STEADY ON EDDIE!

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Just six hours after the start of the general election and the BBC was already in full cry against the Tories. Even Eddie Mair.
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His summary of the events of the day near the start of tonight's PM had not got far before he said, "Advanced copies of Mr Cameron's remarks given to the media indicated that he would list the people he called 'The Great Ignored'. He would say 'young, old, rich, poor, black, white, gay, straight' but when it came to it 'gay' and 'straight' weren't mentioned." The clip of Mr Cameron' speech followed. Eddie's introduction ensured that the listener did not hear it for what David Cameron was saying but for what the BBC wanted us notice that he hadn't said, thus sabotaging the Conservative leader's message.
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No such sabotage occurred before the clips of Gordon Brown's speech that followed, ensuring that the listener (or at least any listener who doesn't drift into a coma at the very sound of that man's voice) heard what Gordon Brown wanted them to hear. Nor before the clip from Nick Clegg.
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In the interview with William Hague that followed, as freddo41 has pointed out, Eddie ferociously pursued the BBC's other angle of attack on the same story as above, with eight out of fourteen of his questions being about Chris Grayling (whose ears would have been burning at the time), insulting questions put with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. William Hague handled it without losing his cool or his good humour. I agree it might have been better if he had lost both and savaged the BBC's obsessive reporting of this story over the last three days. The interruption coefficient here was a hefty 1.4.
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I am disappointed with Eddie Mair.
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Still, after a gentle interview with Sir Ming Campbell (I.C. of just 0.2), Eddie partially redeemed himself with an interview with Ed Miliband that pressed that strange young man about Gordon Brown's deeply suspicious reluctance to be open about documents relating to his calamitous bargain basement sale of our gold reserves (I can only hope Carolyn Quinn didn't hear him asking about it!) and then pressed him about the idiotic remarks of Brown ally Angela Smith that Britain will be all the stronger for coming out of recession last (I.C of 1.1).
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TAGGED-ON BIT:
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This is what Mr Grayling actually said:

"I think we need to allow people to have their own consciences. I personally always took the view that, if you look at the case of should a Christian hotel owner have the right to exclude a gay couple from a hotel, I took the view that if it's a question of somebody who's doing a B&B in their own home, that individual should have the right to decide who does and who doesn't come into their own home. If they are running a hotel on the high street, I really don't think that it is right in this day and age that a gay couple should walk into a hotel and be turned away because they are a gay couple, and I think that is where the dividing line comes."

Now off with his head!

WHERE HAVE ALL THE RIGHTIES GONE?

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It's been a busy week this week, so apologies for the falling-off in the amount of blogging I've been able to do. A quick skim through the past 24 hours follows!
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Tonight's PM discussed Obama's moves against bankers with...a Labour MP, John Mann. That's who you'd issue your only invitation to discuss Obama's moves with, isn't it? Thankfully Eddie Mair was on hand to insure that the sometimes excellent/sometimes deeply mistaken Mr Mann was made to work for his supper!
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The other political section was given over to a report by Ross Hawkins on political caretakers, inspired by Arlene Foster's assumption of the DUP leadership. As well as (rightly) talking to Vince Cable and Margaret Beckett, the two most recent caretaker leaders, he also sought the advice of Sir Michael White of The Guardian. How typical of young Ross to seek wisdom from the likes of Sir Michael! This lunchtime's WATO sought the expertise of the Independent's former Latin American editor Colin Harding on Haiti. It's funny how often journalists from those two particular newspapers crop up on BBC programmes.
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This tendency to tilt reports towards the Left is a common trait of BBC bias. Paul Moss's report on Irish emigration on last night's The World Tonight talked to Parias MacEnri, a lecturer in migration studies, and novelist Colm Toibin, but also to a politician, Senator Alex White (naturally) of the Labour Party. Similarly, Giles Dilnot's report on the future of the BBC, featured Peter Bazalgette, the man who brought us Big Brother, and someone introduced as Carole Tongue of the Citizen's Coalition for Public Service Broadcasting - an ominous-sounding organisation if I ever heard one!! She's a former Labour MEP, and like many a former Labour MP/MEP, has fingers in a huge number of pies.
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John Humphrys returned this morning and his first political interview was with Sir Alan Beith (just before 7.00). The topic was prisons. Sir Alan, being a good liberal, is not keen on them. Neither, being a good leftie, is John Humphrys, so they got on together without a single interruption.
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Voices from the Right-of-Centre have been conspicious by their absence.

