BBC Apologises for Bias over Dale Farm Eviction

[Teddy Bear]

You'd think that after having sent so many staff to cover this event they would have been able to get their reporting right, but as we know, that's not how the BBC sees its role. When it comes to reporting to get the facts straight, or reporting to fulfil its own agenda, it's always the latter that triumphs.

Only this time it was so blatant that they got pulled up by it.

Note their stock response whenever they are caught with their fingers in the till
A BBC spokeswoman said: 'We note the findings of the ESC bulletin, which we have taken very seriously.
'Moving forward, The One Show has reviewed and will continue to strengthen its editorial procedures to ensure accuracy, fairness and due impartiality on all the programme's output.'

So what was it they overlooked?
An investigation by the BBC Trust's editorial standards committee found the five-minute report was ‘duly accurate’ and ‘had not knowingly and materially misled its audiences’.
Of course

But it said the programme had ‘failed to clarify that the site had been developed on green belt land’.

It also said it had been ‘unfair’ to the council in allowing a traveller to allege the local authority was ‘throwing us out on the road’ with ‘nowhere to go’ without giving it a right of reply.

Fancy missing a few little details like that. Can you believe these people are professionals?

BBC forced to apologise after watchdog finds it was biased towards Dale Farm travellers in One Show report

The BBC has apologised to a local council after it complained about a One Show report on the travellers' site at Dale Farm.

Basildon Council said the popular early evening show was ‘inaccurate, misleading and biased in favour of the travellers’ after it broadcast a piece about the proposed clearance of the site on February 14.

An investigation by the BBC Trust's editorial standards committee found the five-minute report was ‘duly accurate’ and ‘had not knowingly and materially misled its audiences’.

But it said the programme had ‘failed to clarify that the site had been developed on green belt land’.

It also said it had been ‘unfair’ to the council in allowing a traveller to allege the local authority was ‘throwing us out on the road’ with ‘nowhere to go’ without giving it a right of reply.

The committee also found a studio discussion between presenters Matt Baker and Alex Jones and actor Neil Morrissey, who was a guest on the show, created an ‘overall impression’ that was ‘unfair’ to the council.

The report went on to say that Morrissey, who speculated whether the land had been ‘earmarked for development’, had ‘been placed in a very difficult position’ when he was asked to comment.

A BBC spokeswoman said: 'We note the findings of the ESC bulletin, which we have taken very seriously.

'Moving forward, The One Show has reviewed and will continue to strengthen its editorial procedures to ensure accuracy, fairness and due impartiality on all the programme's output.'

In response Tony Ball, Leader of the Council, told MailOnline:

'We are satisfied with the findings.
'The site clearance of Dale Farm has always been about the protection of the green belt, but this was not accurately portrayed by The One Show report, nor the fact that we had made several offers of housing to traveller families.

'Since we made the complaint, these key facts have been more accurately broadcast, helping to aid the public understanding of what the whole issue was about.'

The six-acre site in Crays Hill was cleared earlier this year following a decade-long row over unauthorised plots. Tensions centred over 51 plots which had been created on green belt land not authorised for development.

[vandamme]

Was just about to post this!

No doubt there will be any serious consequences...

[Teddy Bear]

Van - Great to see you, it's been a while Hope all is well.

[cherenkov]

I complained directly to the BBC about the Dale Farm coverage, and in particular their deployment of one of it's most globally renowned reporters Fergal Keane.

I asked them why there was no mention that the place they were being evicted from had not been granted planning permission and was thus illegal, and made even more serious as it was on Green Belt land.

I asked why it continued to refer to these people as travellers when they seemed to be enraged about being asked not to take up permanent residence at Dale Farm.

I reminded them that the establishment of a legal precedent by a court ruling in favour of the illegal settlers at dale farm could see similar illegal, crime-infested shanty towns springing up all over the home counties within months.

So yes, totally biased in favour of the law breaking pseudo-travellers. And yes, the coverage, broadcast all over the world by BBC News 24 would have done what it was designed to do, namely sow doubts as to the integrity and values of the UK Coalition government the BBC clearly hates and detests so viscerally!

[Teddy Bear]

No doubt the reply you got from them was 'that they considered they had got it just about right'. They know full well that they can dismiss complaints with such ease, with few people making the effort to take it further, and even then at most it ends up with a mealy mouthed apology and promises to do better. Hardly a deterrent for them to stop their bias, which they see as a better alternative - for themselves. Unfortunately for us, we not only have the frustration of seeing this bias and the damage it does, but we are also confronted by the stupidity of the minds doing it, and the arrogance that they display thinking, because they have silenced any alternative view, that they are really intelligent.