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| James Harding's expression whilst writing his Garudian piece |
The BBC's Director of News, James Harding, has written an article defending the BBC's Brexit coverage against all comers - in, of all places, the Guardian.
(Cries of "You couldn't make it up!" resound in the air.)
The Graun's headline is: A truly balanced view from the BBC: don’t blame us for Brexit.
"It is easy to dismiss these critics as regular BBC bashers or sore losers. But the BBC has no business being complacent", says Mr Harding, whilst penning an article which defends everything the BBC has done regarding its Brexit coverage.
(More cries of "You couldn't make it up!" resound in the air.)
Now, for 'balance' (BBC-style 'balance'!), Mr Harding does concede, in his final paragraph, "We plainly do not get everything right. We make mistakes and, I hope, move quickly to grip them".
He doesn't, however, it should be swiftly noted, cite even a single example of any such mistake!
(The cries of "You couldn't make it up!" become deafening).
I'm sure he didn't meant to, but Harding just holed the whole Complaints From Both Sides defense beneath the water line. The two sides he presents aren't even on the same issue. And notice the carefully curated Leave complaint, that "some Leavers" thought the BBC's coverage was impartial and accurate. You can probably count the Leavers who said that on one hand, even if your name is Three-Fingered Ike. So it's a non sequitur to then say that they got it about right because Remainiacs thought the BBC was too impartial because it didn't dismiss the other side outright as being Coco the Clown. It tells you more about what Harding and the Beeboids think about each side than it does about the internal judgment of the coverage. Oh, and only now the BBC is being biased against Brexit? Come on. And let's not get into the vote night coverage.
ReplyDeleteIn fairness, you have to admit that the one thing Harding can claim is that the BBC would be blamed for the result no matter who won. But we can all enjoy the spectacle of arrogant Beeboids getting a kicking by people on their own side. I can just imagine the internal dialog: "We tried to push it for Remain! We really did! We called everyone a racist, pushed every single fear button about the economy possible, and even promoted The Obamessiah's sermon about it. What more could we possibly have done? We have to put on a facade of decorum, after all."
Harding seems to be trying a bit too hard for someone feeling no guilt. It must be killing them. Heh.
"...look, we went completely over the top on the Jo Cox murder, trying to pin it on Leave. We had literally hours and hours of coverage on that...short of our reporters actually going into the ballot booths and marking an x against Remain, what more could we possibly have done?" Still, the Remaniacs will blame them! - as you say there is a certain dark humour in that.
DeleteRather classic #tellitoftenenough to the converted from a very BBC safe space.
ReplyDeleteGiven the moves the BBC default to when it loses grip are usually to ban any they can't control, I humbly suggest Mr. Harding is full of self deluding male bovine excreta. But he is a market rate talent.
As is Hugs Boaden.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2010/09/impartiality_is_in_our_genes.html
She probably doesn't recall making that one up either.
I believe "impartiality is in our genes" has moved on to something like "most of out staff leave their politics at home"
DeleteNewly promoted Jasmine Lawrence clearly some kind of exemption proving something.
DeleteSo how do they explain Jenny Hill jumping up and down shouting "Welcome" ecstatically at that Berlin rail station last year?
Delete