BBC director general warns that the broadcaster is losing its reputation

Tony Hall


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BBC director general Tony Hall has warned that the publicly funded broadcaster is losing its reputation. Hall, who occupies the most powerful position at the BBC, said that people’s perceptions of BBC impartiality “have weakened in recent years”. He then added that the broadcaster’s leadership needs “to see what we can do to strengthen them”.

“We must stand up for it”

In the BBC‘s annual plan, Hall continued on impartiality:

We must stand up for it and defend our role like never before. It is essential if we are to continue to be the place people know they can trust to get to grips with what is truly happening in the world, and to hear the broadest range of views

The director general echoes political editor Laura Kuenssberg, who in December 2016 said:

I would die in a ditch for the impartiality of the BBC.

Supporting Hall’s claims of a weakened perception of BBC impartiality, Kuenssberg has long faced allegations of bias. In May 2016, a petition to remove her for alleged pro-Conservative reporting gained 35,000 signatures in a handful of days. She also stood accused of biased coverage of the 2016 UK local elections.

There are many other examples of the discontent Hall speaks of. For instance, in August 2018, thousands of people joined an online campaign to switch off the BBC for its alleged smearing of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Read on...

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Earlier in March, Hall also claimed:

The phrase, ‘mainstream media’, is now a term of abuse – used by people of all political persuasions. Traditional journalism is painted as part of the problem rather than the solution. This really worries me.

Featured image via BBC News/YouTube

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  • Show Comments

      1. Definitely lost up here in Scotland, where the BBC treats us independentistas and the SNP with as much contempt as the Tories do at Westminster, mostly not reporting us at all or putting a negative spin on it.

        Oh, and flat-out lying.

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        1. Aye I can concur completely the BBC is often referred to in several meanings of its initials as : Biased Broadcasting Corporation, The EBC, English Broadcasting Conservatives, then the mind has gone blank Ah! Bigoted Broadcasting Corporation, etc; It is biased against the SNP in if the SNP saved some peoples lives they would say deprived undertakers of business you can get the drift.

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    2. Tony Hall, as the DG, has the final say on BBC policy. If it is biased, it is because he allows it to be so.

      How can he can he expect people to take this ‘worry’ seriously when he himself is the main architect of the corporation.

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      1. There are huge departments in BBC which produce world-class programming. The great mass of the Corporation is splendidly operated. The problem is solely with the News Department. It seems to have been infested with the worst sort of journalist -is it a punishment posting?

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    3. I have always watched the BBC news because I believed that as it (presumably) had no axe to grind and was publicly funded I would get the whole unbiased truth. How wrong I was! I first noticed when Corbyn was elected leader and wrote a number of letters, all the replies not only did not address the points I made but completely ignored them in a blind dismissal while giving the mantra of what the BBC should be, fair and impartial as though that made them so. Since then I’ve noticed bias by omission, by choice of what’s shown as well as all the tricks of taking comments out of context etc. They should be ashamed, because in addition to it being extremely shoddy journalism, it is doing a gross disservice to democracy and justice and the people who pay them. The BBC should be there to educate and inform give the whole picture and present it fully and fairly any comment should be highlighted as such.

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    4. It starts at the the top, and trickles down.It becomes so vile people stop watching/listening to the bbc and go else where for the news..The Biggest Disgrace is People have to pay to watch/listen to it..

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