Saturday, 17 March 2018

Hatgate

The offending 'Newsnight' graphic

Owen Jones has been complaining in recent days about the lack of left-wing voices on the BBC News Channel. Meanwhile, though he himself may not have been on BBC News Channel either, he was on Radio 4's The World Tonight on Thursday, BBC Two's Newsnight yesterday and will be on the Andrew Marr show tomorrow. so he's not doing that badly out of the BBC.

That says, he reckons he "may not be getting a BBC Newsnight invite ever again" after last night's squabbling and is demanding that they "must apologise in full and unreservedly" for their "outrageous photoshopping of Jeremy Corbyn as a Russian stooge". 

Here's what happened last night:
Evan Davis: Owen, do you think Jeremy Corbyn has paid a political price this week for his position?
Owen Jones: Well, the media framing has been a disgrace, and I have to say that includes your own programme. Yesterday, the background of your programme, you had Jeremy Corbyn dressed up against the Kremlin skyline...
(Evan laughs) 
Owen Jones: No, no, it's good to make this point...
Evan Davis: Yeah, no, make your point.
Owen Jones: Dressed up as a Soviet stooge...
Evan Davis: It was a real picture of Jeremy Corbyn.
Owen Jones: You even photoshopped his hat to look more Russian. I have to say, whether or not.
Evan Davis: No, it wasn't photoshopped.
Owen Jones: It was.
Evan Davis: It was real. It was him in front of the Kremlin. It was a provocation. Yep, yep.
Owen Jones: People should complain to the BBC about that kind of thing, and if it's not your Graphics department responsible, it's whoever signed it off...
Evan Davis: Just a sec. It was a real picture of him and we placed him in the Kremlin, yeah.
Jenni Russell of The Times returned to the theme later:
Jenni Russell: I didn't watch your programme last night, but , clearly, if you take a photograph taken years ago in a different context and you put it up there...
Evan Davis: It was a provocation to a discussion and it was a balanced discussion.
Jenni Russell: Images matter...
Evan Davis: The discussion was balanced.
Jenni Russell: So I agree with him about that. 
On Owen's claim "You even photoshopped his hat to look more Russian" and Evan's denial, well, judge for yourselves:


Update: Here's an example of some of the 'proofs' flying around Twitter that Newsnight photoshopped that hat and which are causing such a Twitterstorm against the BBC (click to play! - and apologies for the sweary language):

And the mockery is well underway:



(You might have spotted that Trumpton missed out the Russian ambassador to the EU there!)

In both directions....

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6 comments:

  1. Monkey Brains17 March 2018 at 11:24

    I thought Evan was wrong (it's kind of my default position) but I now see the cunning MI5 operatives in the BBC Graphics department have simply changed the contrast rather than actively photoshopping it. Comrades, these capitalist wreckers will stop at nothing to sabotage the glorious socialist revolution but Comissar Milne will see to it that they are hunted down and brought to justice as soon as Labour can put together a majority in the Commons.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. stewgreen17 March 2018 at 14:29

      No AFAIK they did Photoshop it, but not just the hat
      They found a commie-looking Corby photo & photoshopped it onto the Kremlin background.
      But that is nothing compared to what they do with Trump images.

      Delete
    2. Monkey Brains17 March 2018 at 18:09

      I think Owen "Moaning" Jones was claiming they photoshopped the hat on...it appears now that the hat was the original but contrast was played around with and possibly colour, so that it looked more like a Brezhnev number.

      Yes, Trump gets far worse treatment.

      Delete
  2. david morris17 March 2018 at 12:00

    So what you're saying is

    Owen Jones will be apologising for his "genuine" error ?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Emma17 March 2018 at 16:48

    The first version I saw actually had a red star on it, which I thought was a bit off. Seems someone photoshopped the photoshop.

    Time to rematch 'Rising Sun' again.

    I note Rob reduced to repeats now. Very BBC.

    With great promotion comes greater unaccountability.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Monkey Brains17 March 2018 at 18:11

    I want to see a photo of Andrew Marr from his student days when he was a Trot and sported a whispy possibly Leninesque ginger beard.

    ReplyDelete

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