According to a thinly-sourced piece in The Mail on Sunday, the Government intends to boycott Newsnight over the appointment of Lewis Goodall because of his "aggressively anti-Tory comments on social media". If that proves to be the case, then the Government will be boycotting two flagship BBC current affairs programmes. Wonder what Lewis will tweet about this?
"aggressively anti-Tory comments on social media"
ReplyDeleteWell that bit is right - I wonder if he will rein it back once he joins, or as reported- the BBC social media rules change or..he carries on regardless.
Hard to know. Goodall is not a bad reporter per se. He clearly picked up the mood and foresaw that the Brexit Party was going to win big in the EU elections and wipe out the Conservatives. He clearly understands Labour's "heartlands" problem (and identified it as such before most commentators).
DeleteHowever, I think he's approaching this all from the standard BBC position which is kind of Left-Blarite, pro-Labour.
Will he rein it back? Yes, I think he will be very careful. I am sure he can see that the media weather has changed...maybe there is even "climate change" in the media.
By the way what doe it mean for the Newsnight Team that Nick Watt is going to continue as "Political Editor" while Lewis Goodall becomes "Policy Editor". Which idiot made that decision? Gonna be some tension there I reckon..that's a turf war in the making isn't it?
I can't see him changing the habit of a lifetime, can you?
ReplyDeleteCraig, you might have combined this post with 'Twitter ye not' below. BBC News seem unwilling or incapable of control their staff. Any criticism is merely seen as a badge of honour - boosting already oversized egos. There's nothing BBC reporters like more than being a part of the story themselves.
ReplyDeleteBad wording ... 'unwilling or incapable of control their staff'... should read 'unwilling to control their staff, or incapable of doing so'.
DeleteThey've tried exerting some authority in the past like an ineffectual curate at a Church-run Youth Club trying to stop snogging on the dance floor...but the young uns and not-so-young uns weren't having any of it. In the post 2016 world, the silly Beebies felt they had a right to push back against the populist hordes, to fact-check them to death, to interrupt their every sentence, to approve of violent demonstrations against them by Far Left thugs, to approve of milk shake assaults and to push even harder for more no-borders mass immigration, more PC censorship and more racialisation of everything.
DeleteLewis is up-and-about on Twitter. He's 'liking' complimentary comments about his book and his journalism, such as this:
ReplyDeleteDan Jukes: "This would be wrong. There are a lot of journalists I don’t like but my experience of working with
Lewis Goodall for many years is that he is fair, honest and good at his job."
https://twitter.com/DanJukes17/status/1213776684576641024
"He's one of the Brightest and Best journalists in Britain - a real force for good, and a marvellous communicator. Very handsome as well." Old Ma Goodall.
DeleteOwen Jones rides to Lewis's rescue:
Delete"Leaving aside the total lie that Lewis Goodall is a Labour activist, this underlines that the Tories are determined to smash every remaining pocket of media scrutiny in a country in which most of the press acts as their campaigning arm as it is."
https://twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/1213840225371410432
Arthur - Must dig out the link to the last Head of Truth and Trust at the BBC's post on not doing anything stupid to staff on 'The Editors'.
ReplyDeleteComedy gold.