Remembrance of Recent Mamories...

Times change. 

Long gone are the days of Sir Robin Bowtie, Charles 'Hot Cheeks' Wheeler, Eric Morecambe of Morecambe fame, counting-in-and-out Brian O'Hanra O'Hanrahan, and Martin 'Man In The White Pants' Bell. 

And the days of John Simpers (Liberator of Kabul) and Dame Kate Adeeee of the Beeee Beeee Ceeee are numbered too.

We now live in the BBC Age of Marianna Spring, named after the BBC's senior disinformation reporter, where 'look at me!' selfies from BBC staff are legion. 

Indeed - as a sexist might say - one of the least onerous curses of tracking BBC bias on Twitter is that of being inadvertently obliged to see numerous BBC females posting endless selfies of themselves, frequently pouting. 

Cue: Industrial-scale lipstick, huge close-up smiles, gleaming teeth to outshine the work of an ancient Greek dental hygienist siren, clingy dresses so tight they'd put conscientious boa constrictors to shame, legs stretching to infinity and far, far beyond, and, most of all, GLAM. 

They love themselves, these BBC ladies, bless them. And they absolutely love all the appreciative 'You look beautiful' relies too. 

I'd love to know what Dame Jenni Murray and Jane Garvey, now departed, make of all this. Whither old-school BBC feminism?

Here's a tweet this very evening from BBC Trending boss Mike Wendling's underling and star reporter Marianna tweeting about her hair:

Call me old-fashioned, but her wonderful hair wasn't the only thing I noticed. I also noticed her smile.

And, even as an impartiality fan, I really, really don't want to see her boss and possible puppet master, Mike Wendling, for balance's sake, glammed up in tight lycra showing off his BBC-friendly 'lower man rack'. 

The bulk of the replies to Marianna's tweet tonight are of this kind:

• You look fantastic. I'm so happy I've found someone such as yourself who is focusing on the harmful effects of online conspiracies and abuse. Thank you for your work.
• Green suits you. Thanks for your hard work x
• Looking lovely!
• Fab hair. Looking forward to watching the programmes.

As far as mainstream outlets go, media-wise, it's a different, less serious and less intelligent age perhaps, despite - in the BBC's case - its present licence fee funding. 

Paging poor, increasingly-cancelled, ex-BBC regular Germaine Greer. Wonder what she makes of all this? 

I rather miss Germaine, lost from the BBC during the Trans wars. 

Trouble at the BBC

As noted on the Open Thread, Julie Bindel has a fascinating article at The Critic which raises serious questions about BBC standards and BBC agenda-pushing. 

Julie - as you'll probably know - is a feminist presently at war with transgender militants, and as far as trying to strike a balance in this bitter 'war' goes, she reckons that the BBC is far more one-sided even than The Guardian. "The BBC appears not to even try", she says. 

Her immediate targets are (1) Megha Mohan, the corporation’s first “gender and identity correspondent” and (2) Ben Hunte, the BBC's first “LGBT correspondent”.

Both express strong opinions and sometimes act and sound more like activists than journalists.

(We have, of course, been following this here).

Julie Bindel says she's heard from BBC journalists that "there is some dissatisfaction in the coverage that Mohan and Hunte are responsible for", what with both of them being "young and junior journalists" and yet being appointed to cover "one of the most contentious issues of the day for one of the world's biggest media outlets". 

She says they've also ignored attempts to broaden their range of issues. 

So, it seems, the big BBC programmes like Today won't feature them. "They’re more likely to be found on the BBC website among articles about YouTube stars and Jeremy Corbyn", she says. 

More broadly, she blames BBC executives "obsessed with generating 'content' that chimes with the mores of a younger audience". 

Plus: 

Privately, some BBC suits give an explanation closer to home. Internal staff surveys show that as many as 2 per cent of all BBC staff “identify” as transgender. The corporation’s LGBT staff forum is willing and able to flex its muscles over editorial decisions that displease members. “We have to tread very carefully to avoid complaints from them,” says one of the BBC’s most senior editors. Some say tensions are growing within the BBC between an older generation of journalists and the younger breed of activists with microphones. 

Very interesting.