In which Nick Robinson lets himself down

 

If only BBC journalists like Nick Robinson could resist the temptation to go for the easy 'gotcha'.

And I'm not talking about politicians here but (possibly licence-fee-paying) members of the public.

Going back to an earlier post, and Nick's notable tweet:

Nick Robinson: Was there a cover up of what was known about sexual harassment allegations? This is an extraordinary story about a war between the two leading figures in the drive for Scottish independence. Imagine how big it would be if it was about, say, Johnson & May.

One reply said: 

Leading Edge: This is a huge story but the BBC and other MSM hardly touch it.

At which Nick pounced and replied:

Nick Robinson: Except you’re commenting on the BBC reporting it so...

No, Nick. You're missing the word "hardly" in Leading Edge's comment. 

Leading Edge's point stands. 

Yes, Nick Eardley wrote a piece of the BBC website about it, but, as I wrote earlier, BBC One had barely touched the story, covering it (briefly) just twice so this year so far, and Newsnight has avoided it completely in 2021. 

That, in my book, supports Mr Edge's point that the BBC has 'hardly touched it'. 

I suspect Nick Robinson is well aware of that (he's not daft), but the chance for a cheap comeback proved far too alluring - hence his easy snark.

P.S. Nicola Sturgeon is back on The Andrew Marr Show tomorrow. Will Andrew go hard and dig deep, with an eye-watering, Boris-interview-like battering of interruptions, or not? 

(He's also got on Israel’s Minister of Health Yuli Edelstein, so where will he go with that interview too, as if we can't guess?)