Late night bonus post...
We here at Is the BBC Biased? are very fond of BBC veteran reporter Hugh Sykes.
We think of him as the authentic, time-honoured voice of the BBC.
His Twitter feed remains a joy. He pronounces himself to be something of a contrarian, but his Twitter contrarianism almost invariably chimes with BBC orthodoxy, and - even better - is expressed neat rather than diluted.
Read through the great man's latest tweets (views his own) and you'll find someone who really doesn't agree with pro-Brexit Tory MP Mark Francois over Brexit and will re-tweet anything (however rude) attacking the MP for his views, again and again and again.
And you'll also find someone who'll willingly plug ex-BBC colleague Gavin Esler's intemperate anti-Brexit tweets slamming "Jacob and Boris and Nigel", in addition to promoting numerous other anti-Brexit tweets from various sources.
Read through the great man's latest tweets (views his own) and you'll find someone who really doesn't agree with pro-Brexit Tory MP Mark Francois over Brexit and will re-tweet anything (however rude) attacking the MP for his views, again and again and again.
And you'll also find someone who'll willingly plug ex-BBC colleague Gavin Esler's intemperate anti-Brexit tweets slamming "Jacob and Boris and Nigel", in addition to promoting numerous other anti-Brexit tweets from various sources.
You won't find any pro-Brexit re-tweets from Our Hugh Of The BBC.
Strikingly, he's someone who will even re-tweet attacks on his BBC colleagues if, regarding the case of John Humphrys, he follows the Twitter mob in smoking out a BBC presenter who might just harbour forbidden pro-Brexit views.
Interestingly, Hugh also repeatedly re-tweets attacks on Jeremy Corbyn, Len McCluskey and Seamus Milne from the same pro-EU perspective.
So far so (mainly) obvious, and present-day BBC.
But, interestingly, Hugh then re-tweeted a Sinn Fein MP defending the Maduro government's legitimacy in Venezuela, plus criticisms of US foreign policy over Afghanistan (from the 'it's all about oil' angle), and support for left-liberal hero George Clooney's criticisms of the US government's position on Sudan.
That seems like good, old-school BBC leftism.
Stuff mocking Trump and talking of climate change follows, going back chronologically.
And this is just a dip-in from the last couple of days.
Long may Good Old Hugh keep on refusing to hang up his coat of non-impartial views on Twitter. It helps me figure out the BBC's view on subject after subject.
All true - and he can't even bring himself to apologise for slandering a group of callow Catholic youths as racist Far Right hate mongers when they were simply exercising, in moderate fashion, their constitutional rights (in the US - I doubt such rights apply in "Verboten UK").
ReplyDeleteIndeed he can't. And that's even worse than any of the above.
DeleteIs he the one who's based in Paris, or is that a different Hugh?
ReplyDeleteIt's a different Hugh. That's Hugh Schofield. This one is now a roving international reporter for Radio 4, though he used to be a roving reporter for the BBC as a whole, especially in places like Iraq. You don't see him on BBC TV much these days. (Too old?)
DeleteYep, I always get them confused!
DeleteYou would think the BBC would be all too keen to have Hugh back on TV to ensure they meet the Gender-Blind Pulchritudinous Equality Target that forms part of the BBC 2020 Vision Equality of Outcome Plan.
But clearly some fascist-style obstructionists in the BBC are wedded to outmoded ideas of physical beauty.
Ah, thanks. Schofield is the Francophile one I hear on From Our Own Correspondent. Don't recall hearing or seeing Sykes.
DeleteLol at MB. I've just heard some vicar on the Sunday Worship telling us in the course of a grand mea culpa for Christianity's treatment of the Jews, that the Middle Ages weren't good at 'diversity'. Call me astounded they weren't up to speed with BBC doctrine and vision plans.