BBC News 24’s Straight Talk programme (presumably so-named to contrast with the BBC’s normal kind of talk) this weekend follows the usual format of a presenter, James Landale, and three journalists, Jackie Ashley of The Guardian, George Pascoe-Watson of The Sun and Michael Brown of The Independent, discussing current topics (although with Bonking Blunkett on the agenda this week, current affairs might be more apt).
Both of this week’s topics, Bonking Blunkett and Gordon Brown’s pre-Budget report, were introduced with packaged pieces by the BBC’s Political Editor, Andrew Marr. On-screen captions inform us who each of the journalists are, including “Jackie Ashley, The Guardian”. Strangely though, neither the presenter nor Ms. Ashley spare a second, either at the beginning or during the programme, to inform us that Jackie Ashley is actually Mrs. Andrew Marr.
Her responses aren’t so much an issue in themselves (predictable though they are), but surely the integrity of the BBC demands that we, its compulsory Tellytax-paying customers, are informed of the family connection between Mr. & Mrs. Marr in order that we may bear this in mind whilst considering Mrs. Marr’s opinion on the stories covered by her husband’s reports on the programme – after all, Michael Brown saw fit to mention his own brush with scandal some years ago (in the context of the Blunkett discussion) and even The Guardian is honest enough to be transparent about the connection between Ashley & Marr.
‘Strangely though, neither the presenter nor Ms. Ashley spare a second, either at the beginning or during the programme, to inform us that Jackie Ashley is actually Mrs. Andrew Marr. ‘
This is just one minor example, of many, that helps to underscore the fact that Britain’s taxpayer-funded national broadacaster has been hijacked by an incredibly small and incestuous group of people.
The great and the good – as defined by themselves. Of course, the next step is for Britain to abolish its parliament at Westminster, and hand all residual power over to some new super bureaucracy.
The King is dead!
Long live Karl Marx!
More significant is that all the journalists selected are from labour supporting papers – No Mail, no Torygraph. The Ashley-Marr axis is perhaps less significant as Ashley writes for a paper which makes no secret of its values and interests which,unlike the BBC are not funded by the taxpayer, and Marr is a scrupulously fair commentator and interviewer.
I thought that someone in the BBC had decreed that no employee could work in print journalism. There business commentator left “The Telegraph” after the edict – of course he did not belong to Labour Party.
Derek Buxton “There business commentator left “The Telegraph””
Perhaps he will be leaving the BBC after failing to spot the bogus Dow Chemicals spokesperson. Unless, of course, the BBC news editor did not think of consulting the BBC business editor before breaking the Bhopal “scoop”.
No employee in print journalism? Marr has a column at the Torygraph – This particular thread is a bit of a non-story – We should be careful not to damn the BBC over irrelevancies – There are far more glaring issues – Bhopal, Plett, Poll tax license fee, clear anti US pitch in news reports etc etc etc….
Just agreeing with JH. People often encounter their future spouse or partner in the orbit of their work and may even end up helping each other. A prime example is Tony Blair whose adoption of the Human Rights Act did Cherie Booth’s legal practice (specialising in ‘Human Rights’ – in this country!) no end of good. ’tis a pity that she doesn’t practice in countries where real human rights are absent – Zimbabwe, North Korea etc.
For contributors from the US, Cherie Booth is the direct equivalent of Hilary Rodham.
Allan@Aberdeen – Cherie = Hilary? My condolences. Well, that explains the decidedly (teeth-clenched) phoney smile she sports during White House photo-ops.(posing with the current occupants, of course. She seemed happy enough with the former Pres. and Co-Pres.)
Cherie is Lady Macbeth
She looks like an older version of the Wynona Ryder character in “Beetlejuice.”
I thought Cherie looked like Beetlejuice himself/.