The BBC is a public service broadcaster. It is paid for by taxation (because that is what the licence fee is). Bizarrely, that tax is one of the most heavily enforced in the country. If only HMRC was as efficient at tax collection as the BBC is then there would have never been an excuse for austerity. But that is not my concern this morning. My concern is that the BBC is using claimed breaches of copyright on its public interest news to close down public interest websites.
One such site is the Youtube channel of Wings Over Scotland. Now I am aware that Wings is controversial. Dammit, anyone who creates change is just that. But as is recounted here, it is the BBC who forced the closure of its Youtube channel for using BBC clips to illustrate points of concern, and often (even) to defend the BBC.
And then ask why the Tories in Scotland have not had their site closed by the BBC for the very same reason.
I want to think the BBC is unbiased. The evidence here is of total bias. And it is wholly unjustified. If the BBC cannot stand discussion of their output they should not be asking us to pay for it.
We need press freedom. That includes the right to make informed comment on news broadcasting. The BBC should have no right to stop that and no interest in doing so. But it has, and it clearly intends to do so.
Worry, a lot.
Next there will be a ban on clippings from the press. The law to achieve that goal is already on its way, whereafter this blog could simply disappear. I could never eliminate all the quotes I have used in the past. And dissenting voices will disappear from view.
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The BBC has been manipulated by the State since day one of its beginning,
here is Lord Reith ,not a man to be easily swayed against his moral convictions,telling Malcolm Muggeridge in 1967 about the BBC being `forced` by the State to compromise the reporting of a pro General Strike story in 1926,
https://tinyurl.com/yabq4bwl
on another topic about the BBC manipulating `news`,
the State are laundering £100,000,000 through the BBC to subsidise mainly print media but also crossing over into tv news,through the Local Democracy Reporters Scheme,
https://tinyurl.com/yaosyw6e
There is no such thing as a free press under Capitalism. If you think that’s bad; read Upton Sinclair’s “The Brass Check.” https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/hj/sinclairtbc.pdf
The Coercive State? ‘1984’?
Just where are we heading? ‘And what rough beast, its time come round at last,/Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?’
I think that a very good description of trhe neoliberal state
@ Jeni Parsons aka havantaclu
“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity…”
“The Second Coming”, written by WB Yates in 1919 (post WW1, with the Black and Tans newly sent to Ireland). Remarkably prescient, more’s the pity.
You eem8nd me to go and reread Yeats
This is where we, or rather you, are going.
https://richardhutton.wordpress.com/category/brexit-was-the-result-of-a-corporate-lobbying-campaign-which-backfired/
Good luck with that, but Scotland is #DissolvingTheUnion before Xmas 2018. Bye bye, we won’t miss Westminster but will probably miss the good people of england.
Richard, It is even worse. For the public to be able to have an informed opinion, they need to have access to all the evidence. But if one set of websites are closed for “copyright infringements” and another set are behind paywalls, the only information available will be from those sites whose owners can afford to pay to distribute misinformation for free
‘I want to think the BBC is unbiased.’
I think that we would all like to, but can no longer do so. There is an interesting (Youtube) video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXQYuLUAbyw&feature=youtu.be. It is well worth a watch, and it is certainly an eye opener.
Very worrying indeed. And further evidence that there is a (largely unseen) power-élite at work behind the scenes driving the Neo-liberal agenda. And with some success, it would appear. They want to close down any dialogue that promotes progressive social democracy. They are paranoid about the possibility of a Corbyn-led government. And, as expressed on earlier posts, they have strong ties with their mega-wealthy US counterparts.
I used to think this was just another conspiracy theory but, as one continues to join up the dots, a very real & detailed picture is emerging that is scary – not least because these people have serious fire-power while ‘the demos’ simply has the numbers … which should not be dismissed, of course.
Interesting to see what’s happening in Georgia – https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-44999599/georgia-s-rave-revolution. Maybe it will take a ‘Generation Z’ revolution to combat the combined effects of austerity and clamp-down on freedom of expression.
If the British people were anywhere near economically, monetarily and politically aware there’d be at the very least a petition demanding the BBC change its initials to BNC (British Neoliberal Corporation)!
