From a discussion about crime, punishment and rehabilitation on Kate Silverton’s Radio Five Live show this morning:
Laurence Lee (solicitor for Jon Venables): It goes back in my opinion to maybe the sixties, lack of parental discipline. I don’t want to sound too right-wing here…
Silverton: No, carry on because we all get accused of being too left-wing here so we like a bit of the other.
Yeah, a “bit” being the operative word. Apart from Lee, who felt the need to apologise for sounding right-wing, Silverton’s other guests were The Guardian’s chief political correspondent Nick Watt, leftie blogger Sunny Hundal and, for the second week running, leftie lawyer Philippe Sands. And people have the nerve to talk about left-wing bias. As Beeboidal says in the comments: “Kate take a look at your programme today and tell me if the accusers might just have a point.”
Silverton’s programme was followed by the first in a new series of 7 Day Sunday which, for once, did try “a bit of the other” by including in its guest line-up Toby Young of the Telegraph and Spectator. I only caught some of it but what I did hear was a definite improvement on the last time I listened.
Perhaps I should do one of these about a production meeting for Kate Silverton’s show.
If Kate Silverton had a better grasp of current affairs she might be aware that her employer’s Director General conceded last week that the BBC HAS had a problem of left-wing bias, so the `accusations’ aren’t as fanciful as she clearly wants to think
Parental discipline is right-wing? Right-wing is common sense then. Left-wing is radicalism/batshit insanery. I understand.
So what would have happened if nobody’d accused the BBC of being what it is; a bloated left-wing echo chamber? Would this guy’s right wing notions of responsibility been shouted down? In order for the BBC to come close to adhering to its charter, does it need people to constantly monitor and point out the shit it does? A glowing testament to B-BBC and its cohorts then. Kudos, fellas.
Silverton is a joke, she fancies herself as a professional reporter but made a total arse of herself in Afghanistan.
Radio 5 is a leftie love fest, its left wing bias goes way beyond most other BBC outlets.
agreed. But tremendous eye candy n’est-ce pas?
Silverton? Nope does nothing for me, there was a great picture of her in one of the papers a while back and her face looked like the surface of the Moon. Rough or what.
Have to agree with Chairman here, Martin. Very attractive. As for her politics, I used to watch her on “The Wright Stuff” and discerned a definite right-of-centre leaning, often going against the chavvy soft-left views of others on the panel.
She later married an ex-Royal Marine, so I would have thought she’d have been right up your street!
Sad to see how she has evidently drifted left.
They “like a bit of the other” at the BBC, do they? Martin’s been saying that for years.
The BBC regards us, and probably most native English, as the “other” A people impossible to understand but to be treated with a degree of condecension. Try to avoid outright contempt but ” they” do have such uncivilised views and attitudes that it is difficult for us sometimes to keep our contempt hidden. Right wing is BBC code for any opposing view.
What happens to the young Beeboid on joining up? Do they go for programming or are they really replicants created in some underground facility? Kate S is about as artificial a construct as it is possible to find so maybe the latter.
Personally I blame their parents. If they had had a harsh, miserable and very deprived childhood they would probably have turned out OK. The world has spoiled them and it shows.
ah. I seem to have mirrored your point. Serves me right for not reading all the posts in full.
DB, if you’re going to do another ‘one of these’, please do it without the gratuitous swearing. I think it kinda makes it difficult for DV to ask people not to in the comments.
Radio 5 is jumped up student campus radio. It’s teeth grindingly embarrassing to listen to (as is much of the BBC of course, though for different reasons). If I might add 2 things. Firstly, the fact this guy has to apologise and then identify his views as right wing precisely illustrates what the BBC has succeeded in achieveing over the last 30 years. These aren’t right wing views, but they are contrary to the BBC narrative, so he has to apologise in advance for even mentioning them and by doing so, also subtely disassociates himself from them at the same time. He is a coward.
As for Silveton, she is a nightmare, but (and apologies for bringing the tone down), she is delightful to look at. Absolutely delightful.
And still on the radio theme, look at the editorial framing of Sarah Kennedy’s departure from Radio 2.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11178849
She’s a bit right-wing you see, so she must have been an unreconstructed, full-blown racist.
No gold watch and farewell drinks for her then!
This bias is so bad, but no one does anything about it, It is getting worse not better as the DG appears to think.
The first step is to cut it down to size and slash the licence tax so it cannot aford to carry on like this.
Radio 5 clearly haven’t got he message from Mark Thompson. This morning the Tories have been attacked for.
1. Schools, I’ve heard “Margaret Thatcher milk snatcher” used again, Michael Gove is now the new Thatcher, so no change there from the BBC
2. Andy Coulson, again the BBC seem to think this is such an important story, the Police knew thousands of people had had their voice messages listened to, but Coulson denied he knew and unless there is some hard evidence to link him to that this story is dead. Why did mong Marr keep saying the New York Times journalists were “Pulitzer prize winners”? So what? Didn’t it occur to mong Marr that he should be asking why a major US newspaper was taking an interest in a minor political issue in the UK? Could you imagine if a right wing US paper had done the same to Liebour or the BBC?
Justin Webb really had the most obnoxious interview with Yates of the Yard over the hacked phones story on Today just after 8:00. It was simply one insinuation after another. I got the strong impression that Yates was struggling to remain civil.
And the first headline on teletext this morning: “Met may re-open phones case.” When you read it, they’ve said they may reopen it if new evidence comes to light. One would assume that applies to any case and isn’t really news, and most certainly not worthy of top billing.
Oh I forgot to add that Radio 5’s Nikki Campbell (Queen of breakfast radio) also attacked Damien Green for being such a nasty man for wanting to cut back on all those poor Muslims that want to come here.
Green’s comment that he wants to stop these colleges that are no more than a room above a Kebab shop really upset Queen Nikki.
Perhaps that’s where the Climate Research Unit operate from?
Martin,
Wrong – those colleges ARE the kebab shop.