It is commonly said that the BBC has lost its way, journalistically. It is an accusation I sometimes share. But there are exceptions. As always, you have to choose where and from whom in the corporation you get your news.
Ros Atkins does the 7pm slot on the BBC News Channel (231 on my set, but I am sure it varies). Single-handedly he now fronts the best news reporting on television, most especially since Channel 4 News has lost its edge at the moment.
And he has impact. This slot when shared on YouTube has been viewed 3.7 million times.
Boris Johnson gave an important speech on British business to the CBI today and it contained some unexpected moments. One Downing Street source said it was ‘shambolic'. The story in 4 mins. Produced Harriet Ridley, Brioney Sowden and Tom Brada. https://t.co/QL980xfLwo pic.twitter.com/2kfoN1hx3m
— Ros Atkins (@BBCRosAtkins) November 22, 2021
If anyone is looking for good news broadcasting this is, in my opinion, the best place to find it at present. The rest of the evening can be quite good too, depending on the presenters.
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Careful, an endorsement by Richard Murphy could be career ending at the BBC!
🙂
Don’t you think Johnson looks tired?
That, or drunk
“Tired and emotional” is the expression I remember, from the time of George Brown
I sincerely hope it is not the case, but my first thought on seeing the PM verbally stumbling, trying to cover up and recover his place and fumbling his papers, was whether there had been a medical incident. I’m not medically qualified (I’m a doctor of the soul!) but having witnessed people suffering TIAs and stroke his ‘lostness’ for a few moments bore some resemblance.
I agree
But I think more likely he had never read the speech before and he was hung over…..
The fundamental issue seems to be that even the BBC’s specialist correspondents, and senior news journalists no longer see themselves as seeking the truth. Curiosity is there none.
They seem to see their role as providing a platform for unchallenged or un-queried statements of government-approved narratives.
When yesterday the CEO of Astrozenica suggested the reason W Europe is having a surge in covid cases is because they didnt use the ‘British’ AZ vaccine, the journalists didnt point out UK has had 3 months higher infection and death than even W Europe has now or that several official and semi official studies have shown AZ less effective than Pfizer etc.
BBC listeners have not been made aware we have had thousands more deaths than W Europe over last 3 months, and are now being told W Europe situation is worse than ours – when they have actually just caught up – and are taking extra action to bring infection down again , which we continue not to do.
https://twitter.com/dgurdasani1/status/1463450763510882305
I accept that
I noted what I think to be an exception
Thanks for the head’s up – I’ll give him a whirl.
Thanks very much Richard for the recommendation of Ros Atkins; an honest reporter, prepared to question what they are being fed, and willing to do their own research, is an increasingly rare bird.
The propaganda model described by Herman and Chomsky in Manufacturing Consent (1988) has surely proved correct. This model has been further developed, and backed up with evidence from recent decades, in the excellent 2018 book by Edwards and Cromwell, Propaganda Blitz: How the Corporate Media Distort Reality, which, even for a natural sceptic like me, was a real eye-opener.
For examples from more recent history, I can recommend the website https://www.medialens.org/
The good BBC journalists need all the support we can give them – if that’s not career limiting! Emily Maitlis has stuck her neck out on Newsnight – her Americast podcast with Jon Sopel is also worth listening to. Signs that Robinson and Husain are losing patience at times on R4, but health, economic and Brexit reporting are generally dismal. Im grateful for Channel 4 – no wonder they are trying to privatise it.
The worrying thing is that Boris’ chaotic, indisciplined, deceitful, indolent and untrustworthy character was abundantly evident long before he was put into No10. Since the Tories scrutinise potential leaders closely, they must have deemed Boris’ flaws to be valuable for their purposes. The list of his actions, his blatant contempt for Parliament, for basic democratic processes, for the judiciary and for long established conventions make the plan clear. Even Ken Clarke has recognised this as the path to an elected dictatorship. The hope seems to be that people will be less likely to recognise the malevolent intent behind the buffoonery. Perhaps the last few days may make them
reconsider his suitability.
It takes a bit of time to get perspective on the worth of a Prime Minister. For good or for ill, most surveys show Churchill, Atlee, Thatcher and Blair near the top of the list.
Johnson will be down with Lord Bute, Lord North, Chamberlain and Eden. Let’s hope we still have a country worth living in once he has finished buggering everything up.
Everyone loves a clown, but not as prime minister. His personality flaws give us adequate cause to send him packing on a one-way trip. Someone else will be paying.
Hi Richard
I may be a little cynical, but the fact that Kier Starmer was was also supposed to speak at the same conference, my view is that Johnson deliberately switched the spotlight on himself by acting the devious buffoon. What better way to stop discussion on the leader of the opposition than to get the country to talk about the state of a product of Eton
Having first been sceptical, I think Julian’s suggestion is quite possible. Johnson must have been aware that Starmer’s speech was likely to outshine his. It would have been an interesting dilemma for the lazy buffoon – trying a very tricky Machiavellian stunt or reverting to his ‘couldn’t be arsed’ type. On second thoughts it must surely be the latter.
Johnson also successfully drowned out Confederation of British Industry Director General Tony Danker’s message that ‘capitalism has failed.’
“The Port of Tyne in South Shields in England’s north-east is not an obvious place for Britain’s business leaders to meet.
The area was once central to the country’s industry, but has been decimated by government policy and a callous carelessness by politicians from all sides of the political spectrum over the past five decades.
This has meant that South Shields – just like other areas such as East Durham, South Yorkshire, Staffordshire, and Nottinghamshire –has been left without hope for generations. It’s become one of those places labelled as ‘the left behind’, although a truer description would be ‘purposefully and politically left out’.
Yet it was here that the Confederation of British Industry held its three-day annual conference, unexpectedly dominating headlines on account of Boris Johnson’s disastrous speech, with the prime minister losing his place, shuffling his papers, throwing out incoherent anecdotes about Peppa Pig, and making car noises. Predictably Johnson’s bizarre behaviour dominated discussion on news programmes and Twitter.”
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/541213-free-market-capitalism-failed-danker/
The port was also up for sale, to allow it to become a freeport just a week ago
It is no longer up for sale
The local Tory mayor’s plan for a freeport is in tatters
Which would seem to favour the ‘distracting buffoonery’ interpretation of BJ’s performance there