BBC
confesses bias
on religion, politics
Internal memo reveals execs saying
Bible tossed in trash OK, not Quran
Posted: October 23, 2006
5:00 p.m. Eastern
An internal British Broadcasting Corporation memo reveals senior
figures admitted the national news agency was guilty of promoting
left-wing views and anti-Christian sentiment.
News of the memo, reported by British media, comes as the BBC
continues to struggle against claims of biased reporting on the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict and distorted coverage of the global
fight against terror, reports the Israeli YnetNews.com.
The admissions of bias were made at a recent "impartiality" summit
the BBC held. Most executives admitted the corporation's
representation of homosexuals and ethnic minorities was unbalanced
and disproportionate, YnetNews.com said. The British news agency,
the report said, leaned too strongly towards political correctness,
the overt promotion of multiculturalism, anti-Americanism and
discrimination against the countryside.
At the summit, executives were given a fictitious scenario in which
they were asked to make a judgment.
In the illustration, Jewish comedian Sasha Baron Cohen would
participate in a studio program in which guests were allowed to
symbolically throw in a garbage bin things they hated.
What would you do, the executives were asked, if Cohen decided to
throw kosher food, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bible and the
Quran in the trash.
Everything would be allowed, the executives said, except for the
Quran, for fear of offending the British Muslim community.
The BBC also revealed its executives favored interviewing terrorist
leader Osama bin Laden if the opportunity arose, the Washington
Times reported.
The executives were presented with a current hot-button issue in
Britain, the wearing of Muslim veils. Should a veiled woman be
allowed to present the news, they were asked. The BBC's diversity
editor said yes, since news anchors were allowed to wear
crosses.
A senior BBC executive admitted to the British paper Daily Express,
"There was a widespread acknowledgement that we may have gone too
far in the direction of political correctness. Unfortunately, much
of it is so deeply embedded in the BBC's culture, that it is very
hard to change it."