Saturday 17 November 2018

Pearls before swine?



To coincide with the launch of memoirs next year, the BBC is working with David Cameron on a multi-part documentary about his premiership. 

It will be produced by veteran documentary maker Denys Blakeway

Matthew Moore, the Times reporter who broke the news, has been taken aback by some of the reaction: 

  • Lots of people seem angry about this. But aren’t heavyweight political documentaries exactly the sort of thing the BBC should be making? Blakeway’s previous docs with Thatcher, Blair etc featured critical voices, as (presumably) will this one.
  • It’s terrifying that a sizeable chunk of of the population seems to think the national broadcaster shouldn’t run in-depth interviews with a man who ran the country for six years, because he made decisions they disagree with. Do people not want to learn stuff?

The sort of thing he means (much more mildly put than a lot of it) is this from ex-BBC-reporter-turned-far-left-Labour MP Clive Lewis:


"The sooner the BBC is democratised the better" isn't remotely sinister, is it? And it comes from a man who has previously admitted, or rather boasted about, presenting deliberately biased reports while working at BBC Look East:
“I was able to use bias in my reports by giving less time to one than the other. 
“I reported on both but the angle and words and the language I used — I know the pictures I used — I was able to project my own particular political positions on things in a very subtle way.” 
I don't think his 'democratisation' process will have political fairness as its top priority. 

3 comments:

  1. By way of contrast, the obituary of Richard Baker (News Channel) revealed that, when he started reading the news, they showed film of a radio mast, rather than him, in the interests of impartiality and to avoid creating a personality cult - those were the days! And which newsreader would you like to see replaced & with what inanimate object?

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    Replies
    1. It would be nice if Evan Davis could be replaced with Paddington Bear...although Evan seems to think he is a real live immigrant for some reason.

      Emily Maitlis could be replaced with a Japanese comfort robot.

      Nick Robinson could be replaced with a signed photo of Kenneth Clarke - "To Nick with love from Ken - and thanks for the soft interview. x See you soon. Probably next week."

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    2. Lol! I'd replace Clive Myrie with a speak your weight machine - at least it wouldn't sound surprised all the time.

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