The 8.10 spot on this morning's Today was given over to a Nick Robinson report from a pro-Jeremy Corbyn rally at the weekend.
Nick, who's on record as having agreed with the Corbynistas that the BBC has shown bias against their leader, gave the chanting 'Jez We Can' crowd at the rally a very generous hearing. He then had an informal interview with Jez himself, even allowing Mr Corbyn to be sarcastic (in his rather leaden way) at the BBC's expense.
It was so Corbynista-friendly that even the Corbynistas on Twitter approved (for once), albeit rather sourly.
Not so the Blairites...:
Fancy Dan Hodges worrying about BBC bias!
Does Dan have a point though? Should the BBC have indulged the usually Today-averse Labour leader in this way? Was this the BBC trying to appease the Corbynistas here?
Does Dan have a point though? Should the BBC have indulged the usually Today-averse Labour leader in this way? Was this the BBC trying to appease the Corbynistas here?
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The report with the Corbyn supporters was particularly striking as one described herself as the daughter of Conservative-voting parents who'd be shocked to know where she was. (That didn't surprise me as she sounded very young).
Another (equally upmarket-sounding) said that he'd just become interested in politics again having lost interest after the fall of Mrs Thatcher. He'd been a Thatcherite when he was last politically-engaged. Now he thinks Jeremy offers something different to the three mainstream parties who agree on so much. (That did surprise me).
Is it really true that people who sound like 'natural Tories' are supporting Jeremy Corbyn because he's different'? Or did Nick find a couple of atypical Corbyn supporter there?
I do hope not! otherwise the nutter might get elected!
ReplyDeleteIf the bBC want to interview Diane James, perhaps they should offer the same softball approach. No doubt they'd prefer to keep up their snide asides of yet another politician who doesn't want to put up with their nonsense.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Nick. This does not mean he was right about who all Brexit voters are and why all of them voted that way. But he is absolutely correct about BBC bias against Corbyn. Like the Brexit result, the BBC itself has placed the evidence before us for months, but almost nobody seems to have noticed, most of all the BBC.
ReplyDeleteBut what does a 'natural Tory' sound like these days? A young person rebelling against her parents is natural, but hardly a 'natural Tory'. If it's
'up-market-sounding', then Tristram Hunt and Universal Professor Alice Roberts are 'natural Tories'.
Who the BBC 'finds' or does not, is the stuff of legend.
ReplyDeleteAs is their quaint idea of editorial integrity in appeasing those with whom they identify.
I heard this "report" also. Very soft, warm and fuzzy. Very much a Corbyn - friendly political broadcast. This just a few days after the extremely unusual R4 Feedback program in which the BBC did something it never does, it admitted bias! Against Corbyn.
ReplyDeleteSo what's going on? My guesses are that BBC have realised that:
1) Corbyn is going to win re-election as Labour Leader and so continuing coverage of the leadership ineptness is just using up air time that BBC would rather spend on dissing the Tory Government, and,
2) If ever Corbyn gets to power (and the Beeb does want a Labour Gvt let's remember) then he and his comrades really would reform the BBC, so better get onside just in case.
As a very left wing Eurofanatic Conservative I think Nick Robinson would quite like a properly left wing Labour Party lef by someone suspected of being a Brexiter at heart...in order that the Conservatives then move to the left. Call me cynical!
ReplyDeleteCasual anti Trump bias on display everywhere in the BBC these days - including tonight's interview with Daniel Radcliffe about his cinematic role playing a neo-Nazi infiltrator (Radio 4, Front Row). Samira Ahmed immediately linked the theme of neo-Nazis to Trump and his supporters (appearing to suggest his supporters were neo-Nazis and he was pretending to be one as well to get their support). Subtle eh?
ReplyDeleteAlso dipped into the Radio 4 series on Sunnis v. Shia. Like all MSM programmes now, it was of course introduced by a Muslim, and conducted in hushed reverential tones, which carefully managing to avoid any suggestion that any of the key players in Islam's bloody early history were out for themselves.
I didn't hear all of the first episode, but in the first 30 minutes or so, I think they managed to avoid all reference to the Proph's child bride Aisha (who I have read previously was a key player in the split).
They had on the horrible Rezla Aslan as some sort of authority...he's a real taqiyya man as shown by his dissertation title: "Global Jihadism as a Transnational Social Movement: A Theoretical Framework".
He's a Shia, and I got the feeling the programme had more than a tinge Shia apologism about it...so expected "complaints from both sides" as they say.
The pro Corbyn anti-government anti-austerity BBC agenda as described here ...."one described herself as the daughter of Conservative-voting parents"... had a strong echo with BBC's in-house drama Holby broadcast on 20th September 2016.
ReplyDeleteHere, a patient admitted into Ric's care turned out to be the French wife of the nasty local Tory MP. She was young, intelligent, attractive and declared that she would go head-to-head with her estranged husband as a Labour candidate at the next election. Ric fell for her charms, but on more than one occasion, he declared 'I am not English' in order to distance himself from the hierarchy of the hospital management which included an equally nasty axe-bearing Board Member Tristan - Ric's nemesis - a friend of the the above-mentioned nasty Tory MP. There was an undercurrent of Brexit - the Tory MP's estranged French wife had seen the light. She was the epitome of the European persona. The English hospital management together with the local Tory MP were portrayed as generally distasteful.