I can’t even imagine youtube complying with something like this in the US, there would be people up in arms. Clearly fair use and with nakedly partisan objectives.
Hurrah! BBC is pretty awfully biased. Agree.
All I can say is that any organisation who gives the likes of ex-Tories Nick Robinson (so-called political correspondent) , Michael Portillo (the secret trainspotter) and Matthew Parris a job cannot be trusted – ever.
It is things like this that do not sit well with me and the BBC.
I disagree
IF there was balance the other way
But where is the balance?
I’m not stuck to the TV (and I bet you are not either) so if anyone can point out where the obvious Left wingers or ex-Labour politicians are in the BBC I’d be happy to consider your point.
We have a television
It is little used, I admit
One of the reasons I oppose having a public broadcaster paid by tax (in whatever form) is that the broadcaster will inevitably be captured by one group or another.
It is naïve to think it can be avoided long term, if at all.
Why?
You’ve alluded to the reason yourself.
It’s a huge prize for anyone wanting to capture it. Toughest dog in the pack will win it.
So we need governance, and a culture in society, to address this
I still believe that possible
This attack on Wings – and apparently on one other site – is a shocking development, but totally in line with the fact that BBC Scotland’s news page, unlike those for every other nation in the ‘U’K, does not allow viewer/readers to comment. None at all. The Wings attack appears to be a particularly draconian extension of this view of its interface with its public – especially as there is no sign of it being extended to the YouTube accounts of pro-Union parties or supporters.
I’m afraid that where Scotland is concerned, the BBC is massively biased from programming to news and beyond. The clue is in the name.
Nigel,
I agree with what you have to say about the transparently obvious bias of BBC Scotland: its TV and radio coverage of political matters make that clear. But the denial of a “right to respond” facility, a denial unique among all its UK services, confirms that this bias is institutionalised policy. Such a policy obviously contradicts the BBC’s oft-repeated mantra of balanced reporting, so maybe they should be honest and add the phrase “except for viewers in Scotland” when they use it.
Polls consistently show that pro-independence support runs close to 50:50 discounting the “don’t knows”, so BBC Scotland’s output is aimed at less than half of the population and deprives 100% of the population of the right to balanced reporting on which to base their own personal judgements of the merits either way.
In Scotland, unfortunately, it’s not just the BBC which exhibits blatant bias. The press too is overwhelmingly biased against the independence movement and consistently peddles fake news and (especially) statistics to denigrate the Scottish Government and the whole notion that independence could be a viable option for the Scots. I’m all too aware that press bias exists world-wide, but the bias in Scotland is so massive that it forced alternative viewpoints to take to the web to make their points heard.
Wings Over Scotland’s editorial style may not be to everyone’s taste, but its content, analysis and debunking of the media’s misrepresentations reflect the political views of around half of the Scots electorate. So, for the BBC to attempt, on spurious grounds, to prevent its biased news reporting from being commented on is eerily similar to that which I saw first-hand when I lived in Brasil in the 1970s under a military dictatorship.
Has anyone established why this is the situation?
What do the BBC say?
To those whose profession has involved the historical untangling of BBC and state engagement, the ‘discovery’ of state sponsored manipulation and control of BBC output today (see Prof. John Robertson’s blogs passim) is nothing new. Why should we now assume that what was institutionalised in the BBC from its very inception should not be going on now? I will predict, with professional confidence, that future historians (if allowed even the circumscribed access available at present{?}) will find that from some time in 2012 onwards there was in (deniable) existence, a contemporary equivalent of the WW2 Ideas Committee aimed primarily at suppressing the popular political and cultural drive for Scottish Independence. Its progeny will have ranged from news policies to popular series like “Coast” and on to the whole rash of ‘British’ everything and anything programmes, with which we have been deluged for 6 years – and which so bemuse ‘contitnental’ visitors. (There even was one {not on the Beeb} on Great British Weather!) Nor will it be found that the outreach was to the BBC alone, for the elastic tentacles of what is officially ‘acceptable’ have easily adapted to spread this throughout the TV media. As for the Press, they, for their owners/controllers’ own various reasons have found themselves comfortable bed-fellows.
