The BBC announced that  it will increase both its investment in U.S. news based website and its 24-hour global news channel citing a need for impartial news coverage on cable television.

In the announcement of the change on the BBC website Herb Scannell, President, BBC Worldwide America, said:

“The BBC has a well deserved global reputation for the independence and quality of its journalism, as it its recent coverage of Egypt proves. With networks staking out ideological positions on the right and the left, or caught in a state of flux, there has never been a greater need for an impartial news offering for cable. Add to that the plethora of emerging alternative delivery systems lacking a vital news source and it’s the perfect time to extend our footprint in this market and strengthen our distribution efforts for BBC World News channel.”

The BBC will add dedicated video journalists to the Washington D.C. bureau currently producing the U.S. edition of BBC.com with the goal of creating original and innovative video features to enhance their overall coverage.

“Americans look to the BBC to ‘connect the dots’ between America and the world in ways very few news organizations can,” said Miranda Cresswell, SVP BBC.com. “This new investment will allow us to ramp that up and respond to growing demand for online news video content.”

The impartiality that Scannell speaks about at the BBC is at odds with what former BBC anchor Peter Sissons recently wrote in the Daily Mail:

In my view, ‘bias’ is too blunt a word to describe the subtleties of the ­pervading culture. The better word is a ‘mindset’. At the core of the BBC, in its very DNA, is a way of thinking that is firmly of the Left.

By far the most popular and widely read newspapers at the BBC are The Guardian and The Independent. ­Producers refer to them routinely for the line to take on ­running stories, and for inspiration on which items to cover. In the later stages of my career, I lost count of the number of times I asked a producer for a brief on a story, only to be handed a copy of The Guardian and told ‘it’s all in there’.

Sounds like the major networks here where the New York Times and Washington Post are the major influencers in the newsrooms and where the Washington Times would be as rare as winning the lottery.

Sissons also wrote more specifically about the political leanings of his former colleagues:

“I am in no doubt that the majority of BBC staff vote for political parties of the Left. But it’s impossible to do ­anything but guess at the numbers whose beliefs are on the Right or even Centre-Right. This is because the one thing guaranteed to damage your career prospects at the BBC is letting it be known that you are at odds with the prevailing and deep-rooted BBC attitude towards Life, the Universe, and Everything.”

If anyone is expecting that the BBC will actually be straight down the middle they will be greatly disappointed.  The BBC has tilted left for years and there is nothing to suggest that expanding their coverage in the U.S. will change anything.

What viewers may receive is a more civilized debate but one that will come from the left no matter how the corporate brass spins it.

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About the author

Don Irvine
Don Irvine is Chairman of Accuracy in Media. He is active on Facebook and Twitter. You can follow him @donirvine to read his latest thoughts.

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4 Comments for Citing Impartiality BBC to Increase U.S. News Coverage

JayMagoo

With the horrible non-stop lies and distortions that Fox News has become, and with the right-wing whacko Republicans trying to defund PBS and NPR, we need some objectivity, even if it comes from Old Blighty. Let’s see what they come up with.

Wesley in Houston

I don’t understand why BBC or BBC America is still taking a leftist irresponsible view after the way obama has treated them (the U.K.). In Obama’s book; “Dreams of my Father” he clearly states, “I have no use for the United Kingdom, they held my father’s country hostage…” In-fact he had a very large dislike of England, and speaks more about it in his book.

The English mapped and built the infrastructure of, including a massive railway, or they would still be living in dirt houses. Just as here in the U.S., it would appear that the BBC has forgotten the real history, and are incapable of fair reporting, this is always a symptom of a State-Run Media, such as the so-called MSM here.

NPR and PBS do not deserve government money since they only report one side of any news story which they haven’t made up…The press was a sticking point with our Founding Fathers, they knew what it could lead to…BIAS, but decided it was covered under Free Speech. Viewership of the mainstream media have fallen 60% in the past 15-18 years, including the print press, and with good reason, intelligent people have learned not to believe them and know a lie when they hear one.

Ross

rest assured, the BBC will give no vestige of impartiality.
Go way back, to 1964/5, and you’ll find evidence, concrete, or at least paper, evidence, how they willingly served as Harold Wilson’s lackeys in his vendetta against Rhodesia.
Our expat blog Ross’s Right Angle often has a go at the Beeb… it’s a left-ib sitting duck.

The Major

If I were in charge of BBC-America,,or so,,I’d SLAM BHO every time he opened his ANTI-British mouth or wrote anything on paper that was ANTI-British. Through thick & thin,,they are still our ally.

Wes??? Did you get that e-m copy I believe I sent ,,,showing BHO’s REAL birth cert. from Kenya,,,while it was still under British protection???
Kinda puts a crimp in his lies,,,I mean stories,,about his birthplace???

I have got to laugh that BHO & ‘the first spender’ were NOT invited to the wedding of the royals in april,,,hahahaha,,,brought this SNUB upon thenselves.