Right, so the BBC has once again been caught platforming hate, presumably for a ratings boost, as it’s incessant platforming of the likes of Nigel Farage, Richard Tice, and most notably in the last few days comments by Lee Anderson, so isn’t it lovely that Reform UK are getting such widespread platforming on the BBC when they already have GB News and Talk TV to do that for them? It’s a dangerous game the establishment media is playing with its dalliances with the hard right of British politics, because the more people se of them, the more their ideas and policies become ingrained and if the BBC thinks that people won’t be taken by this, seeing these nonsense politicians in terms of ratings and that what they say is an irrelevance, then, well it really isn’t working. The BBC’s reputation has already been hammered because of it’s inherent bias towards the status quo and people are sick of it, sick of this bias constantly being shoved in their faces to the point they are taking their licence fees and walking, wanting our supposedly impartial largest media outlet to actually be fair in it’s news delivery and it’s guest selection, but it never is. So it is absolutely fair and justified to say Britain is choosing to cancel the BBC and actually, it completely deserves it.
Right, so that was the most recent clip of Lee Anderson, being allowed by the BBC to spout off about an absolute disgusting attack by Greater Manchester Police, by one of their officers at a Stand up to Racism campaign. The BBC chose to interview Lee flaming Anderson over that, just the fact it was a Stand up to Racism event, should have precluded Anderson being interviewed in response to that given his own repeated, deeply unpleasant conduct over the last few years, not least incidents including referring to London Mayor Sadiq Khan as being under the control of Islamists which saw him suspended from the Tory Party, but then he carried by saying Khan had given London to his mates. Anderson is a guy who attacks food banks, believing you can survive on 30 pence meals, which he couldn’t actually prove, but earnt him the nickname 30p Lee. He has also verbally attacked asylum seekers, and even footballers for taking the knee. Of all people, the BBC chose to ask him about an anti racism demonstration, a protester getting taken to the floor, having his head kicked like a football and then stamped on and Anderson in that clip there, in that response to that act, said he should get a medal. That sadly, sums the BBC up these days and indeed for the last few years all too well and it is little wonder a great many people are now abandoning the BBC and taking their licence fee cash with them, but the BBC appears to still not be getting this message, actually concluding the drop in licence fee payers is down to something else entirely, which, although possibly one reason, certainly isn’t one I’ve come across before.
You see the BBC’s annual report has just come out, and it has shown that in the UK, 23.9m households still pay for a TV licence, or were paying for a TV licence over the last year, but that this is down on the previous year to the tune of half a million households. The BBC’s conclusion for people switching them off? The cost of living crisis.
The licence fee is currently £169.50, which works out at about £14 a month if paid monthly. For people who are struggling to make ends meet, paying the licence fee will have been ditched some time ago, well before they are at the point of choosing to eat or not. £14 a month isn’t a huge sum, but it could well be more than some people can afford. The BBC is down £80m over the last year as a result and in a bid to head this off, the BBC are offering half price licences if certain criteria are met. I’ve yet to see anyone say publicly, that that is their reason for turning the BBC off though. Perhaps some have, I daresay some will seek to get the half price licence fees anyway if they meet the criteria, but will it attract anyone who has cancelled their licence fees back at all? I guess we’ll see in next years report, where I would expect take up of half price licence fees to be decent as people seek to save money, but I also expect that full price figure to drop again too, because ultimately their content, especially their news content is insultingly poo, the BBC’s income has dropped by 30% over the last 10 years, implying a deeper rooted problem and it’s no surprise why, which I’ll come onto in a moment.
What is more likely, is that when people are trying to tighten their belts and make ends meet, they’re more likely to take their licence fee money to another subscription like Netflix, or Disney+ for their entertainment and certainly as far as news is concerned, more people are seeking it out online where they get a greater variety of input and that of course extends to YouTube and other social media as well.
You also wouldn’t believe and I fully expect to get comments on this video about this as well, how many people are turning the BBC off, because they think it’s been taken over by woke lefties. They bemoan the fact that the Tories didn’t cancel the licence fee completely, because why should they pay for such lefty dogma, seeing it as a tax that should be cut by the Tories who are supposed to be all about low tax. I don’t completely disagree with that notion myself, but coming at it from the left as I do obviously and recognising the BBC not to be left wing, but overtly right wing, but I’m also not unique in thinking that, be you right wing, left wing, centrist or whatever.
A poll by electoral calculus on the value of the BBC licence fee conducted back in 2022 found that 71% of respondents thought the licence fee was poor value for money. Well you had Laura Kuenssberg literally chewing a wasp throughout the General Election night coverage as she saw her beloved Tories implode, she is the standout example of client journalist and her pro Tory proclivities have been commented on and derided for a long, long time, but when you actually look at who runs the BBC, especially in its news service, the commentary of right wing figures attacking the BBC falls flat, it doesn’t carry weight, yet will still damage the BBC too and have people turning off.
The Director-General of the BBC is Tim Davie, a former chair of a local Conservative association and a former council candidate for that party. The former Chairman of the BBC was of course Richard Sharp, who helped facilitate a loan for Boris Johnson, was literally a Tory Party donor, as well as a donor to the eternally on the BBC right wing think tank, the Centre for Policy Studies and a former Goldman Sachs banker, where he was the boss at that time of a certain Rishi Sunak. It was only in the aftermath of that bank loan scandal he stood down though.
Robbie Gibb is a former head of politics at the BBC before he swanned off to become Theresa May’s head of communications when she became Prime Minister. The fact he was allowed back into the BBC after that as a board member is ridiculous, but even more so when he was an ardent Brexiteer with influence over the news agenda at that time and was literally called a Tory insider by then Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis.
Then there was the appointment as head of news of John McAndrew, who had literally come from GB News, as their editorial director, a channel which had 5 of its shows found guilty by even the ordinarily useless Ofcom of ‘materially misleading it’s audience.’ He’s now thankfully gone though.
But this is always the way, this is how the BBC has for decades been run, the appointments to certain positions being made by government, means the BBC always gets skewed towards the narrative of the government of the day and when we only ever have successively right wing government whichever party is in power, the BBC directly reflects that. More and more people are aware of it and walking away from it. The BBC’s plain lack of impartiality is what is driving people away and although people from different political persuasions will argue over whether it is because the BBC is too left wing or too right wing, the net result is the same and there’s no future for the BBC if it cannot rescue it’s own reputation and for that, there needs I think to be a wholesale clear out and the removal of political appointments, making the body truly independent and no longer under the cosh of having that licence fee of theirs threatened not just by us not paying it, but by governments holding it over their heads all the time, whenever they stray to close to actually doing their job properly.
For more on BBC and who it chooses to platform and who it doesn’t, it gets even more extreme than the clowns of Reform UK, as this video recommendation will give you more details about, again bringing into question the editorial decisions of too many right wingers behind the scenes at the BBC and I’ll hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.