BBC, impartiality and hypocrisy

Gary Lineker, the BBC’s highest paid sports presenter (£1.3m a year) is back in his job after his criticism of the government’s Illegal Immigration Bill raised concern about the BBC’s impartiality. He was grateful to Tim Davie, director general of the BBC.”I’d like to thank Tim Davie for his understanding during this difficult period. He has an almost impossible job keeping everybody happy, particularly in the area of impartiality. I am delighted that we’ll continue to fight the good fight, together”.

A good start would be to investigate the BBC’s role as the chief node in the Trusted News Initiative, a program of censorship aimed at combatting disinformation in real time. Partners include Google/YouTube, Twitter, Reuters, Meta and The Washington Post.

The hypocrisy is not new. In Maistry v BBC (2014) the BBC took a remarkable stance, publicly. It claimed the BBC Values which it assiduously promotes were merely a mission statement. Ian McNulty commented on what this attitude reveals.

BBC SPENDS LICENCE PAYER’S MONEY PROVING ITS OWN HYPOCRISY IN COURT!

Etched in stone high on the front wall of BBC Broadcasting House is the BBC‘s motto, adopted in 1927 to represent the purpose and values of the corporation:

Nation Shall Speak Peace Unto Nation

Based on biblical scripture, this motto inspired the first thing you see when you walk in the front door of the Art Deco foyer, a huge gilded inscription which reads:

This temple of the arts and muses is dedicated to Almighty God by the first Governors in the year of our Lord 1931, John Reith being Director-General. And they pray that good seed sown may bring forth good harvest, and that all things foul or hostile to peace may be banished thence, and that the people inclining their ear to whatsoever things are lovely and honest, whatsoever things are of good report, may tread the path of virtue and wisdom.

BBC Broadcasting House Foyer
BBC Broadcasting House Foyer

How could a temple dedicated with a  prayer to Almighty God not be founded on deeply held religious and philosophical beliefs?

How could a motto, placed high on the front of the building, that nation shall speak peace unto nationnot be interpreted as meaning the BBC has the higher purpose of promoting cultural interchange and social cohesion?

BBC Broadcasting House
BBC Broadcasting House

How could anybody entering the hallowed portals of that building ever possibly claim they were not aware they were entering a temple dedicated to that higher purpose?

How could any BBC employee who claimed they either weren’t aware of, or didn’t believe in, that higher purpose not be either a liar or a hypocrite?

And yet, incredible as it may seem, that’s exactly what the  BBC spent licence payer’s money proving in the Court of Appeal last summer in the case of Maistry v BBC , when Lord Justice Underhill ruled that it was “unquestionably right” and “ a question of fact” that BBC employees were not aware that any of their colleagues actually believed in BBC values!

You can read the rest of McNulty’s piece here.

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Conspiracy at the BBC

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