ENTER STAGE LEFT

The BBC's 'drama commissioning controller' Ben Stephenson (pictured right) has told the 'Guardian' that the BBC drama output is biased - and he's proud of the fact:

"We need to foster peculiarity, idiosyncasy, stubborn-mindedness, left-of-centre thinking". http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2009/jul/16/ben-stephenson-tony-garner

The 'Biased BBC' thread on this says almost all that needs saying: http://biased-bbc.blogspot.com/2009/07/we-need-more-leftist-thinking.html

As the man-in-charge has said, plainly and simply, that BBC drama is intentionally biased towards the Left and against the Right, this blog no longer even needs to think about providing evidence of BBC bias in 'Judge John Deed', 'Spooks', and all the other rubbish that passes for great drama on today's BBC. The case is proven, straight out of the horse's smug gob.

Stephenson's comments are not a trivial matter. He is in favour of one-sided propaganda - and he's the boss of drama at Great Britain's taxpayer-funded state broadcaster.

Come on all you lazy Tory MPs, complain, complain and complain again about Ben Stephenson until (a) you get an apology - at the very least - from the man himself and (b) a commitment from the BBC that it will respect the fact that the United Kingdom is a democracy & offer its viewers and listeners drama from the broadest range of political standpoints. Get some spines! Let this go, & you will be useless tools of the BBC and the rest of the leftwing political class that runs this country. You will be part of the problem (if you aren't already).

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UPDATE

This story is now taking off wonderfully, thanks to a 'Biased BBC blogger', the excellent DB . DB's comments were picked up on by Jonathan Isaby at the 'Centre Right' blog (Conservative Home) . This, in turn, was picked up by the 'Daily Telegraph'. Jeremy Hunt, the shadow culture secretary, has now asked for "an immediate retraction and apology".

Result!

The 'Telegraph' reports two responses from a clearly rattled BBC.

The first was from Stephenson himself, denying that he'd "meant the comment to have a political meaning", adding that he meant it to mean, like 'left-field', a "completely new perspective". Do you believe him?

Amusingly, an anonymous 'troll' on the 'Biased BBC' website had tried this defence in the early hours of this morning (as you will see if you click on the link above). Did Ben Stephenson read the 'Biased BBC' blog and think, "Aha, that might do the trick!"? It's amusing to think so!!

The second response is even funnier, and in its own right.

Again, I quote from the 'Telegraph': "A BBC source said that executives believed that their casting of Boris Johnson, the Conservative Mayor of London, in an episode of 'Eastenders', proved that they did not have a left-wing bias."

I've been chuckling at that all afternoon!