Ben Ansell
@benansell.bsky.social
Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions, Nuffield & University of Oxford, FBA. http://benansell.substack.com. BBC Reith Lecturer 2023. Host BBC Radio 4 Rethink. Columnist for Prospect. Director, Centre for Advanced Social Science Methods (CASSM).
Reposted by Ben Ansell
Michael Prescott's report makes vital points about the importance of being accurate, and also how difficult that is. For instance, he describes himself as having been Political Editor of the Sunday Times for 10 years, which is not what the Guardian reported when he left the job.
November 10, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Michael Prescott's report makes vital points about the importance of being accurate, and also how difficult that is. For instance, he describes himself as having been Political Editor of the Sunday Times for 10 years, which is not what the Guardian reported when he left the job.
Reposted by Ben Ansell
The fact that the BBC has made serious culpable errors does not negate the point that there is a real and concerted right-wing media campaign to destroy it. Both points can be true at the same time and the campaign would not end even if the errors did.
November 10, 2025 at 1:08 PM
The fact that the BBC has made serious culpable errors does not negate the point that there is a real and concerted right-wing media campaign to destroy it. Both points can be true at the same time and the campaign would not end even if the errors did.
Reposted by Ben Ansell
We've just updated this piece on what academic research says about the BBC's role in the UK
So many datapoints relevant to this week's discussions. Perhaps of interest @benansell.bsky.social @stephenkb.bsky.social @michaelsavage.bsky.social
reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/bbc-und...
So many datapoints relevant to this week's discussions. Perhaps of interest @benansell.bsky.social @stephenkb.bsky.social @michaelsavage.bsky.social
reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/bbc-und...
The BBC is under scrutiny. Here’s what research tells about its role in the UK
The BBC is the most widely used source of news in the UK. It has lower reach among the young and the less formally educated.
reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk
November 10, 2025 at 11:41 AM
We've just updated this piece on what academic research says about the BBC's role in the UK
So many datapoints relevant to this week's discussions. Perhaps of interest @benansell.bsky.social @stephenkb.bsky.social @michaelsavage.bsky.social
reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/bbc-und...
So many datapoints relevant to this week's discussions. Perhaps of interest @benansell.bsky.social @stephenkb.bsky.social @michaelsavage.bsky.social
reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/bbc-und...
I do slightly wonder how prepared Robbie Gibb was for this to now become Robbie Gibb week rather than Tim Davie week.
November 10, 2025 at 11:38 AM
I do slightly wonder how prepared Robbie Gibb was for this to now become Robbie Gibb week rather than Tim Davie week.
Reposted by Ben Ansell
It's crazy how much the answer to a simple question like 'how confident are American consumers feeling about their current situation?' varies depending on how you measure the concept.
Conference Board: "Not as good as a year ago, but still above average."
University of Michigan: "WORST EVER!"
Conference Board: "Not as good as a year ago, but still above average."
University of Michigan: "WORST EVER!"
November 10, 2025 at 11:27 AM
It's crazy how much the answer to a simple question like 'how confident are American consumers feeling about their current situation?' varies depending on how you measure the concept.
Conference Board: "Not as good as a year ago, but still above average."
University of Michigan: "WORST EVER!"
Conference Board: "Not as good as a year ago, but still above average."
University of Michigan: "WORST EVER!"
Reposted by Ben Ansell
The BBC: quite a big deal.
November 10, 2025 at 10:36 AM
The BBC: quite a big deal.
Going to enjoy how the BBC tries to cover this today!
November 10, 2025 at 11:16 AM
Going to enjoy how the BBC tries to cover this today!
Reposted by Ben Ansell
Robbie Gibb once suggested that reporters should reflect if they were getting more retweets from one side than the other - a braindead analysis that ignores that fair and impartial reporting of education might get more Tory retweets than say, criminal justice.
Stephen really does have the best take on this. It’s not clear that the BBC Board or indeed the rest of the News team really understood the message of the previous reviews, which were about getting detail right. Instead they wanted to know what was ‘biased’ or not like they were blotting out stains.
The impossible dream some people on the British right are chasing is that you can have a BBC News operation that retreats from detail and expertise, that takes dictation from the government, but this will only create incompetence and failure when it suits you:
November 10, 2025 at 10:39 AM
Robbie Gibb once suggested that reporters should reflect if they were getting more retweets from one side than the other - a braindead analysis that ignores that fair and impartial reporting of education might get more Tory retweets than say, criminal justice.
Stephen really does have the best take on this. It’s not clear that the BBC Board or indeed the rest of the News team really understood the message of the previous reviews, which were about getting detail right. Instead they wanted to know what was ‘biased’ or not like they were blotting out stains.
