Both Forrest Gump and Philadelphia - the films which have won Tom Hanks his successive Oscars - are suffused with an assumption of liberal isolationism, an assumption predicated on the belief that the agonies and the ecstasies of America must be universally applicable.Occasionally, supplicants at the feet of Oscar go too far and expose the underlying reality. This does not mean Oscar winners are not talented, but they are not necessarily html so. Far more html important is the requirement that they fit into the view Hollywood has of itself - fun, positive, idealistic, profitable and, somehow, vaguely connected to a higher, "artistic" ideal. Winners are expected to show a decent humility. They must zhzl appear startled, grateful, and they must smile and grow emotional at the appropriate zhzl moment - they must, in short, display html all the desirable attributes of the ideal game-show contestant.And the films that win must, increasingly these days, pay homage to html a package of zhzl highly parochial American concerns, concerns that make Hollywood feel good about itself. If they were, then html not only Nigel Hawthorne but also dozens of other zhzl British actors, though not directors, would be winners. There are good, often great, American actors, but there zhzl are at least as many good or better British ones. In reality, the pompously entitled "Academy Awards" are a celebration of Hollywood and its continuing domination of the world film market.
The Oscars are not really about talent. It is about time it was more clearly recognised that, as far as public perceptions are concerned, any problem with BBC bias is of the opposite slant.Yours sincerely,PETER AYTONDepartment of PsychologySchool of Social SciencesCity UniversityLondon, EC127 March. That this is an avoidable problem for broadcasting organisations is demonstrated by the fact that the same surveys show far fewer people perceive political bias on ITV; the most recent reports that 7 per cent see a pro-Labour bias, while just 5 per cent see a pro-Tory bias.Throughout its history, the BBC has been accused by the right of bias to the left - imagine the prominence the Conservatives would give to public opinion research if only it was consistent with their thesis. None the less, even perceived bias is a serious problem for any news organisation claiming to be authoritative and impartial. One study, surveying opinion shortly before and after Norman Tebbit's prominent 1986 accusations of BBC bias, showed that government criticisms seemed to have the effect of reducing the numbers of people who think the BBC is biased to the right, while the numbers believing it biased to the left remained constant.Of course, subjective perceptions of bias do not prove that the programmes are biased - which is why any serious claims of political bias must be justified by rigorous methodology. A study shortly to be published shows that more than three times as many people perceive a pro-Tory bias (22 per cent) as a pro-Labour bias (6 per cent) on BBC1.The numbers seeing pro-Tory bias grew during the Thatcher years, but the same predominantly pro-Tory pattern has consistently been found ever since these annual surveys were started, when Labour was in office, in 1975; thus one suggestion, that the public feels that the BBC is biased in favour of the government of the day, does not explain the findings.Government criticisms may improve the BBC's reputation for impartiality.
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From Dr Peter Ayton Sir: As Conservative ministers are once again claiming that the BBC is biased against them ("BBC braced for new allegations of bias from Conservatives", 27 March), it is interesting to consider the results of audience research which shows that the public disagrees with them. Every year the annual survey on public perceptions of broadcasting bias published by the IBA (now taken over by the Independent Television Commission) reports that most people do not see any political bias but, of those that do, substantially more people believe that the BBC is biased in favour of the Conservatives than believe it is in favour of the Labour or the Liberal Democrats. Yes, it can just look nice, if that is what people want. There can be no argument with those educated individuals who are able to elucidate the more esoteric aspects of anything purporting to be a work of art (open to endless debate as always), but if that is the only way in which they believe art can be appreciated, they are excluding a staggering number of potential art lovers, and indeed artists, from joining in.Yours faithfully,ADAM JOHNSTON(undergraduate)University of WarwickCoventry27 March. The type of language and terminology that Ms Wilkinson employs in order to conduct her defence is typical of that intellectual lite which refuses to acknowledge that art must have a meaning for all those who desire to appreciate it, even if it is only on a purely aesthetic level. Why threaten Turkey with it, why say things like: "Let Britain defend the Kurds"? It is not the Kurds Turkey is fighting, it is the PKK Turkey is fighting.Heather Clarke (letter, 24 March) writes that "last week Turkish police shot dead 28 members of the non-conformist Alevi sect" in Istanbul There have been killings, but the number is under 12. I am not justifying what the Turkish police did, but the police were in a fight with the protesters.I cannot understand how people in the UK can talk about what is going in Turkey while they easily forgot what was going on in Northern Ireland.