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Comment by joosters | Hacker News Reader

An unbiased view of bias? Is that even possible?

IMO, the BBC can't be very biased because all sides accuse it of being biased against them!

But then one might argue that accusing the BBC of bias against your side is a calculated approach to deflect accusations of bias in favour of your side.

This is indeed what the right does.

And the right would say it's what the left does. Your turn.

Just because two opposing sides claim to have the correct answer, doesn't mean there isn't a correct answer.

I agree! I just don't think 'You're biased!'/'Nuh-uh, you're biased!' gets us any closer to it.

the BBC can't be very biased because all sides accuse it of being biased against them

I don’t think that’s true. For example you won’t find many Remainers claiming that the BBC was pro-Leave. Nor would you find many opposing Scottish independence saying the BBC was pro Scottish independence. It clearly does “take sides”.

The traditional left-right axis doesn’t work as a model here. The BBC’s bias is towards the opinions and interests of upper-middle-class Londoners, some of which would be traditionally be considered left and some of which would be right.

It depends on the show and the presenter. John Humpfreys was very pro-Leave -- there was one segment on the Today program where he was interviewing someone advocating for a people's vote and angrily asked them how working people would feel betrayed (or something to that effect); meanwhile, he was very soft when interviewing Gove and other Tories. The same applies to how the Today program focused its vox pops on Leave-voting areas.

Likewise, if you look at something like The News Quiz, that and the presenters/guests are left wing and pro-Remain.

The BBC's bias can be considered as pro-State. While some of their journalists and presenters have their own biases, the overall direction they take is to act as the mouthpiece of the government, particularly for international coverage. For domestic coverage, there is enough representation of the opposition to at least make it look like democracy is working and that people aren't being manipulated to do exactly what the State wants them to do. They hold the government to scrutiny on minor issues where there's a difference in the views of the opposition, but on major issues where both parties are united (for example, on going to war), the BBC simply repeats what they're told to.

“The bbc” is a large organisation with many reporters and editors.

Those reporters and editors put out biased content from the left and right.

There are good arguments that the BBC do not criticise the current government and some people take that to mean that they support the government. That is exacerbated by the fact that David Cameron appointed prominent Conservatives to directorial roles in the BBC.[0]

But yes, the news they put out is not unbiased- it’s just that they have bias in all directions depending on who is writing and editing.

[0]: https://www.ft.com/content/7ba884c2-176d-11e6-b197-a4af20d55...

Generally, I think "the bbc" is centre-left (upper-middle-class flavoured).

Their positions on most issues conform to that faction.

I know what you mean but I think it's unhelpful to define it in terms of left/right. I'd describe them as having a bias towards the typical metropolitan liberal outlook.

The reason I'd describe it this way is that it's much more apparent on social issues and certain aspects of international relations, where they don't even seem to understand that other viewpoints might exist. On economics they seem to have at least some awareness that there are a spectrum of viewpoints and take a more consumerist view as often as they do a soft left view (although they still never really seem to consider libertarian or harder left viewpoints).

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