Brexit Facts4eu.org "Brexit Battle Pack" - Part 7:

Putting Theory Into Practice - Second Compartment: Tools for contacting the media

Toolbox

Table of Contents: Brexit Battle Pack

PLEASE NOTE: This action pack was written in 2018 but the same principles apply today. To see the latest factsheets which you may wish to incorporate, please click here.

Contacting the broadcast media and combatting the bias

The BBC, Sky and ITN constantly protest that they are free of bias regarding Brexit. We find this laughable based on our monitoring of their output on TV and online.

Formal surveys which have been carried out on major BBC political programmes have found an overwhelming bias in favour of guests who are anti-Brexit, or who voted Remain.

It is our opinion that the BBC (and most other broadcast media organisations) are full of Remain supporters. We also observe that the vast majority of presenters clearly have very little knowledge of the EU, nor the issues surrounding Brexit. An obvious exception at the BBC is Mr Andrew Neil, who is the master of his art.

Just one small indicator of the BBC’s bias

You only have to look at the newspapers bought by the BBC. The Remainiac Guardian represents only 2.9% of the circulation of the main 9 daily newspapers sold in the UK. Yet it is the second-most bought newspaper by the BBC. Pro-rata the BBC buys more than five times as many copies as are bought by the public.

The newspaper bought most by the BBC is the Times, which also came out for Remain in the Referendum. [Sources: Official ABC circulation statistics 2018, and Freedom of Information request to the BBC in July 2017.]

Complain loud and often, but keep it simple

As with politicians, we do not propose that readers attempt to convert those who work in the broadcast media. However we do propose that you may want to let them know just how much you disapprove of their work. If nothing else, this will make them think and might even make a difference to their output.

If thousands of readers made a short (even one-line) complaint each time they saw evident anti-Brexit bias on the TV, it might make a few people sit up and take notice.

1. Complaining to the BBC

Brexit Facts4eu.org Summary - BBC Complaints

Here are some email addresses for the BBC News Channel:

  • Main studio email
  • We believe that many BBC News presenters have emails in the format firstname.lastname@bbc.co.uk

You can also contact the BBC’s Newswatch programme:

Brexit Facts4eu.Org Summary - BBC Newswatch

  • By telephone: 0370 010 6676
  • By post: Newswatch, W1 NBH 03D, BBC Broadcasting House, London W1A 1AA (This is not a misprint)
  • By email: Newswatch
  • By Twitter: www.twitter.com/newswatchbbc

You may want to read the following:-

2. Complaining to Sky News

Brexit Facts4eu.Org Summary - Complaints to Sky

We believe that many Sky News presenters have emails in the format firstname.lastname@sky.uk

You may want to read the following:-

3. Complaining to ITN

ITN powers ITV News, Channel 4 News, and 5 News.

Brexit Facts4eu.Org Summary - Complaints to ITN

Gentle Reminder

Always be polite, but firm. We strongly recommend that you don't try to convert anyone. Your complaint should simply be about what you see as evident bias in a programme, preferably immediately after you've watched it.

Killer Charts and Facts

We would love to provide you with a selection of some 'killer charts and facts' which we have researched and produced on all topics related to EU membership. Unfortunately we simply don't have the resources to put these together in a summary as we are grossly underfunded. You can of course look back through our many hundreds of articles for yourselves, to find some great material.

That said, we still think that the key message to MPs should be that they MUST respect democracy, which means the UK leaving the EU fully and properly.

Good luck, and please let us know how you get on! x

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