Viewswatch

BBC’s head of Westminster was supposed to come on @newswatchbbc today but isn’t. We hope to see a senior bbc boss in the next fortnight. In meantime we are looking at PrinceAndrew, future of Newsround & presence of Nigel Farage. 745pm Newsch/BBC1 745am Sat https://t.co/QD9XvN8JwU

— Samira Ahmed (@SamiraAhmedUK) November 22, 2019

It's always tricky when a BBC presenter, off camera, has repeatedly expressed a particular viewpoint but then, in their role as an impartial BBC presenter, repeatedly finds herself reading out other people's expression of that very same viewpoint. 

Take Samira Ahmed, for example. She's known for opposing the exposure given to Nigel Farage, who she doesn't approve of, by the BBC over the years, and yet here she was today on her Newswatch programme reading out a response "that we've heard many times before from viewers" (as she put it):

Can someone explain why Nigel Farage is a mainstay on political programming? He is not running to be an MP, and there are other British MEPs.  

Well, Samira, it's not just "from viewers" that we've heard that response, is it? It's from you too.