{"id":199481,"date":"2019-12-19T07:39:16","date_gmt":"2019-12-19T07:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=199481"},"modified":"2019-12-21T06:34:18","modified_gmt":"2019-12-21T06:34:18","slug":"bbc-staff-express-fear-of-public-distrust-after-election-coverage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=199481","title":{"rendered":"BBC staff express fear of public distrust after election coverage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jim Waterson \u2013 The Guardian Sat Dec 14, 2019<\/h1>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The BBC\u2019s director general has expressed his exasperation with \u201cconspiracy theories\u201d about the broadcaster\u2019s election news coverage, although some of its journalists privately fear that errors during the campaign may have hit public trust in the corporation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tony Hall emailed staff on Friday to thank them for their work on the BBC\u2019s coverage, which has led to the corporation\u2019s political news output coming under intense online scrutiny. This followed criticism of the editing out laughter aimed at Boris Johnson <\/a>in a news bulletin<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, reporters uncritically repeating Conservative sources, such as when a Labour activist was erroneously accused of punching a Tory aide<\/strong><\/span>,<\/a> and the prime minister escaping scrutiny after dodging a one-on-one interview<\/strong><\/span><\/a> with Andrew Neil.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hall said the BBC\u2019s critics were often seeing bias in what were genuine human errors: \u201cIn a frenetic campaign where we\u2019ve produced hundreds of hours of output, of course we\u2019ve made the odd mistake and we\u2019ve held up our hands to them. Editors are making tough calls every minute of the day. But I don\u2019t accept the view of those critics who jump on a handful of examples to suggest we\u2019re somehow biased one way or the other.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He also suggested social media platforms should find ways to reduce the level of public criticism aimed at journalists, such as BBC political editor Laura <\/strong><\/span><\/a>Kuenssberg<\/a><\/strong><\/span>: \u201cElections always put the BBC\u2019s impartiality in the spotlight. Social media offers a megaphone to those who want to attack us and makes this pressure greater than ever. The conspiracy theories that abound are frustrating. And let\u2019s be clear \u2013 some of the abuse which is directed at our journalists who are doing their best for audiences day in, day out is sickening. It shouldn\u2019t happen. And I think it\u2019s something social media platforms really need to do more about.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite this, there remain concerns within the corporation\u2019s newsrooms that this election was a tough challenge for a broadcaster that strives for accuracy. More than 30 BBC<\/strong><\/span><\/a> journalists spoke to the Guardian about the outlet\u2019s coverage in the final days of the campaign, ranging from senior on-air presenters to mid-level producers and recent hires.<\/span><\/p>\n

Almost all of them, who spoke anonymously to give their frank views, believed strongly in the BBC\u2019s purpose and importance as a unifying force of reliable news in a divided country. But many raised doubts as to how the corporation\u2019s output can withstand such a level of scrutiny. A common complaint was the risk of feeling paralysed by the knowledge that every single piece of television, radio or online output is at risk of being examined in detail on Twitter for allegations of bias.<\/span><\/p>\n

While older staff were more likely to dismiss online complaints about coverage, younger staff repeatedly and persistently raised concerns about the loosely phrased tweets of senior BBC journalists, which often reach millions of people without passing through editors.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey should be subject to the same rigour as any other online material,\u201d one journalist said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another employee involved in the broadcaster\u2019s politics output during the election said: \u201cI\u2019m proud of the programmes we\u2019ve put together, but I feel like we\u2019ve been undermined at every turn by constant gaffes on the part of senior presenters and editors. I detect an unhealthy us-versus-them mentality, an unwillingness to say sorry when the BBC gets it wrong and a genuine terror of upsetting the government in particular.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

There was repeated concern that the BBC\u2019s model of neutral reporting was not suited to an age where politicians are more willing to try to manipulate the media, with Johnson and his aide Dominic Cummings repeatedly singled out for taking advantage of that.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fran Unsworth, director of news and current affairs, told the Guardian that the broadcaster faced a challenge to fight back against claims of bias: \u201cThings go viral very quickly and our ability to respond and deal with them is limited. Even when we try to explain and put out the denials or the explanation as to how things might\u2019ve happened. People just aren\u2019t buying it. It\u2019s a real issue for us to deal with it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While the BBC has long been a punchbag of right-wing publications such as The Sun and Daily Mail, there has been much more criticism from left-wing campaigners and centrist pro-Remain campaigners this election. BBC journalists based in London, an area with strong Labour support, reported finding it harder now that their friendship groups were increasingly critical of the corporation\u2019s output.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many complained that they had come to dread discussing their jobs at family events or children\u2019s parties because they would find themselves cornered and cross-examined on accusations of BBC bias.<\/span><\/p>\n

One regional BBC reporter said they had noticed many more members of the public refusing to talk to him, although it was unclear whether this was just part of a general anti-media reaction among the public. \u201cIt felt like BBC reputation has taken a bit of a hit and not just in the Twitter vacuum. Not that I think there is a bias of course. Just a series of errors have unfortunately fallen a similar way, which gives plenty of ammo.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Although many of the more prominent anti-BBC complaints in this election have come from the left of politics, staff pointed out that pro-Conservative Brexit supporters often file more complaints about coverage directly to the corporation.<\/span><\/p>\n

One BBC journalist working on a high-profile radio programme expressed exasperation with \u201cludicrous Twitter storms\u201d over minor errors but admitted criticism had made life harder. \u201cIt\u2019s really tough working for the BBC at the moment. I have never known the fury to be so great. But my overwhelming impression is that people should be careful what they wish for, because they will end up with Fox News or Russia Today.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Unsworth said it was not realistic to ask correspondents to step back from Twitter but there is room for changes: \u201cIt is an important form of communication to get their stories out. We just need to reinforce our social media rules. But I don\u2019t think it\u2019s viable to say take a step back.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She also said she sees her duty as being to the whole of the BBC\u2019s audience, not just political activists scrutinising the BBC\u2019s output on social media. \u201cThis is a smaller world than the people think it is. I find people who are living ordinary lives and they\u2019re not on social media every day. They are still taking their cues from the mainstream news.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Unsworth said she had been proud of the corporation\u2019s output during the election and preferred scrutiny rather than being ignored.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt shows that we matter. It would be worse if they weren\u2019t talking about us. All the talk had been that the mainstream media doesn\u2019t really matter anymore.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not only the election coverage that fuelled public cynicism about the BBC. As the broadcaster\u2019s director general expresses his exasperation over \u2026\u2018conspiracy theories\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":134005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-199481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Current_Affairs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=199481"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":199483,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199481\/revisions\/199483"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/134005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=199481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=199481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=199481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}