The BBC is biased towards right-wing politics, with much of its output manipulated by government sources, researchers have found.
The findings, revealed last year by academics from Cardiff University found that other broadcasters, such as ITV and Channel 4, drew on academic and scientific sources, while the BBC relied more heavily on official lines from Westminster and contributions from business sources.
A row has broken out over the BBC Trust's lack of response to the findings. The BBC Trust is led by former Tory MP Chris Patten, and is charged with overseeing the work of the state broadcaster and responding to viewers' complaints.
Professor Justin Lewis of Cardiff University has expressed disappointment at the playing down of the findings by the Trust and will continue to pursue a written report on the matter.
The BBC has repeatedly attracted criticism of its right-wing output on social media since the election of the right-wing coalition government in the UK in 2010, which lies in contrast to its past reputation (correctly or incorrectly) of bias in the opposite direction.
The findings will be unsurprising to those who watch current affairs programming on the BBC. Previous BBC Director General, Mark Thompson, and Sunday morning stalwart Andrew Marr had both previously complained about times they felt BBC output sat too close to the left.
Many viewers of BBC News are also aware of Political Editor Nick Robinson's past as Chair of the Young Conservatives. Andrew Neil, the BBC's most omnipresent of figures in the corporation's political programming, is a major figure of the economic right.
Bias of BBC output is thought to be only partially related to the political persuasions of their main protagonists though. An article on this issue published today at The Independent explains how dependency on the government to secure a sizeable share of the licence fee for funding represents a major threat to impartiality.
In short, the BBC is a "Public Service Broadcaster" in name only - the need to appease the government effectively renders the BBC a state broadcaster.
A summary of Professor Lewis's view and some statistical comparisons with ITV and Channel 4 can be found in this article by Ian Burrell of The Independent.
