Protest

Watching the BBC News Channel about an hour ago, it's clear that the BBC are neither hiding their displeasure at the Trump administration's "media block" [as they are captioning it] nor taking it lying down. 

They have broadcast a 'gotcha' clip of Sean Spicer back in December being interviewed by "the news agency Politico", as Maxine Mawhinney called them. [Is Politico actually a 'news agency'?]:

There is a big difference between a campaign where it is a private venue using private funds and a government entity. And I think we have a respect for the press when it comes to the government, that that is something that you can't ban an entity from, conservative, liberal or otherwise. I think that's what makes a democracy a democracy versus a dictatorship, so I think there is a vastly different model when it comes to Government in what should be accepted and that is on both sides. 

Maxine put a lot of expression into pre-announcing this, saying "he said that barring media from government press briefings is [horrified tone] what dictators do". 

She then interviewed Silvia Borrelli, the London Politico reporter, noting that "Politico was one of the media organisations barred from the White House press briefing - [turning to camera] along with us, the BBC, as well."

Silvia was not at all happy at what the White House has done, and Maxine didn't exactly make much of an effort to play devil's advocate either, saying things like:

• And how do you fight back against it?
• And it is spreading, isn't it? It is not just in the United States now?
• And yesterday we were covering Donald Trump's appearance at the Conservative Association rally in Maryland and [incredulous tone] it only...it was less than two minutes before he started attacking the media. He just brought it up out of the blue and just kept going.
• Does it make any difference if organisations are barred from the White House briefings? 

Captions of media statements protesting the 'media block' ran across the right-hand side of the screen for much of the interview.

P.S. Laura Bicker's report just before this - repeated every hour - calls the President's conference comments on the media a "tirade". 

(Large) Snapshot

For a flavour of the BBC's output this morning (see above), here's a transcription of part of the BBC News Channel's mid-morning paper review, featuring author Matthew Green and Sunday Times journalist Sian Griffiths. BBC presenter Maxine Mawhinney's contributions are worth noting.

MAXINE MAWHINNEY: Hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the the papers will be will be bringing us today. With me are the journalist and author Matthew Green and the Education Editor of the Sunday Times, Sian Griffiths. Let's begin, and we're going to start with the Observer. All of the papers this morning reflecting on what Donald Trump has done.

MATTHEW GREEN: Indeed. America is clearly on the brink of a precipice. We're seeing paranoia and fear of the kind that accompanied the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II. But what does this mean for Britain? We've seen Theresa May essentially cosying up to Trump in the hope that she might somehow provide some sort of a restraining influence, but we have seen that hope blown out of the water by what's happened over the last day with these thousands of refugees and migrants. And the Observer, with all credit to them, has laid it bare on the front page: Trump is ignorant, prejudiced and vicious in ways that no American leader has been. And I think Theresa May's refusal to join other European leaders condemning what' Trump is doing is a huge stain on her premiership and could be a defining moment for her.

MAXINE MAWHINNEY: Sian, a lot of the criticism of Theresa May has been the fact that she is letting America do what America wants to do rather than condemning it. Is she stuck between a rock and a hard place, if we were playing devil's advocate on this?

SIAN GRIFFITHS: Well, I suppose in a way she is because she very much wants to sign trade deals with America post-Brexit. She has come out this morning...her spokesman has said very clearly that Britain does not agree with Trump's stance.

MAXINE MAWHINNEY: But she didn't do it herself. That's what they're saying, isn't it?

SIAN GRIFFITHS: She didn't say it herself, but if you look at the papers this morning I think the Observer is the only paper that has splashed on this this morning. All credit to the Observer. They got quickly to this issue and they have seen how big it is going to be. But to be fair to her, she has come through this morning. She has made that statement. She's obviously saying if there are British citizens who are caught up in this through dual nationality, we will be looking to represent them. She's going to have difficulty, you're absolutely right, Matthew. Already this morning, members of her party are saying look, this is wrong, we don't agree it. Sarah Wollaston has come out. Ruth Davidson has said quite clearly that this is wrong. In fact we understand there is one Iraqi born Tory MP who may be banned from the States under this, under these new rules.

