Will the BBC's comeuppance for distortions of news motivate it to replace subjective objectivity with objective subjectivity?

Jan. 29, 2004: PoliSat .Com's Political Satire/ Commentary Daily Update # 01·· ™©·2004·(Home)·
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Will the BBC's comeuppance for distortions of news motivate it to replace subjective objectivity with objective subjectivity?·

The resignations of Gavyn Davies as Chairman of the BBC and Greg Dyke as the BBC's Director General in the wake of the finding that the BBC "news" had presented false allegations that officials in Tony Blair's government had deliberately distorted intelligence about the state of Iraq's capabilities with respect to weapons of mass destruction should, but probably won't, force BBC acolytes recognize it's recently-acquired tendency to present ideological views as "news." For BBC critics, it's simultaneously sad and refreshing-- refreshing that the BBC is getting at least part of the comeuppance it deserves; sad that the BBC deserves it. Perhaps Davies can go into business with Howell Raines.

Decades ago, most American news junkies considered the BBC the gold standard for international news. This reflected not merely our Anglophile tendencies but also a view approaching objectivity. In recent years, many American news junkies (probably most who are not left-of-center) began to recognize ideological biases and prejudices embedded in BBC "news."

Even though we who fit into this category do not harbor the naive illusion that any news source is "objective" as defined by its denotation, we use its connotation to evaluate whether a news source is "objective." The connotation defines a standard of reporting that strives, and usually succeeds, to get as close to the standard defined by the denotation of "objective" as can realistically be expected for the reporting of news by human beings burdened with their own conscious and subconscious biases and prejudices. It's almost synonymous with "fair." Even subjective reporting can be "fair" when it's accompanied by disclosures of, or openly manifests, the subjective biases and prejudices that prevent it from satisfying even the connotation of "objectivity."

It's the masquerade of subjectivity as objectivity that so many of us find so offensive. It's what Bernard Goldberg (a classical liberal) describes in his book, Arrogance. We don't object to free speech. We don't object to strenuous criticism. We do object to subjectivity masquerading as objectivity. To illustrate one of the more ludicrous examples of BBC "objectivity," PoliSat.Com reprises below the animation illustrating the December 20, 2003, installment of Political Satire/Commentary about BBC "objectivity."·

Subjective Objectivity and Objective Subjectivity.·

We also object to the false "objectivity" of treating all values as equal. For example, we object to pretenses of "objectively" presenting pro-liberty and anti-liberty values as being morally equivalent. A news broadcast by an organization professing to believe in free speech mocks the organization's professed values when it equates an interview with a "man in the street" in a police state with an interview of a "man in the street" in a free society. It's like equating the possession of a firearm by a law-abiding citizen with such possession by a professional killer. It's like treating as morally equivalent the possession of weapons of mass destruction by a police state and a government disciplined by enforceable obligations to respect human rights.

News organizations professing to favor freedom of the press undermine rather than advance it by news reporting that conveys such moral equivalence between totalitarian societies and those that at least strive to respect free speech and human rights even if they don't always succeed in doing so. This fool's errand to achieve an absolute, value-free "objectivity" is part of what paradoxically led the BBC into the subjectively anti-western prejudice in the guise of a pro-objectivity bias.

Was it "objectivity" that motivated the BBC to characterize as malignant rather than erroneous whatever may have been the initial deficiencies in reports about Jessica Lynch? (Regarding BBC reports about Jessica Lynch, see PoliSat.Com installments for May 16, 2003, June 1, 2003.) Was it "objectivity" that motivated the BBC to imply moral equivalence between Saddam Hussein and elected leaders of countries respecting human rights by insisting that all news reports identify him as the "deposed former President of Iraq" rather than the deposed tyrant all civilized people knew him to be? Was it "objectivity" for the BBC to report that Blair had purposely distorted intelligence about Iraq? Wash it "objectivity" for the BBC to "report" (a la Baghdad Bob) that Coalition forces had not seized Baghdad when all objective evidence was to the contrary? No, no, no and no. It was false objectivity driven by an ideological agenda masquerading as "objectivity."

Will the comeuppance delivered to the BBC for ideologically based reporting disguised as "news" lead to serious introspection by the BBC? I doubt it. Most ideologues, when confronted with the failure of an effort, redouble it.

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