's Brexit Director.
"Brexit is causing inflation..."
Many countries have tried to correct the deflationary pressures of 2015/16. To take the UK in isolation and blame the rise on Brexit, even though the rise began before June 2016, is bias. The BBC suppress the context of the inflation figures.
"Brexit creates such uncertainty business investment is falling.."
No it isn't and hasn't:
The BBC Board and Ofcom are failing in their duty to prevent our National Broadcaster from violating its Charter. The problem of news suppression is now so vast and cumulative that Ofcom members may be totally unaware of what has really been happening since the Referendum and junior journalists at the BBC will just assume that all bad news "due to Brexit".
It is the BBC and those who protect it who are creating the division in British society by allowing Remain voters to believe that they were correct on every point in the referendum campaign and cheated of victory by nothing more than promises to fund the NHS that, according to the implied subtext, fooled ignorant Leave voters. The truth is very different but is being suppressed. It is essential that the BBC apologises for its behaviour on every news broadcast for a week and produces a series of prime time news items on what has really happened so that the whole population can become aware of its perfidy.
Original: 13/7/17
" provide impartial news and information to help people understand and engage with the world around them: the BBC should provide duly accurate and impartial news, current affairs and factual programming.."
Does the BBC do this? In particular, has the BBC been biased about Brexit?
 |
| Impartial? |
Another form of bias that is far less obvious is Bias by Omission. The IEA Report: In Focus, the case for privatising the BBC has identified "Bias by Omission" as a major form of bias practised by the BBC. Of 4275 guests invited to speak about the EU between 2004 and 2015 on the flagship Radio 4 Today Program only 132 supported leaving the EU (3.2%) One third of the pro-withdrawal speakership was repeat appearances by Nigel Farage!
Where the omission of news is systematic the BBC can be accused of actively suppressing news or suppressing the context of news items so that they appear more important or significant than is truly the case. The suppression of news or the context of news can be more pernicious and cumulative than direct bias. George Orwell mentions that this technique of news suppression was used by the BBC in WWII for propaganda against enemies of the UK - has the BBC turned this weapon against its own country?
This suppression of news does not look like bias to viewers and listeners because, in isolated instances, it seems like editorial selection or simple incompetence. If suppression of news is used systematically it is then clearly bias.
A systematic suppression of news by the BBC, the UK's premier News Broadcaster, would be an abuse of the Charter. Worse still, because the Charter apparently guarantees the impartiality of BBC Broadcasts, other radio and TV news networks will be inclined to use the BBC coverage as their standard for impartiality. BBC bias will tend to spread to infect the whole of the Nation's news coverage and body politic. If such bias were to occur it would be an outrageous violation of the trust lodged in the BBC and its staff.
What should be done about the BBC will be discussed after considering some examples of news items and what has been suppressed:
The greatest bias of all is the almost complete omission of the role of the "European Movement" and its Bilderberg Group from any reporting on Brexit. The European Movement actually set up the Remain campaign in the UK - see The Funding of the StrongerIn Campaign. The European Movement set up the Bilderberg Group in the 1950s to provide funding and support but whenever its Multinational Corporate Members such as Renault-Nissan, Goldman Sachs, RyanAir, Airbus etc. speak out against Independence for the UK their affiliation is never mentioned. The European Movement is a foreign organisation that is meddling in UK politics but gets a free pass from the BBC. For goodness sake, the "European Movement" hosts the campaign for a second referendum, set up the Remain campaign and is the heart of pro-EU activity in the UK but the BBC suppresses almost any mention of it! Even when BBC Today interviewed Stephen Dorrell, current chair of the European Movement, and Lord Adonis, current vice chair, on the same day in the same programme they made no mention of the European Movement.
No-one wants "No-Deal"
The BBC is now suppressing all discussion of the advantages of "No-Deal". Few proponents of No-Deal are being invited to speak and presenters are simply repeating the mantra "No-one wants No-Deal". As the 29th March approaches BBC Journalists are being nakedly biased with "Crashing out of the EU" (Kirsty Walk, Newsnight 20/3/19) being used instead of "No Deal" and John Humphreys (Today 21/3/19) describing the largest group of MPs who voted Leave and support No Deal as "Extremists".
