Chinese observers said the BBC has turned into "a rumor mill" that deliberately throws mud at China, and the decision to suspend its broadcast sends a clear message that China doesn't accept fake news.

:xi-lib-tears:

  • MolotovHalfEmpty [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    4 years ago

    Exactly.

    Back in 1926 when there were calls for a General Strike Lord Reith actually wanted to broadcast the Labour and union response after the prime minister went on the BBC to give a wildly anti-union interview and statement. The Tory government pressured the BBC not to allow the other side of the argument to be heard, directly conflicting with the BBC's mission statement. The BBC caved, as well as cancelling future programmes they thought might give Churchill an excuse to take it over / shut it down. And from then on it only got worse.

    From the 1930s right through until after the end of the cold war a literal MI5 officer vetted editorial applications, staff hiring and more. Any suspected communists or 'subversives' including folk singers and artists, never mind politicians, we're blacklisted from the BBC. And even in its modern history people hired, even in completely non-political capacities, who were even vaguely left wing had their staff files marked with a Christmas tree stamp to single them out for monitoring and more. These people including dangerous subversives like beloved children's poet Michael Rosen.

    In 1953 the BBC inserted a codeword into the broadcast of the midnight time check to inform the Shah of Iran that the British government supported him and to initiate a coup. It was called Operation Ajax.

    In the 60s the BBC set up what was essentially a money laundering operation so that the British government could secretly fund supposedly neutral news organisations like Reuters to set up offices and broadcast in places like the Middle East in order to turn them into covert propaganda organisations.

    In the 1980s the BBC reversed the order of footage to claim that family members of mine attacked the police unprovoked, despite the fact that it was police officers and military fash given uniforms to brutalise beat striking miners. It was known as the Battle of Orgreave and the BBC continued to manufacture consent that lead to the state beating, killing, and starving of miners and their families in order to break the unions.

    As well as their usual appalling coverage of Israel-Palestine they refused to air a Gaza charity appeal in 2009, even when other channels later showed it and the late great Tony Benn talked over interviewers to read out the phone number anyway. Some at the BBC resigned in disgust, but it was also reported that BBC bosses had threatened their journalists with dismissal when they complained privately about the issue.

    And that's just off the top of my head and not including the countless examples of racism, sexism warmongering, blatant propaganda, and paedophilia over the years. The BBC - especially it's news/political output - has always been objectively shit and often downright evil.