Today is Twitter’s fifth birthday, and what would we do without it? Last night’s Ask Ed Miliband was another unmitigated PR success. We learnt that Ed likes cheese and onion crisps and is a virgin. But it’s not all fun and games online, especially if you work at the BBC.

Beeboids have had their Twitter wings clipped with vast rules and regulations on what they can and cannot tweet. The BBC Social Media Guide published today states:

“You are not discouraged from doing any of this, but as a BBC member of staff – and especially as someone who works in News – there are particular considerations to bear in mind. They can all be summarised as: ‘Don’t do anything stupid’”

That may prove tricky for some, but it doesn’t stop there:

“You shouldn’t state your political preferences or say anything that compromises your impartiality. Don’t sound off about things in an openly partisan way. Don’t be seduced by the informality of social media into bringing the BBC into disrepute. Don’t criticise your colleagues. Don’t reveal confidential BBC information. Don’t surreptitiously sanitise Wikipedia pages about the BBC.”

Guido was wondering why Nick and Laura weren’t playing yesterday. 

Yesterday’s broadcast of the Politics Show had Blair on, and someone who would have been familiar to him, his former speech writer. Though perhaps not familiar to the Beeboid staffer who compiles the credits. Apparently they tried to get the Education Secretary on the show too late, everyone knows You Can’t Hurry Gove. That’s Just the Way It Is…

UPDATE: In the comments Bill Quango MP, one of the blog’s favourite co-conspirators, points out the Beeboid got YAB’s MBE wrong, she sent it back over some imperialist outrage or another.

An interesting move given she was tipped for the top Beeb job, though it doesn’t rule it out – Nick Robinson was poached back from ITV.  

Looks like it will be ITVLauraK on Twitter…

UPDATE: Seems it came as shock to ITV’s Political Correspondent:

RT Breaking – @BBCLauraK leaving BBC to become Business Editor for ITV News << I'd like to say I'd knew but we had NO idea—
Chris Ship (@chrisshipitv) June 22, 2011

UPDATE II: Laura will start as the newly created Business Editor in September.

Guido goes to pixel breaking it at 13.52 and 7 minutes later Michael Crick reveals:

#newsnight's discovered that Vicky Pryce was due to address an LSE seminar on evening of Chris Huhne speeding mystery http://bbc.in/emDitV—
Michael Crick (@BBCMichaelCrick) May 16, 2011

You snooze, you lose…

Christmas came early for those who enjoy a good John Humphrys cock-up, as this morning three came at once. He went to pieces in his discussion about AV.  ‘As opposed to First Past The Post, which is used by no other major democracy…’ Wrong.

‘It simply isn’t true that you count votes more than once’  he went on the batter Cameron with. Wrong.

The whole point of AV is that you count the votes more than once until someone gets 50%. Not only couldn’t he get his head round the system, but the campaign is clearly a bit of a struggle for the ageing presenter too: “There’s broadly two campaigns, Tories against Lib Dems/Labour and some Labour are on the other side as well’. Wrong.

More than half of Labour MPs, more than 80% of Labour councillors, plus two thirds of Labour peers and the major unions are all backing the “Labour NO to AV” campaign. If one of the most politically engaged people in the country can’t get their head round AV, what’s your average punter meant to be thinking? Either that or old Humphrys is back to his spinning tricks…

The Washington Post prides itself on being politically objective, as the chronicler of all things D.C. this is an important asset. In the dull and antiseptic world of American broadsheet journalism this is actually regarded as a good thing. The free-wheeling world of Twitter has proven to be a bit of a 140 character release for the hacks who have revealed their true colours in pixel form. The managing editor of the Post, Raju Narisetti, tweeted his support for Obama’s socialising of medicine and scepticism about the cost of America’s wars. In doing so he it seems compromised the hallowed “objectivity” of the paper.

The Post has responded to the furore with new guidelines:

“Post journalists must refrain from writing, tweeting or posting anything – including photographs or video – that could be perceived as reflecting political racial, sexist, religious or other bias or favoritism that could be used to tarnish our journalistic credibility.”

Thankfully the only media organisation in the UK that pretends to “objectivity” is the BBC. The BBC’s untold legion of twitterers do so on a superficially private basis, their bio’s all say that their views are their own, not those of the BBC, even when their Twitter feed is promoted on the BBC.

So why then when the BBC’s Robert Preston cracked a few off-colour jokes about the Royal Wedding did the BBC insist he remove them? He joked about the happy couple’s sex life and Her Majesty’s close relationship with her horses. Seems to Guido that the BBC are having it both ways; Pesto’s views are private, but if they are too controversial the BBC will insist on censoring them. That is just not credible. Either tweets are the personal views of BBC employees or they should comply with BBC guidelines. Which is it to be?

Guido doesn’t believe that Washington Post or BBC journalists can really be totally impartial, so they shouldn’t pretend to be, it is dishonest journalism to pretend otherwise. This of course presents existential problems for a taxpayer-funded broadcaster…

See also: Paranoid About Left-Wing BBC Bias?, BBC Boss Tells Left-Wing News Staff “Stop Tweeting”

As the anger grows over Andrew Marr’s audacity at paying to hide his own public interest story, while being paid to probe the lives of the rest of the political class, Guido thought he would gauge opinion:

Don’t forget we pay him £600,000 a year for the pleasure. No wonder he could afford the luxury of an injunction and to support a child that wasn’t even his.

The speculation that the Vickers Commission was going to force the banks abroad by breaking them up clearly got the better of some hacks sympathetic to the idea. At his press conference earlier John Vickers fielded questions from the all the financial press scribes. Not one mentioned a perceived failure to split up the banks adequately until the not-for-profit BBC waded in. Both Peston and Paul Mason opened fire. Mason had a rant about “casino banking” and Peston accused them of “bottling it”. Guido’s eyes and ears in the room described the contrast with everyone else’s questions as “striking”…

Nick Robinson will be reflecting on his career at the Frontline Club tonight. The invitation reads like some sort of pre-death obituary:

“Showing clips of his work and the work of those journalists who inspired him, Nick Robinson will be remembering the significant milestones in a career that includes stints on On the Record, Panorama and 14 years on the politics beat.”

Ever keen to help out, Guido thought he would dig out one such siginifcant career milestone:

No doubt his famed “David Miliband has won” clip will be played too, right?

The BBC has finally picked up on the investigation launched in Tory Whip Bill Wiggin and the curiously bung-like £5,000 payment made to his local Conservative Association from his expenses. It seems he is continuing his quest to become the Tory answer to Jim “admit your guilt on telly” Devine:

“Mr Wiggin told BBC News his local Conservative Association hired the room in Leominster and he had claimed for the expense on its behalf. He said he did not “pay any money or get any money” himself.”

A classic deflecting tactic – deny something of which you haven’t been accused. No one has suggested Wiggin personal benefited this time round, rather he put in a false invoice claiming to be for room hire at over six hundred pounds an hour, and when he was challenged backtracking and stating it was all for unverifiable and vague “work”. Sounds a lot like mystery shelving…