Sunday 20 November 2016

"It really is most bizarre"


David Willis

Here's more of the same, from the same BBC News Channel discussion between a BBC presenter and a BBC reporter.

It had to be seen and heard to register all of the sarcasm, the mocking smiles and incredulous inflections, but I think that a transcript should give you a pretty good sense of it (if you didn't see it).

Straight, non-opinionated reporting it isn't: 
Maxine Mawhinney: Right. I want to talk to you about tweets, because the Donald is still tweeting. Now, two things. First of all, he's really taken umbrage against the cast of the play Hamilton, hasn't he? 
David Willis: Absolutely. Yes. 
Maxine Mawhinney: ...for speaking out against the vice president? He can't...he doesn't seem to be able to let go. 
David Willis: He doesn't, no. I mean, four tweets, in actual fact, on this very, if you include one that was swiftly deleted this morning. No, he's called on the cast to apologise to Mike Pence, the vice-president-elect, for, as he put it, "harassing" him while he went to a performance of the show on Friday night. And then, three hours ago...three hours ago - that's 6 o'clock in the morning, Maxine!- he tweeted, "The cast and producers of Hamilton, which I hear is highly overrated, should immediately apologise to Mike Pence for their terrible behaviour." And he also...not content with focusing on this issue, which he doesn't seem able to give up!...he then went on to take a potshot at the satirical show Saturday Night Live, which has lampooned him quite consistently. He said, "Watched it last night." He said, "One-sided, biased and not funny at all" - this at a time when he's selecting his new cabinet, Maxine! 
Maxine Mawhinney: Yeah, (laughing) and just looking at the Twitter feed now, he's still tweeting, David! He's now almost giving a running commentary on who he thinks is a good person for his cabinet and, maybe, who's not quite so good. So it's quite bizarre! We would not normally get this sort of thought...detail in a way. 
David Willis: It really is most bizarre. And there must be people, quite a lot of them, in the Trump administration who are just itching to wrench this thing away from his grasp. You can just imagine it, can't you? But he has consistently maintained it's a very effective means of communication. He says it goes over the heads of a lot of people...you know, the great and the good...and goes directly to his fan base...I suppose you might put it...but this is a man who doesn't really use much in the way of email but clearly believes that Twitter is an extremely convenient form of communication. Whether or not it serves him well is anybody's guess.

1 comment:

  1. Double standards as always. Obama, rightly or wrongly, has often been criticised for being more interested in playing on the golf course than working hard in the Oval Office. I've certainly never heard BBC reporter's include that in their banter - but DT is supposed to be working night and day on Cabinet selection, according to the BBC hate mob.

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