Newsnight

[charmbrights]

The edition of Newsnight broadcast on 9th December had a long session on what was wrong with child care provision in England.

The "balanced" panel were two authors of books condemning the current state of affairs and a French Socialist MP.

Am I the only one who thinks something (or someone) was missing?

[Teddy Bear]

I just ran a piece as well about last night's Newsnight.

Perhaps they are seeing the 'end might be nigh' for their programme, following the Savile and McAlpine debacles, and going for broke with blatant bias before they do. Do you plan to send a complaint to them regarding this programme? I'd be curious to see what they reply - just for the record

[charmbrights]

I submitted this complaint.

Type of complaint:Television

Choose channel:BBC Two

Programme title:Newsnight

Transmission date:10/12/2012

Broadcast type:Live

Incident time:22:30

Complaint category:Bias

Contacted us before:No

Complaint title:Pro-Labour Party bias

Complaint description:
All of the "experts" interviewed were clearly anti-government. There was a UK Labour MP, a French Socialist MP, a Guardian columnist and a professor who said not a word in favour of the government. The usual "nobody available" excuse for not having anyone on the programme to defend the government just is not good enough in this case. This is not a matter of immediate news value, since announcements are expected in a few weeks time. Clearly nobody is going to pre-announce matters which are under final preparation, least of all on the Labour party's favourite programme. The Labour MP was allowed to talk about free childcare for all without any attempt to point out that this would be a hugely expensive plan which no government could even hope to implement.

I too await the usual anodyne "we put it on the log" reply.

[Teddy Bear]

The very fact of their denying any wrongdoing is proof of another type of wrongdoing.
Be sure to post their reply, I'll be sure to 'spread it around'.

Great job Charm

[thehighlandrebel]

Last week we heard Al Beeb telling us all about food banks. About how the population of the country was starving to death under 'austerity' measures yet today they tell us of reports of chronic obesity amongst our school children.

Now I'm not the brightest pin in the box but I detect that there might be just a wee bit of dishonesty in the way the bbeeb are reporting things.

[Teddy Bear]

Dazzling THR


I think Charm will identify with this post

[charmbrights]

Dec 12, 2012 11:14:27 GMT charmbrights said:

...
I too await the usual anodyne "we put it on the log" reply.

Here it is:

Reference CAS-1827040-QZQ616

Thank you for contacting us regarding 'Newsnight', broadcast on 10 December.

I understand you believe this programme displayed bias towards the Labour party due to its choice of contributors.

'Newsnight' aims to represent a broad range of views but it cannot always do this while ensuring strict political balance in each episode. The panel usually consists of MPs from the main political parties, together with representatives from various organisations and newspaper columnists or editors. The programmes try to achieve balance over a reasonable period and certainly have a firm commitment to political balance over their series as a whole.

Nevertheless, I’d like to assure you that I’ve registered your concerns on our audience log. This is a daily report of audience feedback that's made available to many BBC staff, including members of the BBC Executive Board, programme makers, channel controllers and other senior managers.

The audience logs are seen as important documents that can help shape decisions about future programming and content.

Thanks again for taking the time to contact us.

Kind Regards

Jamie Patterson

BBC Complaints

As expected - zero content.

[Teddy Bear]

Surreal!

But well done on taking the time and effort to bother

They made no attempt to fulfil a 'broad range of views', only the 'hung jury' they made sure was going to present the view they wanted. Then they tell you that they achieve balance over a 'reasonable period'. I suppose a thousand years is 'reasonable' according to them. It certainly won't be in our lifetime - or theirs.