BBC Airs UKIP Hatchet Job as a 'Documentary'

[Teddy Bear]

I never saw it myself, but it's just what we've come to expect from the usual BBC agenda masquerading as fair and impartial.
I've also included the tweets article that Raheem refers to.

BBC AIRS 30 MINUTE 'DOCUMENTARY' MOANING THAT FARAGE WON'T ROLL OVER AND DIE

by RAHEEM KASSAM

Last night the BBC's Panorama documentary programme aired a 30-minute 'investigation' into the UK Independence Party and its leader Nigel Farage. The results, however, were nothing like a balanced documentary into the rise of the eurosceptic party. Instead, the programme focused on 10-year-old allegations and former, disgruntled party members.

The same sort of programme has never been made of any of the other political parties – and I dare say that if you asked former Labour, Tory, or Liberal Democrat members to spill the beans on some of their old colleagues, you'd get a lot worse than the "Nigel Farage once set up a call centre and used the proceeds to fund his election campaign" news that the BBC thought was worthy of thousands of pounds of licence-fee payers' money, and a significant chunk of primetime television.

The allegation above was in reference to a South East call centre in England, which was set up with the express intention of helping UKIP candidates, including Nigel Farage, across the United Kingdom. But since the South East has been UKIP's strongest area – it is entirely natural that most resources would be focused there. The BBC implied that this was some sort of Farage stitch-up. I'm not so sure that Mr Farage controls where UKIP is popular in the minds of the voting public.

The second half of the documentary was entirely focused on the fact that Mr Farage and other UKIPers were not interested in appearing in the programme. The producers spent a good third, if not a half of their programme bemoaning this on the nation's public broadcaster. In summary, they may as well have said, "Waah, waah! Don't you know who we are?! We're the BBC! No one says no to the BBC!"

But that's exactly what Mr Farage and his colleagues did. For obvious reasons, and reasons they set out as early as August of this year. Funnily enough the BBC thought it would wait until after the Clacton by-election result, and just before the Rochester and Strood by-election, to air this piece of programming. If that's not political propaganda, funded by the licence fee payer, I don't know what is.

One of the people interviewed by the BBC was UKIP member Matthew Smith. But the BBC never aired his comments. Nor did they broadcast the letter provided to them by UKIP, with a statement clarifying why Mr Farage and co did not consent to an interview.

Smith, 26, told me last night: "In May this year Panorama came to Great Yarmouth to film me with regards to UKIP. I spent approximately 6 hours with them, talking about how we are grassroots organisation, how we have set everything up here and generally how and why our branch is successful and why I believe we will do well.

"I also used this as an opportunity to talk about local politics for UKIP, not just European.
"I was told by them back in July that I would feature in this programme, but seem to have been missed out. I had a microphone attached to me for the full 6 hours of that day and gave them a full tour of Gt Yarmouth and spoke to motivated voters on what was election day itself.
"I found it very strange that I did not feature and can only conclude it is because I did not say anything stupid, controversial or anything that would reinforce an anti-UKIP stereotype!"

And I'm not the only one who thought the programme was dodgy. Even Mr Farage's critics were bemused, as some of the Twitter commentary from last night tells us. In fact, there were so many critical tweets of value that I've had to do an entirely separate article on it.

TWITTER RESPONDS TO THE BBC'S BIASED 'FARAGE FACTOR' DOCUMENTARY

by RAHEEM KASSAM

Last night the BBC aired a documentary called the 'Farage Factor' in which it implied that many years ago, Nigel Farage, when he wasn't the UKIP party leader, somehow redirected funds raised from a call centre to his own campaign in the South East of England, UKIP's strongest voting territory.

But the Beeb as usual underestimated the public's smarts – and swiftly found itself on the receiving end of irate viewers who described the programme as "biased" and a "hatchet" job. I've written more about it here, but you can read the best tweets about the programme below:

Matthew Balmforth @matt_Rant
I'm not a Farage fan, but this Panorama Farage Factor documentary is garbage. Knives out and completely one-sided.
8:53 PM - 13 Oct 2014

pepparz @johnpepperday
After watching The Farage factor I'll definitely be voting #UKIP.
8:56 PM - 13 Oct 2014

Dan Sutcliffe @dannysut93
This programme called 'Farage Factor' is so biased against UKIP its unbelievable. I wish the BBC would grow up and stop brainwashing. #UKIP

lydia hopkinson @lydiahopkinson
Talk about a media ganging up sesh on #faragefactor.. Shame on you Panorama but I expected no less!

Johnno Spence @jscsport
This BBC journalist presenting The Farage Factor is absolute disgrace and it is so wrong that this programme was aired, totally unbalanced

Harry Methley @harrymethley
Well that was an absolute waste of half an hour #FarageFactor #BBCPanorama
8:59 PM - 13 Oct 2014

Simon Wood @smimon
Absolutely contemptible hatchet job attempt on #faragefactor. Unsurprising, BBC.

