The BBC institutionalizes groupthink
The BBC already had groupthink to a large extent. But I guess that wasn’t quite enough; they felt the need to stamp out the tiny bit of remaining time they gave to points of view that didn’t conform to the prevailing leftist ethos:
The BBC Trust on Thursday published a progress report into the corporation’s science coverage which was criticised in 2012 for giving too much air-time to critics who oppose non-contentious issues.
The report found that there was still an ”˜over-rigid application of editorial guidelines on impartiality’ which sought to give the ”˜other side’ of the argument, even if that viewpoint was widely dismissed.
Some 200 staff have already attended seminars and workshops and more will be invited on courses in the coming months to stop them giving ”˜undue attention to marginal opinion.’
It’s not just about global warming, either, although that was the focus.
As for groupthink, it goes like this:
Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people, in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative viewpoints, by actively suppressing dissenting viewpoints, and by isolating themselves from outside influences.
The press does that to itself. It would like to do that to the British and American people in general, and to a large extent it has.
Irony deficiency! – from which all Leftist intellectual sequelae originate.
Having no argument of refutation, they find shouting-down works pretty well. And ignoring.
Didn’t Winston Churchill have a hard time getting on the BBC to voice his views in the 1930s?
Ironically, the jihadists ALSO lust for group think!
Hence, the Beeb and the fanatics truly mirror each other.
Group think also drives religious warfare… indeed, pre-revolutionary conditions more generally.
The various factions are determined by their group think ethos… all, of course, insisting that “God is with us.”
It’s basically a herd of followers and veggie eaters stampeding over a cliff. Pay them no mind, they’ll be buffalo stew once we recover the meat and cook it, after it falls down and bleeds out.
Nothing astonishes me any longer.
Melanie Phillips, the British (but Jewish and therefore not quit British) journalist noted that Britain was the first country to enter the Enlightenment and the first country to leave it. In that respect the actions of the BBC are part of a movement. Assuming this trajectory continues in our lifetime we may see the Brits again painting themselves blue, worshiping trees and practicing magic.
The first sacrifice upon ideology’s altar is the truth.
In any socialistic system, eventually all thought, speech and behavior must be categorized as either forbidden or mandatory.
I think the Brits’ problem is that they’re too polite to carry out the kind of mass purge of socialists that’s necessary.
The Democrat Party is basically groupthink. No, there is no distinction to be made for “press” from the Democratic Groupthink Oppression Party. They are the same thing, different jobs is all.
The only defense against Groupthink is a true education – which includes not just knowledge of the Classics, logic, history etc., but a love of them because of their truth and beauty.
No Democrat is truly educated. If they were it would be impossible for them to be a Democrat. Period.
Democrats, in their “democratness”, are not bad people. They are the worst people.
The only difference between such people is something along the lines of how many tanks or how much power do they have. Every democrat type will always use its maximal power to oppress and harm others.
There are no exceptions to this rule. Again, could they make exceptions and see distinctions they could not still be democrats.
DO not say to me, “That’s outrageous. These are good people. They are my friends and neighbors. Such a thing could never happen”.
Fine. Your good people, friends and neighbors where something like this could never happen were German Nazis once. Again, no difference but era, and fashion. If Obama opened up concentration camps and fired up the ovens, you know and I know that no real democrat would object in the least.
Another year or so we may have the chance to test that theory, based on the Crisis-a-Week scenario I have long hypothesized about. We are nearer and nearer to the culminating crisis where he simple ends the pretense and seizes indefinite control of the government. It is a mere “Executive Order” away.
Everyone who is honest, and decent, knows this is their true fear about the Monster-in-Chief.
Matt-
I disagree. The majority of British Brits (so designated to exclude Paki Brits and other dregs of Empire) simply collapsed after WWII. They were spent, done. What they first did: dumped Winston as PM, went full-bore socialist, set up the National Health Service, started massive public housing ironically dubbed “estates” with local governments as landlords.
Next, they threw away their Empire. Couldn’t hold it because they were simply out of gas (and young men).
Today, they are not too polite. They are simply morally weak and passive. Look at the Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the “Church of England”: sharia law is OK in the UK. England has more surveillance cameras than any other country; the Bobbies do not patrol, but sit in their stations with mugs of tea watching (from time to time) the monitors. Each residence is, on average, burgled yearly, and the cops do not care.
I suppose so.
Brit here- and this might not be as bad as it looks if the changes cause the Beeb to find better informed and credentialed critics of climate science orthodoxy. One of the symptoms of the Beeb’s groupthink is that if they think a point of view is eccentric they go and find an eccentric to represent it.
During the 1990s and 2000s, if your sole source of news was the BBC (as it is for millions at home and worldwide) you would never have known that any serious economist opposed the Euro. Because Beeb journalists had convinced themselves that the only opposition to the Euro came from aged and lunatic provincials, when they needed a critic of the Euro for balance, that is the kind of person they went looking for, and found. BBC journalists are incredibly lazy, even by the standards of a very lazy profession. A bit of tightening up might encourage some of them to do their jobs properly.
“The Democrat Party is basically groupthink. No, there is no distinction to be made for “press” from the Democratic Groupthink Oppression Party. They are the same thing, different jobs is all.”
While I agree with your statement with regards to the “sheep” of the Democrapic Party, I think those that lead it OBummer, Reid, Pelosi know exactly what they are doing. With no loyal opposition, they get to do whatever they want. Also, the problem is that the Republicks in charge also have a desire for Groupthink. Look at how they try to undermine and destroy those TEA party people who try to challenge them. I long for Principled people in politics be they right or left leaning but understand the Scum are running things now. 🙁 🙁
The BBC is simply self-destructing. In the long run, this will just be a footnote to the long-term shrivelling of government-run media. They cannot be unaware that their own Met Office has declared that global warming has (unexpectedly!) ceased (I just looked that up again to make sure. Yep.). A real news service would find that interesting and follow up, but they have retreated into a fantasy world. Pity the old fellows, I remember when they were cool.
I just wonder if they’ll apply this new policy across their coverage consistently. After all the “science is settled” in that GM foods are safe, nuclear power is a more effective way to deal with carbon emissions than wind or wave and fracking causes little harm to the environment. Somehow I don’t see them cutting their “false balance” in these cases though.
The reason the Earth is warming up is because Hussein and the Left is pissing it off. If we sacrifice enough Leftists to the volcano, things will calm down.
Mike, remember what Republican staffers did to Sarah Palin, spending 100-300k on a new wardrobe, leaking it, because they rejected all of Palin’s own clothing?
Then the 2 interviews that “everyone”, including some here, saw as “evidence” of … what, I still don’t care to illustrate cause it didn’t exist.
Not allowing dissenting opinions to be published, commented on, or recognized is becoming a standard for many U.S. newspapers. The Seattle Times (ostensibly the conservative paper in the Puget Sound) has refused, for the last ten years, to publish letters to the editor that argue against the science of the CAGW crowd. It’s not just the Beeb.
Groupthink bores me… I wish they wouldn’t waste my (and everyone else’s) time trying this junk *yawns* …
Not necessarily bad. Sometimes news media reflexively give the “alternate side” even when there isn’t one, or when it’s stupid. For instance: Always interviewing one of the five remaining members of SNAP in any story about the Catholic Church, or showing photos of a handful of abortion advocates (without saying they are only a handful) at a huge pro-life demonstration. Sometimes this desire to be fair produces the opposite result.