"the government probably trying to make out that..."

I was watching the BBC News Channel this morning and saw an interview between BBC Breakfast presenter Ben Thompson and BBC reporter Susana Mendonça about the steel industry in Britain.

Nothing struck me as untoward about it until I read a comment at Biased BBC shortly after, beginning:

AsISeeIt

April 3, 2016 at 8:36 am

“The Government is probably trying to make out that….”

I would welcome this form of robust sceptical and frankly challenging phraseology – if it were uniformly applied to all state initiatives, which it isn’t. Note the wording prefixed a beeboid on beeboid conversation – not an interview with a Government spokesperson.

Lanky sofa flunky Ben Thompson and his BBC masters obviously think they’ve got the Tories grabbed by the steel and tariffs – and they aren’t going to let go. If only that barmpot Corbyn would just shut up and lie low the BBC would happily do his opposition work for him.

Looking back on what was said on BBC Breakfast, that exchange began:

Let's talk to our political correspondent Susana Mendonça, who is in central London for us. Susana, the government probably trying to make out that this in their attempt to act to save some jobs in South Wales but many saying already it's too little too late?

Now, when you think about it, that is a highly loaded question, isn't it? It's the kind of question BBC interviewers often put to politicians and other partisan guests - and rightly so. 

Is it an appropriate question to ask though when it's a 'neutral' BBC interviewer interviewing a 'neutral' BBC reporter?

Couldn't Ben just have asked something along the lines of, "Susana, can you bring us up to date with what the government is saying and what the reaction's been so far?"

There's a huge amount of that kind of 'framing' going on during these kinds of BBC interview these days. The first hour of Today can be full of it at times. And - as this one initially did with me - such 'framings' can just fly by without causing so much as an eyelid to bat in the unsuspecting viewer.

If you were wondering, this was Susana Mendonça's reply in full. This also didn't start out well for the Conservative government, though it actually ended on a high note for them (with Susana, twice, asserting that the government's latest initiative will "inspire confidence"):

Hmm. Well, the government certainly has been on the back foot about the potential job losses in Port Talbot and it's been criticised for putting Chinese trade deals ahead of saving steel jobs here in the UK, and so you could see this certainly as an attempt to show it's doing something. 

It's actually not going to make much of a difference to those jobs in Port Talbot but what it will do is it will, I suppose, inspire confidence. 

The government says it's about levelling the playing field. So, as you say, local councils, NHS bodies and what have you, will have to look at giving contracts...well, look at whether UK companies are allowed to accept those contracts instead of just advertising them outside the UK and also looking at the impact on jobs in the UK when they're giving out those contracts. 

Now, this is not a new idea. It's something the government did last year with central government bodies. They have to look at awarding contracts to UK companies also. 

But what it does it inspires confidence