DB’s post about the impartiality-busting tweets of left-wing BBC News Channel editor Rachel Kennedy, having first spread the message of BBC bias to Guido’s blog and to Melanie Phillips in the Spectator, now seems to have provoked a reaction from Helen Boaden.
Under the headline BBC Boss Tells Left-Wing News Staff “Stop Tweeting” Guido reports:
The Director of BBC News, Helen Boaden, has just sent out this chatty email
to all her staff today:Dear All,
We have had some occasions recently of BBC News staff using social networking sites to share with the world their somewhat controversial opinions on matters of public policy and the future of the BBC. Unsurprisingly, these have been picked up by the wider web and used to discredit the BBC and its impartiality. We have Editorial Guidelines which cover the personal use of the internet …which everyone should observe. We also have brains and judgement which I suggest people fully engage before rushing to communicate. Hx
(Guido , incidentally, has just tweeted Rachel:
Did you get Helen Boaden’s memo? @rachelkennedy84)
The Guardian speculates that an injudicious tweet from a BBC Breakfast reporter (Phil Lavelle) about the BBC’s funding of the Welsh-speaking channel S4C may well have provoked Ms Boaden’s action (probably “the future of the BBC” bit) though the the Guardian‘s Media Monkey seems to have missed the likeliest spark that lit the fuse – this website!
Is that a Kiss at the end of the memo from the The Director of BBC News? Pathetic
Yes, that leapt out at me too. It could have been straight from a Private Eye spoof.
Spoilsport.
I was watching a DVD of old Have I Got News For You recently and it had the segment from 1998 of the Director General’s memo telling all employees that they mustn’t mention Mandelson’s sexuality. It had no effect on me when it actually happened but nowadays the signifcance is clear.
Also that beeboid twat who wanted to punch Toby Young and everyone else in that BBC film about free schools as well.
The BBC really are scum, I detest them more and more every day, their mincing left wing sneering epitomised by Radio 5’s resident lefty bile Dame Nikki, Vicki Pollard and Richard Bacon. Oh and fat boy Nolan.
You know I still hope that there is an element within the Tory party that is going to take revenge on the BBC. Perhaps they are going to kill the BBC with a 1000 cuts rather than just hacking off their head Sharia style.
Perhaps watching the BBC bleed to death very slowly will be more enjoyable?
Pwnt. Nice work, chaps.
Most Beeboids are such inveterate Labourites who have been parasitic on public funds for so long that they transmit their political prejudices to others without realising or even caring.
Yes and how humiliating that big bad Momma Bear has to remind her stinking left wing brood that they must behave on Twitter.
Thus proving their genetic partiality.
Listened to Five Live earlier, the drivetime with Peter Allen was a hate-in for the tories. Cuts! Cuts! Cuts! How the poor will suffer, how the minorities will be targeted, how the welfare budget will be slashed for the unfortunate.
No mention that in real terms this us just a slow down of the overspend. No mention that the Labour party under Gordon Brown vastly inflated the public sector because the public sector votes Labour. As does the BBC, of course.
Then Peston came on and opined that for the private sector to absorb the jobless the economy would need to grow, which is a gamble with peoples lives, but that the new jobs were going to Poles and Czechs anyway.
No mention that if we don’t make cuts the economy will go down the drain faster than Dimblebore at a tory throat.
So:
A) Leave the EU
B) Liquidate the BBC
C) Minimise the state
D) Have a vague, just a vague, hint at proper border controls
Slash higher education. It really is an utter waste of time for most people, as far as doing the country any good goes. We have at least 8 times more people in higher education than in he 70s – what’s the point?
You get a better class of person flipping burgers.
Each year an army of pointless graduates, fresh from their CV-building six weeks in Africah or Asiah pretending to build a library (paid for by mummy and daddy) advance to their jobs in the “Third Sector” – charitees, Green campaign sector, or BBC HYS moderator.
Worthless and pointless, nevertheless imbued with the spirit “this is our time!”. Bleating about the Poor, they love the Poor, though not enough to want to be one of them. Activists junketing around the globe, and Saving The Planet (TM).
Sod’em.
Touche !
…..but I thought Helen X said that impartiality is in their genes ?
The only thing in a male beeboids ‘jeans’ is his boyfriends hands.
Just as a though experiment, let’s imagine what would happen if serving police officers were found be making racist comments on Twitter – and multiply by ten for what would happen if their Chief Constable’s response was to them to stop using Twitter.
The TODAY programme is just one long twitter.
I would take that back a step. What if a serving police officer or teacher were found to be tweeting their support of the BNP. Love them or hate them they are also a legal political party. The furore would lead to sackings.
Am I right in thinking they are not allowed to be teachers or police officers if they are in the BNP? I think the same applies to government service.
I’m not sure, so much has changed for the worse in our country in the last decade or so. If it is the case though, there should be a corresponding ban on members of far left groups.
This is quantitatively different I would say. The BNP is a neo-Nazi Party, there is no direct evidence from M/s Kennedy’s tweets that she supports a totalitarian party of the left.
