If you were working for an organisation with a public service charter and that organisation started to behave in ways which didn’t reflect that, what would you do about it? The BBC is such an organisation. People inside the Corporation sometimes forget that.
They are literally not allowed to be biased.
The nature of the BBC is to be impartial.
Sometimes they even take that requirement too far.
During the Brexit referendum, the Stronger In campaign would frequently complain that they would put up experts and that the Leave campaign would put up cranks, and both would be given equal airtime under “impartiality rules.” Such was their commitment to trying to find a middle ground that they ended up legitimising some real nutcases.
Better that, in some ways, than to slant their coverage so that it even appears to be biased. Neutrals who work at the BBC had issues with the way they covered Brexit, but none of them would have been happy in the slightest to see it become totally one sided.
I don’t know if BBC Sport Scotland even has neutrals working in it. I mean, you’d think it must have. You’d think that it really has to. But nobody can be in the slightest doubt that editorial policy has become completely screwed up somewhere down the line.
When you tune in at the weekend now you are met with almost wall to wall coverage from an Ibrox point of view, and I don’t care that Pat Bonner is on there or that Chris McLaughlin has a well-known and well debated ban from that ground. I don’t even care that the BBC doesn’t offer commentary from their home games because of all this.
There are enough ex-Ibrox players on their panels and commentary teams that any neutral observer would be struck by it. That some of their staff have openly declared themselves to be fans of that club is even more ridiculous.
Tom English can get a pull for breaching editorial standards for a tweet slagging our club – he deserved it, by the way – but on the other hand, Kenny McIntyre can advertise his bias without it being regarded as a problem.
Since when does that meet their criteria?
Since when is that acceptable?
Only in organisation which seems to value a playing career there above every other qualification would it even be a factor.
But when you can put three of their former footballers on a panel to dissect decisions at a Celtic game then I guess you’ve abandoned even the pretence of neutrality.
So how do the genuine neutrals feel about it? Where are they in all this?
When STV signed a commercial agreement with Rangers just prior to their liquidation a lot of the journalists there were openly furious and briefed the papers that they felt that it violated their professional integrity.
The BBC isn’t even a commercial organisation … it’s funded by the tax payer. How do its own Scottish staff feel about a sports department so jaundiced in its outlook? And let’s not kid on that it’s not, because it clearly is. Even with the best will in the world, if you fill an organisation with people who only lean one way that organisation will do the same.
You only have to look at the coverage Celtic gets to see that this is exactly what has happened.
The BBC is already in a lot of trouble. It needs a robust level of public support to survive the coming onslaught by this government, so if the neutrals at BBC Sport Scotland aren’t speaking up then I’d suggest they are taking a very big risk.
Because if the license fee goes then cuts are inevitable, and their bosses have already demonstrated what its own priorities are.
If they are going for a pro-Ibrox slant then it’s the neutrals who will be first to be pushed out the door; their position is even more precarious than that of those with Celtic leanings, who are necessary just so the show appears to have balance.
At this moment in time, I don’t know a single Celtic fan who will defend the status quo at the national broadcaster. I don’t know a single one who would defend the license fee from attacks, because really, who wants to pay the license fee to listen to the kind of “commentary” which has become all too prevalent on there?
During Celtic’s home win against St Mirren, I listened to the game at Perth and in their studio they had Kenny Miller and every other word he used was “we” or “us”, words which I thought were entirely forbidden from the BBC lexicon.
I was not even surprised to hear such open bias on display; too many people there no longer feel they need to even behave professionally, far less objectively.
And that has to change, and that change has to come from inside the walls. Celtic fans can protest all they want. But it’s up to those who have allowed this cultural drift to happen to get the organisation back on track before it’s too late, before any support they have left is gone.
In case people there haven’t noticed, the Ibrox fan-base despises them in spite of the slanted coverage. Now Celtic fans are starting to as well. The neutrals must know how bad it’s gotten, and if they do then they are the next to go.
How bad does the audience share have to get? How low does the credibility have to sink? When it comes time for the government’s “review” into staffing and funding, how can an organisation which is distrusted and hated hope to prosper?
BBC Sport Scotland is a disgrace, and it needs to get its act together, for its own sake, even if it does treat its audience with utter contempt.
Funny how you referenced the Brexit referendum. Because the BBC sure as fuck weren’t neutral during Indyref. All those “we’re better off together” toadies getting an easy ride from the Unionist journos.
Scum.
“For every Nationalist put up for interview, we will interview 5 Unionists.”
The BBC.
who is that a quote from?
James I’ve known for years that this eh? Cartel at the bbc is corrupt to their core.
You said Celtic fans are beginning to despise them alongside sevco fans, I’ve treated them with the contempt they have repeatedly shown our club for years now.
I will never pay for the license fee and haven’t done so now for nearly a decade.That will not change.
If you read into their mission statement you have enough proof that they do not stick to it, or indeed, seem to try to. 3 pages in my decision was made, I had all the evidence needed to show that they’re nowhere near living up to that.
When calling them I got the distinct impression that they couldn’t care less about you or anyones opinion, they simply do not care.
When I asked if they intended to correct themselves and at least try to live up to their mission statement, I was told that ‘it will not matter to me as I will or be using their services any longer.’ For me that was it.
Attitude of the scale, I hope the bbc sinks and never returns.
Huns to a man.
