The Noble Liar

Fully updated Mass Market Paperback edition of the bestselling polemic about perceived media bias

To some, it is the voice of the nation, yet to others it has never been clearer that the BBC is in the grip of an ideology that prevents it from reporting fairly on the world. Many have been scandalised by its pessimism on Brexit and its one-sided presentation of the Trump presidency, whilst simultaneously amused by its outrage over 'fake news'.

Robin Aitken, who himself spent twenty-five years working for the BBC as a reporter and executive, argues that the Corporation needs to be reminded that what is 'fake' rather depends on where one is standing. From where his feet are planted, the BBC's own coverage of events often looks decidedly peculiar, peppered with distortions, omissions, and amplifications tailored to its own liberal agenda.

This punchy polemic galvanises the debate over how our licence-fee money is spent, and asks whether the BBC is a fair arbiter of the news, or whether it is a conduit for pervasive and institutional liberal left-wing bias.

Bias in the news is dismally, but brilliantly, adumbrated in a new book by Robin Aitken, a BBC staffer for more than twenty-five years. Aitken, sick to the back teeth of the partisan nature of the Corporation's news coverage, concludes that the BBC has "whether through carelessness or hubris" given up any pretence of impartiality, preferring instead to promulgate its philosophically asinine world view. – Sunday Times