THE CRUEL BARBARITY OF CAROLYN QUINN

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Tonight's PM with Carolyn Quinn began by exploring the story of Akmal Shaikh, the British drug smuggler facing execution in Communist China. The issue was discussed with someone who's "an expert in human rights", Saul Lehrfreund of The Death Penalty Project. This is not an organisation that campaigns for the death penalty, you won't be surprised to hear. Mr Lehrfreund and Carolyn got on like a house on fire.
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If you'd expect Carolyn to share Mr Lehhfreund's opposition to the death penalty, you'd also surely expect her not to be in favour of further 'profiling' of terrorist suspects - after all that might risk offending the Muslims (who, for some unfathomable reason, people suspect of being ever so slightly more likely to want to blow up aeroplanes, with people on them). Her line of questioning to Philip Baum, an airline security expert with Green Light Ltd showed that to be a very reasonable expectation.
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The ever-entertaining Eric Pickles was up next, love-bombing an unwooable Danny Alexander of the Liberal Democrats. Carolyn interrupted Eric to ask about...guess what?....inheritance tax, then, when the interview ended read out one e-mail from 'a listener' who said he'd never vote Tory because of the "the cruel barbarity of fox, deer and hare hunting".
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We then had yet another report about Gaza. Gaza, Gaza, Gaza, day in day out on the BBC. I couldn't care less about Gaza. I'd like to hear about Japan, or Mongolia, or New Zealand, or Tunisia, or Congo, or Canada, or Mexico...anywhere except Gaza. The BBC are obsessed about Israel and the Palestinians.
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Eddie Mair (my favourite BBC interviewer, unlike Carolyn Quinn) then continued his series of full-length interviews with retiring MPs. These have all been interesting, with Eddie extracting a fine confession from John Hutton last Tuesday. (Good man John Hutton. He characterised Gordon Brown's prospects as prime minister perfectly, and in the circumstances his swearing was understandable!!). So far though, he's talked to Labour's John Hutton (last Tuesday), Labour's Bob Marshall-Andrews (last Thursday) and Independent Labour MP Clare Short (today). Hopefully, PM's producers will set Eddie up with a few retiring Conservative MPs later. (If not, why not?)

FRIENDS OF MANDY

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I'm still catching up on my weekly round of BBC programmes & have a couple of short observations to make about this week's run of PM.
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When you have separate interviews with spokesman from various political parties on the same day, with the same interviewer, and on the same subject, bias is most easily spotted. Wednesday was Pre-Budget Report day & representatives of the two main parties and the Liberal Democrats were interviewed by Eddie Mair. Compare the amount of time each got, & you'll see bias:
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Liam Byrne (Labour) - 5 minutes 22 seconds
Vince Cable (Lib Dem) - 3 minutes 37 seconds
Phillip Hammond (Conservative) - 2 minutes 36 seconds
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Check out the interruption coefficients too and you'll find more evidence:
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Phillip Hammond - 1.7
Liam Byrne - 1.1
Vince Cable - 0.3
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Eddie characteristically redeemed himself - though not his producers - (retrospectively) by also giving Labour's evasive David Lammy a good going-over on Tuesday edition (I.C. of 1.3) as he tried passing the buck (in classic Labour fashion) over a bungle over student loans. That is why, almost alone among the regular BBC interviewers, I still have some time for Eddie Mair.*
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Worse was a report on Friday's edition into TV satire/drama about Westminster politics, presented by Becky Milligan. The three talking heads in the report were all Labour Party people - retired Labour MP Joe Ashton, writer (and friend of Mandelson) Robert Harris and Hazel Blear's former advisor Paul Richards. There was absolutely no reason for this, as the report was not about how Labour was represented in such programmes but about how Westminster politics in general has been represented over the years. Why the Labour Party monopoly then?
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THE BEEB'S FAVOURITE DOUBLE-ACT

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Who was invited to discuss the issue of the government's secret loans to RBS and Lloyds on Tuesday's PM programme? Well, first up was Vince Cable, then straight afterwards Labour's John McFall. They appear together so often on the Beeb that they should thinking about buying a tandem.
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PLEASE THINK OF THE YOUNG ADULTS!

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This edition of the programme also gave a platform to T2A, an alliance convened by the 'social justice charity' the Barrow Cadbury Trust that aims to promote non-custodial sentences for young adult criminals (aged 18-24). "Custody is not the answer for this age group," said its deputy stool, Shan Nicholas. She would prefer 'treatment' and 'community sentences'. (More on the alliance can be found in the article Shan wrote for - it almost goes without saying! - The Guardian: http://www.guardianpublic.co.uk/young-adults-criminalisation). The sympathetic reporter was Andrew Bomford, the BBC's social(ist) affairs correspondent. Bomford is keen on the Barrow Cadbury Trust, as you can see from this BBC News website article from last year: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7391532.stm.

