Today editor Sarah Sands sounded off on this week's Feedback over the question of the Government's decision to boycott the Today programme in protest against BBC bias:
Well, what's happened is that you can see the Government won a big majority, it sees Labour in disarray and it thinks it's a pretty good time to put the foot on the windpipe of an independent broadcaster.
So the strategy, as we know, is quite Trumpian - to delegitimise the BBC.
So, at the moment that's the policy. I don't think it will last because it's shortsighted and its' pretty discourteous, I think, to our 7 million politically engaged and intelligent listeners.
Is it just me or has the word "Trumpian" (boo! hiss!) suddenly become very popular amongst a certain type of commentator and is it in any way related to the John Pienaar coinage of "Johnsonian" I saw mentioned elsewhere here?
ReplyDeleteDon't give Pienaar credit for coining that obviousism! It's been around for years since when Boris was Mayor of London.
DeleteUs of "Trumpian" simply displays Sands' additional prejudice against Trump. Has she ever watched CNN or MSNBC or CBS or ABC? They are all incredibly biased! They totally ignore the litany of Clinton crimes and misdemeanours!! They are deranged about Trump and have been trying to get him removed even before he was elected! Trump has every reason to distrust the lying US media and it is his right to denounce them, given their extreme animus towards him.
Believe me, I had no intention of giving JP any credit for anything!! I think the use of Johnsonian is intended to encourage people to think that Boris is a "Tory" (don't the bbc just love making that sound like an expletive!) version of DJT and that of course is the worst possible thing in the world. It doesn't seem to occur to them that there are people out here who think that being a bit like The Donald might not be an entirely bad thing!
DeleteI think initially there was a lot of instinctive British dislike of Trump's style - the brash, bragging quality of his leadership. But I think fair people have come round to the view that while like all of us he has his faults, there is real substance beneath the veneer.
DeleteSarah, love, the BBC already delegitimises the BBC with its shameless hectoring & bias.
ReplyDeleteTrumpian in that Trump points out that certain media delegitimises itself ?
ReplyDeleteDoes she mean that kind of Trumpian ?