Owen Bennett @owenjbennett
I don't buy into this 'media against ukip' nonsense, but if I did, watching #FarageFactor would only confirm my view

Millie @milliecoyne
Lol re: last tweet, just watched 'The Farage Factor' on @bbcone, and what a load of shite it was too #couldntmakeitup

Martin Cox @martincox1
Incredibly biased Programme by BBC on #UKIP and Farage! I expect they will now delve into Labour and Tories finances too! #faragefactor

Chris Mochan @chrismochan
I'm no fan of Farage but that was totally feeble. Barely laid a glove on him. #faragefactor

freya @freyaholly
This BBC Farage Factor programme is just biased shite.

Colin Williams @colincwilliams
The BBC pretending to be Fox News again. The Farage factor. Pathetic. The people don't fall for it anymore. Impartial BBC my arse.

Choukri @choukrizerhouni
Many people tweeted to say they are now more determined than ever to vote @ukip after watching "The Farage Factor".

Robin Brant ✔ @robindbrant
'tedious hatchet job' v 'same scrutiny as everybody else', judge for yourself here www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04lxvrd/panorama-the-farage-factor …9:18 PM - 13 Oct 2014

[steevo]

Obviously living in the States I'm no Ukip but I do enjoy reading this one.

[Teddy Bear]

Hey Steevo
It seems as if you could use your own UKIP equivalent though.

[Teddy Bear]

Here's the message that Tony Hall wrote to his staff after the Rose review on the Savile scandal.
BBC director general Tony Hall said in a message to staff: “The report itself doesn’t always make easy reading. However it also provides us with a realistic assessment of where we need to improve, positive examples we can draw on and a blueprint to make these changes.

“There will be those who will use the contents of this report to attack and criticise the BBC. However I believe that we are a stronger organisation for being open and transparent about our failings where we have them. I don’t believe there are many organisations in this country who would be as frank as we have been and as prepared to deal with these issues head on.

Well you can see an example of the open and transparent quality of this organisation below. They believe just by saying it makes it true despite all evidence to the contrary.

BBC RECEIVES WHOPPING 800 COMPLAINTS OVER 'FARAGE FACTOR' PANORAMA DOC

by BREITBART LONDON

The BBC has refused to provide details of audience complaints regarding last week's Panorama.
The programme, called ‘The Farage Factor’ was regarded by many to be half an hour of airtime for people who had either been fired or lost leadership contests to the high profile politician.

Many took to twitter to air their views, including non-UKIP supporters who said they thought the programme was partisan.

In a follow up to the articles here on the programme and the social media response, we attempted to secure details of the number of complaints made to the BBC about ‘The Farage Factor’.

As a public body the BBC is required to disclose this information. But following our polite request for the number, if any, of complaints and what they were specifically regarding, we received the following reply:
Your query has been passed on to me. Because of evidence of lobbying we can’t provide the figures as they are not a genuine reflection of how the audience feels.

However a section on the BBC’s Points of View said that there had been over 800 complaints; a huge number, particularly for a story which hasn’t had any follow up coverage of the type generated by the ‘#Sachsgate’ story. In fact, there were only two complaints in the week after that show was broadcast, but after the Mail on Sunday led on the story the following weekend and media coverage exploded, this number rocketed to a total of 44,790.

Breitbart London knows of at least three people who were interviewed by Panorama for the programme but who were not critical of Mr Farage - even if they may have been critical of other party officials. These include former MEP Godfrey Bloom and Mr Farage's former office manager, now MEP, Ray Finch.

None of these interviews were used, with the BBC instead choosing to use two former leadership candidates Richard Suchorzewski and David Bannerman (who both then defected to the Conservatives after they lost to Farage) as well as a former member of staff who fell out with Farage and subsequently sold stories to the Mail on Sunday in 2004.

When asked for further information from the BBC including details of the ‘lobbying’ and who specifically makes the decision that this has occurred, we received the following reply:
“When there is evidence of coordinated lobbying, as there has been in this case, we do not release the complaints figures publicly.
For further information about the programme, you can obviously refer to the Points of View programme broadcast yesterday, including Ceri Thomas’ response to some of the complaints we have received.
We don’t have anything further to add at this point.”

This is not the first time the BBC has tried to hide facts and figures.

The BBC receives funding from the European Union: Figures obtained by the Spectator showed it had applied and been granted £3 million of EU funds between April 2011 and November 2013.

That information was obtained by a Freedom of Information request after the state broadcaster refused initially to provide the information and included the numbers in ‘other grants’ in its annual report.

The BBC is funded by license fee as a way of ensuring is to protect its impartiality. However, its Chairman of the BBC Trust was Chris Patten, who spent eight years in Brussels as a European Commissioner and is in receipt of a very generous EU pension - for as long as he promotes his previous employers.