The supposedly random phone-in

Here's an ITBB exclusive. (I half-spotted it. Sue fully-spotted it.)

It concerns BBC phone-ins like Any Answers and how - to put it plainly - they've been (partially) taken over by professional agitators (possibly not unlike some episodes of Question Time and Any Questions).

To quote Sue: "There ought to be a dedicated phone-in specially for them, and let them own up. AA is not the place. Maybe that's why Anita is employed, it's something to do with shared initials."

The first caller today was "Stephen Franklin from north-west London". As a keen BBC Watch reader I'm a big fan of Stephen whose regular complaints to the BBC against anti-Israel BBC bias have scored some successes. However, we've also had (h/t Sue) Helen Marks from Jews for Justice for Palestinians and prominent anti-Israel campaigner Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi in recent weeks.

Now, it's only because me and Sue are up on such things that we spotted this. It's our area. Lots of other callers beyond our area also strike me as sounding suspiciously (and very strongly so) like activists.

To quote Sue again: "It's a very unsatisfactory format, the supposedly random phone-in".