Tim Barry

For years now complaints have been levelled at the BBC for its lack of impartiality. It never ceases to amaze me how many people form their opinion on world events through the lens of the BBC. When I suggest to them that that the BBC is perhaps not the best way to keep themselves informed, I’m sometimes met with disbelief that auntie could even be questioned.

…akin to going to the newsagent to buy a copy of The Guardian and being forced by law to buy a copy of The Telegraph…

Last year, I read The Noble Liar: How and Why the BBC Distorts the News to Promote a Liberal Agenda by Robin Aitken, which gives an insider view on this very subject. It’s a an enlightening, but sobering read because this is the body that (if you own a television) are forced to support through the punitive license fee. It’s akin to going to the newsagent to buy a copy of The Guardian and being forced by law to buy a copy of The Telegraph at the same time. The sooner the license fee is abolished, the better. In that scenario everyone wins, those who want to watch the BBC can pay for it and those who do not, are free not to pay for it.

However, railing against the license fee is not the point of this post. This morning I went to check the news and wanted to see what the BBC said about the current Coronavirus situation, so I headed over to their dedicated Coronavirus page. What’s striking is the lack of a viewpoint that questions lockdown in any way shape or form.

Just take these headlines: “I was young and fit, I thought I’d get over Covid”, “On the edge of exhaustion in the NHS”, “Everybody’s got to do their bit to beat Covid” & “Why are people breaking lockdown rules?” (this one had the sub of “There are three kinds of coronavirus rule-breakers, according to one psychologist.” the implication being, that you dear BBC reader are not one of those rule breakers…).

This is a small example of the BBC’s systemic failure to present a balanced view on important issues in order that people make up their own minds, as opposed to being told what to think. The BBC drives an agenda on Coronovirus where lockdown is good, the virus is very bad and our national duty is to protect the NHS. Furthermore Big Government is always something that the left leaning BBC will champion and COV-2 has given the BBC a golden opportunity to do just this. It’s many ways, it’s a socialist dream.

This is a problem because too many people still rely on the BBC to inform them on current events and from that people form a distorted view about what the different viewpoints on a particular subject are.