MATTHEW GREEN: We saw Theresa May at the press conference in Turkey ducking the question twice and then making this very weak statement about, essentially, it is America's business. We need a leader who is willing to stand up for democratic values. I'm afraid that Theresa May is failing that test. It's not good enough to issue still a very weakly worded statement saying we could not agree with what Donald Trump is doing. US newspapers are calling him a tinpot dictator. America, in the past week, has suffered its ugliest start to any republic in the history of the country. We need to be joining other Western leaders in standing up to this and not cravenly endorsing it.

MAXINE MAWHINNEY: It is a completely new era though in politics, isn't it, right across the world?

MATTHEW GREEN: It is, but has Theresa May grasped this? She is surrounded by these special advisers that the papers constantly talk about being incredibly formidable and intelligent, but maybe she should consult a psychologist, who would tell her that Donald Trump is suffering from narcissistic personality disorder. He is megalomaniacal, vainglorious, prejudiced, vengeful. We've seen it all clearly. It is totally obvious. It's not politics as usual and Theresa May needs to catch up with that.

MAXINE MAWHINNEY: Let's move on to the Sunday Times because it's not just the rest of the world he's fighting with, it's also Prince Charles! What's happened?

SIAN GRIFFITHS: This is a great story. Donald Trump seems to be engaged in an extraordinary diplomatic row with the Prince of Wales over climate change and is actually threatening to disrupt his forthcoming state visit to the UK". On the one hand you have Prince Charles, environmental campaigner. On the other hand, Donald Trump, who is a climate change denier. There are some amazing quotes in this story in the Sunday Times and I've just highlighted a few of them here. Apparently Trump's people are saying that he's really reluctant to meet Prince Charles and they have warned it would be counter-productive for Charles to "lecture Trump" on green issues and that Trump would erupt if he were pushed! On the other hand you have got Charles's people saying that he is determined to meet Donald Trump. It's not OK that Donald Trump's people are saying that he wants to meet William and Harry.

MAXINE MAWHINNEY: This is going to be a great visit, isn't it!

MATTHEW GREEN: Quite! This is Donald Trump who has tweeted about how, wouldn't anyone want to make money by tweeting topless photos of Kate Middleton... He has tweeted his desire..he would have slept with Princess Diana...I mean, why are we letting him into the country, quite frankly? And actually, I find the tone of the Sunday Times story really quite puzzling, as if Prince Charles is somehow...his advocacy on climate change is somehow problematic and is going to disrupt this visit. Let's face it, climate change is the threat to the future of organised life on Planet Earth. Donald Trump has gagged members of his government, scientists who are working on this and he has essentially confirmed that the Republican Party is now the most dangerous organisation on earth. So the idea that Prince Charles is somehow at fault here I think is wrong. We should be rallying around him and saying 'Come on! What direction are we taking the world in?'

MAXINE MAWHINNEY: We look forward to this visit, I have to say!

SIAN GRIFFITHS: I don't think at all the story says that Prince Charles is at fault here...

MATTHEW GREEN (interrupting): It implies that Prince Charles is somehow causing a problem to what otherwise would be a wonderful visit.

SIAN GRIFFITHS: No, I don't think that is the tone at all. I think it lays out the argument very clearly. And I think actually the straightforward reporting here...there's one paragraph that says that Trump has repeatedly branded climate change a 'hoax' and a 'moneymaking industry' and has said it was created by and for the Chinese to damage American industry. I think when you have that very straight reporting you think, "OK, you can make up your own mind."

MATTHEW GREEN: The story could have been written very differently. You've got "Senior government officials now believe Charles is one of the most serious risk factors for the visit". Prince Charles isn't the risk factor! Donald Trump is the risk factor!

MAXINE MAWHINNEY: Maybe he can tell Donald Trump all about climate change.

MATTHEW GREEN: I hope so and Donald Trump might possibly agree with him and tell him he's right, just like he did with Theresa May, and that's what narcissists do.

MAXINE MAWHINNEY: Alternative facts again! Here we go! We're going back to Theresa May and President Erdogan in Turkey and the trade deal for that. If we just move, just tidying up the desk here, there we go... So the viewers can see this one. A double page spread there. They "shake on trade deals despite fears over human rights". She's getting into a lot of trouble with holding hands and shaking hands over the last couple of days. Sian, what do you make of this one?

SIAN GRIFFITHS: Well, yes, so she has agreed a trade deal, or is preparing to agree a £100 million deal for fighter jets which could lead in fact to Britain becoming Turkey's main defence partner. But at the same time, she has given Erdogan a very clear warning on human rights at the same time. But again it is this need to find close trade and diplomatic links outside the EU in the wake of Brexit.

