We’re supposed to be talking about the BBC but I think Sky surpassed the BBC (and itself) on today's bias Olympics.
After Dominic Cummings’s press briefing/ debriefing Alastair Campbell was given free rein (uninterrupted) to spout utter bile.
"Campbell described Cummings’ statement as a “car crash” and said that it is “beyond belief” they are focused more on media reaction to Cummings than the coronavirus pandemic.
Hang on. Surely it’s the media that’s focused more on Cummings than on the coronavirus pandemic!
He explained: “Whether he was in breach of the lockdown rules, I don’t have any doubt about that whatsoever.
“And I think it is clear from the tone and tenor of all of the other questions, and I think they were reflecting... what viewers are thinking about the utter hypocrisy at the heart of this.
Hang on. I think some viewers might actually be thinking about the utter hypocrisy at the heart of the media?
“The other thing that is beyond belief here is that we are in the middle of crisis. The prime minister and the cabinet, their full attention should be on how to get us through this crisis, which they’ve handled so badly from start to finish.
Hang on, surely it’s the media that’s interfering with everyone’s attention on how to get us through this crisis?
“But they were all, all afternoon, sitting at their television looking at their Twitter feeds trying to work out what the right-wing media are saying.
The rest of Campbell's rant was plain nasty and doesn’t merit being broadcast at all.
“They are the most pathetic, craven bunch of people, and they do not deserve to be there.
“I am moving to the place where I sort of hope he stays, because they’re all done now for this if they’re not careful.
“So I don’t care what Johnson does, he’s been exposed for what he is, he’s a liar and a charlatan, and not up to the job.
“Cummings - you’ve seen what he is today.
He added: “I find it shameful that this is our government at this time of crisis. I find it utterly shameful.”
Whether or not Cummings believed he broke the guidelines (he did) he’s muddied the public health message and is distracting from the govt’s pandemic response. The only honourable thing to do would have been to apologise & resign. pic.twitter.com/UBvJwbsfjx
I mean——- just——- - - does this animated spitting-image-like portrayal of indignation really reflect public opinion? She complains that Cummings has been occupying the news agenda for the last three days and has "distracted the machinery of government from the most pressing issues". Well, whose fault is that madam? I think you'll find it's yours.
“The media’s Dominic Cummings story has completely collapsed. He did NOT go to Durham a second time, which was reported on the front page of the Sunday Mirror and the Observer. He did NOT have any physical contact with family members. The police did NOT talk to the Cummings family about the Covid lockdown guidelines. Cummings did NOT carry on doing things that everyone else had stopped doing — he even missed the funeral of his uncle who died from Covid. He did NOT leave his London home for leisure reasons — he left it because he was receiving death threats as a result of media demonisation. He was very ill, his wife was ill, and at one point his child was taken to hospital in an ambulance in Durham.
His family has had a really rough time and the media have told lie after lie about him. The scandal is not Cummings’ behaviour — it is the collapse of ethics and objectivity in the British media.
So who’s the biggest liar? Cummings or the media?
I didn’t think Dominic Cummings had a pair of completely water-tight legs to stand on, but looking at the way the media has inflated this increasingly irrelevant tale to bursting point, I think I’ll go with Brendan.
I came in an hour or so ago tonight and spotted that Jon Sopel had been editorialising on Twitter about the expulsion of Alastair Campbell from the Labour Party:
True, of course, but hardly impartial.
Of course, Jon can editorialise about Donald Trump till the bison come home without incurring the wrath of a Twitter mob, but criticise Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party and the (far-left) hounds of Hell will be on you within minutes. As he's finding tonight.
Here, for example (and one of the politest), is Ash Sarkar's Novara pal Aaron Bastani: "Did you comment on Heseltine’s suspension last week or do you only abuse your position at the BBC to defend friends from having rules applied to them?"
Is it wrong to be reaching for the (metaphorical) popcorn?
...with A.C. Grayling, Gavin Esler and Carole Cadwalladr looking on...
Here's a box of frogs on Twitter. Enjoy!
Denis MacShane: What proper journalism into Farage? The man's portrait is the official BBC screen saver.
Andrew Adonis: BREAKING NEWS - BBC News bulletins will henceforth be known as ‘Farage Campaign Updates.’ Nigel is also presenting Songs of Praise this week, oddly to hymns by Wagner.
Marcus Chown: BBC makes urgent plea for Nigel Farage stunt doubles. "One Nigel Farage is not simply enough for all the appearances we are scheduling," says BBC spokesperson.
Peter Jukes: No one knows where this drift into right wing populism and demagoguery will end, but end it will one day. Then Britain will have to look to reform many of the institutions that failed us. And the BBC will be top of that list.
