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| The face of the BBC in the U.S. |
This Thursday's From Our Own Correspondent began with 'Kate Adee of the Bee Bee Cee' saying:
Today headlines here about sexual harassment but our correspondent fears a backlash against 'Me too' in the United States or a suspicion that old habits die hard.
My first thought on hearing that was to think, "OK Kate, but why is a supposedly impartial BBC correspondent 'fearing' a backlash? Isn't 'fearing' something that an activist should be expressing rather than a supposedly impartial BBC correspondent?"
An 'Aha!' moment came later when 'our correspondent' was named.
Yes, it was Katty Kay, the face of the impartial BBC is the U.S.
Our Katty's piece didn't even try to disguise the fact that she is an activist on the issue - albeit a somewhat conflicted one.
She explicitly said "We thought. I thought" and "We hoped" in describing the Me Too campaigners' hopes and anxieties.
Their campaign - "a revolution long past its due" - was openly expressed as her campaign too.
It's odd, isn't it, what you can get away with, impartiality-wise, if you're the face of the BBC in the U.S.?
Shouldn't Katty have at least tried to maintain a mask of impartiality here?
And as she didn't, another question: Why are BBC journalist-presenters allowed to get away with this kind of thing, despite all the 'BBC impartiality' guff the BBC puts out?
And further, what do people at the BBC who do try to maintain the BBC's claim to be impartial make of such comments on BBC Radio 4 from a high-profile BBC colleague? Doesn't it embarrass them?
I think the conflict comes from the strong likelihood
ReplyDelete- which I deduce from the way she looks now (that's one hell of a "Big Hair" do)and the fact she sought out a job in the States - that as a girl she must have dreamed of being a BIG HOLLYWOOD STAR!!! And she probably knows she would have done just about ANYTHING to have become said 'UGE HOLLYWOOD STAR. :) Hence the conflict...:) I would have but it would have been WRONG! But I can't help envying these other girls who stroked Harvey and got the parts...
Those last two sentences should have been in quotes as hyopthetical thoughts ascribed to the highly intelligent Katty Kay...but to be honest if I could have got a big part in a Hollywood film I too might have stroked Harvey in an intimate place.
DeleteWTF. Boom! Omg...
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of the renowned BBC impartiality, Dan Snow, sometime history guy of the BBC parish, seems to have called all those who voted to Leave the EU ‘nutters’.
ReplyDeleteLuckily he has done it on twitter which, as is well known, absolves him and his employers from any association or fallout.
Apparently.
His "heartbreaking" tweet bombed amusingly though!
Deletehttps://twitter.com/thehistoryguy/status/956781248223080449