The impossible dream some people on the British right are chasing is that you can have a BBC News operation that retreats from detail and expertise, that takes dictation from the government, but this will only create incompetence and failure when it suits you:
To fix the BBC, focus on competence and cash
Corporation fails to learn from criticism, while politicians have consciously reduced its scope for quality journalism
www.ft.com
November 10, 2025 at 10:20 AM
Stephen really does have the best take on this. It’s not clear that the BBC Board or indeed the rest of the News team really understood the message of the previous reviews, which were about getting detail right. Instead they wanted to know what was ‘biased’ or not like they were blotting out stains.
Reposted by Ben Ansell
The BBC will fuck things up from time to time. Lots of major news organisations do; just look at The Times having to memoryhole several fake news stories in a matter of weeks.
No one is calling for the abolition of The Times, however.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
No one is calling for the abolition of The Times, however.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
UK newspaper editor calls Bill de Blasio fake interview blunder ‘humiliating’
A Times associate editor reportedly addressed situation in an email to staff, saying: ‘We should have been on our guard’
www.theguardian.com
November 10, 2025 at 9:53 AM
The BBC will fuck things up from time to time. Lots of major news organisations do; just look at The Times having to memoryhole several fake news stories in a matter of weeks.
No one is calling for the abolition of The Times, however.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
No one is calling for the abolition of The Times, however.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Reposted by Ben Ansell
The impossible dream some people on the British right are chasing is that you can have a BBC News operation that retreats from detail and expertise, that takes dictation from the government, but this will only create incompetence and failure when it suits you:
To fix the BBC, focus on competence and cash
Corporation fails to learn from criticism, while politicians have consciously reduced its scope for quality journalism
www.ft.com
November 10, 2025 at 10:01 AM
The impossible dream some people on the British right are chasing is that you can have a BBC News operation that retreats from detail and expertise, that takes dictation from the government, but this will only create incompetence and failure when it suits you:
Reposted by Ben Ansell
Nick Robinson closed the Today programme emphasising that the BBC Board is *still* fighting over the wording of a statement over the Panorama programme.
it is very strange that BBC chair Samir Shah is hiding this morning. He should by rights be on the Today programme presenting himself as in charge and hands on the tiller. I wonder if he is frightened for his position
November 10, 2025 at 9:02 AM
Nick Robinson closed the Today programme emphasising that the BBC Board is *still* fighting over the wording of a statement over the Panorama programme.
Reposted by Ben Ansell
"The problem isn’t that we have a deliberately biased BBC, it’s that we have a BBC that has been consciously reduced in its scope and bullied into dumbing down and retreating." @stephenkb.bsky.social's newsletter today
November 10, 2025 at 9:40 AM
"The problem isn’t that we have a deliberately biased BBC, it’s that we have a BBC that has been consciously reduced in its scope and bullied into dumbing down and retreating." @stephenkb.bsky.social's newsletter today
Reposted by Ben Ansell
Shocking article in the Sheffield Tribune. A solicitor, Andrew Milne, buying up freeholds of houses and then making (false) threats to the leaseholders to bully them into buying the freehold at a huge premium.
November 7, 2025 at 9:39 AM
Shocking article in the Sheffield Tribune. A solicitor, Andrew Milne, buying up freeholds of houses and then making (false) threats to the leaseholders to bully them into buying the freehold at a huge premium.
Reposted by Ben Ansell
www.sheffieldtribune.co.uk/sometimes-it... I wrote last week about two villains and one hero in the battle between truth and lies. Well here’s another hero - the Sheffield Tribune, one of the Mill stable of independent news sites, had the courage to publish an important story despite legal threats..
Sometimes it’s worth the risk
“We will definitely bring proceedings for Defamation and Malicious Falsehood if you publish such complete and malicious lies.”
www.sheffieldtribune.co.uk
November 9, 2025 at 9:22 AM
www.sheffieldtribune.co.uk/sometimes-it... I wrote last week about two villains and one hero in the battle between truth and lies. Well here’s another hero - the Sheffield Tribune, one of the Mill stable of independent news sites, had the courage to publish an important story despite legal threats..
Reposted by Ben Ansell
I agree with @arusbridger.bsky.social about BBC governance. Although v hesitant about another rearrangement, the single corporate-style board is massively flawed, not least because there needs to be some distance for the governors/board members from editorial decisions
Michael Prescott and Sir Robbie Gibb both bailed out of journalism years ago, and enjoy lucrative careers in corporate PR. And now they are the arbiters of BBC editorial standards. Go figure www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/media/...
The BBC has bigger impartiality problems than its coverage of Trump
It is the BBC’s entire governance structure–rather than individual stories–that should cause most concern
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 7:46 AM
I agree with @arusbridger.bsky.social about BBC governance. Although v hesitant about another rearrangement, the single corporate-style board is massively flawed, not least because there needs to be some distance for the governors/board members from editorial decisions
My dream may be alive!
