BBC World Service was covering the US elections and gave a brief blurb to inform non-US listeners on the basic differences between republicans and democrats. They essentially said something like:

Democrats prefer a big government with a tax-and-spend culture while republicans favor minimal governance with running on a lean budget, less spending¹

That’s technically accurate enough but it seemed to reflect a right-wing bias that seems inconsistent with BBC World Service. I wouldn’t be listening to BBC if they were anything like Fox News (read: faux news). The BBC could have just as well phrased it this way:

“Democrats prefer a government that is financed well enough to ensure protection of human rights…”

It’s the same narrative but expressed with dignity. When they are speaking on behalf of a political party it’s an attack on their dignity and character to fixate on a side-effect rather than the goal and intent. A big tax-and-spend gov is not a goal of dems, it’s a means to achieve protection of human rights. It’s a means that has no effective alternative.

① Paraphrasing from what I heard over the air – it’s not an exact quote

#BBC #BBCWorldService

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Internally in the UK, the BBC brought in quota to hire more right wing comedians after it was found they aren’t funny

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/sep/01/rightwing-comedians-not-funny-enough-for-bbc-shows-says-insider

This was by Tim Davie the director general, a very generous Tory donor

https://www.thenational.scot/news/18990557.boris-johnson-appoints-tory-donor-chairman-bbc/

The BBC has been fully captured and the stuff that comes out of it is as biased as any of the right wing media outlets (which is pretty all major outlets now), but done in a plummy(1) way that seems to get past a lot of peoples bullshit detention

  1. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/plummy

Does that leave us with only the Guardian?

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