The huge and bitter irony is, in my opinion, that this diffuse, but government stimulated, campaign has probably done much to mulch the ground of Brit-nat exceptionalism which has made the Brexit disaster highly possible. They have sown – and now, it appears that we shall be left to reap.
But… a rare word of comfort. Today’s sensational SKY Poll results suggest that the whole of the ‘U’K has woken up and that now South Britain too recognises that this is all insane and needs, at the least, the imprimatur of a fresh referendum. And, that in such a poll – even without the EU citizens and 16 and 17 year olds, both of which groups clearly should have a vote… even without them, Brexit, in any form, will lose out by a majority of 14%. The tide has turned.
Will Theresa Canute notice? If she does, she might just realise that the salvation of her premiership and of at least the bulk of her party lies in the biggest, most graceful and wisest U turn in British political history. I won’t bet on her wisdom… but her self-interest could just do it – by a nose.
That poll result is indication of a real change of mood
News today is WoS have now found out why/who put out the notice to YT
Look at the paragraph below the outlined area.
UK lawyer used U.S. law
https://wingsoverscotland.com/the-dirty-bakers-dozen/
Good luck to Wings I say
Curious that the BBC uses US law…..
Because Youtube is owned by a US multinational conglomerate?
Maybe…
But the BBC should, I think, object using local law if it wants to object
If the BBC tried to use UK law, they might well fail due to s30 and s30A in –
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/part/I/chapter/III
s30: Criticism, review[F14, quotation] and news reporting.
(1)Fair dealing with a work for the purpose of criticism or review, of that or another work or of a performance of a work, does not infringe any copyright in the work provided that it is accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement [F15 (unless this would be impossible for reasons of practicality or otherwise)] [F16 and provided that the work has been made available to the public].
s30A: Caricature, parody or pastiche
(1)Fair dealing with a work for the purposes of caricature, parody or pastiche does not infringe copyright in the work.
Precisely
It’s no wonder the BBC are after Wings Over Scotland for the way he methodically highlights the way they try to mislead people politically.
The National (unsurprisingly) has picked up on the BBC Wings youtube shutdown story:
http://www.thenational.scot/thejouker/16384121.wings-over-scotland-youtube-channel-shut-down-by-bbc-over-copyright-claim/
The Scotsman has also although when loading this url it just resolves to their home page:
https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/wings-over-scotland-youtube-channel-shut-down-in-bbc-copyright-row-1-4775432
Craig Murray has also picked it up.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/07/not-content-with-constant-anti-scottish-output-the-bbc-is-extending-its-reach-to-anti-scottish-censorship/
Owen Jones among others is pretty good at calling out the Tory bias in the BBC
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/17/bbc-leftwing-bias-non-existent-myth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuYYVRtZ1sM
There’s a ton of stuff on the net on BBC political bias
Thanks
Among the many excellent examinations of the BBC Scotland manipulation of news I would recommend the following careful parsing of one particular scandal and presentation of party postures. It is forensic and rather telling. It’s on Newswatch Scotland at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAVDp99zGAc
https://wingsoverscotland.com/the-dirty-bakers-dozen/#more-105099
The latest development. You have got to hand it to Stu Campbell. He is a terrier.
In what way do the BBC think this will weaken the YES movement ?
I have no idea what the BBC is doing
I would like to know
‘I have no idea what the BBC is doing’
I think that the BBC is probably learning how to sleep under the nose of the dragon that is the Tory Party and its establishment friends (known as ‘The Murdochs’).
I also think that after all the furore over Iraq, a deceased weapons specialist and an overly aggressive New Labour Press Secretary, the BBC decided ‘never again’.
The BBC are happy to report the news but when people react to it they are worried about being implicated in stirring things up.
I think that, in ours human terms, is plausible
You can call it cowardice
Or a defence mechanism
Or just the reasonable response to bullying
But it’s also failure
It now appears that this was not BBC Scotland’s doing. It was BBC London what done it. Stu Campbell was interviewed this morning on BBC Scotland radio GMS show and it seems BBC Scotland are desperately trying to distance themselves from this.
This would therefore seem to get murkier. Who at BBC Centre in London cares about Wings and Peter Curran enough to get their YouTube channels cancelled?
