BBC is on the way out.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

What are the 12 current stories about the government they should be featuring in the current news?

What a stupid question.

Given the data provided are we to believe there is nothing going on which is worth reporting  about the party of Government.

Why for instance is the same labour story 'traingate' repackaged in about five or six different articles.

I am not a journalist. There are people on big licence fee salaries who are. They are not doing there jobs since three quarters of their political statistics are provided by the Government.

What we are left with is that three quarters of statistical information on the BBC is provided by Government making the BBC a mouthpiece and on a day old information on the composition of the new cabinet.

If this is all alright to you then you must be some kind of Francoist.

BBC online is therefore a journalistic disaster.

[Maeght]

What a stupid question.

Which means you can't provide the answer.

Given the data provided are we to believe there is nothing going on which is worth reporting  about the party of Government.

What has 'Given the data' got to do with it? What are the current stories about the Government that should be being reported?

Why for instance is the same labour story 'traingate' repackaged in about five or six different articles.

Common practice if you visit the BBC News page regularly you will always see that happening.

I am not a journalist. There are people on big licence fee salaries who are. They are not doing there jobs since three quarters of their political statistics are provided by the Government.

This came from a report reported on in the Guardian you linked to. This article also included quotes such as 'the report said that the BBC’s reporting of statistics was “commendable”' and “Overall I have been impressed by the BBC’s commitment to helping audiences understand the world we live in, and helping them navigate through complex data and statistics,”. Perhaps your selective reference to the use if Government statistics shows your own bias?

What we are left with is that three quarters of statistical information on the BBC is provided by Government making the BBC a mouthpiece and on a day old information on the composition of the new cabinet.

That's not what the report said.

If this is all alright to you then you must be some kind of Francoist.

Such a situation would not be alright with me, but that is not what the report says. If you think I'm a Francoist hen you clearly don't know me.

BBC online is therefore a journalistic disaster.

Again not what the report says.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

Which means you can't provide the answer.

What has 'Given the data' got to do with it? What are the current stories about the Government that should be being reported?

Common practice if you visit the BBC News page regularly you will always see that happening.

This came from a report reported on in the Guardian you linked to. This article also included quotes such as 'the report said that the BBC’s reporting of statistics was “commendable”' and “Overall I have been impressed by the BBC’s commitment to helping audiences understand the world we live in, and helping them navigate through complex data and statistics,”. Perhaps your selective reference to the use if Government statistics shows your own bias?

That's not what the report said.

Such a situation would not be alright with me, but that is not what the report says. If you think I'm a Francoist hen you clearly don't know me.

Again not what the report says.

You are putting an opinion......The BBC is ''commendable'' above the statistics namely 3/4 of figures used by the BBC in respect to politics comes from the party of government.

Also you see fit to ignore that yesterday 16 stories were focussed on the opposition parties, several new against one old report on the Government.

[jeremyp]

You are putting an opinion......The BBC is ''commendable'' above the statistics namely 3/4 of figures used by the BBC in respect to politics comes from the party of government.

Does that mean they come from the party of government or from the government. For example, the Office of National Statistics provides many of the figures that come from the government, but it is not, in any way biased.

Also you see fit to ignore that yesterday 16 stories were focussed on the opposition parties, several new against one old report on the Government.

The Labour Party is in the midst of a leadership election and its current leader just made a fool of himself (again). What else are you expecting?

[Walt Zingmatilder]

Does that mean they come from the party of government or from the government. For example, the Office of National Statistics provides many of the figures that come from the government, but it is not, in any way biased.
The Labour Party is in the midst of a leadership election and its current leader just made a fool of himself (again). What else are you expecting?

Firstly the Government is the party of Government.
Secondly ''making a fool of oneself'' should be the province of light entertainment not serious journalism.
Thirdly It adds up to only knowing about Government ,what Government wants us to know and a BBC that wants us reinforce that labour are ''a joke''.
Fourthly, There are 17 opposition stories against 1 old story on the composition of Mays cabinet and a story on immigration

[Maeght]

You are putting an opinion......The BBC is ''commendable'' above the statistics namely 3/4 of figures used by the BBC in respect to politics comes from the party of government.

No I'm not. That was a quote from the article and presumably from the report. I haven't expressed an opinion.

Also you see fit to ignore that yesterday 16 stories were focussed on the opposition parties, several new against one old report on the Government.

