I see that UKIP supporters in Kent are highly displeased with BBC Radio Kent. Complaints are, apparently, winging their way to the BBC as we speak.
Presenter John Warnett interviewed Conservative defector Mark Reckless on this morning's Radio Kent breakfast programme (some 2 hours 10 minutes in) in a manner that can only be described as "aggressive" (which won't have pleased Ian Katz, Jamie Angus or Evan Davis). He hammered away at the question of Mr Reckless "lying" to the Conservatives in the run-up to his defection to UKIP.
John Warnett tackled him pretty much exclusively from the 'devil's advocate position' (if such it was) of a disgruntled Conservative, twice citing the Conservatives' 'success' in 'bringing down the deficit' at him.
Now, unlike those UKIP supporters who've taken to social media to protest, I didn't think that John Warnett betrayed his BBC function in questioning Mark Reckless so strongly or, in a heavily Conservative seat, by doing so from a Conservative Party standpoint; however, I do understand UKIP's sense of outrage at the selection of vox pops Radio Kent flung at Mr Reckless - all three of whom slagged off Mark Reckless something rotten, and in the most personal terms!
Mr Reckless was not impressed:
Mark Reckess: Well, I'm actually rather disappointed, John, with Radio Kent...to put out such an unbalanced selection of views. Our local newspaper, the Medway Messenger, held a poll and 70% of the people they were in touch with said they supported my decision. I think you should have put some balance out there rather than just the negative views...
John Warnett [interrupting]: Well, we have been, all through the morning, we have been...
Mark Reckess: Well, I'm sorry John, I think that was very disappointing.
Another local newspaper, the Maidstone and Medway News, has a poll now running at 67% support for Mr Reckless and UKIP.
Now, standing back and breathing in, it is just, just possible that BBC Radio Kent only spoke to three people in the street this morning and that all three of them were hopping mad at Mark Reckless for 'deserting' the Conservative Party and feel nothing but contempt for him, but - the thought inevitably crosses your mind - how likely is that? How representative is that? Was it a rigged selection? Even if it wasn't a rigged selection, is that responsible reporting? Shouldn't they have waited to ask more people?
Wonder where all those complaints will get UKIP supporters in Kent? Or Mark Reckless?
Reckless is really screwing himself with the way he's handling the accusations of lying. Which he was, obviously. Andrew Neil made the same attack on him the other day, calling him a liar. The basis of Reckless' defense then and now - after an enormous amount of pathetic hemming and hawing and stammering - was that he didn't lie to his constituents about being a proper conservative and pushing for conservative values and issues in the best interests of his constituents. Which is only half a defense.
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of people would give him a break if he explained more honestly what he did. It may be too late now. But what's really obvious is that Reckless committed an even greater sin than lying to Grant Shapps: he lied to the Tory press as well. They're the ones freaking out most.
The BBC Kent host kind of soiled his own moral high ground when told a blatant lie about Reckless supposedly saying just last week how great the Conservative Party was and how the Conservatives were doing it right. Even I know better than that. In other words, the Beeboid, just like the rest of the media (have you seen the Spectator website lately? It's almost like reading the Facebook pages of overly-clever jilted teenage girls. Not that I would know.)
We know how the Beeboids filter vox pops. My only question is, which one was the unlabeled activist?
PS: One of the vox pops was described as someone who phoned the BBC, not a "random" person on the street. So did they do one of those "If you hate Reckless for being a lying bastard, call us on 0149...."? I mean, it's not like somebody would calm them about their opinion of Reckless out of the blue.