2 MB 9Th Apr 2021 BBC Ideas Full Report [Final]

BBC IDEAS 1 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................................... 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .................................................................................................................................................... 5 PART ONE: MONITORING STATISTICS ...................................................................................................................... 7 1.1 The BBC and its Charter Responsibilities on ‘Impartiality’ and ‘Distinctiveness’ ................................ 7 1.2 BBC Ideas ...................................................................................................................................................... 11 1.3 News-watch ................................................................................................................................................... 13 1.4 Project Overview ......................................................................................................................................... 13 1.5 The Full Sample ............................................................................................................................................ 14 1.6 Views per Day .............................................................................................................................................. 15 1.7 Presentational style ..................................................................................................................................... 17 1.8 Thematic categorisation .............................................................................................................................. 19 1.9 Production Companies................................................................................................................................. 21 1.10 The YouTube Channel ............................................................................................................................... 22 1.11 Political and Non-Political Films ............................................................................................................. 25 1.12 BBC Ideas, Younger Audiences and ‘Distinctiveness’ ......................................................................... 26 1.13 BBC Ideas, ‘Diversity’ and the influence of ‘Critical Theory’ ............................................................ 29 PART TWO: CONTENT ANALYSIS ............................................................................................................................ 37 2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................... 37 2.2 Textual Analysis Findings............................................................................................................................ 38 ‘Conservative’ Opinion ....................................................................................................................................... 38 Liberal-left Bias ................................................................................................................................................... 41 2.4 Matters of Concern Raised by the Bias ................................................................................................... 45 2.5 Bias by Omission .......................................................................................................................................... 46 2.6 Issues which must be answered: ................................................................................................................ 48 PART THREE: CONTENT SUMMARIES ....................................................................................................................... 49 3.1 Environmental/climate change .................................................................................................................. 49 3.2 Feminism and Gender ................................................................................................................................. 51 3.3 Discrimination against minorities ............................................................................................................... 54 3.4 Dominantly ‘Conservative’ Titles ............................................................................................................... 58 3.5 Films with Incidental ‘Conservative’ Opinion .......................................................................................... 61 3.6 Climate Change Bias ................................................................................................................................... 64 3.7 Dominantly ‘Woke’/Liberal Left Views ................................................................................................... 68 APPENDIX I: The 599 BBC Ideas Films ..................................................................................................................... 92 APPENDIX II: MOST AND LEAST VIEWED FILMS: ............................................................................................... 106 APPENDIX III: NAMED PRESENTERS ........................................................................................................................ 110 APPENDIX IV: PRODUCTION COMPANIES .......................................................................................................... 116 APPENDIX V: MASTER LIST OF VIDEOS WITH CONTROVERSIAL POINTS ................................................... 119 APPENDIX VI: ENVIRONMENTAL/CLIMATE CHANGE ........................................................................................ 193 2 INTRODUCTION BBC Ideas is a new area of factual content providing short videos for ‘curious minds’. This survey provides evidence that it is deeply biased to the liberal-left. The catalogue is thus in breach of BBC Charter requirements to provide content that is impartial, informative and distinctive and that contributes towards social cohesion. The BBC is paid for by the British public and is ostensibly proud about conveying British values to the world. On this basis, Sir David Clementi, the retiring chairman of the Corporation, declared in early February that any attempt to change or diminish the BBC would be a ‘colossal act of self-harm’. BBC Ideas, a pet project of former BBC executive and Labour minister James Purnell, is an expansionist strand launched in 2018 which has grown into a catalogue of 599 short films produced to be of interest to those with ‘curious minds’. The cost to the licence-fee payers of this content extravaganza is unknown, but production companies receive up to £1,200 per minute of published film. How does this translate? There is a bewildering array of topics ranging from going to the toilet wrongly to an alleged solution to Arab sexism and the difficulties of being a woman with a beard. In terms of broad subject matter, it covers areas such as history, psychology, science, sociology, politics, philosophy and environmentalism. Entering this world of more than 37 hours of content would, however, be a shock to many - if not the majority - of licence fee payers. 43% of the films are apolitical and broadly informative in tone, but 57% are agenda-driven and deeply biased in favour of liberal-left viewpoints, political themes and social concerns. Many of the BBC Ideas titles can only be described as highly partisan assaults on British values and conservatism. The films convey ideas in which terrorism can be explained because perpetrators are victims of inequality; where white history is written as the murderous imposition of oppression by the United Kingdom and the West; where racism is out of control and white oppressors are not even aware of it; where injustice towards women remains rampant; where the physically and mentally handicapped are victimised and deprived of sufficient state help; where ’nationalism’ (in countries such as the UK) should be abolished; and where the allegedly proven threat of climate change is so dangerous that drastic measures such as the ending of capitalism or the banning of the car are essential. Conversely, users of the Ideas catalogue have to search very hard to find much which communicates the perspective of conservative thinkers and ideas Almost completely missing, for 3 example, are titles which celebrate British values and achievements: the creation of the rule of law and wealth through trade, the Industrial Revolution1, pioneering of scientific inquiry, the abolition of slavery and slave trading ahead of the rest of the world, the spreading of Christian ethics and values, and of Britain spearheading the defeat of National Socialism in Germany. Nor is it mentioned that the 20th century witnessed a massive boost to agricultural productivity which means that smallest proportion in history of the global human population is suffering from malnutrition. Put bluntly, BBC Ideas casts its host nation as a continuing menace to the rest of the world and rotten to the core. As for the future, the main hopes are the abandonment of capitalism and a revolution, in line with post-modern critical theory and the most extreme demands of the Green lobby. The catalogue reveals, in sharp relief, that the Corporation is acting as a political campaigner, rather than a public service broadcaster bringing to audience attention a broad array of views and

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