Bias and ideology at the BBC

The BBC is in some trouble for interviewing Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Front in France. People (!) have complained that she should not be offered a platform. An article today in the Graun says the BBC has always favoured right-wing pro-business spokespersons, ever since its own problems with Mrs Thatcher and its own corporatization.

In particular Mills argues that:

Research by Cardiff University found that the two sides of the official [Referendum] campaign were evenly represented in TV news... But overall the voices of the right dominated, with the Conservatives and Ukip making up almost 80% of political sources. Loughborough University’s research produced similar findings, while the Cardiff researchers found that statistical claims made by campaigners were challenged in fewer than one in five cases.

How is this reconcilable with my own views that the BBC displayed a relentless socially liberal stance in favour of Remain? 

Could be I'm wrong. Could be that even a preponderance of Conservative and UKIP people did not dent the liberal ideology. Were the Conservatives pro-Brexit or pro-Remain as well as 'right wing'? What if the BBC made Brexiteers look foolish or misguided or just marginal? Earlier work by Glasgow University famously showed there were lots of ways to devalue a spokesperson even while allocating  a 'balanced' amount of time -- and this blog offers some examples: interviewers interrupt, bully amateurs, cut people off, demand answers to silly questions, get angry and so on.

Meanwhile, Guardina letter-writers and their cultural politics continue to amuse. My favourite is not on the website yet but it says: 

...we should seek inspiration from the recent past. The "You say you want a revolution?" exhibition at the V&A museum charts the exhilarating optimism of the late 1960s, when people tried to create a better world through music, fashion and positive social change. We must work to restore that spirit of hope.