Here's an update to the post Guest of (Dis)honour, which listed all the guests on Dateline London, and revealed that the controversial Palestinian (extremist) journalist Abdel Bari Atwan was the programme's most regular guest by some margin.
That post appeared in November 2012. Many editions of Dateline have passed since then. Who's top of the Dateline pops now? Well, here are the total number of appearances of all Dateline's guests since 30 October 2010 (with apologies for the list's untidy look).
It shows that Abdel Bari Atwan keeps his crown as the most regular Dateline guest:
Atwan, Abdel Bari 45Kielinger, Thomas 34Goldfarb, Michael 34Karkouti, Mustapha 33Roche, Marc 29Poirier, Agnes 28Toynbee, Polly 24Daley, Janet 23Oraibi, Mina al 22Katz, Greg 21Fisher Burns, John 19Ray, Ashis 19Zadka, Saul 19Chu, Henry 18Maguire, Stryker 18Malik, Nesrine 16McAllister, Jef 16Magombe, Vincent 16Goes, Eunice 15Aaronovitch, David 14Ramdani, Nabila 14Brown, Yasmin Alibhai 14Leslie, Ann 14Homouda, Abdallah 13Temko, Ned 13White, Michael 12Deane, Alex 11Margaronis, Maria 11Baker, Stephanie 10Shiskin, Dmitry 10Birrell, Ian 10O'Connell, Brian 10Montgomerie, Tim 10Richards, Steve 9Pepinster, Catherine 9Raphael, Adam 9Wei Liang, Diane 8Piras, Annalisa 8Mayer, Catherine 7Ansari, Nazenin 7Hilton, Isabel 7MacIntyre, Donal 6Owen Jones 6Taranyuk, Irena 5Karimakawenda, Tererai 5Burrell, Bernard 5Sadullah, Shahid 5Taheri, Amir 4Dourian, Kate 4Lynch, Laura 4Linnik, Dmitry 3Dittert, Annette 3Hewlett, Steve 3Bahaijoub, Ali 3Matthews, Francis 3Caliskan, Emre 2Kofman, Jeffrey 2Lucas, Edward 2Timur, Safak 2Sacerdoti, Jonathan 2Jenkins, Simon 2Pasha, Hassan Fatah 2Faiola, Anthony 2Bolzen, Stephanie 1Gordon, Tom 1Huband, Mark 1Macleod, Catherine 1Martin, Iain 1McIntosh, Lindsay 1McKenna, Kevin 1Nekrassov, Alexander 1Patrikarakos, David 1Satwa, Richard 1Shabi, Rachel 1Sharafedi, Bozorgmehr 1Walker, Heather 1Iversen, Tonje 1Hari, Johann 1Totaro, Paola 1Hutton, Will 1Orwell, Bruce 1Shamis, Ashur 1Xue, Xinran 1Aziz, Abdul 1Purcell, Bernard 1Addison, Jake Awagah 1Paviot, Benedicte 1Fuchs, Cornelia 1al-Qassemi, Sultan 1
And just to break that down by adding the latest figures, since that 2012 post, which show the recent trends on Dateline. These then are the figures from 17 November 2012 to 16 August 2014. They show that the gap is closing on Bari's dominance of the programme but that, astonishing, he's still the most invited guest on Dateline:
Atwan, Abdel Bari 16Kielinger, Thomas 15Poirier, Agnes 15Karkouti, Mustapha 14Oraibi, Mina al 14Roche, Marc 14Goldfarb, Michael 12Malik, Nesrine 12Deane, Alex 11Daley, Janet 11Baker, Stephanie 10Katz, Greg 10Shiskin, Dmitry 10Fisher Burns, John 9Toynbee, Polly 9Birrell, Ian 8Chu, Henry 8McAllister, Jef 8Ray, Ashis 8Zadka, Saul 8Aaronovitch, David 7Homouda, Abdallah 7Margaronis, Maria 7Ramdani, Nabila 7Brown, Yasmin Alibhai 6MacIntyre, Donal 6Owen Jones 6Goes, Eunice 5Magombe, Vincent 5Maguire, Stryker 5O'Connell, Brian 5Richards, Steve 5Taranyuk, Irena 5Mayer, Catherine 4Pepinster, Catherine 4Raphael, Adam 4Temko, Ned 4Wei Liang, Diane 4Ansari, Nazenin 3Karimakawenda, Tererai 3Leslie, Ann 3Linnik, Dmitry 3White, Michael 3Caliskan, Emre 2Dittert, Annette 2Hilton, Isabel 2Kofman, Jeffrey 2Lucas, Edward 2Taheri, Amir 2Timur, Safak 2Bolzen, Stephanie 1Burrell, Bernard 1Dourian, Kate 1Gordon, Tom 1Hewlett, Steve 1Huband, Mark 1Macleod, Catherine 1Martin, Iain 1McIntosh, Lindsay 1McKenna, Kevin 1Nekrassov, Alexander 1Patrikarakos, David 1Piras, Annalisa 1Sacerdoti, Jonathan 1Sadullah, Shahid 1Satwa, Richard 1Shabi, Rachel 1Sharafedi, Bozorgmehr 1Walker, Heather 1
Nice work, Craig. The BBC likes to play the numbers game in their defense against bias, and here's something they can't refute. Busted at their own game. Goldfarb, the man without an original thought - but all the right-on ones - in his head is #3? And we know he's the BBC's go-to source when they want the 'correct' point of view on US issues, so the evidence stacks up. Further proof of bias is the fact that Janet Daley is the most frequent guest from the (sort of) Right. She's generally useless on BBC debates, regardless of how good she sounds in her columns. No wonder the BBC is happy to give her time. Plus two Guardianistas above her.