Nope - and since I have commented on this hard to understand why you think I have ignored it. Taking one day, doing a rough count of topics, then declaring a bias has been established is unreasonable. As I pointed out you would need to do a long study and do a lot of analysis before you could claim such a thing. Without that it is just your opinion and may display your own bias.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

Tonight on Politics BBC online 19 opposition stories 2 on government including one where the government is giving statistics.

[jeremyp]

Tonight on Politics BBC online 19 opposition stories 2 on government including one where the government is giving statistics.

And the Guardian has a similar split. I think it's because Labour are generating all the news at the moment.

[Nearly Sane]

And the Guardian has a similar split. I think it's because Labour are generating all the news at the moment.

Surely the Guardian are just the puppets of the capitalists controlling the supposed liberal papers

[Walt Zingmatilder]

August 26
16 opposition stories 4 Tory/Government stories. Source BBC Online politics page.

[Nearly Sane]

August 26
16 opposition stories 4 Tory/Government stories. Source BBC Online politics page.

And? Are the stories negative or positive?

[Walt Zingmatilder]

And? Are the stories negative or positive?

That is important of course but it represents relative silence from or on the Government
I think 2 or 3 may be about the difficulties for UKIP, 1 about the difficulties of the greens
and the usual 6 or 7 around Corbyn.

[Gonnagle]

Dear Vlad, ( or should it be Dearest Vlad )

Maybe I have my Vlad tinted glasses on ( again ) but I agree with you, Auntie Beeb is my main source of info for all things, be it political, religious or just general news, but for me I see the bias, throughout the EU referendum I searched the BBC for Corbyn but I had to dig to find any news, yes the man was lackluster regarding EU, and yes he is no Winston Churchill, he lacks sound bites, but he was consistent, but he is the leader of the labour party, did they give him full coverage, in a nutshell, no!

Now we go on to the Labour leadership, Corbyn is trouncing Smith, not beating, trouncing, where is the coverage on that, where is the coverage stating that Smith should go away, Smith is only harming the Labour party, but maybe the faithful Labour supporters want soundbite, they want, we will fight them on the beaches!!

You are right, how do we take back our BBC.

Gonnagle.

[Nearly Sane]

Dear Vlad, ( or should it be Dearest Vlad )

Maybe I have my Vlad tinted glasses on ( again ) but I agree with you, Auntie Beeb is my main source of info for all things, be it political, religious or just general news, but for me I see the bias, throughout the EU referendum I searched the BBC for Corbyn but I had to dig to find any news, yes the man was lackluster regarding EU, and yes he is no Winston Churchill, he lacks sound bites, but he was consistent, but he is the leader of the labour party, did they give him full coverage, in a nutshell, no!

Now we go on to the Labour leadership, Corbyn is trouncing Smith, not beating, trouncing, where is the coverage on that, where is the coverage stating that Smith should go away, Smith is only harming the Labour party, but maybe the faithful Labour supporters want soundbite, they want, we will fight them on the beaches!!

You are right, how do we take back our BBC.

Gonnagle.

you want the BBCto say who should be leader of the Labour party?

[Gonnagle]

Dear Sane,

I want the Beeb to report ambiguously, and they are not, it is there in your face to see, whats is important is what the government is doing, tell me what the government is doing, the Labour leadership is second hand news, the country wants to know what the those in charge are doing.

Gonnagle.

[Nearly Sane]

Dear Sane,

I want the Beeb to report ambiguously, and they are not, it is there in your face to see, whats is important is what the government is doing, tell me what the government is doing, the Labour leadership is second hand news, the country wants to know what the those in charge are doing.

Gonnagle.

What does 'ambiguously' here mean? Why is the opposition leader candidates where one says the other is a liar, second hand news!

[Gonnagle]

Dear Sane,

Vlad is right, live with it, the facts are there, the Beeb is pro Con and anti Labour, unless they are Blairite Labour.

Gonnagle.

[Nearly Sane]

Dear Sane,

Vlad is right, live with it, the facts are there, the Beeb is pro Con and anti Labour, unless they are Blairite Labour.

Gonnagle.

Are they? Which facts? Surely concentrating on the opposition with some positive stories is biased to Labour?

[Hope]

Dear Sane,

Vlad is right, live with it, the facts are there, the Beeb is pro Con and anti Labour, unless they are Blairite Labour.

Gonnagle.

Sorry, Gonners; if you were to look at the Welsh pages, you'd find a lot more pro-Labour items; on the Scottish pages, more SNP-related items; Northern Ireland, a mix of DUP, SDLP and Sinn Fein stuff.  If we were to take them as the measurements of bias, we'd get different answers from Vlad's.  Perhaps more important than that is the fact that all the parties regard the BBC as being biased against them.