George Foulkes: BBC cancel Have I got news for you because Heidi Allen who is not a candidate was due to be on but had Farage who is a candidate on Question Time. Can anyone stop this disgrace?
Marcus Chown: BBC announces Nigel Farage to front Spring Watch, The One Show. Match of the Day, Antiques Road Show and to be offered role of H in Line of Duty 6.
Alastair Campbell: Farage and John Mills on BBCQT together, as Marr books Farage for 3 days later. Now Heidi Allen dropped from a popular BBC satire show because of impartiality rules. There is something seriously sick going on inside the BBC and has been throughout Brexit process.
For someone who's hardly ever off the BBC, it's surely a bit rich for Alastair Campbell to moan about someone like Peter Hitchens getting an invite to the Today studio. Yet moan he did:
Most nights BBC Newsdesk and Planning editor Neil Henderson tweets out the newspaper front pages under the hashtag #tomorrowspaperstoday. Or occasionally his colleague Helena Lee does it, if he's off.
All they do is to tweet the front page of every newspaper without comment.
Most people appreciate their nocturnal activity but, of course, you can't please everyone - especially those who object to the paper or the headline being tweeted.
(Quite a lot think the BBC shouldn't be tweeting papers like the Express and the Mail for example).
With surprising regularity, many such people then yell 'BBC bias!' back at the BBC, even when - to anyone who uses their brain as something other than insulation for their skull - this daily service is quite obviously no such thing.
But some of the complainants, who obviously know what Neil and Helena are really doing, aren't idiots. They do it in a calculating, dishonest way, evidently in order to bully the BBC.
Take, for example, a certain Alastair Campbell who sent out this tweet overnight:
Thankfully, the sensible part of Twitter has responded along with the insensible rabble and given the old propagandist a ticking-off.
He knows exactly what he's up to with tweets like this.
Was just on BBC Newsnight and yet again they try to shut down an established fact: Vote Leave cheated and broke the law in the referendum. That's not an 'allegation'. That's a fact. That is the finding of the Electoral Commission and is why Vote Leave was referred to the police.
Thousands of #FBPE types, along with Carole Cadwalldr, Alastair Campbell and the other usual suspects (even Nick Cohen), then amplified this charge and it spread (like myxomatosis in the 1950s) across the interweb.
And yet it was all 'fake news'.
Christopher Wylie, Carole Cadwalldr, Alastair Campbell and all of the pandemomic legions of #FBPEs had either misheard or misunderstood (or deliberately misinterpreted) what Kirsty had said.
Even I grasped straightaway that their complaints were nonsense-on-pretentious-stilts on watching the interview after reading their complaints.
(P.S. I'm slightly stunned to be defending Kirsty Wark on a question of bias).
Kirsty Wark hadn't said what the Cadwalldristas claimed she'd said. Kirsty was talking about Chris Wylie's claims about Facebook not about Vote Leave.
As former BBC man Gavin Esler (now a fervent anti-Brexit Twitterer) accurately put it in a response to the head of the Cadwalldr community: "Carole, I am a great admirer of you work but Chris said Facebook acted illegally - that is an allegation. The FACT is that they found Vote Leave broke the law. My former colleague Kirsty Wark was being rigorous and accurate".
An entire Twitterstorm was therefore based on few thousand very vocal people (including at least two journalists at a respected Sunday newspaper, The Observer) either not understanding or not wanting to understand Kirsty Wark's questions and crying 'BBC bias!'
(Whither English Comprehension these days? Or can it all be blamed on Kirsty's habit of slurring her words slightly, as she's wont to do?).
Naturally the #FPPE brigade didn't accept any of the BBC's rebuttals, even though the rebuttals were correct, and the storm has gone on and on, like...simile alert!...a mad rabbit hopping its way up Mount Everest without an oxygen mask.
This stuff and nonsense is taking up a lot of the BBC's time at the moment.
