JO COBURN DOES A NAUGHTIE

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Jim Naughtie's crimes against impartiality are nothing new really. The BBC political correspondent Jo Coburn is, of course, also a co-presenter on The Daily Politics & she's been proving again that, when the cat's away (i.e. Andrew Neil) and she's in charge, she likes to play at pouncing on Conservatives. Her crimes against impartiality (as an interviewer) are becoming ever clearer as she becomes more prominent on the show.
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Yesterday saw Stephen Timm for Labour, Grant Shapps for the Conservatives and Danny Alexander for the Lib Dems gathering to discuss the election campaign. Here are the interruption coefficients scored for each by Jo Coburn:
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Stephen Timms - 0.9
Grant Shapps - 2.5
Danny Alexander - 1.5
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This is not new as far as Jo is concerned. There was this classic instance from October:
http://beebbiascraig.blogspot.com/2009/10/justine-faces-two-pronged-attack.html
There the Conservative Justine Greening scored 2.8 against 0.9 for Labour's Geoffrey Robinson.
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Back to yesterday & a comparison between Jo's interruptions against Mr Timms and Mr Shapps (ignoring the Lib Dem!):
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Here's how long it took for the interruptions to come during each answer given:
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The interruptions against Timms:
I1: after 7 seconds
I2: after 23 seconds
I3: after 5 seconds
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The interruptions against Shapps:
I1: after 2 seconds
I2: after 17 seconds
I3: after 3 seconds
I4: after 8 seconds
I5: after 2 seconds
I6: after 8 seconds
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Jo's manner was noticably more assertive (with a particularly mocking grin at one stage) against Grant Shapps and she was far more excitable when interviewing him. (It's probably left-wing blood lust). She also asked Mr Shapps a higher proportion of specific questions (about Tory plans to cut the deficit) as opposed to general questions, of which Mr Timms got three (two of them about how a long election campaign could tire the public). We could be seeing much more of this now that Anita Anand has gone on maternity leave.
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CODA

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For trivia collectors, the same edition of the programme saw BBC political correspondent Ben 'Son of Tony' Wright discussing the election campaign and using the word 'Tories' three times and the word 'Conservatives' not even once.
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Also there was a report on the 'leader debates' by young Adam Fleming, which featured as its only talking heads Ric Bailey, chief political advisor of the BBC (and executive editor of Question Time, so should that really be Ric Bailey - for fans of my colour-coordination?), and David (formerly Dave) Hill, former Labour spin doctor (who reminds me a little of the uptight spin doctor Steve Fleming (played wonderfully by David Haig) in The Thick Of It.) Again, no non-Labour politicos were featured in this report.
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SPECIFICALLY ABOUT CAROLYN

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Tonight's PM, again hosted by Carolyn Quinn (pictured right), followed the lead set by every other BBC Radio 4 current affairs programme so far & discussed the Chinese execution of 'bipolar Brit' Akmal Shaikh with a Left-Liberal type - in this case the foggy-minded Nick Clegg of the Left-Liberal Democrats (I.C. of 0.3).

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Afghanistan was discussed with two military men - Col. Wayne Shanks, the public affairs officer with US and NATO forces (a short interview, during which all Carolyn's questions could be summed up with the words 'Woe,woe and thrice woe!') and Alasdair Ross of 2 Rifles (a very sympathetic 7-minute interview). The interview with Col. Shanks was brisk and business-like, whereas the interview with Mr Ross (who's also a Labour councillor in Ipswich) was leisurely and involving.

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A remarkable report from Terry Stiasny followed. Terry returned to a school in Islington to see what echoes lingered of the Countenance Divine whose sainted feet trod on England's mountains green last April - i.e. Michelle Obama. She recalled "the first lady's hugs and spontaneity", and pressed a student to "go back, if you're in need of a bit of inspiration" to recall that great day when She walked among us. The pupils may have needed a little prodding to wax lyrical. Not so Terry Stiasny.

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Much of the final part of PM today was devoted to an end-of-year round-up of the political scene, compered by Carolyn herself, between Labour's John Cruddas (I.C. of 0.2), Lib Dem Ed Davey (I.C. of 0.3) and Conservative Andrew Pirie (I.C. of 0.3). The interruption coefficients here are much of a muchness. Considering my (inferior) side measure, the questions coefficient, though and you will get a sense that things weren't quite as balanced as those figures suggest - 0.9 for Mr Davey, 1.2 for Mr Cruddas but 2.4 for Mr Pirie.

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And so clearly was Carolyn Quinn aiming most of her specific questions at Mr Pirie that I can introduce a fresh measure here - the specific/general questions ratio. Under specific questions come ones that ask about the interviewee's party in particular - or his own personal responsibilities. These are, naturally, tougher questions. Under general questions, however, come questions unrelated to the interviewee's own political party, or his personal responsibilities (eg. questions about the BNP, or how all the political parties have been hit by the expenses scandal, or about Lords reform, etc). Looked at in this way, here's how things pan out:

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Interviewee****General questions*** Specific questions

John Cruddas*********** 3***********************1

Andrew Pirie************3***********************5

Ed Davey*************** 3********************** 1

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The single specific question aimed at Mr Cruddas concerned his earlier comments about Gordon Brown's prospects, whereas the single specific question aimed at Mr Davey was a typical Carolyn Quinn-style question: "And of course your party's got a problem because it...(sic)...not that many women, no ethnic minorities in the Commons at the moment." There were, as you can see, five specific questions aimed at Mr Pirie, including the interruption "David Cameron's got a presidential style has he?", as well as "What is the Conservative view of that?", " So you didn't go far enough?", "You've got David Cameron trying to force through all-women shortlists & coming up against quite a lot of opposition from the party", & "Where do you think the Conservatives are left then because sealing the deal is something David Cameron recognises hasn't been done yet?" All Carolyn Quinn's recent politics panels on 'Westminster Hour' have followed a similar pattern, boxing the Conservative guest in with specific questions but allowing the left-of-centre politicians much more open questions and, therefore, a freer scope and an easier time.

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