BBC Complaints: The link you need!

Sunday 25 April 2010

STITCHED UP LIKE A U-KIPPER (Part 2)

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So how did The Politics Show deal with UKIP's Maddy Westrop? Remember what Maddy told us: "I don't know why they interviewed me yesterday and I don't know what they are going to edit me to be saying. Everything was deliberately confused and I felt manipulated...Really they had their own agenda."
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What was BBC reporter David Thompson up to? Let's compare how he introduced 'the others' in the Stourbridge election.
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"Will Duckworth's the Green candidate here, but get this...the Lib Dems have actually asked him to stand down." Cue Will's moment of glory, as he got his own back on the Lib Dems!
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"UKIP's Maddy Westrop thinks her old mate Nigel Farage was a bit too rude to the president of the European Council when he told him he looked like a low-grade bank clerk. Maddy's not afraid to speak her mind. " Cue Maddy, and her 14 seconds of airtime. (14 seconds!!)
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"And local businessman Alun Nicholas is standing as an independent." Cue Alun.
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Now we know what the BBC were up to. "They said Nigel F was rude", reported Maddy. David Thompson said that very thing in his introduction &, as Maddy so accurately put up, "manipulated her" into getting her to say what they wanted her to say - that Nigel Farage was rude. That is a fascinating insight into BBC bias (for which, thanks to Maddy!). Mr Thompson wanted to get at Nigel Farage and UKIP, and worked his socks off to get Maddy to say something he could use against them. Isn't that disgraceful?

Maddy said, "they also had me and the Green candidate right there (amicably) arguing about energy policy and they didn't want to record any of it. They don't want the public to know our policies at all. Our stance against global warming alarmism is a complete vote winner and we can't put it across."
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As Maddy also forewarned us, "then they wanted a shot of me and the Green guy and an independent candidate (with five aston martins and a bit of an attitude) to be filmed looking through a window at a party - excluded from the party they were having with the three big parties.
I refused. They got very stroppy and said I didn't understand television. I said I was married to a BBC journalist and did. I pointed out we came first in the election just a year a go and they are ignoring us and not allowing the electorate to know our policies. They want to make the story instead of finding it!"
Seeing Thompson's silly film, with its party imagery, I am so glad Maddy scuppered it. Hence, perhaps, Thompson's snide and patronising "Maddy's not afraid to speak her mind."
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Maddy finished her e-mail "I have no idea what they will do with the footage they got. I suspect traps and distortions. Do tell everyone that they misled us and set us up for a fall."
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Yes. Yes they did.
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P.S. Next week the three 'main parties' get a final fling on the show. I make another prediction. David Thompson will mention that Margot James, the Conservative candidate in Stourbridge, is a millionaire.
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