James Forsyth has a good post over at the Specator’s Coffee House. Here’s the opening:
If Coffee Housers missed it, I’d thoroughly recommend watching Kirsty Wark’s interview of George Osborne on Newsnight. It could easily be mistaken for a parody of BBC bias. Wark starts off by suggesting that the Tory governments of the 1980s are to blame for the current crisis; even Gordon Brown hasn’t attempted to claim this…
Wark, of course, has some formwhen it comes to accusations of pro-Labour bias.
Each time the argument didn’t stick prompted a swift change of subject. The 80s. Bonuses. Then the Americans, recapitalising banks, councils losing money. Each point always, albeit a bit stutteringly, brought back to Gordon Brown. Well done George.
As odd as that was Kirsty didn’t exactly pull her punches for the earlier interview of James Purnell. He was shown up to be lacking in knowledge and stuck for credible answers.
It can’t have escaped anyone’s notice that Labour Ministers of one sort or another now routinely do pre-recorded interviews.
I saw this and was disgusted. I wrote an email of complaint. If you notice you can hear her moving in the background in the few times she let him speak. A clear move to put him off his train of thought. Notice also the smile on contempt on her face.
A total red in the bed.
Body language was also telling. With Purnell she was sitting back in her chair. With Osborne she was leaning forwards like she was challenging him to an arm wrestle.
A reminder of BBC Kirsty Wark’s ‘form’:
“Kirsty Wark and the bugged emails you WON’T be hearing on ‘Newsnight'”
[Extract, from ‘Daily Mail’]:
“Not for the first time, the unedifying spectacle raises questions over Wark’s suitability as an impartial presenter on BBC’s Newsnight, where she has courted controversy in the past over her close friendship with politicians and her financial dealings.
But what is this latest row about? It will hardly surprise you to know that there hasn’t been so much as a whisper about it on the BBC or in the Left-wing media – despite the fact that police have launched an investigation into Wark’s television producer husband of 20 years, Alan Clements, over complaints of industrial espionage.
“This follows an admission by Clements in the High Court that he asked his wife’s secretary to hack into the emails of former colleagues at the independent television company for whom he used to work – and which he is now suing for ‘constructive dismissal’.”(‘Daily Mail’.)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-492360/Kirsty-Wark-bugged-emails-story-WONT-hearing-Newsnight.html
George Osborne did very well. Wark clearly had a set of (wrong) assumptions underpinning each of her questions, and George politely but firmly corrected each one.
What interests me is what happens next in Wark’s mind?
Does she say to herself “My goodness, I had all that completely wrong. I’d better go and do some more homework on this stuff”?
Or does she ruefully concede one round to Osborne and determine to beat him next time?
One way or another, she surely must realize she’s come across as a complete ignoramus?
To my mind, Kirsty Squawk is the WORST of the pisspoor Newsnight presenters. Her egotism, aggressive attitude and stupidity (especially in regard to anything to do with economics) is astonishing. We do regard her as high entertainment and watch her every time she is on as a weird kind of comedy, Beeboid acting.
And to think we are forced to pay for this bigotted bitch – by law….
Grrr!
Wark is part of the Scottish Nu Liebour mafia that we go on about.
Further to Wark blaming 80s deregulation for the current crisis, as a member of the much maligned City workforce I note that those pleasant chaps at Socialist Worker are having a protest march at 4pm today outside my office.
Should the Beeb see fit to cover this I’d be grateful if they could ask where the “thank you” marches were over the last 20 years whilst we were funding these clown’s pensions and public sector jobs. They might also want to touch on the irony of a “workers” march at 4pm on a working day. Cheers!
the most blatant bias I have ever seen
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/the_daily_politics/7663563.stm
zoomraker | 10.10.08 – 4:08 pm |
You’re damn right there’s blatant bias.
“It’s lovely to see him happy…”
This is an embarrassment of Gordon Love. Where’s Ofcom now?
us Brits do so like to see the dear leader happy
Happy as a pig in sh*t.
Hang on a minute, that’s precisely what he is in……
Notice also the smile on contempt on her face
I thought it a juvenile smile & snigger that after blaming the current crisis on actions in 1886 she thenas sought to get Osborne to rise to the taunt that the banks were being “nationalised” & the Tories were having to advocate that course of action.
Happy in a nappy….that’s our ‘Dear Leader’.
George R | 10.10.08 – 11:36 am |
That was in 2007. Any news of a conviction?
Britains one party state
Spot the Conservative
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/default.stm
She is woefully out of her depth – you can hear the cogs rusting up as she asks banal & ignorant questions. It’s a pretty bad day when you’re chuffed to see the Maitliss.
What level of vanity exists to be aggressive when blatantly not on top of the facts. Is she an alky or just stupid?
PaulS | 10.10.08 – 12:07 pm:
George Osborne did very well. Wark clearly had a set of (wrong) assumptions underpinning each of her questions, and George politely but firmly corrected each one.
For my money PaulS (not that I consider myself worthy to judge anyone) that was the most searingly astute of observations. For my own reasons I have cause to pigeon-hole George Osborne as a complete media-suborned tosser, utterly bereft of common sense and gumption. But the fact is Kirsty Wark Shanghaied him with several absurd lines of questioning that neither he, nor any reasonable person, could hardly have foreseen • and he dealt with them all exceptionally well. It’s almost as if the pressure Wark put him under forced him to drop his normal I-must-at-all-times-do-what-I-can-to-get-liked-by-the-BBC false persona, and, accordingly, for once, he unwittingly came across as a competent, polite, financial analyst fully on top of his brief; and, to boot, a good performer in front of the cameras.
Just my thoughts.
For anyone interested in watching Kirsty Wark’s ridiculous interview without having to forage for it, here’s a direct link (for the next few days at least):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00dwdyp/b00dwds8/Newsnight_09102008
George Osbourne’s support of these disgusting bailouts shows that he is a Socialist, failing to oppose welfare handouts to the banks.
It seems that the Tories feel its okay for the rich to sponge billions off the taxpayer.
The free-market should be left to fend for itself, anything other than that is Socialist nanny statism.
US stock prices suffered their worst weekly loss in history but the BBC feature the Palin probe as their lead article and photograph.
The boring and predictable BBC…
Wark is one of the worst of the champagne socialists.
Extreme left-wing, fabulously wealthy, corrupt.
A repulsive woman, she disgusts me.
Wark is a straightforward liar. For example, she claimed with a straight face that the British army’s top brass had asserted, in the 1990s, that any operation in the former Yugoslavia by British troops would be a ‘piece of cake’. In fact, they said the exact opposite.
What a disgusting hag.