Sky News and BBC unwatchable

[anonymous-user]

Both Sky News and BBC have I feel become completely unwatchable. Indeed ITV and Channel 4/5 just as bad. All full of political correctness and bias. I can never forget the utter nonsense they peddled at times during COVID with their doom laden experts day after day calling for more and more lockdowns. Rigby Peston Kuenssberg no time for any of them. So I don’t watch any news now

[Earthdweller]

I tend to agree

My morning dose is now Fr24 who do a really good worldwide roundup of current events

The BBC/Sky are awful

[Getragdogleg]

I get annoyed when they do an interview with their own outside presenter and the studio based one is getting an opinion off the outside one, they are not giving any new insights into the situation, they are just looping their own spin on whatever has happened.

I don't watch the news much.

[Biker 1]

I look at a couple of news sites during the day, but life is too short for TV news - its always so bloody depressing

[Hereward]

My mental health improved markedly when I stopped digesting BBC output.

[ant1973]

Most news output is lightweight and reactionary in nature.

Their superficial analysis of complex issues encourages people to believe that there are obvious and simple remedies to any given problem.

I find the trend of shoe-horning a human interest element into every story particularly grating.

Almost all the analysis (such as it is) ends with a variant of this: the answer to this problem is more money, and it's up to the government to explain why they will not spend it.

But the news channels, like our politicians, are a reflection of our society.

[andy_s]

Skim headlines, but no, it's become really low-grade info because they tend to the emotive and banal with conveniently limited explanatory depth on the selection of stories they choose to tell you.

[chemistry]

Although I used to be a regular for the BBC News and R4 Today programme, I no longer watch or listen to any BBC broadcast output. It all became so woke, patronising and left biased.

The website is even worse, as almost every story has an identity politics angle ('how will communities A/B/C deal with issues X/Y/Z' instead of just reporting on issues X/Y/Z).

An an antidote, I read the Economist each week, which I find relatively neutral, use Reuters website, listen to Triggernometry's podcasts and occasionally dip into LBC (even when James O'Brien is on; at least his biases are clear, like all of their presenters) or GB News on the radio.

[NerveAgent]

TV news is just absolute trash now and has been for years.

[robscot]

Everyone has choice, so crack on.

Just beware that people are out to monetise your distaste for beeb etc, probably referring to them as 'MSM', and effectively radicalise you into some kind of paranoia. Youtube and other algos will glady feed you more content along those lines, and you will end up on the batst threads on PH talking to others in the same boat.

Be careful

[oyster]

Surely woke is actually neutral?

I mean, treating people equally is about as neutral and normal as it gets isn't it?

[andy_s]

robscot said:

Everyone has choice, so crack on.

Just beware that people are out to monetise your distaste for beeb etc, probably referring to them as 'MSM', and effectively radicalise you into some kind of paranoia. Youtube and other algos will glady feed you more content along those lines, and you will end up on the batst threads on PH talking to others in the same boat.

Be careful

Yes, so by lowering mainstream output quality you drive people in the opposite direction you wanted to shepherd them to in the first place. Very clever people who know best.

Is 'sanctimony' the most important word of the decade? Perhaps.

[NDA]

cc3 said:

Both Sky News and BBC have I feel become completely unwatchable.

I agree.

I have a pathological dislike of the Kay Burley creature, so never watch Sky news just in case it appears.

BBC is annoyingly woke and I really don't think their political bias represents the country at all.

I would like to cancel my TV licence, but as I watch 'live' TV on other channels it means I have to have it.

[chemistry]

oyster said:

Surely woke is actually neutral?

I mean, treating people equally is about as neutral and normal as it gets isn't it?

But that's not what 'being woke' is in practice is it?

The BBC coverage certainly isn't equal (many minority groups being disproportionately represented/celebrated, a clear left wing bias) and often is unnecessarily divisive i.e. viewing issues through an identity politics lens (which highlights some groups over others) rather than taking a neutral position (showing how an issue affects everyone, which would indeed mean treating everyone equally and neutrally).

[Funk]

I think the relentless negativity of 95% of news output can't be good for our mental health.

It's one thing to have an idea of what's going on in the world but quite another to have a never-ending onslaught of reporting on murders, wars, crashes, mass-shootings, economic and environmental doom and gloom, narcissistic 'celebrities', arrogant and idiotic politicians...

It's always focussing on what's bad or going wrong as that's what unfortunately gets people watching it evidently.

[anonymous-user]

Funk said:

I think the relentless negativity of 95% of news output can't be good for our mental health.

It's one thing to have an idea of what's going on in the world but quite another to have a never-ending onslaught of reporting on murders, wars, crashes, mass-shootings, economic and environmental doom and gloom, narcissistic 'celebrities', arrogant and idiotic politicians...

It's always focussing on what's bad or going wrong as that's what unfortunately gets people watching it evidently.

It’s a good point I feel a lot better since I stopped watching the news

[deckster]

Crumbs, is it that time already? I could have sworn we had another few days before the next BBC bashing thread was scheduled.

[bitchstewie]

Good grief.

Try GB News it's mostly impartial and unbiased and a refreshing take on the woke agenda pushed by the MSM or so I hear

[Lotobear]

bhstewie said:

Good grief.

Try GB News it's mostly impartial and unbiased and a refreshing take on the woke agenda pushed by the MSM or so I hear

It actually is though despite your predictable 'he he', certainly relative to the BBC, despite what various left leaning 'Fact Checking' sites might have you believe. It's certainly right leaning but since when has that been a crime?

Some of it is poor but what I do like about GBN is whenever there is a debate they always have a right and left contributor and what you end up with is a genuine debate with little interference from the presenter.

[oyster]

chemistry said:

oyster said:

Surely woke is actually neutral?

I mean, treating people equally is about as neutral and normal as it gets isn't it?

But that's not what 'being woke' is in practice is it?

The BBC coverage certainly isn't equal (many minority groups being disproportionately represented/celebrated, a clear left wing bias) and often is unnecessarily divisive i.e. viewing issues through an identity politics lens (which highlights some groups over others) rather than taking a neutral position (showing how an issue affects everyone, which would indeed mean treating everyone equally and neutrally).

I simply don't see that.

I do see a slight left-wing bias, but that's not unexpected and can largely be ignored. But I don't see this disproportionate representation as much.