[mwagstaff]

As a Brit, I feel that the BBC is considered pretty legitimate as a respected news source, despite being old and decidedly non-hip. They normally seem to report impartial facts, which works for me (but seemingly not the likes of Fox/MSNBC).

We also have shows similar to the Daily Show (e.g. Have I got news for you) which come along and take the mickey out of the news as well, just to be on the safe side.

[stegosaurus]

Within the subject matter they decide to report they are not terrible, but there are huge gaps in what they decide is worth reporting on.

As far as I'm concerned, their role is not simply to repeat endless interviews with the major political parties. They have a role to play in showing the public that other options exist. Lately they've given UKIP a ton of airtime with endless nonsense scandals like 'X says Y down the pub' and almost ignored the rise of the Greens.

Their wall to wall coverage during the 'phone hacking scandal' compared to ongoing total-surveillance by the NSA getting a token mention every now and then.

Today, they chose to describe Syriza as a 'radical left-wing party'. I don't think that choosing 'radical' in this context is an accident.

I could go on; some of my bugbears are more trivial than others; but I think they're definitely a 'mouthpiece of the establishment'.

Better than FOX? Sure; but that's not a high bar to meet.

Our electoral system is bad enough without major media outlets focusing almost all of their time on Red vs Blue.

[thom]

Syriza is literally an acronym for 'Coalition of the Radical Left'.

[guelo]

BBC is publicly funded. It's as if PBS hadn't faced decades of Republican attacks and budget cuts. Republicans believe that the only form of television we should watch should be for the benefit of shareholders. Even so, PBS still manages to do some great journalism with shows like Frontline. But they don't have anywhere near the budget to create content as good as the BBC.

[timthorn]

PBS (and other US networks, to be fair) does cofund the production of a number of UK shows, both drama and documentary.

[timthorn]

All UK broadcasters are required to present their news content in an impartial and accurate fashion: http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/broadcast-code...

[GunlogAlm]

Agreed completely. The BBC certainly aren't without their faults, but at the end of the day they're the most impartial news service I've come across. I'm glad we have them!