Catholic church accuses BBC of bias
Despite religious programming quotas, programmes dedicated to the propagation of religious thought, lots of planned coverage of the Pope’s state visit next week, and no explicitly humanist counter-balancing programming, Cardinal Keith O’Brien still thinks the BBC doesn’t do enough for religion.
Cardinal Keith O’Brien said the BBC’s news coverage is contaminated by “a radically secular and socially liberal mindset”.
The Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh said the corporation’s intolerance of religion is equivalent to its “massive” political bias against the Conservatives in the 1980s.
He also accused the corporation of plotting a “hatchet job” on the Vatican in a documentary aboutclerical sex abuse on the eve of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Britain.
Cardinal O’Brien believes that atheists like Professor Richard Dawkins are given a disproportionate amount of airtime while mainstream Christian views are marginalised.
The British Humanist Association campaigns for fair representation from the BBC. The BHA wants an end to the privileged status and position of religions and religious broadcasting by the BBC.
I think the Archbishop needs to check his facts, for a start Richard Dawkins tends to be on Channel 4 rather than any BBC channel!
And pray tell me what is wrong with “a radically secular and socially liberal mindset”? Why should the BBC do anything for religion other than expose the superstitions and prejudiced views that the Churches promote? Cardinal O’Brien is a fine one to talk about ‘tolerance’, considering the intolerance of the Catholic Church to any view that does not agree with its own.