They've literally thought "Well he's Australian, and that's an island surrounded by people even more foreign than the French so he's our man for post Brexit".

Gosh, who would have thought that Trump would be the butt of so many jokes?! Gosh.
And Brexit?! Noooooo, surely not! It’s been such a serious and sensible endeavour throughout.

afgavinstan wrote:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/09/05/exclusive-bbc-comedy-shows-appear-overwhelmingly-biased-against/

Counting jokes now fucking lmaoooooo

I mean...that’s a pretty solid way of studying and analysing bias, no?

When I was doing my thesis and wanted to analyse gender bias in Chinese uni textbooks, I took a large sample of textbooks at intermediate and advanced level, went through every text, and noted the position, language and job etc. of every character and person mentioned, and compared it to gender.

If the sample is large enough, it’s a decent way of displaying overall bias.

This was based on the official UN materials used to study and analyse gender bias in school texts and is freely available online.

So, counting jokes? Yeah. Seems fine.

The problem I see here isn’t the method - it’s the sample size which is tiny, the short duration, the lack of comparison texts on other channels (as a control) etc.

My problem is I couldn't give a hoot about bias or whatever. These shows are just doing what they've always done, poked fun at whoever is in power. To try and paint it as the beeb caught in the act, or that it's in any way an EXCLUSIVE ALL CAPS, is laughable in and of itself.

Pretty sure New Labour got it tight off HIGNFY.

New Labour got tonnes of shit, with the addition of the tabloids amplifying every mistake and opportunity for ridicule.

Even then there’s an objective difference between the first and second decades of the century. It’s not going to be a like for like comparison. By any objective interpretation the past 5 years have been a total shitshow.

Minnesänger wrote:

tigersgogrrr wrote:

You would need a comparison of when Labour were in power too.

afgavinstan wrote:

My problem is I couldn't give a hoot about bias or whatever. These shows are just doing what they've always done, poked fun at whoever is in power. To try and paint it as the beeb caught in the act, or that it's in any way an EXCLUSIVE ALL CAPS, is laughable in and of itself.

Aye, it’s certainly a poor “study”.

Just saying joke counting ain’t a bad method, that’s all.

You're not wrong at all. Joke count / language used would absolutely be reasonable ways of doing this properly.

acemuzzy wrote:

afgavinstan wrote:

My problem is I couldn't give a hoot about bias or whatever. These shows are just doing what they've always done, poked fun at whoever is in power. To try and paint it as the beeb caught in the act, or that it's in any way an EXCLUSIVE ALL CAPS, is laughable in and of itself.

Well the accusation is that they haven't, and bias is at play.  So surely disproving that (e.g. evidence of what happened under Labour) is useful?

No because it probably will be less for Labour because they (and no other government of right or left) ever got themselves into a mess like Brexit.

They are getting really good at dividing us into opposing sides aren't they ?
(Joke intended)

On a more serious point, I personal feel that the gutting of the BBC that has been going on and continues to go on is a shame. Yes it has its faults but what doesnt? Some of the best comedy, documentary, drama and ,yes, News work has come from the BBC and while channel 4 does cover some of those cracks now, the BBC was at one point the envy of what a public broadcaster could and should be. There shouldnt be a push on getting a balanced view. Just use the fact shotgun and move away from pointless talking heads (a little of that is fine but its fast becoming the majority of what news is)

afgavinstan wrote:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/09/05/exclusive-bbc-comedy-shows-appear-overwhelmingly-biased-against/

Counting jokes now fucking lmaoooooo

A week later the May 29 episode featured no fewer than 27 jokes about Mr Johnson's chief adviser Dominic Cummings after his visit to Durham during lockdown. Hislop suggested that Mr Cummings “should resign” on three occasions.

Well, yeah. It was an objectively ridiculous situation ripe for comedy. Like a lot of other shit this Government does. Same with Trump.

Pretty much everyone in the country thought Cummings should resign, it wasn’t just ‘biased lefty BBC comedians’.

EDIT: ignoring the idiotic idea that Ian Hislop is some kind of left wing firebrand

monkey wrote:

acemuzzy wrote:

afgavinstan wrote:

My problem is I couldn't give a hoot about bias or whatever. These shows are just doing what they've always done, poked fun at whoever is in power. To try and paint it as the beeb caught in the act, or that it's in any way an EXCLUSIVE ALL CAPS, is laughable in and of itself.

Well the accusation is that they haven't, and bias is at play.  So surely disproving that (e.g. evidence of what happened under Labour) is useful?

No because it probably will be less for Labour because they (and no other government of right or left) ever got themselves into a mess like Brexit.

But the counterargument is that that's subjective. That Brexit is a glorious, democratic reclaiming of sovereignty. And hence not at all deserving of comic mirth. That isn't the side of the argument I'd be on, but is hard to totally objectively counter.

In their eyes: yes

acemuzzy wrote:

In their eyes: yes

Then it's pointless to even engage them as they are detatched from reality.

Yeah maybe. But it's frickin hard when they have all the power, if you don't engage somehow they just seize more and more. It's kinda fucked. But I don't know how to engage in a way that isn't already on their biased terms.