Wednesday 16 November 2016

Going pear-shaped


I drive to work yesterday morning yesterday morning listening to Norman Smith hyperventilating on Today about a leaked memo from an unknown consultant that had been prepared for the cabinet office and which was absolutely devastating about the government's readiness for Brexit. The BBC had "seen" the memo, which had been 'leaked' (or given) to the Times, and was leading with the story. By the afternoon, however, the story had fallen apart with Deloitte issuing a statement:


It turned out to be purely a point of view from a company that had opposed Brexit making a pitch to the government. As Andrew Neil tweeted, sarcastically:


The BBC, following the lead of the Times, had got it wrong. Don't they bother checking stories any more?

10 comments:

  1. During the lunchtime BBC news yesterday, this 'leaked memo' was seized upon by Norman Smith, who couldn't contain his excitement as he told us about splits in the cabinet and how deeply damaging it was to Mrs May's Brexit pledge etc etc.

    By the time Smith was in full flow, it was clear to all that this memo had not been commissioned by the Government, but by someone or some group intent on causing embarrassment to Mrs May and the Brexit negotiators - and yet, the BBC news bulletin carried on regardless just as if it had been true. But Hey! Since when did the truth matter?

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    1. Does Norman Smith write his own material? If so, his journalistic abilities should be questioned. If he doesn't write what he reads out, where is his integrity when he seems to repeat untruths.

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  2. There was another bit of anti-Brexit hysteria that pulled me up listening to the Today program. The female anchor blamed the recent increase on inflation to 1.2% on Brexit (of course everything bad is always to do with Brexit and nothing else), but then went on to plainly try to spread alarm by adding "and it's only a fraction of what it's going be".

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  3. The BBC is now officially a fake news agency: from misascribed memos, to bovine acceptance of clearly distorted polls, to invented race riots, to non-existent hate crimes, and finally to unrealised economic armageddon.

    When exactly it left planet earth and went into PC orbit is an interesting question. The left-liberal bias has always been there of course, but I would say it was probably around 1990 it broke free of earth's gravity. It now has very little to do with what actually happens on our soil.

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    1. During the Royal Festival of Remembrance broadcast by the BBC last weekend, I noticed that PC Huw Edwards was scripted to preface one of the traditional hymns with the word 'patriotic'. Will this become a standard procedure such as 'this item contains flash photography'?

      How about 'Some viewers may be distressed by the patriotic nature of the following item'?

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    2. "This drama contains scenes of patriotism and Eurocentric cultural practices". X Rated!

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  4. As usual no apology for getting it wrong - it was other people and then the irony of going big on Google's meaures against 'fake news'.
    They have no shame.

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  5. Don't they bother checking stories any more?

    Only when it's an Islamic terrorist attack or an unfortunately-timed Jimmy Savile investigation.

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  6. Norman Smith seems to provide the same function as William Joyce. Keep him

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    1. OK, for the time being. Now, whatever happened to Mr Joyce...?

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