'The BBC should correct this, it’s totally misleading and confusing and wrong'

Talking of Andrew Marr, his old editor at BBC One's The Andrew Marr Show is now his new editor on his LBC show. 

Yes, our old friend Rob Burley has landed at LBC too. 

Here's Rob, also getting his own voice back, agreeing with The Observer's Sonia Sodha that a BBC News website report about a horrific crime left something to be desired:

Sonia Sodha: When the imperative to respect a male serial killer’s preferred pronouns supersedes the journalistic duty to help readers understand a story about a terrible form of male violence against women.

Rob Burley: Quite agree. The BBC should correct this, it’s totally misleading and confusing and wrong.

The issue with the BBC report in question can be summed up by a couple of earlier tweets I read objecting to the same BBC report: 

Paul Embery: A man who killed a woman, attacked a second woman, is now accused of murdering a third woman, has admitted that he has “problems” with women, now identifies as a woman. So the media refer to him as ‘she’ and all crucial context is removed from the story.

Austin Williams: Last line: "She has also been charged with tampering with evidence". When you read this article, you realise that the BBC has also tampered with the evidence. Exhibit A: She, who recently identified as a woman, admitted to having "problems" with women.

 The report began: 

Pensioner arrested after dismembered body found in New York

A pensioner has been arrested on suspicion of killing and dismembering a 68-year-old woman she met online.

An adult female torso was found in a bag inside a shopping trolley near 83-year-old Harvey Marcelin's apartment in Brooklyn, New York. 

She has now been charged with second degree murder and concealment of a human corpse. 

Marcelin had previously spent more than 50 years in prison for killing two girlfriends.

In its original version the article described the arrested 'pensioner' as  'she' [3 times], 'her' and 'woman'.

The article was later amended to add a further sentence at the very end, with a further [4th] use of 'She':

She now identifies as a transgender woman.

After two days of criticism and anger, the article was edited again. That new information was moved a few paragraphs up...:

In 1963, a jury found Marcelin - who recently identified as a woman - guilty of murdering Jacqueline Bonds. After being paroled in 1984, Marcelin was arrested again for stabbing another girlfriend.

...with 'She has also been charged with tampering with evidence', returning to being the final paragraph.

This was about the time Rob tweeted his disapproval.

Regardless, the BBC is pretty much sticking to its guns. It seems you can take the BBC out of Stonewall but can't so easily take Stonewall out of the BBC.

Who's the biggest liar?

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

— Sonia Sodha (@soniasodha) May 25, 2020

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.

On the other hand: (Brendan O'Neill - Spectator /Facebook)

“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.

What the people want

I wish Andrew Marr would level with and just say “we’re campaigning to have Dominic Cummings sacked so that we can usher in that nice Sir Keir who can forensically nit-pick his way towards reversing Brexit.” (It’s what the people want.)

Did the BBC really invite Grant Shapps onto the A.M. show to discuss transport? 

I wish Maggie Foster would do one of her ten-times-more-entertaining-than-anything-the-BBC-has-produced-for-the-last-ten-years lip-sync impressions of Andrew Marr’s warm-up before the interview with Grant Shapps

 “This morning the Sunday Mirror and the Observer reported two sightings of Dominic Cummings out and about in the North East!” 

as well as the press briefing I watched the other day, which was 100% devoted to forcing that sacking/resignation.. (It’s what the country wants) and I’d quite like to see her facial expressions while emoting Sam Coates’s ranty question.

Last night TVs all over the country literally vibrated from Sonia Sodha’s indignant screeching. (about Dominic Cummings) When Dan Hodges is the one voice of sanity, one has to …..... I don't know, what?

And by travelling hundreds of miles to be close to extended family in case he needed childcare Cummings showed disregard for the safety of healthcare workers (NB I really *didn’t* say Cummings wanted them to die as I was then accused of!) pic.twitter.com/Gu1BydKNVz

— Sonia Sodha (@soniasodha) May 23, 2020

 Oh! Look at Dan Hodges’s Twitter as people pile in with assorted *wrong* assumptions.

I think Andrew Marr and Tony Hall are terminally and irreversibly deluded. Tony Hall’s appearance alone is enough to make you wonder just what sort of a man is this? What does he look like? Contrary to popular belief, hair-dressing is not rocket science. 

Still after the youth market, Tony? I don’t think so mate.

Now for something completely different - (H/T Guest Who, B-BBC.) Jeremy Bowen has instigated a whole barrage of one-liner, virulently anti-Israel Tweets, merely by ‘remembering’ the incident that cemented his hatred for Israel.  Responses are always revealing. How the BBC sees fit to keep this individual in the influential position he’s in,  and still claim they represent ‘impartiality’ is beyond belief.

Rod Liddle has done a baffling about-turn. He thinks the BBC has had a good pandemic! Body hell! 

Does coronavirus affect people in more ways than we’re being told?