Ian Hislop points out awkward questions about BBC bias while on the BBC

Alleged media bias against Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has not gone undocumented.

Both the printed press and broadcast media have been found to give significantly more time and space to anti-Corbyn and anti-Labour views than favourable voices.

• A 2016 academic report published in The Independent found that 75 per cent of print press coverage misrepresented or attacked Corbyn.
• Another 2016 report by the Media Reform Coalition, at Goldsmiths, University of London reported a “clear and consistent bias in favour of critics of Jeremy Corbyn”.
• The BBC's political editor Laura Kuenssberg and her coverage of Corbyn was the subject of a BBC Trust report in January 2017.

So when Ian Hislop, editor of current affairs magazine Private Eye posed this provocative question about BBC bias on a BBC show, it was predictably awkward:

Are there no questions about the Conservatives at all? Is that the new BBC policy?

Appearing on Have I Got New for You, which he captains, Hislop went on to joke:

I don’t want to question the superior wisdom of the BBC.

Hislop also drew attention to what he sees as differing responses to the same political move.

Regarding Theresa May's expected proposed cap on fuel price, he said:

That was a very bad idea when Ed Miliband announced it. But now they’ve announced the same thing, it’s a really good idea.

And in the old days it was interfering in the market, but now it’s… interfering in the market. But it’s a very good idea because the Tories are doing it.

Do you see the difference? If Labour do it, it’s very very bad.

If the Conservative Party do it, it’s intervening in a good sense to provide a stable, strong… strong and stable… stable.

We should remember that Hislop is a satirist, and was arguably playing with reports and complaints of anti-Corbyn bias in the media in general and the BBC in particular.

Nevertheless, he makes an important point about media bias, particularly in national broadcasters like the BBC who stake their reputation on their impartiality.

In Theresa May's own words, this is going to be 'the most important election' in her lifetime.

So it pays to call out bias and prejudicial reporting where you see it.

More: The media is 'persistently' biased against Jeremy Corbyn. Remember that

More from The Independent: Our report found that 75% of press coverage misrepresents Jeremy Corbyn – we can't ignore media bias anymore