The trail leads to your bailiwick Richard, not ours here in Scotland. The deep state flexing its muscles? It seems the revolution will not be televised. We may not find out the attempt was made.
Interesting…
WoS is not ‘controversial’ at all.
Everyone I know agrees that it is a rather shabby little, self-serving blog run by a dodgy ‘Reverend’ that posts a mixture of blatant lies, speculation, and opinion.
But that may just say something about the limitations of thinking amongst those in your circle of friends
So it should be shut down because you and the people you know don’t like/ disagree with it’s content.
No, WoS should be closed down because it is promoting the wrong kind of Scottish Nationalism: its not a positive site, it is full of loathing and negativity: that is actually harming the Indy cause.
Really?
I accept his tweets leave something to be desired
But the website is not the same thing at all
I don’t recognise your description of the WoS website as full of “negativity and loathing” at all. His work is full of eviscerations of the misleading and often near outright lies and deliberate distortions contained in stories that newspapers and the BBC use to vilify the SNP, the Independence movement and Scotland more generally. And, unlike most of the media he provides easily verifiable references in support of his argument. (I don’t look at Twitter)
Another good site for a corrective to the propaganda of the BBC and media is (Prof) John Robertson’s https://thoughtcontrolscotland.com – he often tackles the bias by omission angle and the lack of context by which so many of the scare tacticians operate and the way even a good story is hedged about with “buts” to give the impression that it isn’t really a good story at all: https://thoughtcontrolscotland.com/2018/07/31/massive-fraseresque-butlist-from-bbc-scotland-to-downplay-business-success/
Personally I find the passive bias particularly worrying. Many times a day allowing unverified research and unsubstantiated assertions and statements to pass unchallenged.
I really hope Wings can fight back over this outrage, the BBC is out of control and democracy is burning right in front of our eyes.
Check out the excellent documentary ‘London Calling’ for a study of heavy BBC bias during the Scottish Indie Referendum in 2014, full of examples of their different techniques of lies and deception.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXQYuLUAbyw&t=3s
Richard appears to be a ‘Remainer’ yet supports anti-neoliberal rhetoric? – or maybe I have it wrong? The EU is as much a force of a bureaucratic cabal as is the BBC, which has been full of neoliberal nonsense since day one of its existence.
All protests against the BBC bias is fobbed off in its usual, casual manner and of course they hold the power of TV and will continue their march towards liberalising everything in their path and there is little we can do about it. It has been so for decades and will not change until this monster to transmogrified into an authentic democratic organisation.
But at least they don’t have the adverts, just their appalling trailers and that vomit-inducing advert to encourage payment of their licence fees in easy-to-handle snippets.
Read what I wrote
I really think your dogmatic intolerance deeply unhelpful
Most especially to those you supposedly want to help
I was supporting your contention that the BBC is bias – I thought that was helpful.
I really do enjoy your work and the very good ideas that you promote and I don’t consider myself to be dogmatic, unless it is to do with Europe, and for that I will fight tooth and nail to ensure our nation is free from the deadening effects of this yoke.
Read this morning’s post
‘Failure’ – from a progressive point of view yes. Definitely.
For the BBC this maybe just a holding position. And I’m not making excuses BTW. I’m still rankled by the BBC portraying Corbyn with his red beret on.
But then there was that time that Newsnight played the Sex Pistols ‘God Save the Queen’ in response to Tory suggestions that our TV stations close to the other dirge that we see rolled out at sporting events.
The BBC’s behaviour is what happens when the lights of the age of enlightenment are being slowly extinguished around us and we enter the feudal, orthodox world we seem to be heading for at the moment.
For failure read ‘fear’.
Inevitably there are comments having a go at Stu and WoS, but “the wrong kind of Scottish Nationalism”? Really? While I don’t agree with all of his opinions, WoS plays an excellent role in documenting much that our Wastemonster lords and masters would prefer we forgot. He invariably sources his material, and is a damn sight more reliable than much of the MSM. The current bullying by the BBC is entirely in line with their anti-Scottish bias and commensurate with the low level of trust the BBC commands among the Scottish people.
Of course he’s irritating
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