Rightwing think tanks run this government. But first, they had to capture the BBC

Right-wing think tanks run this government. But first, they had to capture the BBC Why are representatives of these shadily funded groups treated as impartial observers on flagship news programmes? ideas by the dark money think tanks, believed their assurances that the magic of an unregulated market and tax cuts for the very rich would trigger an economic boom. At one point, the BBC said it wasn’t necessary to tell the audience that an MP arguing against climate action was the director of an oil company because he had declared this interest elsewhere. These groups are being called upon by the BBC to comment on the performance of this government as if they are impartial observers, rather than the authors of its policies. The BBC’s chair is Richard Sharp. Much has been made of Sharp’s donations to the Conservative party. But his relationship with the dark-money think-tanks concerns me even more. He was a director of the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS), a dark-money group founded by Margaret Thatcher and Keith Joseph.

The silence about the Forde report reminds me of the long refusal of the mainstream British media to engage with the phone hacking scandal involving criminality across large sections of the British media more than a decade ago.