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  • Just looking at that article summarising the report - its conclusions don't to my mind say the same thing as bias. They say more time is given to criticism than support: e.g. this quote from the Huffpost: "finding the BBC’s flagship 6pm evening TV bulletins gave double the amount of airtime to Corbyn’s political enemies than those still backing him."

    But if more people are critical of JC than support him, perhaps that balance could be correct? As JC's supporters dwindle, how much of an effort does the news have to make to find people who do support him in order to present what you think is "balanced"?

    Bias to my mind means being over-critical or over-generous to one side as opposed to another based on a prior opinion of them. Criticising JC at a time when he appears to be doing a bad job doesn't demonstrate bias. This is the same issue we had with the Brexit campaign, where spurious economic nonsense was presented as an equal counterbalance to serious economic commentators, in the name of fairness between the two sides. Sometimes people need to call a spade a spade

  • But if more people are critical of JC than support him, perhaps that balance could be correct? As JC's supporters dwindle, how much of an effort does the news have to make to find people who do support him in order to present what you think is "balanced"?

    The media is not meant to provide a representative sample of news to suit particular political views in proportion to the population. It's mean to provide impartial reports which allow an informed public to make their own decisions.

    Having said that, I think the way the PLP organized the resignations was done purposefully to keep the coup in the news. So there may be room to argue along the lines you've put forward.

  • The media is not meant to provide a representative sample of news to
    suit particular political views in proportion to the population. It's
    mean to provide impartial reports which allow an informed public to
    make their own decisions.

    That is how you would like the world to be, not how it is. The media isn't 'meant' to do anything. Individual media companies and organisation will pursue their own objectives; those that are for profit entities will pursue the objective of maximising their owners / shareholders returns.

    Murdoch is always cited as the dark hand - have you ever considered that his papers take the line they do because they seek to reflect the views of their readership? Case in point - the Sun was pro Brexit, the Times anti; the Scottish Sun was pro Scots independence, the Sun against.

    Those on the left struggle to countenance this, as they prefer to believe that the media creates false consciousness. How awful it would be if all these poor lambs actually thought these horrible things - rather than being told to think them by the press!

    Corbyn's problem isn't a media bias against him - it is a popular bias.

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