Impact of mass media - are the BBC biased?

I suspect I could spend all day finding different examples of clips or news articles that may illustrate that the BBC are biased. For Government and Politics students, the impact of the mass media is a significant topic as modern politics is heavily influenced by television.

UK political decision making is supposed to be helped by the BBC and ITV, who are, in theory, meant to be unbiased. They're meant to report facts, triangulate these facts or admit their dubious providence and give people the tools by which they make decisions about how they vote.

The reality is more different. No TV channel can cover every story or show every piece of detail. Anything missed out could be classified as bias. What makes the BBC even more interesting, of course, is that they are funded through a television tax (so, publicly funded in effect) and manage to attract the ire of every political party! The Labour Party recently complained that the BBC deliberately orchestrating the resignation of a Shadow Cabinet Minister (Stephen Doughty) on air.

I love this clip where Daily Mail columnist accuses BBC of bias in a direct confrontation with Daily Politics presenter Andrew Neil (a former editor of the right-wing Sunday Telegraph). The subject is the recent controversy revolving around Donald Trump's proposal to ban the entry of all Muslims into the USA. Hopkins accuses that presenters and editors on the BBC of existing in a 'bubble' and being out of touch with real people's opinion. Neil attempts to find out how Hopkins can herself claim to have a better understanding of the view point of the general public.

Note: the clip will require to click on it to open the video in your browser.

Can your students find examples of clips or posts from the BBC that appear biased?