Saturday, 8 February 2020

Right-thinkers, wrong-thinkers and the BBC


Yum, yum?

In his new book The FakeNews Factory: Tales from BBC-land David Sedgwick writes:
One of the most pervasive fake news tells of all manifests in the very different treatment meted out to those who agree with the BBC agenda (right-thinkers) and those who disagree with it (wrong-thinkers). An impartial organisation meanwhile would of course treat individuals fairly and equitably in spite of political affiliations.
I read that after listening to Mishal Husain interviewing Liam Halligan and Vicky Pryce on Today this morning. Liam Halligan is the 'wrong-thinker' on Brexit and Vicky Pryce is the 'right-thinker' on the subject of Brexit and, yes, they were treated in very different ways. Mishal interrupted, and challenged, and contradicted, and laughed at pro-Brexit Liam Halligan, and lobbed some pre-prepared, anti-Brexit 'ambush points' at him for good measure. In stark contrast, anti-Brexit Vicky Pryce got a completely free ride. In what possible way could this be considered impartial interviewing? 

Still, we did learn that Liam Halligan likes cuttlefish, so that's something at least. 

1 comment:

  1. Congratulations to David Sedgwick who appears to be outselling Emily Maitlis in the Bestsellers Media Studies section on Amazon - sitting at number one with his previous book. His latest is at number 9.

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/bestsellers/books/275706/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_books

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