24 October 2006

BBC liberal? My foot!

It will be superfluous to join the chorus of the indignant voices that have just "discovered" or are simply gloating at the latest scandal about the BBC bias. Daily Mail being what Daily Mail is, its thirst for scandals paid off this time. The mere fact of BBC bias is hardly news to anybody, and BBC's tooth and nail fight against publication of the damning report is admission of guilt enough.

Of course, the arrogance of this fine establishment after the fact leaves one breathless. I do not know whether this quote from Andrew Marr is precise:

The BBC is not impartial or neutral. It's a publicly funded, urban organization with an abnormally large number of young people, ethnic minorities and gay people. It has a liberal bias not so much a party-political bias. It is better expressed as a cultural liberal bias.
I also don't know whether this quote is absolutely true:
One veteran BBC executive said: 'There was widespread acknowledgement that we may have gone too far in the direction of political correctness.
But if it is, it shows how far the BBC establishment has gone in its self-delusion.

No, it is not about bias. There are quite a lot of biased media around, and it would be hypocritical to blame BBC alone. Although, as a taxpayer-funded organization BBC could do better, of course. But Fox, to take one example, is no less (rather more) biased, for that matter, although Fox is not funded by taxpayers.

What really takes the cake is the insistence of BBC in defining itself as a liberal outfit. To remind ourselves:
Adjective: Liberal

1. Showing or characterized by broad-mindedness
2. Having political or social views favoring reform and progress
3. Tolerant of change; not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or tradition
Could BBC that enforces a perverted politically biased dictionary like in the famous case of the "terrorist - militant" pretend to be broad-minded?
Could BBC that fights publication of a report on its bias pretend to be tolerant of change, favoring reform and progress, fighting orthodoxy?

But first of all, liberal means tolerance of a dissident view and freedom of information, and BBC has consistently proved that it is anything but tolerant. Its Big Brother behavior, arrogance, filtering of information and hypocrisy explain only too well how the word "liberal" became an expletive so beloved by right wing and left wing extremists.

Feh...

Cross-posted on Yourish.com

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