I always thought allegiances were to be hidden at the BBC if you were staff. Pundits not so much for obvious reasons. Folk like Kenny McIntyre or Chick Young should never admit to following anyone whilst under BBC employment, for the appearance for impartiality.
However, you could look at it as an exploitation of current BBC “woke” policy re: identity. Kenny McIntyre “identifies” as a scummy hun bawbag, and that can’t be criticised at Auntie/Uncle/Non-Binary Beeb!
You never know…
Look at how they smeared Corbyn, much like the Celtic fans are smeared because they support Palestinians fighting occupation. It’s not as if the non-sports coverage is any good either. Last night, prime time bbc1 was a documentary about Katie Price and her son. Is this really public service broadcasting?
What can you say about an organisation that thinks Chick Young has opinions worth hearing?
Celtic fans, by definition, have rebelious beliefs. We challenge the status quo. We don’t know our place and, unlike those obsequious servile huns, we don’t bow and scrape to those other people consider our betters…
The BBC is a British propaganda tool. It’s job is to, among other things, promote “British interests”. That flies in the face of everything we believe in. I don’t want to be British. I want Scotland to be an independent republic. Fuck the BBC. They are the enemy as far as I am concerned. No better than Lord Fucking Haw Haw.
Hail, hail. I quite agree. Filthy British aristocratic, empire building, war mongering hypocrites. The Masonic BBC are no better than Goebbels.
Make a formal complaint to BBC in London about the bias in BBC SCOTLAND
BBC SCOTLANDS sports department have always been hun to the core sure they were that sick the day we pumped the huns 7 -1 that they didn’t show the highlights that night they claimed it was due to a technical issue and that a fact
Ermm… where were you when Nick Robinson and his goons re-edited a press conference with Alex Salmond to pervert an articulate answer Salmond directed to Robinson [and effectively ripped the piss out of him on live telly]? By six o’clock Salmond looked like the numpty when the BBC broadcast the doctored version to the nation.
I mean, despite all your faux-intellectual postering, surely even you must know that the BBC are NOT impartial.
Tim’s!
5 years back in uk and will never pay for that licence, especially as the place us rammed with huns and the so called ” Celtic ones” are complete ” uncle Tins” like packy Bonner , pathetic
If current behaviour is to be assessed I’m pretty sure political ranting about an independent Republic of Scotland wouldn’t make any difference to the bbc. I’m pretty sure also that SNP are the governing party in Scotland now and that the institutions of this country are ‘hun run’ including the media, press and football institutions (SFA CEO’s have historically not been representatives of Celtic but that of another club). The same institutions that allows covid breaching billy boy marches to smash the city up, not just once, while the police of Scotland sit by, watch and march with them. HH
Once Scotland becomes an independent nation, republic or otherwise, the SNP will no longer be the choice of many people who saw them achieve their primary goal. Including my good self.
So all you fuds who voted Naw because “Salmond is a dick” can all join your unionist hun pals as far as I’m concerned.
I believe the BBC should be inundated with complaints each and every time this occurs remember we pay a lot of money for this and its unacceptable to tolerate this partizan coverage. Flood the complaints department each and every time this happens
People are withholding there license fee in droves. And Tripe like Sportscene,and a lot of over paid “pundits “from a certain club
Stinks.
Recruitment for most jobs in Scotland is subject to certain criteria, certainly at the BBC. Which schools do applicants go to ? Deep rooted prejudice.
Sportscene is led by a hun EBT tax dodger who is paying for his EBT with licence money. No-one who took an EBT arguing it was simply tax free money knowing it was wrong due to its side note informing how the deal would play out, should be on our screens.
Thomson brings in former hun mates to make up the show and has been shown to edit out honest mistakes that occur at a particular ground they are banned from filming in.
I don’t think you said EBT enough Boab.
Love,
Roonsa xxx
PS. EBT
I have been complaining to my peers for a long time regarding BBC being bereft of impartiality. This is their response re my complaint about Sportscene’s editorial and panel shortcomings…the status quo still prevails and depressing at best and disturbing.
Thank you for your comments following Sportscene on 6 March. We’ve raised your complaint with BBC Sport Scotland editors.
Firstly, we would stress that bias plays no part in our coverage of Scottish football and Sportscene is not biased for or against any football club. Our reporting is undertaken fully in line with the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines and with the Broadcasting Code which is laid down by the independent industry regulator, Ofcom.
In choosing which match action and incidents to discuss in the limited time available, the team base their decisions on editorial merit and on their experience of determining the most significant highlights and talking points in each game. These are judgement calls rather than an exact science, and we appreciate that not everyone will see an incident the same way or agree with every decision that’s made.
Our contributors are appointed on the basis of their experience, broadcasting ability and knowledge of the game, not which club/s they may have played for during their careers, and we don’t engage anyone unless we believe they can meet the specific demands required of them.
That a given broadcast may feature contributors who’ve played for the same club during their careers is not indicative of bias, and we continue to hear from a wide range of contributors in our output, whose collective careers span a wide range of clubs from within and outwith Scotland.
That said, we recognise too, given the diverse audience that we serve, that it’s inevitable some viewers may dislike or disapprove of certain contributors for a variety of different reasons.
Thank you again for sending us your views. We’ve also included your comments in our overnight reports, among the most widely read sources of feedback in the BBC.