The BBC’s excuse for editing out people laughing at Johnson could spell the end of the broadcaster as we know it

Fiona Bruce and Boris Johnson


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The BBC is in hot water again after people caught the broadcaster editing out audience members laughing at Boris Johnson.

What could be even worse is the excuse the BBC provided. In fact, it might spell the end of the institution as we know it.

They will do anything to stop Corbyn

The fresh scandal concerns footage from the BBC‘s Question Time Leaders Special on 22 November. The BBC covered the debate the following day on the news at 1pm. But viewers noticed that the state broadcaster played a clip of Johnson without the audience laughing at him, which they had done at the event itself:

The BBC sought to explain away the edit through “timing reasons”:

‘Treats the public with contempt’

But many people were shocked at how little that adds up:

But significantly, this has led to demands for the BBC‘s Director-General to intervene on the matter:

Kim Jung-un would blush

There’s a pattern here. The BBC came under fire recently for another edit that seemed to be favourable to Johnson. On 10 November, the prime minister laid a wreath, to commemorate the millions of people who’ve died in wars, upside down. Instead of holding Johnson to account for the insult, the BBC broadcast archive footage of Johnson laying a wreath in 2016:

As The Canary reported, it also claimed this was a “simple mistake”.

There were similar ‘mistakes’ in the BBC‘s coverage at the 2017 election. For instance, in an election report on 16 May 2017, the BBC exaggerated the impact of Labour’s tax plans on some earners by 971%.

During the last election, the BBC also:

  • Barred people from listening to the chart-topping anti-Tory song Liar Liar on its website.
  • Censored a musician’s pro-Corbyn t-shirt.
  • Photoshopped Corbyn next to Osama Bin Laden and broadcast the image three days before the election.
Thin. Ice.

Despite everything, the concept of the BBC is worth fighting for. A publicly-funded broadcaster that genuinely put information above profit would be incredible. But, it seems, the BBC may need huge reform.

Editing out voters laughing at Johnson, and then essentially gaslighting viewers who call you out on it, comes across as a new level of sinister statecraft. Sadly, if the BBC doesn’t sort itself out, it could be too late for the broadcaster.

Featured image via BBC/ YouTube and Guardian News/ YouTube

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  • Show Comments

    1. The BBC did not just shorten a single clip shown on a news bulletin. It edited the full programme which is on iPlayer. There is now no accurate record of the show available from the BBC. The BBC is assuming the mantle of ‘The Ministry of Truth.’

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    2. Tony Hall is a disgrace to public broadcasting, and a disgrace to honest integrity. He should be sacked. If a Labour government comes in, this outfit’s blatant bias should be the subject of a judicial inquiry.

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    4. “This clip… was shortened for timing reasons…”
      They edited out TWO whole seconds!!!!!
      Surely they could have saved those 2 seconds elsewhere!
      We should have licence rebates, paid for directly by the producers, editors etc, like you do when a train is late.

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    5. I’m not even sure what the issue is here. I heard the audience laughing on the live programme, must have heard it on half a dozen news broadcasts, and didn’t even see the one where they didn’t laugh. (The laughter *is* still on the iplayer at 1:27:43)

      The words “storm” and “teacup” spring to mind, but the cynic in me whispers that excuses are being lined up in advance in the event of Labour not winning the election – it’ll all be the fault of the Press and the broadcasters; nothing to do with the policies or the leader.

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      1. Everybody involved is lining up their excuses for if they don’t win, and ALL of it is the fault of The MSM, The Government, their policies, The People, and a corrupt political system which is being moulded into the American system of highly-charged, highly-emotive, highly fake democracy, where only ‘the optics’ are the real driver of concern, and where the truth can fuck right off under this grotesque system, unless of course it just happens to coincide with some fuck’s twisted desires.

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    6. The BBC used to be the worlds standard for trustworthy news reporting. Today I suggest that Al Jazeera is more trustworthy when it comes to accuracy in news reporting. From recent events it is clear that the BBC is behaving as badly as Rupert Murdock’s rag publications. I used to scan the BBC News first thing every day wherever I was in the world. I don’t any more.

      It seems that BBC now stands for Bloomin’ Bad Commentary. It should be renamed TTN, Totally Tory News.

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