In many ways "No-Deal" is Brexit. It is fully leaving the EU and a "deal" is about discussing continued degrees of association with the EU. It should also be remembered that during the Referendum the People were threatened with an immediate melt-down of the economy in 2016-17 costing about £140bn whereas with "no-deal" they are being threatened with £120bn loss. Clearly people wanted Brexit despite £140bn loss so the claim that "no-one wants no deal" is BBC Remain bias.
The huge advantage in funding enjoyed by the Remain side in the Referendum has been suppressed which has led to the coverage of Arron Banks' activities as if it gave Leave a tremendous advantage (see Arron Banks and US Banks). The Electoral Commission figures for funding are scarcely in the public domain due to this suppression:
The news in early September that the Commons Brexit Select Committee reported that Barnier was ready to do a Canada Plus Free Trade Deal was simply suppressed (See Article by Robert Peston).
"The Queen and Bono etc. avoid paying taxes!"
The Paradise Papers etc. are another example of news suppression, the BBC Broadcasts covered the various leaks but scarcely mentioning the fact that billions of pounds of UK corporation taxes are lost annually as a result of EU sanctioned money transfers via Luxembourg and Holland - see The Lux/Swiss Leaks and Paradise Papers. The BBC suppressed the fact that Rona Fairhead, then Chair of the BBC Trust, was deeply involved in expediting the Corporation Tax avoidance described in these leaks in her role as a Director and auditor of HSBC Private Bank (Suisse). The BBC suppresses the fact that the EU Single Market, with free movement of capital, invites tax avoidance. It suppressed proper coverage of Jean-Claude Juncker's role in the scandals which even the fanatically pro-EU Guardian covered.
The BBC has never summarised the constitutional future of the EU. The preambles to the EU Treaties make it clear that one Nation is the goal of the EU, they say that the signatories are:
"RESOLVED to achieve the strengthening and the convergence of their economies and to establish an economic and monetary union..
RESOLVED to establish a citizenship common to nationals of their countries..
RESOLVED to implement a common foreign and security policy including the progressive framing of a common defence policy..
DETERMINED to lay the foundations of an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe,..
RESOLVED to ensure the economic and social progress of their States by common action to eliminate the barriers which divide Europe"
All five EU Presidents in the Five President's Report say that political union is the final state of the EU.
"The voters simply ignored the experts in the Referendum"
There was much astonishment voiced by BBC journalists and editors about how the public had simply ignored the experts on the economy. But as the economic picture clarified after the Referendum the BBC suppressed any coverage of the fact that the experts were actually wrong. The "experts" changed their economic predictions within weeks and months of the referendum but the BBC have conveniently suppressed any clear coverage of this fact. See Remain Predictions for Brexit.
 |
| Did you hear the BBC report on how Treasury experts changed their minds? Of course not, the BBC suppressed the story. |
The suppression of news about the "experts" being wrong is even affecting academics - in November 2017 the Rand Corporation used the Treasury pre-Referendum reports as if they were valid estimates of the effects of Brexit and the BBC reported this as NEW data about the impact of Brexit.
The experts predicted a loss of £2000m a week, a loss that we already know was a lie, but the BBC has suppressed this and focussed entirely on vague promises by some Leave campaigners about funding the NHS. Most Remain voters still believe that the expert predictions are yet to be fulfilled, the BBC having suppressed coverage of the fact that the predictions applied to now, the negotiation period, not post-Brexit. This is truly a huge story that has been entirely covered up.
"The Chairman of Social Mobility Board Mr Milburn said the current focus on Brexit meant ministers were unlikely to have the energy needed to tackle one of the biggest challenges facing the UK."
Which should have read: Alan Milburn, ex-director of the Goldman Sachs/Richard Branson funded anti-Brexit organisation "UK-EU Open Policy" attacked the government for focussing on Brexit. The BBC suppressed the fact that Milburn is a campaigner for the reversal of Brexit.
"Prices have risen due to the huge fall in the pound since Brexit"
The BBC suppressed the fact that although there was a sharp fall in the pound immediately after the referendum the total fall was not exceptional and was part of a Balance of Payments Crisis.