ReplyDeleteNo Starkey, no Murray, no Dale, to name a few better choices than what's listed.
Thanks David.
DeleteWhen I began monitoring 'Dateline' in earnest (2010-11),it followed a peculiar pattern when it came to the UK-based journalists appearing on the programme. There would be four weeks of left-wing UK journalists followed by an appearance by Janet Daley. Six weeks of more left-wing UK journalists would follow, after which Janet would receive another invite. Then after three weeks of more left-wing UK journalists, Dame Ann Leslie would appear (to show that Janet wasn't the only UK right-winger in the village).
Thankfully, that situation has got better since. I've always hoped that that was because of a list I posted in the comments sections of a particularly well-read post at B-BBC, proving that 'Dateline' invited Guardian and Independent journalists onto the programme FAR more than all the journalists from the non-Left UK press put together. Two weeks later (coincidentally?), Tim Montgomerie of ConservativeHome made his first appearance and a few other UK right-wingers have followed, most recently the excellent Alex Deane (who used to run Big Brother Watch). The Left are still dominant (statistically) among the representatives of the UK press, but the bias isn't as bad as it used to be.
Looking at the Top 10, it's revealing that only two are clearly right-wingers - Janet Daley and Thomas Kielinger (and TK is a very centrist, German CDU kind of right-winger). In contrast, 'Bari' Atwan, Michael Goldfarb, Mustapha Karkouti, Marc Roche, Agnes Poirie and Polly Toynbee are all firmly left-liberal in orientation. Greg Katz and Mina al Oraibi are harder to place.
As a clear indication of where the programme's instincts lie on matters Israeli/Palestinian, Abdel Bari Atwan's continuing dominance remains particularly damning. Despite his record of extreme statements, he's still the programme's guest of choice. That's the thing I find hardest to stomach.
Plus, at the risk of sounding like B-BBC's resident truther David Brims (except that I'm talking about BBC bias, something he rarely if ever does), it's interesting (revealing?) that four out of the Top 10 guests are Muslims...
...and, looking back, it's also noticeable how many 'robust' left-wingers appear on that list and how few 'robust' right-wingers there are. Ian Birrell, one of the new right-wingers, is a good example of that - a former Cameron speech-writer (from the days when Mr Cameron was trying to reach out to the likes of Polly Toynbee) who is about as right-wing as Nick Clegg. Alex Deane and Janet Daley aren't enough to balance things out. Your suggestions for supplementary right-wingers would be a good start.
That's a fair point, David.
DeleteTo answer your questions, the most regular guest who represents an Israeli perspective is Saul Zadka. His number of appearances is 19, which stands in sharp contrast to Abdel Bari Atwan's 45 appearances. And, yes, it is THAT Greg Katz.
Less than half the number of appearances? Hard to think of an excuse for that. Is that the Saul Zadka who wrote about Jewish militants (to coin a phrase, eh?) killing British soldiers before Israel's independence? Pretty slick, Beeboids, having the most prominent pro-Israel voice be someone highly likely to inspire a little antagonism in the audience in his own right. We know for a fact from what 'John Reith' used to tell us that there's a serious amount of resentment in house against Israel's existence for that, or at least a ready excuse to dismiss pro-Israel complaints about terrorism.
DeleteIt's that Katz? Ugh. I'm not a self-loathing Jew, see. I just loathe the self-loathing ones.
Maybe if America had the nous to lift its ban on Atwan he would not be so available.
ReplyDelete