Friday 24 January 2020

History in the making, despite the BBC



History in the making, despite the BBC.

The European Withdrawal Bill passed its final Parliamentary stages this week and received Royal Assent yesterday. 

As noted earlier today, BBC One's main news bulletins yesterday evening chose not to report this - extraordinarily, almost as if it were a case of sour grapes on the BBC's part.

*******

History rolls on...

Today, the European Union formally signed the Withdrawal Agreement. Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel, the leaders of the European Commission and Council respectively, with the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier poised behind them, put pen to paper this lunchtime. 

John and Arthur T on an earlier thread noted that the BBC's News at One gave made it a blink-and-you'll-miss-it minor story towards the end of the bulletin.

John timed it and found that the BBC gave it 19 seconds. I've checked it out myself and re-timed it (as I like to be thorough) and, yes, John was spot on: it was exactly 19 seconds. And it came 21 minutes into the bulletin, very thinly sandwiched between Babs Plett-Usher in Bethlehem and Martin Patience in Baghdad. 

Shouldn't it have been a lead story, maybe even the lead story, what with it marking a major moment in UK and EU history?

History in the making, despite the BBC, then. And yet more sour grapes?

*******

And late this afternoon, in the hour before BBC One's News at Six, the United Kingdom's Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, added his signature to the Withdrawal Agreement too.

Another landmark moment in history.

Was it the top story on tonight's BBC One's News at Six, as you'd expect?

Oddly not.

Nor was it among the other top stories on tonight's BBC One's News at Six. Or even among the minor stories. Or even mentioned in passing.

To cut a long story short, BBC One's main early evening news bulletin - BBC News at Six - didn't report today's historic events at all.

Not even for 19 seconds.

Extraordinary. And the sourest grapes yet?

*******

History in the making, despite the BBC.

*******

Seriously, dear reader, am I missing something (and need putting down)?

Why, other than for reasons of extreme bias, would the BBC's main evening news bulletin not be reporting this tonight?

*******

Update: And what's the BBC's  busy, Twitter-friendly 'Europe Editor' Katya Adler tweeting today?

Nothing at all relevant to this. Where is she on this?

*******

Further updateI see someone on Twitter is seeing things my way:
David Gregory: What’s happened to the BBC's Katya Adler? No news at all from Brussels? 
David Gregory: Very strange news values on BBC 6 PM TV. Long horrific rape story, infant death. Kids watching. No mention of Brexit Bill signing. No news from Brussels or France. Understand the BBC's Katya Adler has been sacked.

4 comments:

  1. I too checked the Adler Twitter line! Call me cynical but I thought she might well be studiously ignoring this event she has worked so hard to prevent.

    However, full credit, "despite Brexit" she's still pumping out the EU propaganda, with the volume knob stuck on 11 as always.

    Apparently the EU will be "tough" in negotiations.

    Last time she was spouting this line, they went back on their firm assertion that the WA could not be renegotiated.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sour grapes, living in denial, spite?

    Who knows what's going through the minds of the Beeboids, but there can be no doubt whatsoever that this is deliberate exclusion rather than a considered and reasonable assessment of the top news stories of the day.

    The BBC have been obsessed with the big, the small, the misleading and the minutiae of our exit from the EU for years, at least while they thought there was a serious possibility of mitigating or even wholly overturning the referendum result.

    Remember their 'Brexit, Brexit, Brexit, Brexit, Brexit, Brexit (repeat dozens of times)' trailers/adverts for their news coverage? Unbelievably annoying, yet so revealing of the institutional obsession that someone actually signed those off before filming and broadcast, and nobody else thought to check them at any point along the way.

    This has been an almost defining story of the last few years of the BBC's existence both in news, wider current affairs and their increasingly abysmal cultural offerings and the idea that this week's events have passed them by to the extent that their paltry news coverage would have you believe is beyond parody.

    All that effort, all that unhinged bias, and all for nought. This time next week we'll be 2 hours from leaving the EU.

    Wonderful, no wonder they're in denial, spite or gurning on their sour grapes whatever it may be, while I sip on the sweet grapes of my Coonawarra.

    Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Craig, Considering that today has been such a politically historic day, it's amazing that our so called fair reporting and supposedly unbiased BBC chose to bury this major story.
    On the Lunchtime News today it was the 6th News story, and all of 19 seconds.
    I missed the 6.00pm Evening News but I shall be watching tonight's 10.00pm Evening News.

    Surely the cameras went in to No 10 Downing Street to film the great occasion with Boris signing the Withdrawal Agreement which arrived in London today via train from Brussels.
    Or maybe the BBC will just flit over the story and throw up Andrew Parson's photo still image.

    Interestingly Sky News has a Brexit Countdown clock in the top left corner of the screen.

    John....North London.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The report on the 10pm news still used the line "UK is due to leave the EU next Friday" surely it is now "will leave the EU next Friday" ?

    ReplyDelete

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.