A second (related) example from this morning, with some typical and some untypical responses:
PETER JUKES: Arron Banks is believed to have donated £8.4m to the leave campaign, the largest political donation in British politics... “He failed to satisfy us that his own donations had, in fact, come vrom (sic) sources within the UK.” Says Damian Collins, Washington Post. This should be BREAKING news on the BBC. A cross party parliamentary select committee has concluded that Britain's biggest ever political donor could well have been funded by a foreign power. This is illegal. It's also treacherous. Silence in the face of this is complicity. GUY LAMBERT: We won’t have a BBC in 10 years time. Endless tweets like this will kill it. Every day it’s “why isn’t the BBC doing what I want it to do in the exact way I want them to do it?” Most of them turn out to be untrue anyway. Peter Jukes will one day wake up without it and wonder why. SCOTT MATTHEWMAN: Indeed, Damian Collins has just been on Radio 4 talking about these very issues. GUY LAMBERT: Oh really? What show? I’d like to hear that ta. SCOTT MATTHEWMAN: Broadcasting House. And his comments then made one of the lead items in the 9:30am news summary. TOM JAMIESON: Was one of the lead stories on BBC news all day yesterday - interview on Today etc etc. ROB BURLEY: Also, the DCMS Committee story is on the front page of the BBC website. NIK MORRIS (to ROB BURLEY): Nice of you to catch up. Who forced your hand?
Ah, but to our old friend Scott's point that Damian Collins was on Broadcasting Houseslamming Arron Banks and Dominic Cummings (and thus debunking Peter Jukes's complaint), there's always something else for the #FBPE crowd to come back with and defeat Scott with. Here's one of their other leading Twitter voices, Tim Walker, reacting to that very same interview:
Absurd larky isn’t-this-all-a-laugh tone to the Broadcasting House report on @BBCRadio4 on the fraudulent win of Leave in the EU Referendum.
Well, it wasn't a 'report'; it was an interview. And it was with Damian Collins, the man Carole Cadwalldr & Co. are praising today. And it was the programme's lead story. And it wasn't larky. It was just Paddy O'Connell doing what he always does in his usual manner.
So, yes, even when - as on Newsnight or Broadcasting House - such people are seeing their favourite stories get prominent and extensive BBC treatment - and, in BH's case, just seeing someone from their side of the argument being interviewed, it still isn't enough. The tone has be how they'd like it too. Paddy has to stop being Paddy just for them.
And there's more - again from this morning:
HELEN TROY: BBC News gives more prominence to possible cheating in Football World Cup award to Qatar than Leave fraud and cheating in 2016 referendum. TIM WALKER: Every day now, the BBC allows Rupert Murdoch’s Brextremist newspapers - and the Daily Mail - to decide what is news
Of course they are, Tim, of course they are! (Nurse, nurse!)
And it goes on. The World This Weekend this weekend has been under sustained rocket attack from the same social media crowd for not going with the Arron Banks/Dominic Cummings Leave fraud story and, worse, for going instead with the possible suspension of Ian Austin from the Labour Party and making antisemitism in the Labour Party the programme's main focus.
Please gird up your loins in advance because here's a flavour of those complaints (without corrections to spelling or grammar!):
Utterly appaling extended hatchet job on Corbyn and abour by the BBC on #wato starring critics of Corbyn including Ian Austin.
#wato had nothing on Banks, Leave campaign after Joe Cox's murder and nothin on the threats to our democracy today. Again. Come on @BBC stop failing Britain.
#wato talking to a Jewish Family this is sounding very rehearse and very political this isn’t a Vox Pop, But an Attack On Lab allows no new nuance allowed on #wato 25 Mins in examples of AS thin on the ground BBC Making a Martyr Of Ian Austin #really
Serious concern re fake news, Facebook and Fascist Banks and the threat to democracy, major discussion on BBC Radio 4 lunchtime news, er no. Programme devoted to @jeremycorbyn anti-antisemitism smear campaign.
This is only an 'ongoing controversy' because #wato and #bbcnews keep up their trolling and abuse of Jeremy Corbyn.
25minutes of anti Corbyn and AS... seriously our country is not being governed, we’re being warned of food shortages and this is what the bbc chooses to lead with......
What other program would give one hand picked Jewish family from North London the right to "speak for all Jews"? #wato also Diamond just this minute substituted Ms Schindler's word "discrimination" for "persecution". This is propaganda.
#WATO 30 mins of prime @BBCNews spent on anti semitism in Labour. Is this a legitimate way to spend licence payers money?
Why didn't Johnny Diamond interview Michael Rosen and his family? Why is he so keen to misrepresent what Jews believe? This looks like an attempt to corrupt democracy.
It would appear that @BBCRadio4 has decreed that the whole of #wato will be nothing but #torypropaganda on AS and Corbyn. Utterly incredible.
Ian Austin is charged with being abusive. Why does @bbcnews grant several minutes of prime BBC Radio 4 lunchtime news to give his side, but the other side or witnesses not heard? Balance, impartiality?
This is one of the worst examples of #bbcbias I have ever heard on #wato and I have heard plenty. #bbcstatepropaganda, #bbctorypropaganda
Not content with having their story of choice as the lead item on Broadcasting House such people also wanted it to be the main story on The World This Weekend.
