The book contrasts the high ideals of the BBC to ‘be seen as by far the most trusted and impartial news provider in the UK’, with the reality according to Sedgewick in which the BBC practises the ‘very dark art of brainwashing – wilful, deceitful and incessant’. He makes repeated comparisons between the BBC distortion of the news to suit its own agenda with the methods employed by the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s 1984.
Sedgewick believes that the BBC has succumbed completely to cultural Marxism, which can be summarised as the gradual process of destroying Western traditions, beliefs and culture whilst simultaneously suppressing diversity of opinion, in order to mould society into a collectivist utopia in which everyone publicly conforms to the dominant leftist political narrative. This is achieved by promoting subversive and irrational ideas under the guise of attaining social justice and greater equality. The process rarely involves reasoned argument, debate or discussion, but instead relies heavily on attacking and isolating opponents through abusive and pejorative name-calling.
The leftist ‘progressive’ group-think permeates all levels of the BBC, and employees quickly get to understand the difference between wrong-think and right-think. As one critic observed BBC staff are a ‘mass of conformists’ who adopt the BBC corporate model ‘by degrees varying from unreflecting acquiescence to the most full-blown commitment’. Anyone slow on the uptake will soon find themselves marginalised and ostracised. Another critic discovered that ‘what is most scary about the BBC is the almost complete absence of any kind of dissent.’ Sedgewick compares BBC employees to members of a cult where the ‘uncritical acceptance’ of its dogma is the ‘single most ubiquitous feature’ in which ‘even the slightest challenge to group-think will not be tolerated’.
So what constitutes BBC right-think? Some examples of the more deleterious notions currently in vogue include blind support for mass immigration from the third world regardless of the consequences; the belief that same sex attraction is always completely normal, intrinsically virtuous and thus worthy of celebration; that the feminist critique of the ‘patriarchal’ society, and the predatory nature of male heterosexuality, must always be upheld; that white society’s treatment of ethnic and religious minorities, in particular Muslims, is invariably motivated by unthinking base prejudice; that men who believe themselves to be women are merely making statements of fact which only the most bigoted would feel the need to question; and that the earth is on the brink of a climate emergency caused by fossil fuel emissions which only the most drastic action can avert. There are of course many more issues too numerous to mention which the BBC seeks to impose the self proclaimed rightness of its viewpoint on British society.
So how does the BBC carry out its brainwashing? It does so by repeatedly presenting as objective and impartial what in reality is an often distorted view of events. This is done by selectively presenting one side of an argument whilst ignoring or minimising any facts which might conflict with the propaganda message. The book gives a long list of topics which are subject to this process; with the aim of ensuring that right-think is always presented in a positive way, whereas wrong-think is invariably portrayed negatively. This process is repeated endlessly on a daily basis, with the ultimate result that the familiarity of the right-think message becomes subconsciously accepted as the only valid and legitimate opinion that any reasonable and fair minded person would ever want to hold.
A similar brainwashing technique is also carried out during interviews. When interviewing a wrong-thinker, he (it will disproportionately be a he) will be aggressively confronted with a comment from a speech or social media to which, after extensive trawling, the BBC takes exception. The interviewee will then be placed on the defensive, having to respond to a hostile line of questioning, deliberately intended to blacken his reputation. In contrast when the BBC interview what they deem to be a right-thinker, it will be carried out in full-on ‘amigo’ mode in which the interviewer will adopt a supportive tone, fielding sympathetic questions thus allowing the interviewee to be portrayed as either a caring enlightened individual, or alternatively someone who has been the victim of an injustice, preferably at the hands of a wrong-thinker.
Brainwashing Britain goes on to provide many more examples of the techniques the BBC uses to promote its agenda and demonise its opponents. Because of its institutionalised bias UKIP has proposed scrapping the licence fee and replacing it with a subscription service and advertising. However, this will not solve the problem. The same bias and group-think is also shown by commercial broadcasting rivals. Worst still, most of their output can only be described as degenerate, vacuous or vapid garbage, much of it laced with a heavy dose of political correctness.
At least the BBC does provide an extensive platform for political debate, despite its unremitting bias, for which the more observant can make due allowance. It also produces a much greater amount of serious and high-minded programming about history, the arts, science, current affairs and period drama, albeit subject to contamination by BBC ideology. Abolishing the licence fee risks destroying what has traditionally made the BBC unique. The only answer is for the government to appoint senior managers with the priority task of restoring the BBC’s reputation for genuine impartiality, in which all well reasoned expressions of political opinion receive equal treatment.
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