In leading into his paper review this morning Andrew Marr talked of "a growing fear in Fleet Street that we are on the edge of a Corbyn-led labour government" and described the The Sunday Times as "going flat out for Corbyn" with its antisemitism story, and then, turning to the Mail on Sunday, said, "And look at this...an eight-page pullout, 'How to protect your cash from Corbyn'. The Labour antisemitism story didn't feature during the paper review proper, not did Andrew ask Rebecca Long-Bailey even a single question about it. The story, however huge it may be, just isn't a priority for the BBC at the moment.
Update: As of 1:30 pm, this was the second story on the Sky News website:
The ITV News website has this as its fourth story:
The BBC News website is, of course, still not covering it (not even on its Politics page). This, however, has been one of the top stories for the BBC all day:
Update: As of 1:30 pm, this was the second story on the Sky News website:
The ITV News website has this as its fourth story:
The BBC News website is, of course, still not covering it (not even on its Politics page). This, however, has been one of the top stories for the BBC all day:
Update (13:46): Well, it's finally arrived. The BBC News website does now have a story. It was published six minutes ago:
Update (13:56): And already the Corbynistas are piling onto the BBC's Twitter feeds to condemn the BBC for reporting the story (complaints from both sides)!:
- "It’s so strange that these stories always emerge when Labour are shown to be leading in the polls. Really strange."
- "Bore off BBC. No news here just smears, yet again."
- "Thought you would have held back onto this till just before the May elections."
- "It's all a smear campaign developed by Israel."
- "Orders from Tory HQ?"
Stew comments at Biased BBC: "Afua Hirsch on #Marr dismisses the Sunday Times front page
ReplyDeleteas – I paraphrase : ‘THEY fear Corbyn’s imminent power so make up stuff about him.’ "
If the paraphrase is accurate then surely it's libellous - suggesting a professional journalist concocts untrue stories...
She didn't say it quite so openly, but it was the gist of what she meant:
ReplyDeleteAFUA HIRSCH: The other half's clearly panicking about the likelihood of Corbyn getting more legitimacy. You've got these stories about him being a Marxist, about him being an anti-Semite, or presiding over an anti-Semitic party, how to protect your assets from Corbyn.
ANDREW MARR: Extraordinary, yeah, yeah.
AFUA HIRSCH: There is clearly a rising sense he needs to be taken seriously as someone who could be gaining ground out of this process.
Andrew Marr's 'extraordinary' there shows him agreeing with her. Coupled with his sceptical comments at the start of the paper review, I'd say he was being pretty dismissive of the Sunday Times story too.
P.S. Thanks for point this out MB. Looking at this again it's far worse than I first though. (See new post above).
DeleteOddly, this mention by Afua Hirsh of the Labour antisemitism story shows that I wasn't quite right in my post above. The story DID get a mention during the paper review proper. And this was it!
Extraordinary they should publish these factually based allegations against Jeremy. That he took the Ayatollah's shilling, that he praised an anti-semitic mural, that he tried to get his pals treated leniently when it came to charges of anti-semitism, that he considers the anti-Jewish Hamas terror organisation "friends", that he has consorted with the IRA, a Marxist terror organisation, that he has flirted with 9-11 conspiracy theories, that he has called for Venezualan style socialist policies and that he is most definitely an extreme Marxist who was happy to visit the old DDR as a country that was something to aspire to.
DeleteI wish they'd stop banging on
ReplyDeleteabout how Mueller found Trump had not colluded with Russia
/sarc