Of course, any complaints that Newsnight was displaying party political bias through that Walsall voter panel will be ignored by the BBC. And we know that because Evan Davis has told us so himself.
As you'll probably already know, The Daily Mail reported Evan's remarks at the Hay Festival where he said that the BBC is constantly getting accusations of party political bias but that "no one at the BBC takes those kinds of things into account" and it's "very rare" for BBC types to even talk about it.
All the time we get those emails. And honestly, no one at the BBC takes those kinds of things into account. Maybe people at the very top of the BBC do, I don't know. Maybe they do. But none of the people who are making programmes do.
He's presumably including the person who makes his programme in that sweeping statement - namely Newsnight editor Ian Katz.
So I think it's safe to assume that Ian Katz wouldn't be 'bovvered' in the slightest by any fuss over dodgy voter panels on Newsnight because, if Evan's to be believed, such things are of no account to him.
So I think it's safe to assume that Ian Katz wouldn't be 'bovvered' in the slightest by any fuss over dodgy voter panels on Newsnight because, if Evan's to be believed, such things are of no account to him.
The BBC attitude to complaints about bias is similar to those teenage keyboard warriors (I assume they are teenagers) who think they can make something true by writing, “fact” at the end of a sentence. Recently, for the first time in my life I wrote a letter of complaint to the BBC about the overwhelming left wing bias in radio comedy. When I received a written reply I was admittedly surprised. Apparently they took my complaint seriously. This feeling was fairly short-lived. Despite the politeness of the wording the general gist was, the BBC always strives for impartiality. We know this is true because we say it is.
ReplyDeleteDavis is probably right. They don't care, hold most of the public in contempt. Davis himself has demonstrated his own contempt to DB, for example.
ReplyDeleteI must confess to being a bit thrown to discover that 'the Trust' was still lurking around, as I had imagined the baton had been handed to OFCOM by now.
ReplyDeleteIt was only because they scrambled the Spitfires within days in response to a complaint regarding Laura K's failures as editor as regards the blessed Jez.
So, complaints from all sides, but some addressed a bit more sharpish the others when every second postal vote counts.
She got a right good, well, the usual. Plus James Harding said she got it about right, so nur.