Ah now, this is what you've all been wating for. Me, banging on about Mark Mardell again. So enjoy!...
With my bias-focused glasses on, and in a pseudo-professorial mood, I listened to today's The World This Weekend and found Mark Mardell's report from St. Albans - a Remain-voting constituency with a pro-Brexit MP, Anne Main - to be pleasingly fair in the wide range of voices it provided.
But the programme's introduction was not fair. It chose to feature two voices from that report, both of whom were anti-Mrs Main.
(Mrs Main might want to put in a complaint.)
(Mrs Main might want to put in a complaint.)
As the programme's main theme was 'Boris potentially throwing Conservative MPs in Remain seats "under a bus"', I'm presuming this one-sided choice of illustrative voices was meant to reinforce the programme's chosen theme.
And then, straight after the report, came a discussion on the subject featuring two pro-Remain journalists: Anne McElvoy of The Economist and Stephen Bush of The New Statesman.
Why two known pro-Remain journalists?
Well, the clue came in the final feature: a segment on Cardinal John Henry Newman featuring one of his sermons which, as Mark put it, "we though sounded rather apt and up-to-date".
"Something strange is passing over this land...a national commotion almost without parallel...it threatens worse still, or at least gives no sure prospect of alleviation..."
Mark quipped that he wasn't talking "about that" but about the restoration of Catholic bishops in England, but - from his own lips - we now know that Mark and The World This Weekend team were talking "about that" in their take on the canonisation of Cardinal Newman.
Well, the clue came in the final feature: a segment on Cardinal John Henry Newman featuring one of his sermons which, as Mark put it, "we though sounded rather apt and up-to-date".
"Something strange is passing over this land...a national commotion almost without parallel...it threatens worse still, or at least gives no sure prospect of alleviation..."
Mark quipped that he wasn't talking "about that" but about the restoration of Catholic bishops in England, but - from his own lips - we now know that Mark and The World This Weekend team were talking "about that" in their take on the canonisation of Cardinal Newman.
Mark, we would have had no "national commotion" if the BBC had given the lead to the country in respecting the 2016 democratic vote, rather than immediately and then relentlessly trying to subvert it by given an incredible and undeserved amount of publicity to people like Anna Soubry, Heidi Allen and Dominic Grieve who all lied to their constituents that they would accept and implement the result of the Referendum but then did everything possible to frustrate Brexit.
ReplyDeleteFor every Brexit supporting interviewee there are at least three or four Remain supporting interviewees. Remain supporters are nearly always allowed to finish their sentences giving their answer while Brexit supporters are nearly always interrupted mid sentence or before they have finished making their answer.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, the BBC has adopted a tone of voice when speaking to Brexit supporters... it's the voice of someone who appears to be talking to those s/he believes are talking nonsense. Incredulity that anyone could possibly support Brexit is not hidden... it's there for all to see (if on TV with raised eyebrows, sneers, etc) and all to hear on radio with the tone of voice.