Comment by ben_w | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ben_w | Hacker News Reader

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The BBC certainly has a lot of problems with regard to actual independence, but I would like to *ahem* provide some balance by pointing to the satirical popular news quiz "Have I Got News For You" which spent the early part of the Blair years having to beep out certain references to Peter Mandelson — the Dominic Cummings of his era — that only ended with (from memory):

???: "Peter Mandelson is a hom… owner"

Regular guest: "Why can't gay people own homes?"

Host: "Well, new Director General, let's see if that goes out."

At the time, and I'm pleasantly amazed how fast this has changed, being gay and in charge was still mildly scandalous in the eyes of tabloids, and that was about the same time the age of consent was equalised.

However such (entirely valid) reasons for respecting privacy should be for all, but as far as I remember Mandelson was the only person who got to keep that particular secret.

Conversely, right after the referendum someone said the BBC should play "God Save The Queen" at the end of the day's programming in concordance with the departure from the EU, and Newsnight responded with this, which is still up on their official channel: https://youtu.be/WwsQ_5Wm4oo

That last example would mean more if The Sex Pistols hadn't long ago been thoroughly absorbed into and reapprpriated by the establishment.

Imagine if they'd shared a contemporary work calling the monarchy a fascist regime.

As it stands it was just a cute joke, and in a way only served to reinforce the soft power of parliament by entering into a playful discourse with it.

Like how Status Quo made some rehashed pro-war "In the army now" army recruitment video ...

I'd like to see them try rehashing In the Navy by the Village People into pro war propaganda.

The BBC don't seem to care about being impartial when it comes to the royalty. They publish loads of articles about the upcoming coronation and I have yet to see any republican points of view.

They don't care about impartiality in anything, really. Certainly not since Greg Dyke left. The management has increasingly been stuffed with people who are openly Tory.

The recent attack on Gary Lineker for not being "impartial" (not being sufficiently uncritical of Government policy) was particularly galling.

There's no such thing as impartiality. Everything has an editorial line which colours what opinions are allowed.

There's degrees of bias though. The BBC has a charter that is supposed to prioritise impartiality, and yet they show strong bias in many topics.

That's the point I'm making. It's like having their charter saying that pi is 3: reality is no less malleable.

Well, pi is approximately 3 to a certain degree of precision. To make a bad analogy, the BBC is currently saying that pi is 4 and increasing.

> Blair years having to beep out certain references to Peter Mandelson — the Dominic Cummings of his era

I thought Alastair Campbell was Blair's Cummings ?

Campbell is IMO the more appropriate comparison too - Mandelson was an elected MP and later a Lord during Blair/Brown years, he wasn't a SPAD for hire like Cummings or Campbell. That said, the three of them worked very closely together - Blair, Mandelson and Campbell.

I'm thinking mainly of the perception of each was that they were a dislikable Machiavellian power behind the throne: https://youtu.be/IWKBe7L50VA

Cambell was Blair's Tucker.

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