MAXINE MAWHINNEY: Again Matthew, it's this sense that the world order has changed. Have morals gone with it?

MATTHEW GREEN: It's musical chairs and, post-Brexit, we're out! Yeah, we never had any morals about selling arms. I mean, look at the billions of dollars we've sent to Saudi Arabia which is now being used to bomb civilians and hospitals in Yemen. So, yes, it's great that the Sunday Telegraph has flagged human rights concerns in the headline there but it obviously doesn't make any difference to British policy. Let's not be under any illusions. We're one of the biggest arms exporters in the world. Post-Brexit, as we walk away from the single market on our doorstep, we going to be even more reliant on selling weapons to anyone who will buy them.

MAXINE MAWHINNEY: I just want to show viewers this other picture on the corner here with the Trump hand-clasp. I've never heard his words before: bathmophobia. This one here. There you go. So apparently he's got a fear of slopes and that's why he was holding her hand!

SIAN GRIFFITHS: It's a wonderful story, isn't it. I think that word 'bathmophobia' is going to be one of the words of the year.

MAXINE MAWHINNEY: It's fantastic, isn't it?

SIAN GRIFFITHS: Because everyone is talking about this astonishing handshake...handclasp as they walk along the White House colonnade and is it a mark of special affection, but apparently it might just be that he's quite afraid of slopes and so he just gathered her hand to steady himself!

MAXINE MAWHINNEY: To get down the slope. They'll be having that slope taken out any moment! But he's also supposed to be afraid of touching people because of germs!

MATTHEW GREEN: I think that photo though will haunt Theresa May, won't it? What a disaster! I mean, the whole thing is so embarrassing. I don't know what the rest of the world must think of Britain right now. If you don't condemn authoritarianism, you become complicit in it and she is teaching us that lesson, unfortunately.

Views their own

Talking about Twitter and DB...

DB has been catching all manner of moaning BBC types, all tweeting away as 'impartially' as ever. Here are just a few examples:

There's BBC Tech Correspondent Richard Taylor (who you may or may not recall from BBC Click), who didn't exactly hold back when tweeting: 

He first blocked DB on Twitter for having the temerity to call him out of that tweet and then, in the usual way, discreetly deleted it.

Meanwhile Hillary Clinton's most faithful BBC sycophant, Kim Ghattas clearly hasn't been taking the ascent of Trump at all went.

She has been very busy today aggressively defending the women's march against Trump against all criticism on Twitter, including laying into Piers Morgan. Other tweets talk impartially about Trump's speech containing "strident nationalism" and his echoes of 1930s fascism. Plus, of course, lots about the 'small' numbers attending the Trump inauguration compared to Obama and the women's march. She didn't like his use of the word "carnage" either. ("Ppl around world listening to @realDonaldTrump talking of  "carnage" to describe US must wonder which country he's describing. #superpower?"), Other anti-Trump tweeters get linked to too. Our Kim is not a happy bunny. 

As DB said, Jo-Anne Pugh ("Home Desk Editor, BBC TV & Radio. I am paid to leave my opinions at home, obviously") sounded "a little bit bitchy" - or a little bit Katty - here:

Hmm.

The ever-reliable Rachel Kennedy ("BBC TV News Ed") has been excitedly comparing the size of Trump's crowd with the women's march and linking to lots of anti-Trump stuff, plus adding the odd snarky comment about the new US president. Still, she's had time for a little light relief:

For more of the same, you can also try the Twitter feeds of well-known BBC News Channel presenter Maxine Wawhinney. I don't think she's that keen on Brexit either. Or why not try Rebecca Kesby ("Journalist for BBC World Service and Radio 4. Presenter/reporter. Views mine (or yours)"? Her views are entirely typical for a BBC reporter.

"It really is most bizarre"

David Willis

Here's more of the same, from the same BBC News Channel discussion between a BBC presenter and a BBC reporter.

It had to be seen and heard to register all of the sarcasm, the mocking smiles and incredulous inflections, but I think that a transcript should give you a pretty good sense of it (if you didn't see it).

Straight, non-opinionated reporting it isn't: 

Maxine Mawhinney: Right. I want to talk to you about tweets, because the Donald is still tweeting. Now, two things. First of all, he's really taken umbrage against the cast of the play Hamilton, hasn't he? 

David Willis: Absolutely. Yes. 

