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As a disinterested party in this (strongly disliking both Labour and the SNP), I find The Politics Show: Scotland and its pro-Labour presenter Glenn Campbell intriguing but not particularly unsettling (at an emotional level). In any interview featuring a Labour and an SNP spokesman, it's pretty much a dead certainty with Glenn that the SNP spokesman will come off worse. Today was yet more proof of this.
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Discussing health (smoking in particular), the SNP's pale-looking spokeslady Shona Robison was interrupted twice, while Labour's Richard Simpson was not interrupted at all. Even to this disinterested viewer, the disparity in the treatment between the two was blatant. When Glenn went on to interview UK energy minister (Labour) Lord Hunt, it was (like the Simpson interview) an interruption-free zone (I.C. of 0). I suspect regular SNP viewers of the programme will fume at Glenn Campbell rather as I fume at Andrew Marr or James Naughtie!
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Off topic on this but where else do I go?
ReplyDeleteThe BBC's reporting of relief aid to Haiti is following a predictable path. Their lead article on their website has this as a second sentence, "UN and Oxfam staff are finally bringing food and water to some parts of the capital........"
The article is littered with UN this and Oxfam that, and the usual self-important individuals being quoted. Reading it you would be forgiven in thinking that the UN was doing all the running with others having just bit-part walk-on role.
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8464274.stm
For the BBC the truth in the matters seems to evade them just as with the 2004 Tsunami.
Christopher Booker in the Telegraph points you in the right direction.
"Haiti response shows the difference between the EU and a superpower
The earthquake in Haiti provoked prompt and effective action from the US, and waffle from the EU"
This line is so on the mark, "....Because they were self-sufficient, the US forces pulled off a stupendously successful life-saving operation, almost entirely ignored by the British media, notably the BBC (whose journalists on the spot were nevertheless quite happy to hitch lifts from US helicopters)."
One reader's comment sums it up
"So, Europe is too far from Haiti to offer swift help? So why did Israel have a field hospital up and running this morning on a football field in Port au Prince? Or, why was one of the first aid planes to land from China?
Some of you need to get your news from more reliable sources than the BBC."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/7005887/Haiti-response-shows-the-difference-between-the-EU-and-a-superpower.html
You can look forward in the coming days to more feeble reporting from the BBC correspondents who seem to inhabit the same airport hospitality lounges as the six-figure salaried talking heads from the plethora of “aid” agencies who will be jumping on the bandwagon.
One thing is for sure, I won’t be seeing any reports from US military personnel on the ground from the BBC. For that I will have to rely on Fox or CNN.
TPO
Thanks TPO, I'd forgotten about that.
ReplyDeleteI remember it hitting me at the time of the tsunami that the BBC was up to its usual anti-American tricks (especially as the evil Bush administration was in power at the time) -though it only hit me after watching ITV News. They reported that the US had done vastly more than anyone else to help victims throughout the region (and, I'm sure I'm not imagining this, actually had one of their reporters on board a US ship too). I remember thinking at the time that that was the first I'd heard of it. It was, because I'd previously been watching BBC News!
TPO, the BBC was following that predictable path to the letter today.
ReplyDeleteThis morning's 'Today' began with Ban Ki Moon and the U.N. (6.07am), then there was Oxfam at 7.10am. 'The World at One' began with Baroness Ashton and the E.U.'s response, which was treated as a going concern!!
Typical BBC re. Haiti.
ReplyDeleteNot the fault of the poor Haitian people that they have always had useless politicians but the BBC would rather see them suffer than be a US protectorate. The BBC are quite happy to see poor people die to prove a political point without putting their own worthless necks on the line.
Back to topic, up here North of the border, I don't know anyone who watches programs about Scottish politics. Narrow-minded, bigoted, corrupt, trivial. All the top Scots have left.
Er, time for me to emigrate , I think !
PS Just switched on to BBC 6 o'clock news with Sophie "airhead" Raworth to see her saying that the Haiti aid effort is "dominated" by the US. You just feel she wishes it wasn't !
ReplyDeleteOh Grant, does that mean I'm the only man in the country who watches 'The Politics Show: Scotland'? I'm not sure I'm proud of that!
ReplyDelete