Showing posts with label Nicholas Watt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nicholas Watt. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

More 'Newsnight'



That same (Wednesday) edition of Newsnight also had several discussions with non-BBC guests on Brexit-related matters. 

The first discussion was balanced 1:1 between a Leave supporter (Peter Lilley) and a Remain supporter (Heidi Allen).

The second discussion had a 2:1 imbalance in favour of Remain (with Rupert Harrison and  Mariana Mazzucato on the Remain side and Gerard Lyons on the Leave side).

The final discussion has a 3:1 imbalance in favour of Remain (with Polly Toynbee, Matthew Parris and Anne McElvoy on the Remain side and Charles Moore on the Leave side).

What happened when four 'Newsnight' editors gathered around Evan's cauldron...


Beginning to catch up with Wednesday's and Thursday's editions of Newsnight, I'd just say that if you want to sample BBC bias over Brexit in full flow you only need to watch the opening discussion between Evan Davis and the four Newsnight 'editors' on Wednesday night's programme...


This, of course, came on the day that Mrs May became PM, and it began with Evan Davis talking of the "disconcertingly turbulent" last three weeks and how the ritual of the handover of power might have proved "reassuring" and provided "some calm at last".

Saturday, July 16, 2016

newspapers and More 'Newsnight'newspapers



That same (Wednesday) edition of Newsnight also had several discussions with non-BBC guests on Brexit-related matters. 

The first discussion was balanced 1:1 between a Leave supporter (Peter Lilley) and a Remain supporter (Heidi Allen).

The second discussion had a 2:1 imbalance in favour of Remain (with Rupert Harrison and  Mariana Mazzucato on the Remain side and Gerard Lyons on the Leave side).

The final discussion has a 3:1 imbalance in favour of Remain (with Polly Toynbee, Matthew Parris and Anne McElvoy on the Remain side and Charles Moore on the Leave side).

That, of course, is the programme's pre-Referendum imbalance on steroids.

******

This edition of Newsnight also backed up my feeling (as mentioned in an earlier post) that the BBC took to Theresa May's coronation in an 'intensely relaxed' way.

Take this from Evan Davis:
One thing's that painfully obvious is how divided the country's been over the last few months - not to mention the Conservative Party itself. Suddenly Theresa May has risen to the top, powered by a remarkable sense of unity. It's not just the goodwill that offered to a new inhabitant of Downing Street. She's not stabbed anyone, stamped on anyone's head or questioned their ability to govern on account of their family circumstances. By universal acclaim she was the grown-up in the kindergarten.
And he said that last sentence in an entirely serious way, wearing this face as he did so:


Nick Watt's report featured only admiring 'talking heads' and ended by saying "friends say the country will soon warm to their new prime minister."

******

The only real criticism of Mrs May came in Katie Razzall's report on immigration (in light of Brexit and Mrs May's entry into Downing Street).

It came from the public.

******

Katie's report, however, was striking in a different kind of imbalance.

It featured contrasting voices on the issue of mass immigration. Counting the time given to each side, it worked out thus:

For mass immigration: 1m 38s
Against mass immigration: 21s

All four pro-mass immigration voices were successful ethnic minority people involved in business or the charity sector (shown at art galleries or at their business), while both anti-mass immigration voices were white UKIP activists (down the pub). 

And at the heart of Katie's report was this:
There's no doubt immigration played a key role in the Referendum. Almost all the West Midlands region voted Leave, including multicultural Birmingham...Across the Midlands and both hate crimes rose after Brexit, like at this halal shop fire-bombed in Walsall.  

******

This edition of Newsnight, like every other recent edition of Newsnight (post-Referendum) wasn't exactly lacking in bias (to put it mildly).

newspapers and What happened when four 'Newsnight' editors gathered around Evan's cauldron...newspapers


Beginning to catch up with Wednesday's and Thursday's editions of Newsnight, I'd just say that if you want to sample BBC bias over Brexit in full flow you only need to watch the opening discussion between Evan Davis and the four Newsnight 'editors' on Wednesday night's programme...



This, of course, came on the day that Mrs May became PM, and it began with Evan Davis talking of the "disconcertingly turbulent" last three weeks and how the ritual of the handover of power might have proved "reassuring" and provided "some calm at last". 

Leaning in, he added "but only up to a point"...

...before talking of the "national adventure" we are now embarking on and adding, with a chuckle, "For one thing Boris Johnson is foreign secretary!"....

....and this is the exact facial expression he adopted as he ended that thought:


Then his gathering of Newsnight editors began their review of the day.

Nick Watt was perky and jokey; Helen Thomas (shall we say?) less so. 

Evan asked the latter: 
The economy and the fiscal position...cos Theresa May was describing quite an ambitious kind of agenda...the economy may not be working to her favour for all that.
And Helen replied "No, absolutely" and talked (as is her way) of the "uncertainty", "a weakening economy" and "what damage has been done, what damage may be done...by Brexit". 

And then they turned to Boris. Evan kept chuckling and said, "Who would have thought it?" to Mark Urban. 

And Mark said that people on Twitter had found it "gagtastic" before adding that, as Mayor of London, "he had a rather unsuccessful trip to Israel and Palestine" before then saying "the best he can do" is to be ambassador selling the country to the world. 

Evan then stopped chuckling for a while and said:
Yeah. I mean, look, we need to talk about the Boris style of diplomacy. 
And he has history, doesn't he I mean, you know..just read you a couple of quotes.. 
On the Queen and the Commonwealth: "It supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies/ The tribal warriors will all break out in watermelon smiles." 
Now, that was a long time ago, so you might forgive that. 
But, you know, just a couple of months ago his limerick about the president of Turkey: "There was a young fellow from Ankara/Who was a terrific wankerer/Till he sowed his wild oats/With the help of a goat/But he didn�t even stop to thankera". He won a prize in the Spectator magazine for that...er...poetry. 
I mean, are people outside of Britain..I mean, we all know Boris is Boris..will people outside Britain take him seriously?
Mark Urban replied: "They'll have to, in a way". 

And then - to much chuckling from Evan - he raised the much-mooted suggestion that the trio of Brexiteers (Boris, David Davis and Liam Fox" would take the rap if Brexit trade deals proved "too hard"....

...and he (Mark) sarcastically called them "those three experts", pausing before 'experts' to signal the implied inverted commas even more.

Then Chris Cook applied a little irony to David Davis and the article DD had written outlining his take on Brexit:  
He actually this week published an article on Conservative Home about his vision. And, I mean, I'm not a trade expert. I think whoever wrote that...it may not be Mr Davis himself...isn't a trade expert either. There are some fairly fundamental problems with it.
Chris then went on to rubbish it, describing one of DD's ideas (in Yes. Minister terms) as "quite ambitious", describing him as "very, very nonchalant" about another idea, and then saying he "talked an awful lot" about something else,...

...pulling the following face as he did so:


Evan chuckled again.

I very much doubt that a single one of those five BBC journalists voted to Leave the EU. And, if so (like there's any doubt!), it showed.

A thoroughly biased-filled BBC discussion from start to finish.