BS: BBC Censorship

Subject: BS: BBC Censorship
From: GUEST,eric the red
Date: 04 May 05 - 08:44 AM

I see from the BBC radio 2 folk and acoustic message board that ALL political threads and messages will be banned tomorrow, General Election poling day May 5th.

This seems to be a stupid unecessary bit of interference with free speech, typical of the BBCs heads up arses political correctness.

eric

Subject: RE: BS: BBC Censorship
From: wysiwyg
Date: 04 May 05 - 09:30 AM

There is time for Shambles to change their minds, if he gets right on it.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: BBC Censorship
From: manitas_at_work
Date: 04 May 05 - 09:52 AM

It's probably to avoid the BBC being accused of political bias, ha ha!

Subject: RE: BS: BBC Censorship
From: GUEST
Date: 04 May 05 - 07:31 PM

All the fuckwits pontificating on hearsay as usual.

Quote cut and pasted from the BBC site:

In line with all UK broadcasters, the BBC will not be enabling election discussions while the polls are open. All discussions related to election campaign issues will be removed. Usual BBC House Rules will come into effect as soon as the polls close at 10pm on May 5th.

So not a BBC specific decision at all.

Subject: RE: BS: BBC Censorship
From: GUEST,Abe
Date: 04 May 05 - 07:37 PM

the BBC is right good an'all.

Subject: RE: BS: BBC Censorship
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 04 May 05 - 07:42 PM

Maybe the idea is to encourage people to actually go out and use/spoil their vote. (Writing a message to the candidates on your ballot paper is by far the best way of abstaining - you can be sure they'll read it, especially if it's a close vote.)

.................................
I can't see an across the board one day ban like this as real censorship; that surely implies a certain selectivity/bias on the part of the censors.

A nightmare job for them, deciding what counts as politics. On the Mudcat any thread on any subject can turn political at the drop of a hat. Which with folk music is hardly surprising.

I wonder if a Shambolic thread protesting about all this would be counted as political though? Go get'em Roger...

...............
But that message board was so clunky that I stopped using it, after a couple of visits.   Could someone stick up a link to it in this thread, to make a return visit less of a struggle with the intricacies of the BBC web presence.

Subject: RE: BS: BBC Censorship
From: Ralphie
Date: 05 May 05 - 02:57 PM

Please good people.
Let's just calm down.
All broadcasters, press, etc, have honoured the code of not commenting on political subjects during the 15 hours of voting on the day of a General Election for years and years.
Good grief....Only one day off every 4 years!!
I promise that you can all resume again in approx 2 hours time.

May the Government win.

Ralphie

Subject: RE: BS: BBC Censorship
From: Ralphie
Date: 05 May 05 - 02:59 PM

When I say Government, I didn't necessarily mean this present one...(or did I!)