Queen of Broadcast Kay Burley has spectacularly slapped down “the second best broadcaster on LBC” James O’Brien. Read the extraordinary conversation in full…
The whole interview is worth watching. O’Brien does not come across well…
We’ll let Guido readers decide who won that one…
MediaGuido had heard a few whispers about why James O’Brien had been canned by Newsnight – chiefly that BBC bosses were fed up with his Trumpian hyper-partisan attention-seeking both on their programme, on Twitter and elsewhere. One insider says they simply ran out of patience with him always going off on one. O’Brien has today essentially confirmed that version of events, tweeting:
“I withdrew from the roster some months ago to retain my right to criticise Brexit and Trump in my other work”
To the relief of those who had to work with him, there are no plans for him to present again…
LBC leftie and sometime Newsnight presenter James O’Brien helped fake news about the collapse of Carillion go viral yesterday. Keen to find a damaging line, O’Brien tweeted that the company’s chairman is “an adviser to the Prime Minister Theresa May on corporate responsibility”. Nope…
O’Brien was later forced to correct his assertion in another tweet:
His original tweet was retweeted more than 8,000 times. The correction has been retweeted 170 times. And James still hasn’t deleted his fake news…
Well colour Guido surprised. Ofcom have ruled that LBC’s resident lefty James O’Brien is guilty of breaching broadcasting rules on the day of the Clacton by-election, for saying this:
“We, of course, are living in a country where an anti-immigration party is poised to win a seat in a constituency where there aren’t any immigrants. So we can’t really start sneering at other civilisations, and other cultures for being defined by division and enmity, when we appear to be rushing headlong into a similar environment ourselves. Just as a point of interest, I was looking at the census – yah, I am living the dream! – 2011 census with regard to Clacton, looking at how many immigrants are there. And do you know how many immigrants – there aren’t any in that constituency to speak of, 95.7%, I think, British-born and 95.7% white. It’s perfect, perfect territory in a sense. But the tiny number of immigrants who do live there, rather excitingly, the majority of them come from Germany. Who else comes from Germany, I wonder? We’ve just had a little bit of election analysis for you.”
Guido is all for opening up the airwaves to more forthright debate, but it was probably the subtle Germany reference that did for O’Brien…
Former Governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King…
“There are arguments for remaining in the EU and there are arguments for leaving the EU. But there is no case whatever for giving up the benefits of remaining without obtaining the benefits of leaving.”