Maxine Mawhinney: ...for speaking out against the vice president? He can't...he doesn't seem to be able to let go. 

David Willis: He doesn't, no. I mean, four tweets, in actual fact, on this very, if you include one that was swiftly deleted this morning. No, he's called on the cast to apologise to Mike Pence, the vice-president-elect, for, as he put it, "harassing" him while he went to a performance of the show on Friday night. And then, three hours ago...three hours ago - that's 6 o'clock in the morning, Maxine!- he tweeted, "The cast and producers of Hamilton, which I hear is highly overrated, should immediately apologise to Mike Pence for their terrible behaviour." And he also...not content with focusing on this issue, which he doesn't seem able to give up!...he then went on to take a potshot at the satirical show Saturday Night Live, which has lampooned him quite consistently. He said, "Watched it last night." He said, "One-sided, biased and not funny at all" - this at a time when he's selecting his new cabinet, Maxine! 

Maxine Mawhinney: Yeah, (laughing) and just looking at the Twitter feed now, he's still tweeting, David! He's now almost giving a running commentary on who he thinks is a good person for his cabinet and, maybe, who's not quite so good. So it's quite bizarre! We would not normally get this sort of thought...detail in a way. 

David Willis: It really is most bizarre. And there must be people, quite a lot of them, in the Trump administration who are just itching to wrench this thing away from his grasp. You can just imagine it, can't you? But he has consistently maintained it's a very effective means of communication. He says it goes over the heads of a lot of people...you know, the great and the good...and goes directly to his fan base...I suppose you might put it...but this is a man who doesn't really use much in the way of email but clearly believes that Twitter is an extremely convenient form of communication. Whether or not it serves him well is anybody's guess.

BBCspeak

Maxine Mawhinney

There was an interesting little BBC-on-BBC exchange a few minutes ago on the BBC News Channel (re the latest appointments to Donald Trump's team). It began like this:

Maxine Mawhinney: Well, I seem to be asking this question a lot, but any sign of a woman yet?

David Willis (laughing): Not much. No. It's pretty white and old, and that's sort of the complexion we're seeing so far. 

Then came a very 'BBC' moment as David Willis suddenly remembered that 'one degree of separation' is required from a BBC journalist when expressing their opinions; so David immediately restated what they'd both just said in classic BBC 'others say'-speak. 

David Willis: 'White, middle-aged men' is the way it's being characterised thus far.

Yes, David, so it has been characterised - by you and Maxine, just now, on the BBC News Channel, in front of our very own eyes!

"And the financial markets collapse"

For those, like me (and David Keighley at News-watch), who have shown (at the very least) that some flagship BBC programmes and some BBC reporters/presenters did show a pronounced anti-Brexit bias during the EU referendum campaign, it was startling and sobering to keep hearing from so many people who we like and admire and who usually agree with us about BBC bias (including prominent pro-Leave types) that they thought that the BBC had in fact behaved in an unexpectedly fair way and covered itself in impartial glory. 

One of those people was Peter Hitchens. He wrote again a couple of days ago about "the creditable efforts of the BBC to be impartial, which I absolutely did not expect", having previously written, "I underestimated the BBC, which has, perhaps thanks to years of justified and correct criticism from people such as me, taken its duty of impartiality seriously". Interestingly, he now thinks that the BBC has reverted to type - since the referendum result came through:

Parliament is pro-EU. The Civil Service is pro-EU, the judiciary is pro-EU, the BBC is pro-EU and is now returning to its old bad habits after an admittedly creditable attempt at balance. Its 6am radio news bulletin on Friday said, falsely and dangerously, that the pound had ‘collapsed’ following the result and there will be a lot more of this foolish panic-mongering in days to come.

Saturday's excellent Dateline London gave proof for his closing point. Presenter Maxine Mawhinney began by saying, in doom-mongering fashion: 

Britain leaves the European Union. The Prime Minister stands down. And the financial markets collapse. Plenty to talk about.

Alex Deane, who was on superb form throughout, didn't let that pass without comment: 

No, hang on a minute. Let me answer the question who asked everyone else. The market didn't crash. The FTSE finished higher on Friday than it was last Friday. And it's extraordinary to hear someone from Bloomberg reinforce your false premise that there was a big crash or the pound slumped. The pound is where it was in February.  

The 'someone from Bloomberg' he was talking about was Stephanie Baker. Along with French regular Agnes Poirier, she took the anti-Brexit line. 

