Meanwhile, Naga Munchetty, still on her short break from BBC Breakfast, has now produced three Brexit-related reports for Newsnight. (All are posted on Newsnight's YouTube page).
The first, back in February, was a negative piece (which we reviewed here). It argued, contrary to what "prominent Leavers" claimed, that the UK outside the EU single market and Customs Union could "face the very real prospect of moving down the pecking order when it comes to Germany's favoured trading partners".
The second, back in March, looked at UK farming post-Brexit. It included four farmers, three of whom were for Remain, only one for Leave. Though less relentlessly gloomy, this imbalance still led to a heavy predominance of negativity.
And finally, this week, came the third. And it was straight back to the unremitting heavy negativity. Here's how it was introduced:
Could it be that it's not just free movement of people that could end with Brexit, but free movement of parts? The supply chains of the UK's manufacturers, for example, snake all over the continent, where components are routinely sent back and forth to be worked on. Now there are concerns that those supply chains could be disrupted after we leave the EU, costing time and of course money. Naga Munchetty has been talking to people in the manufacturing industry about how they're preparing for Brexit.
The tone didn't improve much from there.
Please watch them for yourselves and see if they strike you as a body of impartial broadcasting work from Naga and Newsnight.
Craig, thanks bit no I won't waste my time watching Naga recycle these now well-established BBC anti-Brexit lines. Thank you for your endurance!
ReplyDeleteThese possible downsides, and I stress possible, are repeated across the Beeb ad nauseam. I have to believe it's a campaign. And BBC always focuses Brexit on trade issues, not the more important issues of democratic accountability and control of borders. Funny that? Almost as if Beeb is rerunning the 1975 referendum to stay in the EEC.
Apart from the obvious symbolism, ... The supply chains of the UK's manufacturers... why would Naga be filmed in an apparently near-derelict industrial building surrounded by chains? Is it so that we associate today's manufacturing with outdated practices and old-fashioned products from the 19th Century?
ReplyDeleteThe picture of chains of this type is linked irrevocably to IK Brunel's famous portrait - in turn, he was represented as a cigar-smoking evil Capitalist in Act 2 of the London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony.
The Leave Voter has been represented consistently as an uneducated northerner, who in the BBC's book probably works in an environment such as that shown, and has been 'left behind'.
Why didn't Naga go to JCB or Dyson to seek a 21st Century view? The reason is that she probably wouldn't get an interview owing to the damaging pro-EU rhetoric of the BBC that is so damaging to the UK's interests.
I've watched all three of these newsnight reports, and can't say I'm surprised at any of them. I can only assume that some BBC editorial directive has decreed that there is no requirement to provide any sort of balanced view of Brexit, since the offical line in all BBC reports is now "since Brexit is now inevitable" (with the reporters fingers firmly crossed, out of shot..)
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