P.M. FOR THE P.M.

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Though I approve (on the whole) of Eddie Mair, that does not mean that his show PM is not biased towards the Left - at least if today's edition is anything to go by. See if you agree. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qskw
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Terry Stiasny' s report on the hostels for teenage mothers proposed by Gordon Brown in his speech at the Labour Party conference, taking shape in the form of foyers run by local housing associations, could have been scripted by a Labour spin doctor. She talked to a young mum who thought it was a great idea in that it made life a lot easier for her. The sociological jargon spouted by its director, who thought his foyer was a 'great example' for the prime minister, tells you something about the mindset behind such doubtless well-intentioned projects - as does the fact that rehearsals were going on for a play for Black History Week. (Of course, he wanted more funds from the taxpayer.)
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A lively debate within a narrow ideological circle followed with a discussion on the importance of a treaty at the forthcoming Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, with enviromental campaigner Kim Carstensen of the WWWF Global Climate Initiative talking the matter over with Andrew Pendleton of one of the Beeb's favourite think-tanks, the centre-left Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). Both supported strong action to 'save the world', they only disagreed about just when a binding treaty should be signed.
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The privatised rail companies came under sustained attack from Nick Cosgrove in the Upshares Downshares business spot, with Ashwin Kumar of the pressure group Passenger Focus piling on the criticism.
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Even Nils Blythe's report from Malawi on food security praised the government intervention policies of the government of that country, talking to "one of the beneficiaries of a Malawian government programme to provide heavily subsidized seeds and fertilizers to poor farmers". We heard twice that this had "made a huge difference" (as it may well have done). We also heard praise for our Labour government role in the 'Malawi Miracle', with Gwen Hines of the Department for International Development stressing the importance of 'financial engineering.' We also heard of campaigns against wicked artificial fertilizers, which were not (Blythe said) felt to be "sustainable in the long term."
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SOPHIE SAVES THE WORLD

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No Andrew Marr this week. It was Sophie Raworth instead (pictured right. Funny how I don't tend to feature pictures of Marr, isn't it?)

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Besides interviewing Squeaker Bercow (and not asking him about his expenses), the fair Sophie's main political interview was with Ed Miliband. The interview (scoring an I.C. of 1) concentrated on climate change and in her introductory remarks Sophie mentioned the "poll yesterday" which "showed the public are sceptical about the threat of global warming" and that "less than half believe it's caused by human activity." It was good to have that mentioned and did the programme credit. That said, it was not mentioned again during the actual interview. Moreover, Sophie's own non-sceptical bias came out through each of the questions she put to Mr Miliband, which included - in all seriousness - an interruption to state that the 'deal at Copenhagen' "is about saving the world." When she pressed him about the 'deal', she phrased it as "a legally-binding one hopefully" and it didn't sound to me as if she was talking about Ed's hopes, rather about her own. Something similar happened when the question turned to Barack Obama's presence at Copenhagen. Sophie stated "because he needs to be there", before realising that this should be a question and re-phrasing it as such. She also asked (twice) about a report from the Institute of Mechanical Engineers which advocates even stronger measures to tackle this allegedly "really serious problem" - as we heard on Friday's PM, where Tim Fox of the I.M.E. said we need "a paradigm shift" in our attitudes to climate change and a "war-time mentality" to cope with the looming apocalypse. (What Eddie Mair, who conducted that interview, forgot to ask Mr Fox was whether the I.M.E. might not just have a slight vested interest in encouraging a huge number of new, expensive engineering projects over the next few decades, and may have that in mind at least as much as 'saving the world'!).

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OCTOBER'S I.C.s - EDDIE MAIR

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Eddie Mair (of PM fame) continues to plough his own idiosyncratic path. He roasted Lord George Foulkes, badgered Ken Clarke and harried Nick Clegg. His interview with the useless Lord Drayton (who got into a spot of bother over defence procurement) was wonderfully lethal.
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These are his I.C.s for October:
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07/10 Lord George Foulkes Labour 1.1
12/10 Nick Clegg Lib Dem 1.1
19/10 Ken Clarke Conservative 1
07/10 Eric Joyce Labour 0.7
21/10 George Osborne Conservative 0.7
15/10 Lord Drayton Labour 0.5
22/10 Margaret Hodge Labour 0.5
13/10 Richard Caborn Labour 0.5
20/10 Hilary Benn Labour 0.4
22/10 Dominic Grieve Conservative 0.3
13/10 Harriet Harman Labour 0.2
07/10 Ed Miliband Labour 0
21/10 John Robertson Labour 0
05/10 David Ford Alliance 0
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This translates into the following averages for October:

