Former Director of BBC News and now a lecturer at Professor of Journalism at Cardiff University, Richard Sambrook, has been drafted in by the Beeb to advise on impartiality, specifically on platforms like Twitter. So the BBC have turned to the famously not left wing world of academia…

Guido’s not sure Sambrook is the most impartial of impartiality advisers, having

• Declared “I’m strongly remain” two years after the referendum
• Tweeted that “Donald Trump and Boris Johnson” are “post-truth politicians”
• Shared a Carole Cadwalladr story, adding the words “more Boris lies – now a man of zero integrity”
• Claimed that “Britain is being led to an epic act of national self-harm over Brexit”
• Criticised a letter from Oliver Dowden to Lord Hall over BBC Bias, arguing “Government tries to extend lockdown to independent journalism and critical views”
• Claimed Brexit is not the “will of the British people” because turnout was just 72%
• Called the Government “Shortsighted” and “stupid” for voting down a Lib Dem wrecking amendment on the Erasmus Programme
• Called it a “disgrace” that eurosceptic MEPs received EU funding
• Tweeted out an Independent article entitled “Brexit is going to be far worse than anyone could have guessed”
• Highly critical of Boris Johnson during the EU referendum
• Tweeted about pro-Brexit “Twitter bots” influencing the EU referendum
• Tweeted “Brexit is utterly, utterly stupid”, and “Brexit is like a Premier League side wanting to be relegated”

The truth is there is far too much anti-Boris anti-Brexit bias to include in one article. Guido found Sambrook’s Twitter account to be more that of a partisan political commentator than an aspiring impartiality tsar. What a bonkers hire for advice on social media conduct…

UPDATE:  Following our story this morning about his clearly partisan public tweeting, he has now locked his Twitter account making his tweets private:
There will now be no confidence in his review, as a former journalist he should know that cover-ups always backfire and transparency would have been better. He will surely have to step aside from the impartiality review…