And they must definitely don't want antisemitism in the Labour Party to be made a made topic of conversation on the BBC, even on the day when Ian Austin MP followed Margaret Hodge MP down the disciplinary route.
Yes, they want it all their own way.
The extended feature itself was scrupulously 'balanced'. First came Ian Austin MP and then the Schindler family. They were in the anti-Corbyn camp. Then came Professor Geoffrey Bindman QC and Richard Burgon MP to represent the pro-Corbyn camp.
However, after all of this onslaught of foolishness from 'the other side', what do you make of this framing narrative from Jonny Dymond (aka Johnny Diamond) prior to his interview with Mr Corbyn-friendly Sir Geoffrey Bindman? (The emphases underlined here are Jonny's, though the bold emphases are mine):
Cathy Schindler there referred to the ongoing controversy over Labour's adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of anti-Semitism. The refusal to adopt the definition and working examples in full has caused some to doubt the party's commitment to the battle against anti-Semitism. That refusal was in part of the reason why, this week, three Jewish newspapers put on their front pages a statement of their deep concern about Labour's position on anti-Semitism. Why? They said that Jews faced an existential threat if Labour came to power. But the party hasadopted the code in full and, in effect, all but one half of the examples that were issued alongside the code. The single sentence that it has not adopted from the one working example has been admitted, it says, so as to allow for legitimate criticisms of Israel. The adoption of the code has yet to be voted on and is still up for consultation.
What do the Twitter crowd (who seems to have missed) make of that?
There's the BBC's Jonny telling The World this Weekend listeners that Labour has basically adopted the IHRA in full, except for "all but" half the added examples and a "single sentence" that sounds entirely reasonable. And it's all up for discussion.
So what's the problem, eh?
And that statement was immediately followed by Jonny introduced Sir Geoffrey, who reinforced this message about the good will and good wording of the Labour re-working of the IHRA definition of antisemitism.
And how did Jonny introduce the controversial QC?
Sir Geoffrey Bindman is a senior barrister, human rights lawyer and visiting Professor of Law at University College London.
Aha, an expert (of a certain kind)!
Is this a case of me being as silly and partisan as the Corbynista/Cadwalldrista crowd? Or am I being reasonable in my criticism of the BBC while the others are being unreasonable?
You decide!
Meanwhile, I'm going back to my early teens and a favourite pop song of mine at the time. (Will it finally overpower the overpowering voice of Comrade McDonnell on this blog?...Update: Aargh, no. It looks as if we're cursed with Old McDonnnell for a view days more yet!
Alastair Campbell: Hope this helps persuades BBC News the case we have been making that Brexit is not a done deal and the huge strand of public opinion of that view must be given a proper share of debate. Someone tell Rob Burley cos I don’t think he’s listening to me today!!
Alastair Campbell: Suspect if there had been a big pro-Brexit march yesterday one of the main march voices would have been on #Marr Thoughts Rob Burley?
Rob Burley: My main thought is that you should give it a rest.
Rob Burley: Checked what was on Frost the morning after the 2003 Iraq war march. The pro-march voice was Mark Seddon (in papers) and you yourself put up Defence Secretary John Reid explaining why you would be pressing on irrespective of the size of the march the previous day. Rob Burley: Correction. John Reid was actually party chairman at that point. Alastair Campbell: Good rebuttal and research there Rob! Rob Burley: No problem.
Rob Burley: BBC website must be on the blink: we’re leading with the People’s Vote march, yet also apparently engaged in an effort to suppress said march. What’s going on?
Alastair Campbell: OK to relegate to second story. Ring around a few more businesses who are busy moving jobs and investment. Need contacts?
Rob Burley: Watch out Alastair, if you’re not careful you might get a reputation for trying to manipulate the media to suit your agenda.
I don't think Alastair Campbell is going to give up spinning against the BBC any time soon. And why should he? He's doing very well out of it. He was on BBC Two yesterday (The Daily Politics). He was also on Radio 4 (Any Questions). Jobs a good'un?
Alastair Campbell & Co. have been banging on all week about the BBC 'failing' to cover today's anti-Brexit march so as to pressure the BBC into giving it massive coverage. And guess what? This morning the BBC News website is leading with that very march (even though it hasn't even started yet!).
Does this prove that their dishonest campaign of bullying the BBC works? Or would the (anti-Brexit) BBC have led with it like they've done this morning (before it even happens) anyhow?
We'll never know, of course, now. Anyhow, it's leading the BBC News website.
By updating posts from earlier today (which I've subsequently buried under long new posts) I may have I may have inadvertently 'avalanched' myself and disguised the main point of today's posts.