It’s like Robbie Gibb showing up at Black Country New Road gig to tell people they aren’t sufficiently concerned about small boats.
November 10, 2025 at 7:55 AM
My dream may be alive!
Re the BBC, 'only nineties kids will remember' the DG post, pre Tony-Hall, was a hiding to nothing. John Birt was constantly criticised, Greg Dyke resigned over Hutton, poor George Entwistle only lasted 54 days! Mark Thompson was the great survivor but look at his Wiki (Brand, Savile, Nick Griffin).
November 10, 2025 at 7:49 AM
Re the BBC, 'only nineties kids will remember' the DG post, pre Tony-Hall, was a hiding to nothing. John Birt was constantly criticised, Greg Dyke resigned over Hutton, poor George Entwistle only lasted 54 days! Mark Thompson was the great survivor but look at his Wiki (Brand, Savile, Nick Griffin).
Reposted by Ben Ansell
The BBC really is facing some trust issues, as our surveys of over 11,000 people reveal.
www.trusttracker.org/pb_main.php?...
www.trusttracker.org/pb_main.php?...
November 9, 2025 at 10:04 PM
The BBC really is facing some trust issues, as our surveys of over 11,000 people reveal.
www.trusttracker.org/pb_main.php?...
www.trusttracker.org/pb_main.php?...
Reposted by Ben Ansell
It’s easy to see why Trump wants to destroy the world’s number one news source. We can’t let him.
The BBC belongs to all of us here in the UK.
The Prime Minister and leaders from across the political spectrum should be united in telling Trump to keep his hands off it.
The BBC belongs to all of us here in the UK.
The Prime Minister and leaders from across the political spectrum should be united in telling Trump to keep his hands off it.
November 9, 2025 at 9:45 PM
It’s easy to see why Trump wants to destroy the world’s number one news source. We can’t let him.
The BBC belongs to all of us here in the UK.
The Prime Minister and leaders from across the political spectrum should be united in telling Trump to keep his hands off it.
The BBC belongs to all of us here in the UK.
The Prime Minister and leaders from across the political spectrum should be united in telling Trump to keep his hands off it.
Reposted by Ben Ansell
Huh? How do you do a "balancing" program when one candidate did an insurgency trying to overturn the election and the other...didn't?
Would Prescott have been satisfied with an hour of people telling BBC journalists why they didn't try and stoke a riot to overturn Trump's second win?
Would Prescott have been satisfied with an hour of people telling BBC journalists why they didn't try and stoke a riot to overturn Trump's second win?
Michael Prescott was ‘“shocked” that after an hour-long Panorama documentary dealing with Trump and the January 6 insurgency, there was no “similar, balancing” programme about Kamala Harris.’
More read about the machinations between the BBC resignations, the more worrying it becomes
More read about the machinations between the BBC resignations, the more worrying it becomes
The departure of Tim Davie and Deborah Turness means the BBC is leaderless when it needs leadership more than ever. Where are the people at the head of the BBC standing up for it?
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
November 9, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Huh? How do you do a "balancing" program when one candidate did an insurgency trying to overturn the election and the other...didn't?
Would Prescott have been satisfied with an hour of people telling BBC journalists why they didn't try and stoke a riot to overturn Trump's second win?
Would Prescott have been satisfied with an hour of people telling BBC journalists why they didn't try and stoke a riot to overturn Trump's second win?
Reposted by Ben Ansell
Here’s video of federal agents doing a drive by pepper spraying that hit a father and his one-year old on Saturday when the Feds were hitting Little Village and Cicero
November 9, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Here’s video of federal agents doing a drive by pepper spraying that hit a father and his one-year old on Saturday when the Feds were hitting Little Village and Cicero
One exciting thing about the BBC Board is it is one of the few places where each constituent kingdom of the UK gets an equal vote - power-sharing in action! Oh, and residents of England? Your representative is Sir Robbie Gibb <ducks for cover>
Seeing so many posts about who “Starmer and Nandy” will appoint as director general. Easy mistake but the government does not appoint the director general! The BBC board, whose members are appointed for rolling terms by the culture secretary, appoints the director general.
November 9, 2025 at 9:21 PM
One exciting thing about the BBC Board is it is one of the few places where each constituent kingdom of the UK gets an equal vote - power-sharing in action! Oh, and residents of England? Your representative is Sir Robbie Gibb <ducks for cover>
Reposted by Ben Ansell
Seeing so many posts about who “Starmer and Nandy” will appoint as director general. Easy mistake but the government does not appoint the director general! The BBC board, whose members are appointed for rolling terms by the culture secretary, appoints the director general.
November 9, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Seeing so many posts about who “Starmer and Nandy” will appoint as director general. Easy mistake but the government does not appoint the director general! The BBC board, whose members are appointed for rolling terms by the culture secretary, appoints the director general.