BBC institutional bias continues

Jenny McCartney welcomes what she sees as a mea culpa at the BBC.

What Mr Thompson has admitted ... is that before 2010, our national broadcaster became a hostage to the insidious culture of the unsayable, which established itself across so much of British life during the Labour years, and left a legacy of widespread damage.

So things are changing?

Not so long ago, to voice the opinion that there should be a re-examination of immigration policy, that qualifications were ebbing in value, or even that the ideal of the European Union was expensive and unworkable, would be to outrage several bien-pensant orthodoxies at once. Today, they all sound like simple common sense.

So the view that the "ideal" of the EU is expensive and unworkable now sounds like simple common sense.

Good.

Any sign that the BBC is treating it this way? It's passed me by.

Let's add to that list "man made climate change" and look at a story on the front page of the BBC News website this very day.

"Australia to tax worst polluters" says the front page headline. Not "Australia to tax 'worst polluters'". See what the "impartial" BBC is doing?

Let's look at the "impartial" BBC's story in more detail.

The Australian government has unveiled plans to impose a tax on carbon emissions for the worst polluters.

That's the opening paragraph. Now notice that this so called pollution isn't sulphur that can choke you. Nope. It's carbon dioxide. A few paragraphs later:

Australia is one of the world's worst emitters of greenhouse gases per head of population.

Just what is the word "worst" doing there from our "impartial" broadcaster? If they want to weave their prejudices into news, let them go write for The Guardian, which isn't supported by a licence fee.

Sorry, casual bien pensant bias remains deeply rooted in BBC coverage.