The Pound fell 20 cents between 2014 and the referendum and has recovered since the referendum. The rise and fall around the referendum was short term speculation, the long term fall is a result of the UK-EU balance of payments crisis. That the BBC did not stir up a moral panic about the large falls in the pound in 2010 or 2014-15 and ascribed all of the fall in the pound in recent years to Brexit is plain and obvious bias.
As late as 9th January 2017 Kamal Ahmed, the BBC Economics correspondent claimed that manufacturing in the UK had only increased because of the fall in the pound after the referendum (the £ was only 6 cents down from June 2016). The BBC and hence other Broadcast Media were so emphatic that the Referendum had caused the pound to plummet disastrously that Remain voters will, to this day, look at anyone who questions this narrative as possibly insane (when of course, the facts show the opposite).
"Hard Brexit or Soft Brexit"
Hard Brexit is a Remain propaganda term. The real terminology is WTO Brexit or stay in the Common Market - See WTO Option. The word "hard" is obvious campaigning against Brexit.
"The divorce bill could be 100bn euros!"
Firstly "divorce" is a pejorative, Remain propaganda term, the UK is leaving the EU. Secondly, much of any payment would have happened for as little benefit had the UK remained in the EU and thirdly, the BBC had access to authoritative publications such as Brexit and the EU Budget that put any likely bill at 15-60bn euros, not 100bn! The BBC suppressed the fact that authoritative sources all denied a 100bn euro bill.
"Britain might stay in the Single Market"
The term "Single Market" is EU terminology for "Common Market". The Referendum was to reverse the 1972 European Community Act through which the UK joined the Common Market. As it said in the principle government pamphlet of the 1975 referendum, the UK was joining the Common Market:
"The Labour Party manifesto in the election made it clear that Labour rejected the terms under which Britain's entry in to the Common Market had been negotiated, and promised that, if returned to power, they would set out to get better terms."
That the BBC suppress the fact that "Single Market" is the EU term for the "Common Market" is simply bias.
"Balance of payments crisis with EU? What crisis? Oh that.., its nothing"
"How would hard Brexit affect your grocery bill?", "will the City move to the EU?", "will Vauxhall move to the EU?" etc, etc
The context of all of these stories has been suppressed by the BBC. They are covered as disasters for the UK economy when, even were there to be an impossible, total loss of food, car and financial services exports to the EU this would only constitute 9% of UK exports! BBC economics staff are fully aware of this fact but connive at suppressing the context of the stories.
"The NHS Crisis is caused by an ageing population"
Suppressing the IFS finding that the NHS Crisis is 60% due to population growth. See Causes of pressure on NHS.
"JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs predict..."
These two US Banks provided the initial finance for StrongerIn. The articles on BBC News covering the dire predictions for Brexit of these banks (such as 9 am 25/1/2018) never provide the context - Tony Blair is JP Morgan's Brexit Director.
"Brexit is causing inflation..."
Many countries have tried to correct the deflationary pressures of 2015/16. To take the UK in isolation and blame the rise on Brexit, even though the rise began before June 2016, is bias. The BBC suppress the context of the inflation figures.
"Brexit creates such uncertainty business investment is falling.."
No it isn't and hasn't:
What should be done about the BBC?
Any single example of news suppression might be put down to editorial choices but there is absolutely clear evidence of systematic suppression of any prominent news at all that might hinder the campaign to overturn the referendum result. This cannot be consistent with the BBC Charter.The BBC Board and Ofcom are failing in their duty to prevent our National Broadcaster from violating its Charter. The problem of news suppression is now so vast and cumulative that Ofcom members may be totally unaware of what has really been happening since the Referendum and junior journalists at the BBC will just assume that all bad news "due to Brexit".
It is the BBC and those who protect it who are creating the division in British society by allowing Remain voters to believe that they were correct on every point in the referendum campaign and cheated of victory by nothing more than promises to fund the NHS that, according to the implied subtext, fooled ignorant Leave voters. The truth is very different but is being suppressed. It is essential that the BBC apologises for its behaviour on every news broadcast for a week and produces a series of prime time news items on what has really happened so that the whole population can become aware of its perfidy.
Original: 13/7/17
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