Post by Teddy Bear on Jun 14, 2011 22:14:33 GMT
It occurs to me that quite a bit of the bias exhibited by the BBC promotes a physical or mental 'suicide'. Whether it is empowering Islamic terrorists, persuading Britain to lose its identity to conform to EU edicts, supporting a political party with a BIG BROTHER agenda where our individuality will be reduced to 'comrade', or simply wearing the public away with its output until we wish we were dead. Now it's focus seems to be in full support of actual suicide, as portrayed yesterday evening on a 'documentary' much in favour of assisted suicide.
An extract from today's Telegraph tells us
Many of the complaints were from viewers who felt the programme lacked any kind of balance, and was more a commercial promoting this kind of suicide.
Whatever your views are on this subject, it is not the role of the BBC to push one side or the other, but to present both. In this regard it failed miserably - the one thing it is really good at.
The Daily Mail tells us
BBC executive Emma Swain said: ‘The film does show some other perspectives, but it is not critical that every film we make is completely impartial and balanced.
‘It is across our output that we need to provide [balance].’
So I guess in 20 years the BBC will get around to eventually balance the shameful output and misrepresentation they have been pushing about Israel, global warming, Labour Party, Obama, EU.
If they really balanced their output, I wouldn't have anything to write about on this website. I doubt there's many topics posted here over the years that would show any attempt at 'balance' in their eventual output. But for the BBC, it sounds good for their public to hear it, regardless of merit.
Damian Thompson has an excellent piece on the subject.
An extract from today's Telegraph tells us
BBC flooded with complaints over Choosing to Die documentary
The BBC has been flooded with complaints after it screened Choosing to Die, a documentary showing a British motor neurone disease sufferer taking his own life at a Swiss clinic.
The corporation said 898 people had registered their disapproval of the documentary presented by the author Sir Terry Pratchett, with 162 fresh complaints since it aired on Monday night.
A spokesman added that it had also received 82 “appreciations” of the programme about Peter Smedley, a British motor neurone disease sufferer, who allowed the film crew to capture his dying moments at the Dignitas clinic.
Many of the complaints were from viewers who felt the programme lacked any kind of balance, and was more a commercial promoting this kind of suicide.
Whatever your views are on this subject, it is not the role of the BBC to push one side or the other, but to present both. In this regard it failed miserably - the one thing it is really good at.
The Daily Mail tells us
Nola Leach, chief executive of CARE, said: ‘I rather thought that we had moved on from the days when people gathered in crowds to watch other people die.
'That the BBC should facilitate this is deeply disturbing. One wonders whether the BBC has any interest in treating this subject impartially.
‘This is compounded by the fact that, rather than fronting tonight’s programme with someone neutral, the task has been given to a well-known assisted suicide campaigner.’
A BBC spokeswoman said: 'Following the programme, we had 82 appreciations and 162 complaints, bringing the total number of complaints up to 898.
'The aim of the programme was to create discussion and this is clearly a subject that resonates.'
Former bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, claimed the programme was 'propaganda on one side'.
'I think an opportunity had been bypassed of having a balanced programme - the thousands of people who use the hospice movement and who have a good and peaceful death, there was very little about them,' he told BBC Radio 5 Live.
'This was really propaganda on one side.
'Life is a gift and it has infinite value and we are not competent to take it, we do not have the right to take it, except perhaps in the most extreme circumstances of protecting the weak.
'What we do have the right to expect is a good, caring, pain-free, peaceful death and, of course, in this century, in the last 100 years, there have been tremendous strides made in providing just that.
'That was simply not there.'
Mr Nazir-Ali added: ‘The BBC also has some hard questions to address; its own guidelines state that the portrayal of suicide has the potential to make this appear possible, and even appropriate, to the vulnerable.’
BBC executive Emma Swain said: ‘The film does show some other perspectives, but it is not critical that every film we make is completely impartial and balanced.
‘It is across our output that we need to provide [balance].’
BBC executive Emma Swain said: ‘The film does show some other perspectives, but it is not critical that every film we make is completely impartial and balanced.
‘It is across our output that we need to provide [balance].’
So I guess in 20 years the BBC will get around to eventually balance the shameful output and misrepresentation they have been pushing about Israel, global warming, Labour Party, Obama, EU.
If they really balanced their output, I wouldn't have anything to write about on this website. I doubt there's many topics posted here over the years that would show any attempt at 'balance' in their eventual output. But for the BBC, it sounds good for their public to hear it, regardless of merit.
Damian Thompson has an excellent piece on the subject.
Why is the BBC so keen on people topping themselves?
By Damian Thompson Society Last updated: June 14th, 2011
Auntie isn't going to hurt you...
Ten years ago, the BBC was always telling us how bloody marvellous the euro was. Now – for reasons I can’t quite fathom – it’s assisted suicide. Last night we saw yet another plug for Dignitas, whose sinister clinic in Switzerland claims to allow people to die in peace. Really? I should think it’s difficult to slip off quietly, what with the noisy chorus of sympathetic clucking from BBC researchers planning their next free ad for this “service”.
When the Beeb is really keen on something, it enlists the support of a soft-Left celebrity to make its case – the most popular candidates being Stephen Fry and Eddie Izzard, neither of whom can resist hauling themselves on to a bien pensant hobby horse.
In this instance, though, it’s Sir Terry Pratchett, who took part in Choosing to Die because he was “ashamed that British people had to drag themselves to Switzerland, at considerable cost, in order to get the services that they were hoping for”.
You have to say this for Sir Terry: Alzheimer’s has not dented his self-regard. On the contrary, he seems to think it gives him the moral authority to campaign for the legalisation of a really serious criminal act – not suicide, but killing other people, some of whom may not even be ill, just old. But it doesn’t.
As for the BBC, I wonder what the moral status is of exploiting a writer with a degenerative brain disease to nudge us towards a creepy change in the law – at our expense, of course. I would threaten to withhold my licence fee in protest, but the Beeb is utterly relentless in tracking down evaders and the last thing I want is to wake up in a Swiss clinic with a syringe staring me in the face.
By Damian Thompson Society Last updated: June 14th, 2011
Auntie isn't going to hurt you...
Ten years ago, the BBC was always telling us how bloody marvellous the euro was. Now – for reasons I can’t quite fathom – it’s assisted suicide. Last night we saw yet another plug for Dignitas, whose sinister clinic in Switzerland claims to allow people to die in peace. Really? I should think it’s difficult to slip off quietly, what with the noisy chorus of sympathetic clucking from BBC researchers planning their next free ad for this “service”.
When the Beeb is really keen on something, it enlists the support of a soft-Left celebrity to make its case – the most popular candidates being Stephen Fry and Eddie Izzard, neither of whom can resist hauling themselves on to a bien pensant hobby horse.
In this instance, though, it’s Sir Terry Pratchett, who took part in Choosing to Die because he was “ashamed that British people had to drag themselves to Switzerland, at considerable cost, in order to get the services that they were hoping for”.
You have to say this for Sir Terry: Alzheimer’s has not dented his self-regard. On the contrary, he seems to think it gives him the moral authority to campaign for the legalisation of a really serious criminal act – not suicide, but killing other people, some of whom may not even be ill, just old. But it doesn’t.
As for the BBC, I wonder what the moral status is of exploiting a writer with a degenerative brain disease to nudge us towards a creepy change in the law – at our expense, of course. I would threaten to withhold my licence fee in protest, but the Beeb is utterly relentless in tracking down evaders and the last thing I want is to wake up in a Swiss clinic with a syringe staring me in the face.
