Sunday 29 December 2019

Emily speaks (again)


The Observer reports that Emily Maitlis is blaming "the populist playbook" for "exploiting the frenetic news cycle" over the past four years. She says:
It starts with denigrating experts so people don’t trust facts, then it destabilises institutions, then it works to get its message out in the media, so that’s what people cling to. And what can you do about any of that but know you are constantly pushing against that narrative?
So that's the narrative she's pushing, is it?

She'll also doubtless delight Lord Hall by burying her airhead in the sand (or in a peroxide-filled sink) over recent evidence that the public is losing trust in the BBC:
I’m not sure I buy the argument that the public is more mistrustful – the debate will always garner that kind of traction because anything the BBC does is always in the spotlight. So often people read conspiracy into a thing when it’s really a confluence of cock-ups and the wrong button being pressed at the wrong time, or the guest you wanted gets into the wrong taxi and doesn’t show up.

19 comments:

  1. Isn't that paragraph from The Observer an enormous dollop of projection? What she says is certainly why I don't trust bbc "facts" without first checking in several other places. In relation to the second quote, I don't read "conspiracy" into bbc output at all, just groupthink. Emily is a first class example in my opinion. By the way, where can I purchase a copy of this populist playbook? It sounds an interesting conspiracy!

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    1. Exactly! Whereas the BBC were one of the main supporters of the Trump-Russia conspiracy theory which was found by Mueller to be complete bunkum.

      The BBC also strongly promote race conspiracy theories by suggesting that inequalities of outcome reflect race bias by so called "white" people against certain ethnic groups (even though some non-white ethnic groups outperform white ethnic groups in these analyses, which strongly suggests there is no conspiracy, not even "unconscious" bias).

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  2. ‘It starts with denigrating experts so people don’t trust facts‘

    The experts denigrated themselves by playing fast and loose with facts then adding personal opinion, politics and distortion to the mix.

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    1. Here are some "facts" the BBC has promoted which then make us distrust them as an institution:

      1. There are many reasons why we have a housing crisis but the pressure of mass immigration is not one of them.

      2. All child migrants to the UK are children and not adults pretending to be children.

      3. Islam is a religion of peace.

      4. Hillary Clinton is a wonderful human being possessed of a thousands qualities whereas Donald Trump is a vile would-be tyrant.

      5. Women's sport is of equal quality and intensity to men's sport and is of equal interest to the population at large.

      6. Temperatures across Australia are at the highest ever recorded.

      7. Extinction Rebellion is a genuine environmental youth movement and not an anti-capitalist political movement.

      8. Brexit will produce hundreds of negative economic outcomes and virtually no positive ones.

      9. Andrew Marr is a top notch interviewer at the height of her powers.

      10. Angela Merkel did not defy EU law by welcoming in a million undocumented migrants.

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    2. Exactly.

      We particularly started denigrating the experts when everything they told us would happen immediately after a vote for Brexit never happened.

      In fact, not only were their dire predictions of catastrophe wrong, events in the real world trended in exactly the opposite direction to the one they'd predicted.

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    3. MB - Some of the BBC 50 Falsehoods I mentioned before Christmas. We should keep a little list!

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    4. Very good MB
      Some additions
      11. There are over 100 Genders
      12. Climate scientists say the argument for global warming is settled
      13. We are a secular country and Christian values are no more important than other faiths.
      14. National identity is bad and right wing.
      15. Multi-culturism brings only good to the UK.
      16. Leaving aside his mistakes with Iraq, Tony Blair was the best Prime Minister.
      17. Donald Trump is a racist and an uncouth populist oaf and not fit to be President. (Diitto Boris for the UK)

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  3. Dead Ringers got it 'just about right', Bronzed Strumpet - who can take her seriously after that?

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    1. There were complaints from both sides: tanning salons and the National Union of Strumpets.

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  4. The problem here is a majority of people still do not comprehend that the so-called BBC "news" - ALL OF IT - is nothing but agenda-driven propaganda programming. Once you understand that - as in 100% understand it and accept it as nothing other - it will no longer trigger you, no matter what your political leanings. But if one subscribes to the program (as is the objective) as some kind of rendering of reality, it will literally drive the mind to a rabid pitch in alignment with the agenda, or to insanity, whatever comes first. I know this because I see it all the time.

