Other views

Stephen Pollard: I'm very uncomfortable with this. Read these words on a page and they are an op-ed column, not a report. I think there can be a place for editorialising on TV, but not in the intro to a flagship BBC analysis programme. (FWIW I think Cummings broke the rules and should go).

Ed Davey MP: Brilliant journalism from Emily Maitlis.

Dan Hodges: Can we just clear something up re Emily Maitlis and her Newsnight opening on Cummings. And it’s not about her it’s a general point. Is that what we all want now. Editorialisation replacing news. Again I don’t mind either way. But again, I just want to know the rules.

Oz Katerji: Maitlis spoke the truth on Newsnight, Dominic Cummings broke the rules, & nobody instructing a public broadcaster to accommodate lies and spin into their analysis should be listened to. The BBC’s job is not to make a mockery of the truth by taking lies about eye-tests seriously.

Darren Grimes: Look, you all know my view, but whether you liked Maitlis' explanation or not, this is editorialising. Deliberately including certain analysis and excluding others. It reveals her views and in doing so undermines the impartiality of the BBC. She was not clear it was her own take.

Mark Pougatch: Outstanding Newsnight, Emily Maitlis and Lewis Goodall. Fearless broadcasting at its best.

Dr Paul Stott: The Newsnight monologue, which we first saw in April, returns. The idea that Emily Maitlis speaks for the country, or that it is her job to try to do so, is highly questionable.

Robin Ince: I am often quite cross with BBC News, but Emily Maitlis is often its very best asset.

Kate Hoey: Understand that the BBC is being inundated with complaints about Emily Maitlis and Newsnight from last night. I have also put in a complaint and am sure many many more will.

Piers Morgan: Where is the bias? Emily stated irrefutable facts. That’s her job as a journalist. The Govt is supporting hypocrisy & endorsing rule-breaking. This will cost lives. It doesn’t matter if you’re left, right or sideways: facts don’t care about your feelings. Emily didn’t editorialise, everything she said was true.

Madeline Grant: It’s not Emily Maitlis’s job to tell viewers what to think...This is the Fox News modus operandi, just spouting left-wing views,

Sian Berry: Truly excellent from Emily Maitlis exercising the freedom to say two plus two make four.
Charlotte Gill: A moral lecture from Emily Maitlis? No thanks. We’re talking about the woman who Tweeted how “sad” she was that a journalist got fired for accessing private calls.

Jon Jones: The Emily Maitlis Miracle MK2. These words were brilliant and most definitely needed. This needs to be the new norm.

Ben Bradley MP: Come on BBC Newsnight,BBC Politics!? You used to at least TRY to be impartial! This editorial from Emily Maitlis is so far over the line, the line is now just a dot in the far distance!

AC Grayling: Look around the world in this terrible time & you see that it's women who are the leaders: Jacinda Ardern, Angela Merkel - in journalism here it's Emily Maitlis, Marina Hyde. The very worst of male hubris, ineptitude & arrogance is summed up in Johnson & Cummings.

Nick Timothy: It's incredible that Emily Maitlis and Newsnight don't see the damage they are doing to the BBC every time they do this.

Stefan Simanowitz: A great journalist puts into words the things people feel. Thanks 4 this Emily Maitlis.

Ian Leslie: This is weird and wrong and I am amazed the BBC think it's OK (and I say that as someone who essentially agrees with what she says).