[Hope]

Dear Sane,

I want the Beeb to report ambiguously, and they are not, it is there in your face to see, whats is important is what the government is doing, tell me what the government is doing, the Labour leadership is second hand news, the country wants to know what the those in charge are doing.

Gonnagle.

Gonners, have you ever known the media cover 'what the government is doing' during August?  Combine that with the excitement around the strange goings-on in the Labour and UKI Parties, why would they be interested in a blank canvas?

[Nearly Sane]

Sorry, Gonners; if you were to look at the Welsh pages, you'd find a lot more pro-Labour items; on the Scottish pages, more SNP-related items; Northern Ireland, a mix of DUP, SDLP and Sinn Fein stuff.  If we were to take them as the measurements of bias, we'd get different answers from Vlad's.  Perhaps more important than that is the fact that all the parties regard the BBC as being biased against them.

the idea that many people think something is biased means it isn't, doesn't make sense

[L.A.]

. . .

Maybe I have my Vlad tinted glasses on ( again ) but I agree with you, Auntie Beeb is my main source of info for all things, be it political, religious or just general news, but for me I see the bias, throughout the EU referendum I searched the BBC for Corbyn but I had to dig to find any news, yes the man was lackluster regarding EU, and yes he is no Winston Churchill, he lacks sound bites, but he was consistent, but he is the leader of the labour party, did they give him full coverage, in a nutshell, no!

Totally lack-lustier I agree, he could be the 'man from the council' come round to clear the drains - except he seems to be totally incapable to doing anything so useful.

Now we go on to the Labour leadership, Corbyn is trouncing Smith, not beating, trouncing, where is the coverage on that, where is the coverage stating that Smith should go away, Smith is only harming the Labour party, but maybe the faithful Labour supporters want soundbite, they want, we will fight them on the beaches!!

Gonnagle, I've never been a great fan of Labour but I would at least like to see a functioning opposition. If Labour can't free themselves form this idiot, it will be very bad news for Labour and quite possibly the country. UKIP are in a position where they might steal a significant section of the Labour vote and move this country 'quite a bit' to the Right.

[Gordon]

I'd have to say I'm fairly cynical about news reporting.

It seems to me that there are two elements involved: what is is considered newsworthy and what is considered important. Where these undoubtedly coincide, such as recent events in Italy, then it is justifiably a focus of news reporting: similarly where there are significant political or social conflicts that involve effects on people.

However there can also be a subjective element, such as when politicians regard themselves as being both newsworthy and important - an example in the previous government when the woeful Danny Alexander delivered his Lib-Dem propaganda version of the real Budget to an almost empty HoC: it was a stunt, but it still made the BBC news!

Then there are our personal subjective preferences: so for me the received wisdom that when one of the royals manages to successfully walk and talk at the same time, or perhaps someone has managed to kick (or hit) a ball in the right direction, this is deemed to be newsworthy and important enough for mainstream national news reporting utterly baffles me.

I don't suppose I'm alone in my cynicism.         

[L.A.]

However there can also be a subjective element, such as when politicians regard themselves as being both newsworthy and important - an example in the previous government when the woeful Danny Alexander delivered his Lib-Dem propaganda version of the real Budget to an almost empty HoC: it was a stunt, but it still made the BBC news!

Hi Gordon,

The BEEB do often seem to have an agenda, thought  it's quite difficult to work-out what it might be. I suspect that they are usually just 'bending over backwards' to be 'even handed'. Presumably it the case you quote, someone had worked-out that they were a bit low on Lib Dem coverage.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

Hi Gordon,

The BEEB do often seem to have an agenda, thought  it's quite difficult to work-out what it might be. I suspect that they are usually just 'bending over backwards' to be 'even handed'. Presumably it the case you quote, someone had worked-out that they were a bit low on Lib Dem coverage.

The lack of news about the government except when what news there is is provided by the government and a concurrent focus on the problems of opposition parties isn't quite what I would call even handed.

If there is an alternative to the BBC increasingly being an arm of the Governing party then it is serving politics like sport. Politics in this model according to the BBC is about winners and losers. We, the BBC support the Man.UTD of politics, the Governing party because they are winners and we want you to know that we will cover all their winning matches (hence the lack of coverage). But there are some interesting matches going on in the lower leagues (The other parties) Jones V Corbyn. UKIP councillors Vs UKIP MEPs.....................Yes that model fits.