Right of reply

Exposure of BBC left-wing bias has made recent headlines, especially since Panorama spliced the speeches of President trump to fit their own agenda at the expense of the truth. But this is not new. Over 50 years ago, the presenter of their ‘World at One’ was William Hardcastle, a man they said “left his hatred of the Tory Party at the door of Broadcasting House.” Of course, he did no such thing. The selection of stories and the slant put upon them was just as biased then as it is now.

Indeed, when we were students, a group of us published a satire called ‘The Propaganda at One,’ presenting an over-the-top parody of the real thing. There were items such as “Was Hitler right? Hossein Sirhan al Fathead looks at the Jewish question.” Other student magazines wrote to us asking for permission to reprint it.

There was one big difference between then and now. Fifty-odd years ago, all people could do was to fume and rage and throw books at the TV because there was no right of reply. Now they can answer back. Now they can comment on social media and publicize the biases. Then they could not. It has become a two-way street in which members of the public can air their differences, and can expose the Guardian-reading Islington mind-set for what it is - a minority view that is mostly at odds with what most people think.

There are not just social media to put opposing views, though; there are other outlets. GB News regularly question the views and the alleged facts put out by what used to be the mainstream media. They cover stories that the latter would prefer not to cover. They have presenters and guests who present a rational alternative viewpoint.

The response of some on the left has been predictable, threatening advertisers with boycotts, and attempting to ‘cancel’ people with views they dislike. They have forced cancellations of university speeches through threats of violence. Having lost their one-time monopoly of news presentation, they have sought to regain it by measures designed to limit free speech.

But the genie is out of the bottle and is giving voice to those previously denied it. People have acquired the right of reply.

Madsen Pirie