In the news

Ah interesting analysis.

A more pressing issue with the BBC is that they've become very selective in reporting some government criticism. The fact the government has them by the spending nuts doesn't help...but then what's the point? It's supposed to be for the people yes, not the government?

I think the BBC is as unbiased as a large news organisation can be - which is not to say that it's perfect, that it gets everything right, or that bias doesn't sometimes creep in. But I really don't recognise this systemic rightward lean that the left allege - nor do I think the systemic leftward lean that the right alleges is borne out, either. The fact that both extremes are accusing it of leaning the opposite direction kinda suggests it's somewhere in the middle. It's just our political discourse is so fucked up that we've forgotten what it's like to have anything in the middle.

Edit to add - I think they've become more cautious, yes. But if I decide in my job not to run a story because I'm wary of the legal pitfalls, nobody is going to accuse me of covering up news that would be damaging to the government. The BBC, on the other hand, gets that accusation for almost every editorial decision it makes. I don't envy the editors that, not one bit.

Final edit - the one clear bias the BBC does have is to be pro the BBC.

I'm not so sure on that anymore, not since the BBC simply stopped reporting on some protests - and they've all been protests against the current government (unless I've missed one?)

Twitter has had pictures of thousands of people marching in the centre of London, the BBC has had absolutely nothing about it, that looks very much like strong bias (best case) or censorship (worst case).

Given that covering protests is quite labour intensive for what's basically going to be 15 seconds of crowd footage and up to a minute of brief vox pops on the evening news, my money would be on the Beeb not devoting resources to protest coverage after they made hundreds of journalists redundant over the last few years.

The recipes are in the Wayback Machine internet archive, and it's fairly easy to archive every page in its sitemap. Fair enough that everyone's freaking out but it's a digital library, lot easier to save it from damnation than a physical library.

Given that covering protests is quite labour intensive for what's basically going to be 15 seconds of crowd footage...

the last protest i went on purposefully routed past broadcasting house on great portland street. they would have had to open a window and stick a camera out in order to cover it. they didn't.

they would have had to open a window and stick a camera out in order to cover it. they didn't.

You think they were just sat there twiddling their thumbs instead?

I searched the BBC website for anti Government protests and not single mention of any in the UK but plenty about Hong Kong.

There's also the style of reporting of the BBC when they did finally report. Saying 'hundreds' isn't wrong but when it can be described by 'thousands' it's disingenuous and misleading.

no i think they were all hiding in the toilets.

Okay, this is getting into Indymedia territory.

There are stories about protests on the news and it's always hard to gauge the numbers at protests - the organisers will always claim a number far bigger than the police estimate.

But yes, the coverage will likely always disappoint protest participants because it's unlikely to be given the billing you think it warrants. And there's always a question of newsworthiness. 'Occupy' got loads of coverage, so did the Spanish movement and more recently the Hong Kong protests. But is every protest going to make it into the news? No, not really, not with fewer journalists and the audience's limited attention span.

I can see a fire in I think Shadwell. Nothing on the news yet.

Possibly Memorial Park or venting out of the Rotherhithe tunnel

I'd expect a large anti-government protest in the UK to be covered by the BBC and for them, when they finally do, to not misrepresent the numbers.

I don't think that's too much to ask.

https://twitter.com/russellsommer/status/732898944502620160

I think your expectations of what the BBC news operation can do with the resources it has are a little high. Covering one thing means not covering another. And I'm honestly hard pressed to say why thousands of people demonstrating in a country of millions automatically deserve more airtime than something else which maybe affects hundreds of thousands of people. Similarly, should every Britain First/EDL demo automatically get airtime? How about whatever al Muhajiroun is calling itself these days?

That said, I'd be happy if they ditched that Newsbeat bollocks and sent the journalists hitherto employed to write celebrity nonsense out to cover the protests.

Found quite a few. They just don't label them anti-government. Try specific issues like austerity, junior doctors, anti-cuts etc.

That's now. I was searching as they were happening and shortly after.

My expectations of the BBC are quite low to be honest. I simply don't trust it as a news source any longer.

yet there's plenty of staff on hand to cover a boat race between two exclusive universities / weddings of royal family members.

Found quite a few. They just don't label them anti-government. Try specific issues like austerity, junior doctors, anti-cuts etc.

Yes, this. I'm guessing the ones they didn't cover were too small to be particularly newsworthy.

...and they'd be eaten for breakfast if they stopped covering them.

Not every protest is newsworthy just because you want it to be...

If the BBC dropped the Boat Race, would anyone give a fuck or would any other broadcaster even pick it up? Seems it's hyped up as a thing because the BBC have it, rather than anyone being interested.

Anyone know who won last year?

as was stated before - if a few hundred thousand people marching through the state capital in protest of the government and its policies isn't considered front page newsworthy by a publicly funded, national broadcaster, you have to start asking questions about their integrity.

the posh chaps.

Which specific massive protest are you alleging they covered up?

The Daily Mail readership seems to care, they give it quite a lot of coverage.

Should the BBC cover cycling? It's not as popular as football, say.