The final guest, German regular Thomas Kielinger, took up a position closer to Alex's. He may be a Europhile but he's always been a passionate Anglophile and thinks we'll prosper outside the EU. I found his contribution rather moving. 

All credit to the makers of Dateline London for assembling such an interesting and varied panel. Less credit to Maxine for framing the debate in such a loaded, doom-mongering fashion.

******

Alex Deane's appearances on Dateline and a highly sparky Sky News paper review last night have - inevitably - drawn some very ugly comments at places like Digital Spy and on Twitter. Thankfully, Twitter has also deluged him in praise too - quite a few from Labour supporters saying how suprised and pleased they are to agree with him. Alex's response to the ugly comments on Twitter is usually to re-tweet them and add a good-natured joke.

Here's another of Alex's jokes today. It made me smile:

Kay-sick

Even they know they're doing it. And they know we know they're doing it. And now they're joking about doing it, and still doing it.

Maxine Mawhinney, changing the subject on today's Dateline London, said:

Now I want to go to the United States, because we couldn't have a programme without talking about Donald Trump.

...as Dateline has been proving lately.

******

As a possible sign that the BBC has largely forgotten the other candidates because of their Trumpomania, Maxine mentioned Republican candidate John Kasich. 

Has she ever mentioned his name before on the BBC News Channel? 

From the way she got his name wrong - pronouncing it 'Kat-chiss' rather than 'Kay-sick' - I'm guessing the answer to that is: either 'not at all' or 'not often, and always incorrectly'.

******

For those who didn't see it, the other topics were the resignation of IDS and the EU-Turkish deal over migrants. 

On a more positive note, a decent spread of views was on offer on all subjects, thankfully - ranging from Eunice Goes on the left to Alex Deane on the right. 

So when Eunice claimed that most of the people coming into Europe are refugees Alex was on hand to say that there are lots of economic migrants too. (That wouldn't usually happen on Dateline).

Even the incidental topic of a possible Brexit (which kept coming up) was prepared for by having Alex on the panel (as he's a leading light in the pro-Brexit financial service's sector campaign group City for Britain),

Something like that should be happening every week for the next few weeks.

Today's 'Dateline'

The discussion about the migrant crisis on today's Dateline London featured Polly Toynbee of the Guardian, Palestinian writer Abdel Bari Atwan, Bloomberg's Stephanie Baker and ABC News's Jeffrey Kofman (in other words, another Dateline panel tilted towards the Left).

Polly Toynbee concentrated most of her fire on David Cameron, using the word "cruelty" about his policy and saying that his proposal to take in some refugees directly from the Syrian conflict zone is "a profound error":

What he's doing is what dictators do, what communists and fascists do. They say the means will justify the ends.

Abdel Bari Atwan concentrated most of his fire on Western foreign policy - specifically Western military intervention. That's what's to blame for the refugees crisis, he said. 

Jeffrey Kofman said things are only going to get a lot, lot worse but rejected complaints about the financial costs this crisis might have on European countries.  We shouldn't be "putting a dollar" on the lives of migrants. We should focus on their humanity instead. 

Stephanie Baker agreed that things are likely to get much worse. She said that David Cameron's plan was "too late" but was a good idea, by-passing the people traffickers.

Presenter Maxine Mawhinney asked questions like these:

The pictures, especially over the past few days, have been just heartbreaking - women and children, babies, walking along highways. Is Europe, the rest of Europe, treating the situation any better than we are here in the UK?

I agree with Jeff about putting the dollar or the price on it but unfortunately that's what we see in the headlines, isn't it? Do you think that our government has been in a way shamed into changing their policy?

To my mind, neither seemed entirely free from personal opinions.

Though...

There was an amusing exchange on this morning's Dateline London. 

Guest presenter Maxine Mawhinney made a surprising use of the word "though" in her question to Janet Daley, suggesting an anti-Eurosceptic bias on her part. 

That didn't pass Janet Daley's notice:

Maxine Mawhinney: The big news here, of course, was David Cameron extensively re-shuffling his cabinet this week. Now, some say he now has his dream team for next May's general election. Others though say the line-up is now more Eurosceptic and may herald another step on the road for Britain to withdraw from the European Union. Janet, let's go to you first. What do you make of this?

Janet Daley [laughing]: Those two points aren't mutually exclusive actually!