In my Spectator column this week I’ve posed the question: did the BBC breach its own impartiality rules by keeping critics of the government’s pandemic response off the air during the first lockdown? Judging from facts that have emerged as part of the Telegraph’s ongoing investigation into the activities of the counter-Disinformation Unit (CDU), the answer appears to be ‘yes’. Here’s the key section from my column:
The head of the CDU, Sarah Connolly, says that one of its functions was “passing information” to social media companies to “encourage… the swift takedown” of posts it regarded as suspect. That’s worrying because we know that the CDU ignored an instruction from the Cabinet Office not to include ‘opinions’ in its definition of mis- and disinformation. Among the content flagged by the censors were criticisms of the Government’s decision to close schools by Molly Kingsley, the co-founder of a children’s campaign group.
Did the CDU’s attempts to suppress dissent extend to the BBC? Connolly also chaired the Counter Disinformation Policy Forum, a group that included academics, lobbyists, tech companies and – crucially – a representative from the BBC. This was Jessica Cecil, founder of the Trusted News Initiative, a consortium that includes Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter, and which was recently accused in a Texas court of getting those companies to remove dissident views about lockdowns and vaccines.
The BBC has played down the significance of Cecil’s attendance, claiming she was there in an “observer-only capacity”. But in the context of other things we know about the Beeb’s lockdown coverage, it looks a bit suspicious. “People were suggesting eminently qualified experts as alternative voices, but in my experience not one of them was put on air,” an ex-BBC employee told the Telegraph. Other BBC journalists describe a “climate of fear” in which anyone questioning the wisdom of the lockdown policy was “openly mocked”.
When dissenting experts did slip through the net, they weren’t always given a fair hearing. In October 2020, Sunetra Gupta, one of the signatories of the anti-lockdown Great Barrington Declaration, was invited on to BBC News to talk about new lockdown measures. Yet just before she was due to go on air a producer told her not to mention the declaration. Where did that instruction come from?
In September 2020, Susan Michie, then a member of Sage and a zealous supporter of Covid restrictions, complained on Twitter that she’d been booked on to the Today programme to discuss the Great Barrington Declaration with Professor Gupta on the understanding that the scientists behind it would be portrayed as cranks. But to her irritation, Gupta was, for once, allowed to set out her stall. “I was assured that this would not be held as an even-handed debate,“ wrote Michie. Who gave her that assurance? And why were the normal impartiality rules being waived?
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger and Russell Brand have organised a conference at Central Hall, Westminster on June 22nd to discuss what they call the ‘Censorship Industrial Complex’. It’s part of an effort to create a global Freedom Alliance to tackle the international efforts to suppress dissenting opinions under the pretext of ‘protecting’ the public from ‘mis-’ and ‘disinformation’. You can purchase tickets to the event at Central Hall here.
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‘I was assured this would not be held as an even-handed debate’. Holy effing cow.
You can see how bent the BBC is when it prefers opinions from people that make statements like this.
Michie needs to be exposed as the madwoman she is.
That’s a perfect description of Michie
Ah, but ‘the science is settled’, isn’t it?
Remember, the BBC is a taxpayer funded religious movement with doctrines (covidism, greenism, globalism, wokism) and apostles (Attenborough, Cox, Bowen et al).
Toby in danger of apostasy here.
Multi-millionaire communist Susan Michie needs to end her life in a prison cell.
The BBC’s propaganda gimp in chief Marianna Spring even handedly and politely destroyed by Darren Nesbit of the Light Paper..
https://rumble.com/v2phe1y-marianna-in-conspiracyland-full-unedited-interview-with-darren-nesbit-edito.html
Gawd! I’d never heard her voice before that interview (I’ll watch the full video later) but I had imagined exactly how she’d talk and it was spot on. The BBC churn out robots!
“Among the content flagged by the censors were criticisms of the Government’s decision to close schools by Molly Kingsley, the co-founder of a children’s campaign group.”
What’s all this about? Is there a reason why Toby has chosen not to give Molly Kingsley’s exceedingly worthy campaign group a deserved name check?
For the record Molly Kingsley was a co-founder of ‘Us for Them.’
BioNTech has some court cases which commenced this week. Anything they do pay out in compensation to the vax injured will just be pocket change to them anyway and they will carry on as usual, but I don’t even foresee it coming to that. The crux of the matter is proving causation and this is what it all hinges on. I think there’s too much riding on the denial of any wrongdoing or proving of harms caused by their products because, if this happened, the entire mRNA house of cards vax industry would come tumbling down and that is inconceivable. Especially for such a lucrative business model and tech that is still in its infancy.
”Pharmaceuticals producer BioNTech is facing compensation claims in Germany after two law firms claimed clients suffered lasting health problems as a result of the company’s coronavirus jab.
BioNTech, which is based in Mainz, entered court this week in its first German hearing.
The case has been brought against the German biotechnology company on behalf of a middle-aged medical worker.
A woman is seeking €150,000 in damages after suffering from heart arrhythmia and brain fog following her vaccination.
BioNTech said: “Continuous monitoring of the vaccine’s safety profile and after more than 2.6 billion doses of [the Covid-19 jab] administered worldwide has to date not identified potential side effects other than those already listed in the respective product information.”
The pharmaceutical company also warned the Hamburg case demonstrated a failure from the plaintiff and lawyers to highlight a “causal relationship between the adverse events and the vaccine”.
https://www.gbnews.com/health/covid-vaccine-germany-biontech-lawsuits-latest-news
”…has to date not identified potential side effects other than those already listed in the respective product information.”
Think Jessica Rose would beg to differ. She’s also been analyzing this paper of Pfizer’s which I previously shared, which is a report of the cumulative adverse effects of the jabs from roll-out until June 2022 ( so what are those stats looking like now? ) and amounts to just shy of 5 million, bearing in mind the known under-reporting factor so tip of the iceberg here. Seriously, at what point is *causation* ever going to be proven, because that is one hell of a lot of coincidences?? They’re being enabled to carry on committing crimes with impunity!
https://twitter.com/JesslovesMJK/status/1669324514679988224
To quote one of my patient’s as I did at Isablel Oakshott’s evening with Toby:’I knew it was Bell’s Palsy because my schoolfriend down the street also had it.’
She was 19 and had to tape here eyelids shut at night to prevent dry eye, secondary infection and the loss of the eye.
At 19 she never needed the Pfizer vaccine, but she was pushed into it by our evil leaders in government and public health.
I thought they’d been given a ‘get out of jail free’ card built into their contracts to supply the jabs? Sure it might dent what reputation Biontech have but I’d bet the directors have diversified their shareholdings. They can quit rich tomorrow.
I wouldn’t worry. People are leaving the BBC in droves and ignoring most government diktats.
Suggest you watch Tucker Carlson on his Twitter broadcast (can watch it without the app) The truth is refreshing
Can you give me a link please?
Good luck to Matt, Michael and Russell. I hope others in the “free speech” corner join them.
The Globalists’ propagandists, particularly the BBC, need a real fight.