{"id":267919,"date":"2017-05-15T07:42:53","date_gmt":"2017-05-15T11:42:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/?p=267919"},"modified":"2020-11-13T16:54:39","modified_gmt":"2020-11-13T21:54:39","slug":"bbc-coverage-strongly-biased-against-brexit-independent-inquiry-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/th\/bbc-coverage-strongly-biased-against-brexit-independent-inquiry-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC coverage \u2018strongly biased against Brexit,\u2019 independent inquiry finds"},"content":{"rendered":"
RAEL\u2019S COMMENT:<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n
Of course, the main media always support the 0.0001%\u2026<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

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A new independent report has concluded the BBC was \u201cstrongly biased against Brexit\u201d in its coverage of the government\u2019s triggering of Article 50 back in March.<\/p>\n

Research by the News-Watch group found that in the week after Prime Minister Theresa May activated the European Union withdrawal process,\u00a0BBC Radio 4\u2019s Today program\u00a0featured 114 guests speaking against Brexit.<\/p>\n

According to the study, of the 124 commentators fielded by Today between Monday, March 29, the day Article 50 was invoked, and Saturday, April 4, just eight were\u00a0\u201cgiven the space to make substantive arguments that the future for the UK outside the EU would yield significant benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was an\u00a0\u201coverwhelming negativity\u201d\u00a0expressed by Today\u2019s hosts and guests about Britain leaving the EU. BBC correspondents\u00a0\u201cdisplayed what can only be described as a strong common editorial bias against Brexit,\u201d\u00a0the document added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe overall gloom was buttressed by the program\u2019s editorial approach,\u201d\u00a0read the report.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresenters and correspondents pushed at every opportunity to illustrate existing and potential problems. They were strongly adversarial towards Brexit supporters, but much less so to guests who advocated that the UK was, in effect, now staring down the barrel of a loaded gun.\u201d<\/p>\n

The investigation added that during the week Article 50 was activated, 61 BBC contributors were \u2018Remainers,\u2019 while only 42 were in favor of Brexit. And of those, only 25 were\u00a0\u201cfirmly\u201d\u00a0in support of leaving the bloc.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the first time the BBC, and the Today show in particular, have found themselves under fire from watchdogs and the public alike.<\/p>\n

Today host Nick Robinson has been accused\u00a0of both pro and anti-Brexit bias. Defending himself from the contradictory accusations, Robinson joked critics should\u00a0\u201cleave it out\u201d\u00a0and\u00a0\u201cremain calm.\u201d<\/p>\n

A report by News-Watch from last April showed that in the six months following the referendum, over half of Today\u2019s guests expressed negative opinions about Brexit.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother\u00a0part of the picture was massive bias by omission: a failure to include at sufficient levels those who favored withdrawal, to largely ignore and not follow up the themes and perceived opportunities which the few pro-Brexit guests did raise, and to exclude from coverage important business figures who supported Brexit,\u201d\u00a0the group wrote at the time.<\/p>\n

The BBC continued\u00a0\u201cProject Fear\u201d\u00a0and insisted on portraying the EU withdrawal as a harmful event, it added.<\/p>\n

Responding to the criticism, a BBC spokesperson said:\u00a0\u201cThe BBC has and will continue to cover Brexit in a responsible and impartial way independent of political pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe job of impartial journalism is to scrutinize the issues and interrogate the relevant voices, not advocate for a position. It\u2019s precisely for this reason that the public trusts the BBC.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring that week the government was given full opportunity to set out the thinking behind Article 50, and large segments of the prime minister\u2019s statement were played out on Radio 4\u2019s PM and the World at One.\u201d<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/388413-bbc-bias-brexit-today\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RAEL\u2019S COMMENT: Of course, the main media always suppor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":282776,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-267919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}