More on 'Sir Starmer'...

The Shard (and Sir Keir Starmer)

Following on from the previous post, here are transcripts of how the BBC's and ITV's news bulletins respectively covered Sir Keir Starmer's role/non-role in the Warboys controversy this evening.

First, here's BBC One's News at Six:

Mark Easton (BBC): The Director of Public Prosecutions at the time, Keir Starmer, now a Labour shadow minister, today urged victims to take the allegations to the police: 

Keir Starmer: I think these decisions were nine years ago. It's very important that you go to the Crown Prosecution Service and get an accurate readout of the decisions that were made, particularly if further allegations are likely to be made now. Thank you very much indeed.

Now, here's ITV's Evening News tonight:

Ria Chatterjee (ITV): Today ITV News challenged Keir Starmer, who was director of public prosecutions at the time Worboys was sentenced: 

Keir Starmer: I think these decisions were nine years ago. It's very important to get an accurate readout of the decisions were made, particularly if other allegations are likely to be made now. Thank you very much indeed.  

As you can see, ITV took the same route as Sky, beginning with ITV's 'challenge' to Sir Keir, thus raising the suggestion that the shadow Brexit secretary has questions to answer. Mark Easton, in complete contrast, chose not to rouse any suspicions in the viewer's mind that there is controversy about Sir Keir's role/non-role here. 

Hmm.

If this and the previous post show anything, it's that the BBC's most widely-accessed outlets are taking the 'nothing to see here' approach to the Keir Starmer angle while ITV and Sky are taking the 'there could be something to see here' approach to the Keir Starmer angle.

Now, I'm not being partisan here. I don't really care. It's just such a blatant difference between the BBC and its TV rivals here, that something must account for it.

At least one media outlet is betraying bias, surely?

What about Channel 4? Well, checking Channel 4 News tonight, they don't say much about Sir Keir either but even they say (thus suggesting that Sir Keir was involved and has questions to answer):

A word search by the Met police revealed dozens more women had made allegations to them about Worboys, but the then Director of Public Prosecutions Sir Kier Starmer, now Shadow Brexit Secretary, decided it was not in the public interest to bring any more charges.

So the BBC is a clear outlier here.

And they are a clear outlier both on their News website and their main TV evening news bulletin.

Something must account for the BBC's different (more helpful) approach to Labour's shadow Brexit secretary, mustn't it? But what?