By PIERS SHEPHERD
ASHFORD, United Kingdom — The BBC has long been one of the world’s most respected broadcasters. However, a former BBC journalist has shone a light on that corporation’s strong liberal bias, revealing it to be a battering ram for what it considers “progressive values.”
Robin Aitken worked for 25 years across all levels of the BBC. In a recent address to the annual conference of the Family Education Trust, Aitken explained that the BBC has a cultural reach greater than any other British institution. Over 90 percent of the British population uses its services every week. The corporation is funded by a license fee that everyone who possesses and watches a television must pay. It is claimed that the license fee ensures the BBC’s independence but that independence is used as a mouthpiece for a radical liberal agenda.
Aitken said that the BBC’s liberalism had its origin in the cultural revolution of the 1960s. This era had seen profound generational change. The previous generation that had lived through the Second World War had had to exercise a restraint imposed by historical conditions. However, the 1950s and 60s were a far more stable time and the next generation did not feel it necessary to act with the same restraint as their parents. There was a rebellion against discipline and morality. During the 1960s and 70s the BBC saw a new intake of young people intoxicated by the new ways and since that time the broadcaster has allied itself with every transgressive cause.
Aitken gave specific examples of the BBC’s bias on particular issues. He said he had never heard a fair-minded discussion on the issue of abortion on the BBC. Countries without abortion on demand were portrayed as backward and reactionary. Northern Ireland’s restrictive abortion law was portrayed as obviously wrong and the UK government right for imposing a permissive abortion law on that province. During the Brexit referendum, the BBC took an instinctively pro-remain view and portrayed those who advocated leaving the EU as wicked.
The BBC has long propagandized for a permissive approach to euthanasia, always giving massive publicity to cases of people in pain saying they want to end their own life. This is despite the fact that Britain’s official medical bodies have so far rejected this approach. In any discussion of young people’s mental health on the BBC, the role of family breakdown is usually ignored, though it is widely believed by health professionals that this is a leading cause of children’s unhappiness.
Recently the BBC 6:00 News, once considered the principal breakdown of the most important news of the day, featured as one of its main stories how the Women’s Institute had put a “trans woman” on the cover of its magazine for the first time. Aitken asked why of all the news stories in the world on that day would the BBC choose that one. He said the purpose of such items was to gradually condition the public to the idea that “trans women are women.” He called this part of the BBC’s “long grooming process” of the British public.
Aitken said that the reform of the BBC was a difficult task because Ofcom, the body responsible for regulating it, was run by former BBC personnel.
However, he ended his talk on a positive note, saying that he was optimistic about the emergence of the new GB News channel as an alternative to the BBC. He noted how Fox News had changed the media narrative in the United States and hoped the same might happen in the UK. He encouraged those who defend traditional marriage and family to take advantage of this new opportunity to make their voices heard.
(Piers Shepherd is Senior Researcher at the Family Education Trust in England.)
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