Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by willvarfar 3186 days ago
(Tangent: many countries have national tv channels that are paid by license fees or taxation. These channels strive to be independent, neutral and objective. And although it's quite in fashion to be negative about eg the bbc, I think they succeed really very well.)
2 comments

I dunno man, the BBC from what I hear/read is really biased towards the left.
From my perspective, as a leftist and not a liberal, I'd describe the BBC and NPR as having, largely, a liberal / centrist viewpoint. I don't think I've ever heard the BBC advocating seizing the means of production or NPR agitating for a general strike. If you are in the US, consider that our entire political compass is shifted very far to the right. In Europe, the Democrats would be considered a center-right party and the Republicans would be a far-right, borderline extremist party. Regardless of where you fall on this spectrum, it's important not to fool yourself into thinking you are in the "center" or have some "objective" viewpoint from which you can label things "left" and "right", when everything in politics is so contextual.
A big part of confusion is that the left is no longer interested in the common man and elevating the lower classes. So no, they won't advocate seizing the means. They are instead obsessed with identity politics, which seems to be another aspect of signaling and status seeking. Those who have victim cred wield it, those who don't will display excessive concern to try and be a good ally.

The BBC, like so many others, will absolutely maintain certain narratives from a left Orthodox view, particularly anything to do with sexism, racism or islamophobia.

They decide ahead of time who the victim and oppressor is, and quote only what works to support that hypothesis. There is still a pretense of impartiality, but that's all. There's a reason many classic liberal and alt types have adopted a policy of recording their own interviews and publishing them alongside any outlet featuring them.

It wasn't always so, if you look at articles from their archive of 10+ years ago, you find a much more balanced and neutral perspective.

NPR, too. I think this is largely because it is the left who typically seeks out public funding for social programs.
> These channels strive to be independent, neutral and objective.

yeah, maybe, in some countries. in others, they're exactly where the money leads: propaganda channels of the currently ruling party.