However much Tweedledum and Tweedledee (Lord Adonis and Alastair Campbell) may accuse the BBC of bias (from 'the other side'), their claims of bias (however frustrating they must be to some people who work at the BBC) are surely useful to the BBC as a whole as they seem to give credence to the 'we get accused of bias from both sides so we must be getting it about right' (complaints from both sides) argument.
But in reality they don't give credence to the 'complaints from both sides' argument.
Why? Because the claims of bias from Tweedledum and Tweedledee are demonstrably false. They are fit only for the bin (though they'll doubtless end up in a recycling bin and get recycled ad nauseam.)
There's no substance to them whatsoever. Disproving them is like shooting paraplegic fish in a tiny barrel.
And worse, when closely examined, their fake claims of BBC bias actually steer us towards the monstrous crow of truth: that the BBC is biased in the exact opposite direction to that which Lord Adonis and Alastair Campbell claim it is.
Contrary to an optimistic statement I made in the previous post, you should never put anything past Big Bad Al.
The former Labour spin supremo has been accusing the BBC of "Brexit Dividend propaganda" this morning. (Of course he has. He's got no shame!). It's "the Beeb playing along with Tory spin yet again" apparently.
Unfortunately, he then goes and spoils his own spin by re-tweeting Paul Johnson of the IFS saying there isn't a Brexit dividend. And where was the IFS man saying that? Er, on the BBC.
Indeed, the busy Mr. Johnson has been on both The Sunday Politics and the BBC News Channel this lunchtime rubbishing the claim of a Brexit dividend.
Ah, I see that Rob Burley and Alastair Campbell are back at it again!:
Yes, that's exactly what Polly Toynbee did. And anyone who reads the BBC Breakfast transcript in the previous will realise that BBC journalists haven't been far behind her either.
And the RB-AC exchange continues and it gets madder and madder (on AC's part anyhow):
Alastair Campbell: That was just before Mrs May was allowed to blather on about the Brexit dividend without being challenged on her own impact assessments re impact of all Brexit options on growth. Rob Burley: What’s that scraping sound? Oh, someone’s moving the goalposts. Again... Alastair Campbell: Answer the question. I’m sure there has been a long meeting to discuss how not to give it the light of day. Rob Burley: Where are you on the moon landings?
This will probably go on for a while....
Update: And, yes, Tweedledum later joined it too:
Lord Adonis: Disgraceful BBC parroting of Mrs May’s fictional NHS ‘Brexit dividend’: proof of #BrexitBroadcastingCorporation Alastair Campbell: But @RobBurl said @pollytoynbee dissed it on Marr so it’s fine Andrew. A paper reviewer is now the official rebuttal of lies told by politicians on the national broadcaster. Strange times. Rob Burley: No, you said it wasn’t until late morning you heard the concept being questioned. I pointed out you were hours late. Toynbee questioned it and Marr voiced scepticism in the review and the interview. Sorry but the facts don’t fit the conspiracy/
He posts an image of the front page with the name of the newspaper and the headline written above it.
It's a service he's been performing for years.
Of course, not all of the Twitter public like some of the headlines. So guess what they do? Yes, they blame him!
This time, however, an attention-seeking former spin doctor also got involved:
Neil Henderson (BBC): SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: NHS to get extra £384m per week tomorrowspaperstoday Lando Loves Norwich: Brexit dividend = an utter lie. Nice of BBC journos to punt that one out there unchallenged. Holding absolutely NO one to account. Rob Burley (BBC): Is this a parody account? Alastair Campbell: No. All too spot on. Rob Burley (BBC): So you think by tweeting the front page of a newspaper, the BBC is endorsing the words on the front page of that newspaper? Wow! Jackie Leonard (BBC): Every. Bleeding. Time. Rob Burley (BBC): I think he knows that's a daft thing to say but just wants to start a fight. Unless, of course, this is a parody account... Alastair Campbell: Go to bed. Unless you want to stay up to hear me on @bbc5live shortly talking about the non Brexit dividend. Rob Burley (BBC): I'll go to bed when I choose thank you very much! Actually, I am, er, going to bed. Better quality control with the BBC bashing tweets please... Alastair Campbell: Ps glad you recognise that all my precious Beeb bashing tweets justified and properly quality controlled. Rob Burley (BBC): P.S That's a stretch.
The funniest thing there, of course, is that Beeb-bashing Alastair was just about to go on the BBC yet again. #bbcbias
UPDATE: Here's an absolute gem demonstrating the find of idiocy Neil Henderson finds himself facing. He tweets a headline as normal:
