A BBC building in Belfast has been forced into lockdown this morning after around 20 pro-Palestine protesters broke into the studio. The usual shouts of “Free Palestine” and Palestinian flag-waving surrounded the broadcaster’s building…
One staff member said the protesters posed as tourists, and when were refused entry stormed through a pedestrian gate. The Police Service of Northern Ireland have since removed the protesters. The BBC’s Gaza documentary didn’t do much to keep them on side then…
The head honcho BBC football pundit who unleashed regular attacks on the Tories such as slamming Suella Braverman’s migration policies as “immeasurably cruel” has given an exit interview (to the BBC) after quitting Match of the Day. Gary Lineker didn’t exactly row back from his activism, doubling down saying he was right to make political interventions despite his high-profile non-political taxpayer-funded job:
“I don’t regret saying them publicly, because I was right – what I said, it was accurate – so not at all in that sense. Would I, in hindsight, do it again? No I wouldn’t, because of all the nonsense that came with it… It was a ridiculous overreaction that was just a reply to someone that was being very rude. And I wasn’t particularly rude back.”
He also argued that the BBC’s debunked ‘Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone’ documentary should be reinstated to BBC iPlayer:
“I think you let people make their own minds up. We’re adults. We’re allowed to see things like that. It’s incredibly moving… I think [the BBC] just capitulated to lobbying that they get a lot.”
Co-conspirators don’t need to worry about Lineker’s trajectory now he’s quit: he didn’t leave the BBC before finalising a cushy deal for his own podcasts, which have “been picked up by BBC Sounds as part of a deal with the corporation.” He remains captain of team woke’s first eleven…
Ex-Today Programme presenter Mishal Husain has given her first interview since leaving the BBC for Bloomberg. Vogue had the pleasure…
Husain says she has “a new sense of public service journalism now” and was probed on her fellow Today presenters Rajan and Barnett. She went on the attack without naming names:
‘“It has never been part of what I do,” she says of the general creep towards personality-driven media, “but I think, in a way, the last few months have taught me there’s an aspect I can embrace and that is personality-focused journalism doesn’t have to be bombastic. It doesn’t have to be about the presenters centring themselves. Hopefully, if they’re a personality with journalistic integrity, journalistic values, then they can be a conduit to the news for people.”’
She went on about her lack of ego: “What was true to me was that I would very rarely use the word ‘I’, actually, on air. I would quite often say, ‘We’ve talked to so and so,’ because you’re always part of a team. From the booking of guests, the deciding to go down a certain route, the writing of a brief – broadcasting is a team effort. So I would always say ‘we’ and very rarely use the word ‘I’. That’s just what came naturally to me.” Wipe away your tears…
Husain adds: “Most BBC presenters… if you’re in the headlines, it’s not usually for a good reason.” Tough for Barnett and Robinson…
After Jo Coburn’s departure Young will start in June. The BBC says:
“Vicki is well known to audiences as the BBC’s Deputy Political Editor, a role she has held since 2020, and brings her impressive experience presenting and covering UK politics to the weekday politics show.
Vicki has covered eight General Elections, numerous international summits, and has been a presenter on the BBC News Channel and Westminster Hour on Radio 4. During her career she has reported on some of the most complex stories in recent times from Brexit to the coronavirus pandemic – keeping audiences informed and up to date.”
Congratulations…
Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick was on the morning media round today to talk about the growing row over the latest Sentencing Council guidelines. The new rules require pre-sentence reports for ethnic, cultural, and faith ‘minorities’ – a move that some say reduces their chances of being sent to jail. Justice Secretary Mahmood claimed she knew nothing about it, despite having a representative, Claire Fielder at the meeting that signed it off…
Over on the Today Programme, presenter Emma Barnett went on the attack, saying that this guidance was actually approved in February last year under the Tory government. Jenrick wasn’t having it. He swiftly fact-checked Barnett, pointing out that what she was referring to was a draft report, which said judges “may” consider pre-sentence reports – not require them, as this latest guidance does. He also reminded her that then-Justice Secretary Alex Chalk had called the guidance “ridiculous”…
Barnett went on to take a swipe at Jenrick for suggesting Mahmood was unaware of the new rules – repeatedly interrupting with “that’s just your perspective”, despite Mahmood admitting she didn’t know about it. Then came a readout from a listener claiming that Jenrick’s warning about discrimination against “straight white men” was “objectively false.” Labour will need to get a handle on this one…
BBC director general Tim Davie and chairman Samir Shah have been answering questions at the Culture, Media, and Sport Committee this morning. A recent documentary came up…
Shah was asked if there were unanswered or incorrectly answered questions by the production company in the production of ‘Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone’:
“This is a really really bad moment what’s what been revealed goes to the heart is a dagger to the heart of the BBC’s claim to be impartial and to be trustworthy which is why I and the board are determined to answer the questions you’ve just asked because that’s what we’re trying to do here – who did know what.”
Tim Davie went on to clarify that there were unanswered questions from the BBC to the production company Hoyo Films about the people involved in the programme – begging the question as to why it went out in the first place. Davie insists that a deep dive will work out how to prevent this happening again…
There is an internal investigation currently underway while Ofcom has threatened action if it doesn’t proceed speedily. A lot riding on this one…
Former leader of the SNP in Westminster Ian Blackford told Times Radio why he believes Nicola Sturgeon’s claim that she spent no time in the kitchen and therefore didn’t see any of her husband’s purchases:
“She doesn’t have a passion for cooking.”