Lib Dems - 1.1
Conservatives - 0.67
Labour - 0.43
Alliance - 0
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Looking across all of his 53 interviews since June, we find even more evidence of the man's idiosyncrasy.
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SNP (4) - 0.83
Lib Dems (7) - 0.57
Labour (27) - 0.55
Conservatives (15) - 0.36

These are the sort of figures you don't often find from a BBC interviewer!
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EUROPE, EUROPE, EUROPE

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The BBC have not just been busy hunting out all manner of -philes and -phobes in the Conservative Party, concerning the issue of a European referendum, they've also been busy phoning high-ups from Europe centre-right (federalist) grouping, the E.P.P.. After Eddie Mair (PM)was put through to the German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier (who criticised Cameron's policy), Ritula Shah (The World Tonight) talked to Cecilia Malmstrom, Sweden EU affairs minister (who criticised Cameron's policy).
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They are pulling out the stops over this one.

SEPTEMBER'S I.C.s - EDDIE MAIR

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Eddie Mair from P.M. continues to be his own man, as these results again show:

Kevan Jones Labour 0.9
Nick Clegg Lib Dem 0.9
Mary Creagh Labour 0
Peter Luff Conservative 0
Sir Ming Campbell Lib Dem 0
Annabel Goldie Conservative 0
Vince Cable Lib Dem 0

Average interruptions per political party:
Labour - 0.5
Lib Dems - 0.3
Conservatives - 0

AUGUST'S I.C.s - EDDIE MAIR

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As with July, last month saw the Laird of PM on typically unpredictable form.

Diana Johnson, Labour (4/8) - 2.3
Edwina Currie, Conservative (6/8) - 1.2
Kenny MacAskill, SNP (20/8) - 1.1
Philip Hammond, Conservative (4/8) - 1
Alex Salmond, SNP (28/8) - 1
Ed Davey, Lib Dem (17/8) - 0.6
Phil Woolas, Labour (27/8) - 0.5
Lord Bill McKenzie, Labour (28/8) - 0.4
Christine Graham, SNP (17/8) - 0.4
Hanzala Malik, Labour (11/8) - 0.4
Jane Davidson, Labour (10/8) - 0.4
John Battle, Labour (17/8) - 0.4
William Hague, Conservative (11/8) - 0
Tom Watson, Labour (25/8) - 0
Vince Cable, Lib Dem (13/8) - 0
Lord Fraser, Conservative (24/8) - 0

Average number of interruptions per political party:

SNP - 0.8

Labour - 0.6

Conservatives - 0.6

Lib Dems - 0.3

These are nothing like last month's figures (for which please click on Eddie Mair's label). This is what I like to see!

KIM'S NO RONGER SO RONERY

The visit of Bill Clinton to the hellhole-that-is-North-Korea has been widely reported across the BBC today. It secured the release of two female American journalists sentenced to 12 years hard labour for 'illegal filming' (as I say, a hellhole). For that we can all be thankful. Except that it's not that simple...

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On 'PM' today Eddie Mair went so far as to editorialise, calling the trip a "diplomatic success". (Is that for him to say?)

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What does this 'diplomatic success' amount to? Kim Jong-Il kidnaps a couple of female American journalists to use as a bargaining chip with the US. The Obama administration finds out what Kim wants in return for their release. Kim demands a very high-profile visit from a famous American. The administration decides to give him just what he wants. Clinton visits Kim. Kim gets his photo-op. The journalists are freed. Kim's starving, imprisoned people remain not one jot less tyrannised. His neighbours remain not one joy less threatened. Is this what passes for a "diplomatic success" at the BBC these days?

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What has been so conspicuous about today's coverage is the absence (so far) of any voices critical of the Clinton trip. Not one second of precious BBC air-time has been granted to a sceptical voice. The BBC website has been similarly free of dissent. Why?

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Whether or not the Clinton trip is, on balance, a good thing or a bad thing, a success or a failure, it is not for the BBC to say. Moreover, those very questions should be the meat and drink of the BBC's coverage, with supporters and critics clashing across the airwaves.

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On 'Today' we had supporters only: John Everard, Labour's former ambassador to Pyonyang, and sociologist and Korean expert Aidan Foster-Carter of Leeds University (who writes for the 'Guardian'/'Observer') and on 'PM' there was another supporter, Miguel Marquez of ABC, former aide to Democratic senator Bill Richardson (who went to North Korea when Clinton was president).

