From the latest Trump press conference, within the last hour....
Jon Sopel: Could I just ask you...thank you very much Mr. President...the travel...
Donald Trump: Where are you from?
Jon Sopel: BBC.
Donald Trump: Here's another beauty!
Jon Sopel: It's a good line. Impartial, free and fair.
Donald Trump: Yeah, sure.
Jon Sopel: Mr. President...
Donald Trump: Just like CNN, right?
Jon Sopel: On the travel ban...we could banter back and forth...On the travel ban, would you accept that that was a good example of the smooth running of government?...
Donald Trump: Yeah I do. Yeah I do.
Jon Sopel: Were there any mistakes in that?
Donald Trump: Let me tell you...Wait! Wait! Wait! I know who you are. Just wait!.....
A couple of minutes later (after answering Jon Sopel's question)....
Donald Trump: But we need help and we need help getting that executive order passed.
Jon Sopel: Just a brief follow-up.
Donald Trump: Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr [looking around the room]....
Jon Sopel: If it's so urgent, why not introduce....?
Donald Trump: Yes. Go ahead! [to a different reporter, who then asks a question]
Donald Trump: You know what uranium is, right? It's a thing called 'nuclear weapons', and other things. Like lots of things are done with uranium, including some bad things.
P.S. And if that hasn't made you regret not watching it live, here's President Trump helpfully spelling out what uranium is:
Donald Trump: You know what uranium is, right? It's a thing called 'nuclear weapons', and other things. Like lots of things are done with uranium, including some bad things.
"Impartial, free and fair."
ReplyDeleteAre you sure you put the comma in the right place there? I think maybe it should be:
"Impartial free, and fair"
I can agree on the first description, but I think he's lying on the second one.
Be interesting how the BBC 'handles' the BBC 'reporting' (I use BBC 'quotes' in homage) of this one.
ReplyDeleteMaybe... as they have the French riots?
A petit je ne sai quoi?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38999996
DeleteFake News headline (making it sound like Trump's referring to Sopel not the BBC).
Not sure how long it will last, but the BBC has barely put a foot right of late.
DeleteJust about every tried and trusted BBC technique has blown back big time.
Ironically, they are dying mostly by thousands of cuts on the very media they thought they could control: social.
Take a look at Thursday's Newsnight. Sebastian Gorka from the White House media management just chewed up and spat out Evan Davis, leaving him a trembling wreck at the end (ironically, since this was the man, Davis, who started the programme with the Fake News interrogative: "Is Donald Trump having a nervous breakdown?", so proving Gorka's later very reasonable contention that all the MSM's questions are agenda-driven rather than news-driven or information-seeking).
ReplyDelete"Free"? LOL! 'Fair' and 'Impartial' is redundant, no? And how much time did Sopel and his producer spend arguing and twisting around to come up with such a mealy-mouthed way to ask if the travel ban was executed clumsily? Because they know asking if it's racist or whatever would be a non-starter. What a waste of an opportunity. They really are intellectually bankrupt here.
ReplyDeleteOn that it's interesting that the video of the interview on the BBC website is edited down to 3 or so minutes and the actual interview was 11 minutes or so.
ReplyDeleteBBC SOP #101.
DeleteIt can all be sorted in post.
Not sure that is working so well in the Internet age, when what they leave out soon attracts the most attention.
Like unrest in neighbouring countries the BBC has so far found best left low on the agenda.
Has John Sopel lost it?!
ReplyDeleteThe interview he has conducted with President Trump yesterday’s press conference has reminded me more of a “pub fight” than a professional journalist behaviour.
Well done! Sopel is representing BBC, the free and unbiased media. Now you’ve been labelled as “FAKE NEWS”! Where is your standard? Is this is the lowest you get or still working on it?
This must be a new low point for BBC news. Now, John Sopel has to have a piece on the BBC News website in an effort to rewrite this little bit of history, as he tries to justify himself. He was unprepared for the news conference - in front of the world's media. His question was far from incisive. President Trump took the opportunity to belittle him and the BBC. I'm not surprised - the chickens are coming home to roost.
ReplyDeleteThe girls are circling the wagons. Some female journalists too. A few lame hugs of outrage on Jon's feed.
DeleteHowever, I sense they sense blood in the water, and sharks can be gender diverse too.
Have you thought that this persona of Sopel as a fumbling down-at-heel worldly-wise news hack might be deliberate? It speaks to the world of incompetence and loss of direction.
ReplyDeleteBy a strange coincidence, the prominent headline on today's BBC News website is: 'Tony Blair is to announce his "mission" to persuade Britons to "rise up" and change their minds on Brexit'.
Note the words ... 'is to announce'... Blair hasn't said anything yet, so why is it on the News?
The conclusion is that if the BBC can make us all look foolish and second=rate in the eyes of the world, then, with Blair's intervention, there might still be a chance of derailing Brexit.
Jon Sopel perpetuating the Fake News headline on the BBC website, trying to give the impression (if not making the explicit claim) that Trump was referring to him, the BBC as a Fake News organisation, when he said "Here's another beauty..."
ReplyDelete"My bosses have approved a new business card for me: Jon Sopel Another Beauty North America Editor" says Sopel on Twitter.
Remember, Trump went on to interject "You're just like CNN" - so clearly he was referencing the organisation, not the man.
Missed out "rather than" before "the BBC" in the third line.
Delete