{"id":212512,"date":"2020-08-25T08:07:07","date_gmt":"2020-08-25T08:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=212512"},"modified":"2020-08-27T05:18:35","modified_gmt":"2020-08-27T05:18:35","slug":"bbc-a-bulwark-against-pandemic-of-fake-news-tony-hall-to-argue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=212512","title":{"rendered":"BBC a bulwark against pandemic of fake news, Tony Hall to argue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction \u2013 Aug 23, 2020<\/strong><\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a>The following suggests that the powers that be are growing concerned about the waning influence of the established media and the growing public cynicism over the official version of Covid-19.<\/h5>\n
The BBC\u2019s Director General Tony Hall\u2019s speech at the Edinburgh television festival focused on two major points of concern:<\/h5>\n
    \n
  1. \n
    The emergence of online media, which Hall claimed enabled \u201c\u201cThe forces of disinformation and social media tend to feed on fracture and drive polarisation.\u201d (As if the BBC didn\u2019t engage in the same)<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n
  2. \n
    Opposition to the Covid-19 vaccine.<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    This latter, Hall claimed was largely being fuelled by \u201cfake news\u201d from the independent online media and it was the BBC\u2019s task to counter it.<\/h5>\n
    Of course, the BBC itself has been a prime purveyor of fake news. On everything from Saddam Hussein\u2019s Weapons of Mass Destruction to helping conceal<\/a> the extent of the crimes of one of its employees, Jimmy Savile<\/a>, the BBC has proved itself adept providing disinformation and distraction.<\/h5>\n
    What Hall didn\u2019t say was that online media provided a viable alternative to the established media. Instead, he focused on the threat it posed. In particular how it was contributing to growing public scepticism over the Covid-19 vaccine. Ed.<\/h5>\n

    BBC a bulwark against pandemic of fake news, Tony Hall to argue<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    Caroline Davies and Jim Waterson \u2013 The Guardian Aug 23, 2020<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    The BBC<\/a> plays such a critical role in countering misinformation that according to international health chiefs it could positively influence the take-up of any vaccine during the Covid-19 pandemic, the broadcaster\u2019s outgoing director general is expected to tell television executives.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Describing two pandemics \u2013 one of coronavirus and the other of disinformation spread on social media \u2013 Tony Hall<\/a> will highlight public service broadcasting (PSB) as \u201cvital to democracy\u201d and say its values \u201chave never been more needed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

    In a keynote speech to open the Edinburgh television festival on Monday, Hall is expected to stress that the BBC\u2019s responsibility as the \u201cUK\u2019s most trusted news provider\u201d is to \u201chelp bring the nation together\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \u201cThe forces of disinformation and social media tend to feed on fracture and drive polarisation. They\u2019re often specifically designed to exploit division for commercial or political gain; to unsettle societies or undermine democracy,\u201d he will say.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \u201cWhat we do, as a PSB, is a force in the opposite direction.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

    Hall will cite an interview with a World Health Organization leader who addressed a recent seminar for PSB leaders in Europe: \u201cWhy you people are so important, he said, is because even if we have a vaccine tomorrow \u2013 up to 30% of people, according to polling, would not use it. There is, he said, another pandemic \u2013 that of misinformation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

    The BBC\u2019s role is \u201cmuch more than protecting integrity in news\u201d though that is critical, but is also \u201cabout helping to protect our democratic integrity, and fostering unity and cohesion.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

    \u201cMore and more, in the fake news world, truth is a priceless commodity in our societies.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

    Hall will address delegates on issues including diversity, the role of news in public service broadcasting, and how to stay relevant while competing with streaming services such as Netflix.<\/span><\/p>\n

    He is also expected to touch on past BBC controversies, including the Jimmy Savile scandal, and failings over executive pay-offs, which left fundamental questions hanging over its future. He will insist it is an \u201corganisation transformed, inside and out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

    The \u201ctragedy and calamity\u201d of the Covid crisis has been a massive real-time consultation of what the British public wanted and expected from public service broadcasting, he will stress. And it has pulled the clarity of BBC\u2019s mission into even sharper focus.<\/span><\/p>\n

    The broadcaster\u2019s response to Covid, and also to the killing of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement, had yielded lessons that PSBs were vital to democracy.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \u201cThey inform us. They educate us\u201d and, he will add, their values are \u201cdeeply stitched into the fabric of national life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

    He will point also to the broadcaster\u2019s role in education during school lockdown, the biggest in its history, highlighting two hours of original programming daily with 2,000 hours of curriculum-led daily lessons<\/span><\/p>\n

    It could, he will say, be taken a step further in future, with the idea of an \u201copen school\u2019 in the tradition of the Open University.<\/span><\/p>\n

    The Covid crisis was a major factor in 94% of the UK public using the BBC in March, with 87% of 16-34s doing so, and TV viewing up nearly 50% year on year some weeks, not only for news, but for dramas and escapist programmes.<\/span><\/p>\n

    By adapting successfully to the digital world, the BBC has made a \u201cpivot to a new world,\u201d he will argue.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \u201cSo there is no doubt in my mind that PSB\u2019s can do more than ever for the UK in the years ahead. We have to keep banging the drum for what only we can deliver.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

    \u201cPublic service broadcasters \u2013 and the BBC in particular \u2013 have always been part of the glue that binds our nations and communities together. But the last few months have emphasised that even further.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

    Broadcaster and historian David Olusoga will close Monday\u2019s event by delivering the annual MacTaggart lecture, named in honour of producer, writer and director James MacTaggart<\/span><\/p>\n

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

    This is rich. Coming from the Director General of the BBC, a prime purveyor of fake news <\/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":[61,105,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-212512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Commentary","category-coronavirus","category-The_Media"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212512","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=212512"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":212517,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212512\/revisions\/212517"}],"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=212512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=212512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=212512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}