Harry's Place: "Diary of a BBC complainant"

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I think the main sign that the BBC is doing a good job is that both the left and the right think it is biased towards the other side.
This is even the case within the Israel-Palestine conflict. A report in 2004 by Quentin Thomas concluded that the BBC had a pro-Israel bias. In 2009, they received criticism for not broadcasting appeals for aid for Palestine. In 2011, they were criticised for censoring the word "Palestine" out of a song.

The BBC has some programs with left-wing biases, like HIGNFY? (though Hislop and Merton take shots at all parties and the guests seem to me to generally be right wing), and it has some that are very right wing, like Sunday Morning Live.

His point is that the complaints process seems deliberately designed to shield the BBC from criticism. HP is a left-wing blog that is supportive of Israel. Many of their contributors are from Labour, the U.S. Democrats or are officially apolitical. The commenters are a mixture of left-wing, centrist and right-wing.

Not really - the right in general wants to see it be at least be objective and honest (so it should report with equal merit - see the BBC Watch blogs to give an idea where they fall down on Israel - like for example grilling Israeli speakers then allowing even quite bigoted pro-Palestinian zealots a free ride), the left seems to want it pushed further and further leftwards.

It's interesting to note where the BBC recruit their staff and what newspapers BBC staff read (hint: it's heavily slanted towards the Guardian and Independent, two newspapers that are fairly unpopular with the public at large).

Frankly, I rarely watch the BBC any more. Half of the reporting seems to either come straight from press release or has a biased spin to it, rarely giving the other side opportunity to make its case heard.

I'd rather that a good bulk of the BBC was privatised, with only those parts of the Corporation that can't really be catered to on a private basis remaining.

That doesn't answer my point at all.

Both left wingers and right wingers, and people on both sides of Israel-Palestine, think it is biased in favour of the other side, and can provide examples of that "systematic bias". The left can point to the ridiculous amount of airtime they give Farage (even before UKIP's recent surge) compared to Lucas, the right point to its political correctness, both sides say it is biased about benefits. Even if I accept your bizarre claim that only right-wingers want the BBC to be fair, objective and honest, you didn't really respond to my point.

I don't think it is surprising that a quality news purveyor has journalists who disproportionately read quality newspapers. As for the alleged lack of Times and Telegraph readers (I doubt interviewers quiz potential recruits as to what they read and I doubt the BBC keeps statistics), have you ever heard the phrase "if you only read one newspaper, read the other side"?