Saturday 2 November 2019

Nick says he's not done anything wrong


One for fans of 'offence archaeology' 

The Spectator has granted Nick Robinson a 'right to reply' piece  headlined "I didn't 'ambush Douglas Murray" after Douglas Murray had strongly criticised him there. The top comment below Nick's piece reflects my reaction, so I'll simply quote it: 
Actually you did, and why do you not address Douglas’ point about how you failed to quote the previous statements made by his co interviewee? 
That was the nub of my complaint to the BBC about it, which I'll repost here:  
I wish to complain about Nick Robinson's lack of even-handedness during his interview with Douglas Murray and Kehinde Andrews. The whole thing reeked of a one-sided ambush, with Nick Robinson not only bringing up one of Mr Murray's past 'controversial' statements in the middle of the interview but browbeating him again with the same thing at the end of the interview - and, even worse, then giving himself (Nick Robinson) the final, sarcastic word - and, thus, victory over Mr Murray. This was awful, unfair interviewing, made worse by the fact that many, if not most, people would say that Kehinde Andrews is by far the more inflammatory and controversial figure - especially in terms of past 'controversial' comments. But Nick didn't bring up any of Mr Andrews's past 'controversial' statements. Why not? Surely, Nick should also have raised at least of those inflammatory opinions with Mr Andrews, if only to appear even-handed? Please remind Nick Robinson of the need to ensure that rigorous questioning of 'controversial' views does not lead to a perceived lack of impartiality because the lack of impartiality here was blatant and very easy to perceive.

3 comments:

  1. Nick likes the 'If I say so that makes so, so' approach a lot, which struggles outside of BBC platform control.

    Rob likes the 'I'll tackle this one obsessively and hope no one notices I am not answering the calm, legitimate concerns'.

    Both are despicable, but Nick's digs deeper and Rob's does see most fade away, sadly.

    So, Nick is a tool; don't be like Nick.

    Or Rob, but for different reasons.

    (Lucky I copied first - looks like my cache runneth'd over after just two posts)

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  2. Put another nickel in, in the Nicko-gawdeezon...and you get the same old record...complaints from both sides, duty to test claims robustly, impartiality over time, objective journalism, combatting extremism...Couldn't read the Robinson Crucified article but did I need to? The fact is he went after one guest - the whose views are far less race-bound and inflammatory than the other guest - using a classic BBC quote-ambush.

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    Replies
    1. It was short and not at all sweet. He blamed Douglas Murray.

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