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The Politics Show was back today, with Jon Sopel as puppet-like as ever. It was like it had never been away!
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It opened with two complementary interviews, one with David Frost of the British Chamber of Commerce (calling for public spending cuts) and the other with Brendan Barber of the T.U.C. (calling for increased taxes on high earners). Mr Frost got 3 minutes 36 seconds, whereas Mr Barber got 5 minutes 32 seconds. The socialist got two minutes more. That's BBC bias for you!
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Then came a soft interview with Labour's Alan Johnson. The Home Secretary's interview lasted 9 minutes 43 seconds, and but only contained 2 interruptions. Johnson's long and repeated attacks on the Tories were allowed to flow on, undammed. The Interruption Coefficient was a tiny o.2.
Max Cotton's report on MPs' lack of a contract of employment somewhat redressed the pro-left tendency of the programme by using Labour's Margaret Moran (Luton South) as its example of bad behaviour - though it did not label her as a Labour MP (which was a little bit naughty) - and gave Esther Rantzen and the seat's prospective Conservative candidate, Nigel Huddleston, a soundbite each. This redressing of the balance was somewhat undermined though by having two Labour MPs commenting on what MPs should do next, with Max having a friendly chat with the ubiquitous Stephen Pound and getting an earnest soundbite from the almost-as-ubiquitous John Mann.
Biased business as usual at The Politics Show.
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CODA: A SPOT OF TIFFIN WITH UKIP'S PAUL NUTTALL
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I won't be including the local bit of The Politics Show in my ongoing study, but it is worth noting that the North West edition with the delectable Annabel Tiffin featured an interview with UKIP's Paul Nuttall which, in typical Beeb style, lasted less than three minutes but contained no less than 6 interruptions, giving it a whopping I.C. of 2.4. It concentrated on "a couple of resignations"!
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Yep, the show is back and the bias is stronger than ever.
ReplyDeleteOur local part of the programme is for the South. We got a report on the mistrust the public have for MPs in the wake of the expenses scandal.
The BBC reporter, Danielle Glavin, reminded us of the claims made by MPs, for flipping homes and ludicrous claims, presumably limited to only the South's MPs.
We got "Andrew Mackay the Conservative Bracknell MP...", followed by "Sir Peter Viggers Tory MP for Gosport..." complete with a local member of public voicing their disgust.
It carried on with "Conservative MP Oliver Letwin..." and "Fellow Tory David Willet..."
Feeling it was a bit one sided, Danielle then added "Chris Hulme the Liberal Democrat MP wanted money for..."
But that was all she wanted to remind us about.
Ah, maybe there aren't any Labour MPs in the South? No.
For balance she could have picked one or two names from : Andrew Smith, Michael Wills, Anne Snelgrove, John Denham, Alan Whitehead, Sarah McCarthy-Fry, Laura Moffat, Celia Barlow, Michael J Foster or Gwyn Prosser, all Labour MPs for the South's region, all who have, according to the Telegraph, either swapped houses or made ludicrous claims just as bad as the Tories mentioned.
But then, attack the Tories, is page one chapter one of the Beeboid's guide to impartial reporting with hush up Labour is chapter two.
It's on IPlayer (South section) 36'20 in.
[ps I notice you can now cut/paste and use the arrow keys when writing this comment. Must have fixed it.]
Thanks for that Llew.
ReplyDeleteThe report even gave us the duck-house and a reprise of the 'Politics Show' quack! Shameless bias. (Nice-looking lass though.)
Did David Willetts have words with the show's producer afterwards - and if not why not???
I didn't realise that the i-Player contained all the regional versions of the show (as I already record it on my TV). Now there's a feast of potential bias for me to look at!!