Opinion: The BBC’s Investigation Into Online Abuse Is Total Bullshit
by Ash Sarkar
In a hopelessly flawed piece of 'research', the broadcaster found that calling a politician a 'hypocrite' is abuse, whereas racist slurs are not.
Tag: BBC
Opinion: The Tories Are Capturing ‘Politically Neutral’ Public Institutions
by Steven Methven
Former Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis has revealed that the Tories have exerted political influence on the BBC. That isn’t the half of their attempts to capture key institutions, argues Steven Methven.
Analysis: Were the 70s Really That Great?
by Juliet Jacques
From the union boom to radical TV, the left tends to see the 70s through rose-tinted glasses. We should beware nostalgia, writes Juliet Jacques.
Analysis: The Forde Report Proves the Labour Machine Was Rotten to Its Core
by Aaron Bastani
No amount of spin can conceal the Forde report’s knockout punch: Labour’s management team was an embittered faction, out to destroy Jeremy Corbyn. And the mainstream media completely failed to expose it.
Explainers: The Establishment’s Plan to Deal With Inflation
As inflation rises the establishment has a solution: we all need to get poorer. The alternative is for profits to fall – but that is unacceptable to the powerful. Aaron Bastani on how only unions can save us.
Analysis: The Media Needs More Labour Correspondents
by Sam Bright
Mick Lynch has badly exposed the lack of specialist labour reporters in mainstream media. But it wasn’t always like this, Sam Bright writes.
Downstream: How the Mainstream Media Enabled Climate Denial
Aaron Bastani speaks to George Monbiot about COP26, which countries are climate change leaders and how the mainstream media enabled a culture of climate denial when it mattered most.
The Bastani Factor: Why the Media Can’t Tell the Truth on Israel & Palestine
Whether it’s the filtering process of mainstream outlets – or the ‘electric fence’ approach of lobbying organisations – the biggest casualty is truth and the Palestinian people. Aaron Bastani on why the truth is rarely uttered when it comes to covering the occupation.
TyskySour: Ceasefire in Gaza, but Occupation Continues
With Israeli police once again storming the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem, it is clear that for Palestinians a ceasefire does not mean peace.
Opinion: Why Should the BBC Licence Fee Fund Britain’s ‘Soft Power’?
by Aaron Bastani
One of the reasons we should care about the BBC, we are told, is because the World Service allows Britain to punch above its weight on the world stage. Aaron Bastani asks: should the licence fee really be funding our country's obsessive pursuit of the illusion of global influence?
Downstream: Maybe Don’t Defund the BBC? Interview With Nish Kumar
This week on Downstream Ash Sarkar met with Nish Kumar - comedian and host of The Mash Report - to talk about how he became the accidental face of the Defund the BBC movement, and why rightwing comics are the real snowflakes.
Downstream: Can You Change the Police From Within? Ash Sarkar Meets Leroy Logan
20 years after the Macpherson Report, the Metropolitan Police is still dogged by accusations of institutional racism, while the Black Lives Matter movement has forced a reckoning with police brutality and inequalities in the criminal justice system. But should Black and Asian people protest from the outside to force change, or join the ranks of […]
Analysis: BBC Panorama Investigation Into Labour Antisemitism Omitted Key Evidence and Parts of Labour’s Response
by Justin Schlosberg
Exclusive: As Labour agrees to pay out nearly £600k in damages and legal costs, Justin Schlosberg reveals how the BBC's Panorama investigation into Labour antisemitism omitted email evidence and key parts of Labour’s pre-broadcast reply.
Report: Did BBC Whistleblowers Mislead the Public on Labour Antisemitism and Blame Their Own Failures on Corbyn?
by Charlotte England
We compared evidence in the leaked Labour report with last year's Panorama investigation into antisemitism in the party.
Opinion: To Be Impartial the BBC Must Change Its Relationship to Britain’s Billionaire-owned Newspapers
by Aaron Bastani
As someone born in Britain the BBC is one of the institutions I am most proud of, writes Aaron Bastani, but it could be so much better, offering a genuine counterweight to a billionaire class intent on rigging the country’s democratic process. It won’t do that, and live up to its own charter, until it re-thinks its relationship to the rightwing press.
The Bastani Factor: I’m Sorry, the BBC Has Now Lost It
From ‘public’ audiences filled with Tory activists to not even attempting to have political balance on panels – and even getting the most basic of facts wrong, Aaron Bastani thinks the jury is clearly out. The BBC has totally lost it when it comes to news and current affairs.
The Bastani Factor: Question Time is Biased
The BBC is meant to stop fake news, not amplify it. Last week on the BBC’s Question Time Diane Abbott was subject to disgraceful treatment. The host Fiona Bruce was neither accurate nor impartial. Isabel Oakeshott’s dishonesty was constantly unchallenged. Tory minister Rory Stewart couldn’t believe his luck in how biased the chairing was. Aaron […]
Interview: Interview With Owen Jones
“The main thing I’ve learned from working in the British media is that much of it is a cult. Afflicted by a suffocating groupthink, intolerant of critics, hounds internal dissenters, full of people who made it because of connections and/or personal background rather than merit.” The above tweet from Owen Jones set off an inferno […]