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  5. Emily is victim of groupthink within the BBC that its pundits and its values are right while everyone who disagrees with this must be wrong.

    The BBC "fact checks" are often shoddy and its experts aren't expert at all in their fields. They are often wrong and so why would anyone believe them?

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    1. You're right about shoddy...I've been appalled by the BBC Reality Checks - so sloppily put together. There are plenty of left wing Fact Check sites that do a much better job than the BBC which pumps out opinion pieces addressing half baked questions, or even no question at all. Pathetic, given all the resources they have at their disposal.

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  6. I have to credit her for making 'confluence of cock-ups' as just an average day at W1A.

    Apparently.

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  7. Of course being a metroliberal EM addresses metroliberal concerns of BBC bias twice a month but not ours of BBC bias 20 times each hour
    She said So often people read *conspiracy* into a thing when it’s really a confluence of cock-ups
    What is she talking about ?
    Well here is a list from a metroliberals tweet
    1. BBC edited centotaph footage (No it didn't it was a genuine cock-up of them using the test footage from last year instead of this years)

    2. BBC edited booing of Boris in the election debate (I think it was a quick cut & of little consequence)

    3. BBC Kuenssberg falsely tweets Tory punched by Labour activist. (true ..a cockup)

    4.KUENSSBERG fakely/ illegally tweets Labour behind in postal vote. (it wasn't ilegal that's why there is no hint of prosecuting her, it also had little impact on the vote. Whereas if she had said the vote was very close and Corbyn was likely to win, that would have stimulated lazy Tory voters)


    5. BBC reporter "majority Boris so richly deserves."
    (The give away here is that the source is rarely given
    ..Speaking quickly The Wales reporter says "If he wins the victory he so DESERVES , he will"
    ..it's kind of obvious she meant "so DESIRES" and it was a slip of the tongue)

    - Also that Newsnight episode where they mocked up Corbyn in a Soviet style backdrop wasn't fair , so it's obvious they don't like Corbyn, but they do the same to Trump 9 times more frequently and Boris 5 times more often.

    Those minor slips to me are what the lefties have spun up to say there is a BBC bias against the left.

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    1. Yes a pathetic and short list from the lefties.

      Re no.3, I think it did technically amount to assault. If I am in public and carelessly wave my arms around in an agitated state, I am not sure "I didn't mean to" amounts to a defence. My negligence and failure to act reasonably in public means it amounts to assault.

      That said,it was of course very minor stuff that the Conservatives probably did play up on the day.

      Re No. 4 LK clearly acted illegally in my view. No one is allowed to disclose how votes have been cast in the postal vote part of the ballot prior to the close of poll.The fact you are referencing someone else's view is no defence.

      Had LK been specific "Looks like Anna Soubry is going to lose her seat" that would without any doubt be illegal. But I see no defence for even general statements if they are based on what took place at the postal vote opening - (which was clearly what she was reporting on).

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  8. "The guest you wanted gets into the wrong taxi and doesn’t show up." Yes Mr Impartiality was whisked away in a Big Yellow Taxi a long time ago, and Mx. Libby Partisan turned up in his place.

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  9. What have experts been right about?

    1. Himalayan Glaciers melted by 2030. Er no.
    2. UK going into recession after a Brexit vote. Er no.
    3. That there would be no recession in 2008. Er no.
    4. That people in Tower Blocks should stay put in their flats in event of fire. Er no.
    5. That there was no prospect of the EU's Withdrawal Agreement with Theresa May being renegotiated. Er no.
    6. That in the 2019 election the Labour Party would win between 206 and 256 seats, with the figure most likely being 231. (You Gov MRP) Er no. [wrong - Labour got 202 seats]
    7. That Hillary Clinton would win the 2016 election. Er no.

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  10. Edwards, Matlis, they are all lining up for it's not me guv". The BBC does commission some good stuff, but the costs are huge, the output decreasing, and the consistent themed agendas and news reporting gets worse.

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  11. A new longer lefty list of BBC conspiracies
    https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1206992886841192451.html

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