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Foster-Carter said "I know that already the predictable people are opposing all this and so on". He may know this, but Radio 4 listeners were not so fortunate. They ought to have been able to hear from the 'predictable people' too. F-C also said "Everyone should welcome the contact. The contact does no harm, although some would say that it's a concession and so on", but again no listener was able to hear a word from those 'some' who 'would say that it's a concession', and so on...

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...and so on...

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As well as praising Bill Clinton as that "sharp-eyed man", Jim Naughtie posed this leading question to his colleague: "This morning I spoke to our correspondent in Washington, Jonathan Beale, and asked him whether the Obama administration would view the visit as a success." Beale replied, " It's got the desired result. It's got the release of these two journalists."

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And, thus, we end up back where we started.

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NEWSNIGHT SAVES THE DAY, DESPITE KIRSTY

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Finally Newsnight broke the silence & saved the BBC from total shame over this story!

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Gordon Carrera's report gently raised some of the reservations expressed above and, at last, a 'predictable' voice was allowed to debate - and powerfully so. Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy and former Clinton advisor Jack Caravelli discussed the day's events with slurry Kirsty Wark. Mr Gaffney outlined the critics' case with considerable force and Mr Caravelli was a thoughtful and intelligent counterweight. The discussion was only marred by Kirsty Wark and her half-baked, Boosh-bashing questions.

JULY'S I.C.s - EDDIE MAIR

The laird of Radio 4's 'PM', Eddie Mair strikes some listeners as smug, though I confess to liking the man. What do his I.C.s tell us?

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The July interruption coefficients for Eddie Mair are:

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Lord Mandelson, Labour (1/7) - 1.7 (hurrah!!)

Nick Clegg, Lib Dem (22/7) - 1.4 (hurrah!!)

Andy Burnham, Labour (28/7) - 1.2

John Healey, Labour (16/7) - 0.9

Stewart Hosie, SNP (21/7) -0.8

Grant Shapps, Conservative (16/7) - 0.8

Ken Clarke, Conservative (1/7) - 0.8

Edward Montgomery-Scott, Conservative (15/7) - 0.6

Bill Rammell, Labour (27/7) - 0.3

Colin Challen, Labour (1/7) - 0

Patrick Mercer, Conservative (14/7) - 0

Lord Falconer, Labour (30/7) - 0

Ann Widdecombe, Conservative (28/7) - 0

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Average number of interruptions per political party:

Lib Dem - 1.4 (!!!!!)

SNP - 0.8

Labour - 0.7

Conservatives - 0.4

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In June, Eddie averages were 2.3 for Labour and 1.4 for the Tories.

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Eddie Mair is a one-off at the BBC.

ZIP, ZILCH, ZERO,zzzzzzzz

My daily beat through the Radio 4 news neighbourhood has (with 'The World Tonight' still to come) been dominated by Labour and the Lib Dems, and no-one at the BBC has been mugging any of them. What a lot of soft, boring interviews with puny interruption coefficients to match!

Jim Naughtie talked to boring Alan Beith of the Lib Dems for 3 minutes 25 seconds, asked him only three questions and let him drone on without interuption, scoring a perfect 0. He only asked Labour's John McFall (another BBC favourite) two questions, despite a 2 minute 27 second-long interview, again without interruption (another perfect 0).

Even Sarah Montague was as gentle as a lamb. She also scored an I.C. of 0 with the dullest of interviews with Labour's international development minister and prize bore Douglas Alexander (which went on..and on..for only 4 minutes 42 seconds). She did interrupt ex-Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown once (achieving a 0.3 IC), but this interruption was not a challenging (more a clarifying) one.

Martha Kearney on 'The World at One' was hanging with her boys, David Miliband and Peter Mandelson. Labour and Labour. Miliband got 6 minutes and 28 seconds and was interrupted (oh so gently) just once (resulting in a tiny 0.2 IC) while Mandy got 5 minutes and 53 seconds with no interruptions, scoring an I.C. of, you guessed it, 0 (There's no such thing as a free lunch - except when your a leftie appearing on 'The World at One'.)

Even Eddie Mair was laying off the stimulants on 'PM', interrupting Labour's armed forces minister Bill Rammell only once in 3 minutes 26 seconds (0.3) and his business colleague Nils Blythe gave Alistair Darling 4 minutes 53 seconds of our precious time and another free ride to boot (0 yet again).

Will the 'World Tonight' kick some political ass? Will any leftwing interviewee be interrupted more than once? Will any Tory, or UKIPer put in an appearance on Radio 4 today? I can hardly wait to find out. Goodnight. zzzzzzzzzzz

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UPDATE: There were no politicians interviewed on the 'World Tonight'.