Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott last night accused the BBC‘s Emily Maitlis of “reading from a Tory script” and “throwing Tory talking points at me.” Abbott was in for a bit of a rude awakening when Maitlis clapped back “that came from a Labour member who was in the hall.” Awkward…
Emily Maitlis sums up the pointlessness of the vote forced by the SNP on Syria last night with help from a confused Mark Lancaster:
Maitlis: “Mark Lancaster, would you like to appear on Newsnight tonight?”
Lancaster: “Well, I’m on Newsnight tonight…”
Maitlis: “Right, so it was a pointless question. In other words, you’re here. You’ve decided. That’s what’s happened all afternoon.”
Not sure Burgon got it…
Backstage with #thechippendales #lasvegas pic.twitter.com/i1oTQd0aG6
— emily m (@maitlis) February 16, 2018
Trying to imagine the SJW reaction if Huw Edwards tweeted a picture of himself with a Hooters Girl…
Emily Maitlis interviews the new White House comms chief Anthony Scaramucci, who says he has no idea about chlorine chicken but there will “100%” be a UK-US trade deal. Worth a watch…
The BBC stars who are #NotOnTheList either need to sack their agents or, more likely, are dodging scrutiny by being paid via production companies. Many Beeb programmes are produced by third party companies, which means their stars still ultimately receive licence fee payer cash while keeping their names off the rich list. Neither Ian Hislop nor Paul Merton are on there because Have I Got News For You is made by Hat Trick Productions – they are thought to receive five figures per episode. Not forgetting Hislop’s documentaries which all go towards the upkeep of the comb-dodger’s £5 million Chelsea home. The Apprentice is made by United Artists so Alan Sugar avoids being named. Graham Norton’s salary was disclosed as £900,000 yesterday – the true figure is much higher because The Graham Norton Show is made by So Television. Mary Berry and Sue Perkins from Bake Off weren’t on the list, neither was David Attenborough because he is paid via BBC Worldwide, nor was Paxo because University Challenge is made by Granada. All these companies receive vast sums from the licence fee payer, with which they pay their stars millions, yet their names are #NotOnTheList…
One of the more interesting is Screenwipe’s Charlie Brooker. His programme is made by Zeppotron, a production company co-founded by Brooker which is part of Endemol. Charlie is a director of four companies – House of Tomorrow Drama Ltd, House of Tomorrow Holdings Ltd, Black Mirror Drama Ltd and Black Mirror Drama (S4) Ltd. Zeppotron and these four companies are all registered at the London office of Endemol Shine, which is headquartered in Holland and co-owned by Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox. Puts Charlie’s Murdoch mocking and Sun-bashing into perspective.
Guido was most shocked to see Emily Maitlis #NotOnTheList. Emily is one of the Beeb’s top stars, presenting Newsnight and the news – she is rightly unimpressed and quipped at an tech industry event last night: “You’re an industry doing so well, soon you’ll be able to afford a BBC man”. Her agent tweeted:
Beyond madness and being dealt with.
— alex armitage (@Alarmingtage) July 19, 2017
If Maitlis isn’t on the list and doesn’t get paid through a production company, that means the Beeb think she’s worth less than half an Evan Davis…
Craig Oliver’s Remain campaign learnt “what it was like to be Ed Miliband” when you have the massed ranks of the right-wing media against you. Emily Maitlis revealed last night that David Cameron encouraged Jonathan Harmsworth to have Paul Dacre, an implacable Eurosceptic, removed as editor of the Daily Mail, after failing to charm him into pulling his punches. Maitlis speculates that when Dacre discovered this he redoubled his front page enmity towards Cameron.
Elsewhere Downing Street knew that the Express proprietor Richard Desmond was backing UKIP and Brexit every day in his papers. Cameron knew that Rupert Murdoch was also a lost cause, though he hoped that Rebekah Brooks might be able to temper The Sun’s attitude. The now Ukippy Brexit-backing Barclays-owned Telegraph was pulling its punches to an extent that confused their own journalists – many believed the CEO Murdoch MacLennan had been squared. Harmsworth (and the not to be underestimated Viscountess) were more supportive of Dave yet unwilling to guide Dacre. For the record Cameron’s attitude to Guido’s proprietor / editor in 2015 was all charm, smiles and wisecracks. In 2016 as our editorial line hardened on the referendum he turned curtly negative, sarcastic and cold. Hardly surprising…
Even Owen Jones is criticising Jeremy Corbyn over his failure to give top jobs to women. So it hasn’t helped Labour’s new women problem that Corbyn supporter Dennis Skinner and fellow bro-cialist lost it with Emily Maitlis on the BBC this lunchtime:
DS: “You’re spinning already. That was an example of spinning. Because you were trying to imply that I turned it down.”
EM: “No that was a joke. That was a joke.”
DS: “I think it’s time that you got real, and you understood that you’re not working for Murdoch at the BBC, because you seem to be following the same pattern.”
Everyday socialist sexism…
