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| Ms Barnett |
This is from the open thread just now:
The exact quote, from Emma Barnett this morning, runs as follows:
Having survived a failed leadership coup at the weekend, Theresa May is still your Prime Minister. She's also entertained 13 white Eurosceptic men at Chequers yesterday to no apparent avail, including Jacob Rees-Mogg's 13 year-old son.
As you've probably heard, Emma is joining Newsnight as one of the programme's three main presenters. The others are Emily Maitlis and Kirsty Wark. And Newsnight's editor is Esmé Wren.
As you may have spotted, they are all women. (Of course they are!)
But - tellingly - they're also all white.
The obvious Emma Barnett-style question that arises from this is: Is the BBC racist?
Why not have Tina Daheley as main presenter, with Naga Munchetty (who's already guest-presented the programme) getting an enhanced role. And, as Newsnight has a time-honoured history of poaching people from the Guardian, why not have Afua Hirsch instead of Emma Barnett as the third-string presenter?
You know it makes sense, BBC!
Why not have Tina Daheley as main presenter, with Naga Munchetty (who's already guest-presented the programme) getting an enhanced role. And, as Newsnight has a time-honoured history of poaching people from the Guardian, why not have Afua Hirsch instead of Emma Barnett as the third-string presenter?
You know it makes sense, BBC!
Thanks for the verbatim quotation. I was pretty disgusted by that as my comment shows.
ReplyDeleteI would have been disgusted had it been a male pro-Brexit broadcaster (not that such a being exists on the BBC) making the point about black female supporters of Remain.
It gets so tedious, the constant references to white males. I would be happy to see a more representative house of commons, but abandoning meritocracy in favour of crude social engineering is just replacing one form of unfairness with another. I wonder if Emma Barnett has ever given any thought as to why young white working class boys are currently doing so badly in school? Soon this will apply across the board as companies and organisations are increasingly promoting members of staff based on quota systems rather than ability. Most decent people want to live in a fair society, but trying to end racism and sexism in this way is the path to disaster.
ReplyDeleteAnd right on cue with Emma, I overheard R4 midnight news quoting a newspaper that Mrs May is the victim of sexism and misogny ...
ReplyDeletePer Terry above we already see disaster through the over-promotion of people like May largely because Cameron needed a woman in a high profile role. Similarly BBC Women's Hour wanted Hilary as President because she's female.
Has to be said that white western middle class women are the most privileged demographic in human history ... but do they feel humble? No the Newsnight trio are prime examples of how this privilege is misused.