Wednesday 5 June 2019

Handbags at dawn



Paul Danahar, BBC News’ Americas Bureau Chief,  just couldn't bite his tongue, but then got bit himself: 

PAUL DANAHAR: Here’s the full Piers Morgan interview with Donald Trump. The top line is……well there isn’t really a strong top line. It’s odds and ends about various stuff but unless you have 30 mins to kill you can skip this one. 
PIERS MORGAN: BBC news chief who failed to get interview with President Trump announces there is no news in rival network’s exclusive interview that’s currently making news around the world... methinks the green-eyed monster’s blurred his vision!

Update: And 'Big John' Simpson (aka Old Simpers) agrees with Paul.

'Some say' the BBC's World Affairs Editor was sneering at the ITV man without having watched the interview. See if you agree with 'Some' here:
I only saw a minute or so of Piers Morgan's long interview with Donald Trump, but apparently he didn't get round to challenging him on pulling the US out of the Paris Agreement on climate change.  Lots about the Royal Family, though, I'm told.
And, Further Update, it's still going on:

PIERS MORGAN: Hi John, I challenged him repeatedly about climate change. Maybe try watching it before spewing your usual pompous, jealous old BBC bore act - it’s not a good look for a guy who hasn’t had a big interview this Millennium. Love Piers x
JOHN SIMPSONPoor old Piers. 

Still, eventually Old Simpers got round to watching it and replied to someone else saying:
Hi @anneshine33. I've seen the full Piers Morgan-Trump thing, & you're right, it's not as godawful as the previous ones. But so many huge questions left unasked - not just the Paris Agreement. If only Emily Maitlis could have grilled Trump instead!  Not a chance, of course. 
Miaow!

8 comments:

  1. Emily Maitlis! That's a laugh!! In fact that seems to be her interview technique these days: laughing loudly and inappropriately at things she doesn't like or believe, or at her own jokes.

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    1. Emily's loud, inappropriate, biased laughs are getting ever more frequent. I'm sure she didn't used to behave anywhere near as badly - or as blatantly - as this. The BBC is obviously giving her a huge amount of slack, bias-wise.

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    2. I think she channelled a bit of Marina Hyde into her interviewing a while back, which got her the RTS Award and that went to her head, literally, so she is now laughing her head off during interviews in the hope of garnering more awards. But for me and I am sure much of the audience it just makes her look stupid, unserious and self-obsessed.

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  2. Simpson interviewed Pim Fortuyn when the latter was at the height of his popularity. I was living in the Netherlands at the time and understood why Fortuyn was so popular and a real threat to the establishment.

    Simpson accused him of being racist, completely and deliberately missing everything that Fortuyn had been saying. Watching from Holland, it was embarrasing for Simpson, and revealing. His simplistic tactics did the trick for BBC viewers though. He succeeded in painting Pim black, which was his mission.

    Grilling is the only method he has for those he dislikes. Maybe he should try a bit of baking or learn how to fry.

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    1. It's a well established BBC approach to foreign leaders they disapprove of. Doing it with Orban, Trump and Salvini at present.

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    2. There's a curious twist to that interview. John Simpson wrote a piece about it in the Sunday Telegraph on 5 May 2002 with the headline 'Holland's anti-Islam dandy is lost for words' in which he paints himself as the victor in the encounter and Pym Fortuyn as the loser. It was the following day, 6 May 2002, that Pym Fortuyn was murdered by a left-wing activist. He then basically re-jigged his Telegraph piece for a BBC online obituary.

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    3. I don't recall Pim being lost for words (haven't seen the interview since it was broadcast).
      I recall him looking a bit befuddled at the accusation of racism, then admitting he had a predeliction for young Moroccan men !
      You had to be there to really enjoy that one.

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  3. This is a good example of what is wrong with the MSM. 'Grilling' is really the MSM pushing its agenda onto politicians, whereas a good interview draws out what a politician really believes in and allows us to make an informed choice come election time.
    'Grilling' just tells us who will bend to the MSM's will, which seems to be most of them. That is why 'we' don't trust them and why 'we' increasingly don't vote for them.

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