To his credit, Rob Burley, the editor of The Andrew Marr Show, certainly isn't averse to engaging with the public and replying to charges of political bias on Twitter.
After announcing the guest list for tomorrow's programme...
Gina Miller (anti-Brexit campaigner)
Tim Montgomerie (Conservative supporter)
Paul Mason (pro-Corbyn)
Patrick McLoughlin (Conservative)
Shami Chakrabarti (Labour)
Hugh Jackman (actor)
Marc Almond (singer)
...he went tweet to tweet with complainants from several sides.
First, the Corbynistas:
Then the Blairites (over Shami):
Then the Lib Dems:
Then those who don't like Gina Miller:
After all that I can only agree with BBC Waste when he tweets:
That first complaint about Baroness Shami of Whitewash is a fair comment, not a complaint about bias.
ReplyDeleteCompare and contrast the Complaints From Both Sides, though. Notice that the two complaints from the Right aren't openly accusing the BBC of bias. The first one from the Left even goes so far as to call Marr's show a Tory broadcast, and the second one is also very poor quality.
(I am on record as saying that Marr is personally anti-Corbyn and sometimes shows it, but that's not what's going on here.)
The anti-UKIP and pro-LibDem complaints are similarly weak. Yet these are held up as proof that the BBC gets it about right.
Having said that, top marks for Burley for making the effort anyway. It makes you wonder, though, how he'd handle a quality complaint.