On the other hand, Sarah Montague’s fawning interview with he Trotskyite Mark Steel calling for proto-revolutionary violence is far more grievous than a tweet in favour of a fascist party of the left or right. Nothing said about this by Hx. Her only objection to indiscreet tweeting is it lets the cat out of the bag about the subversive far left agenda of the BBC.
Most here will remember this post by David Vance back in March, when it was revealed that the BBC had set up a training course for staff how to use Social Networking Media, including Twitter.
I suppose this was necessary because even before this, Richard Bacon was making highly partisan tweets. Naturally, Marcus Brigstocke wasn’t far behind.
Since then, this training – at your expense – has paid serious dividends.
Today gets more story ideas from their Twitter buddies than anywhere else.
Five Live’s Interactive editor (who should presumably know better) made a ton of partisan tweets, then tried to remove them once he got busted on it.
After exchanging partisan tweets with someone, Stephen Nolan had the guy on air as a non-partisan phone-in vox pops.
A BBC DJ tweeted that he wanted to punch everyone in a Toby Young video piece because he didn’t agree with the premise.
Katie Connolly, head of BBC Online US News team, has made a ton of partisan tweets, and is Twitter-buddies with many from the JournoList. (Granted, she probably didn’t take the training course, but clearly reveals her partisanship on a regular basis.)
Then there’s Cash Peters and other edgy comedians who, while not official employees, regularly take the BBC shilling. And the list goes on.
How amusing but sad that it’s only just now that Helen Boaden has found out, and only because Guido reads this blog. And many elites read his. The BBC might wake up to this one again.
My congratulations to DB and Craig and anyone else who busted these dopey Beeboids.
Well said David.
Yep DP, their “cauliflower noses” must be throbbing with pleasure in their parents’ basement.
Now the Controller of 5Live is at it…
BBC versus Conservatives – inside the battle of the licence fee http://t.co/fYiwzxe
Funny… I thought we had a Coalition government.
@ BBCwaste:
I think that the link below tells you all you need to know about Adrian Van Klaveren….He’s the absolute epitome of everything wrong with the BBC. Never worked for anybody else, and his profile suggests that he’s been complicit in every piece of pro Labour propaganda for donkeys years now.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/biographies/biogs/news/adrianvanklaveren.shtml
Ah, aha… but…
There is a degree of separation. So he didn’t say it, he merely quoted someone else as saying it. And that’s… Ok.
Like one of those ‘sources’ Michael Crick finds in Westminster back alleys, or Pally Press Officers Jezza Bowen is fed by.
Next they’lll be ‘invited’ on as ‘guest’ ‘commentators’.
Which is what makes the BBC so unique.
Generally with this site nowadays there’s so much good stuff that I hardly have time to read it all let alone mark particular posts as “liked”. But some of the best moments from the last few months have come from catching these people out on Twitter – a special “hats off” to all those involved on this. There’s also a sense of irony that it is these people’s vanity and self-importance in using Twitter which belies their avowed impartiality. I hope they all continue to do it as it provides such great ammunition. It would be more honest for them to continue to tweet like this and just acknowledge the obvious, that they are for the most part a pile of steaming lefties.
Sooo…. basically…. the BBC Times’ sista publication reckons all this was probably sparked off by a slightly inadvised comment on the fiscal worth a PC regional outreach investment. Ooooook.
And not in nay way by the rampant inability of vast tranches of senior BBC management, editorial and ‘talent’ not to flaunt their rather unidirectional ‘passionate personal political views’ out in a public forum like pissed Uni students mooning from the windows during rag week.
Or the pathetic attempt by Helen ‘Hugs’ Boaden, fresh from telling us how impartial they ALL are, genetically (to the point of not replying on and then closing down her broadcast on the subject) to ask the monkey house to stop throwing poo around quite so publicly as, well, it looks bad, makes her seem like an utter berk … and the public might get wind of something emanating from the BBC that is not, as such, coherent with what is being pumped out as uniquely-funded propaganda daily.
Yeah, I’d stick with he ‘Was it the Welsh thing?’ too.
In a few brief paras, the credibility of the Graun AND the BBC, such as any was left, neatly obliterated.
Good day’s work, guys. If you’d knitted a waistcoat of Semtex before the programme and walked into each other’s offices screaming ‘Hypocritical tribal dogma is great!’ before pulling the pins, I doubt you could have managed a better job.
Memo
From: Boaden ‘It was his fault’, H.
To: Jordan ‘It was her fault’, D
Dear David,
Just to thank you so much for arranging to have our PR crisis management handled by those lovely girls, like Pandora from the 10:10 campaign who, amazingly, just happened to be available in our latest hour of need.
Telling the public we’re so great, and incapable of any misjudgment whilst poorly covering up or suppressing daily rampant evidence to the contrary really seems to have been the best strategy.
I do think we’ve got the lid on this, and the public is four-square behind their money going to our gold-plated pensions rather than anything actually essential.
In case not, I’ll be popping another wee note to the person who controls what Sian and Bill parrot this morning to direct the national audience’s mind onto cuts, and unfairness, etc, where it really matters. That is, no where near us. Oh, no need, I see the team is way ahead of me and has found a local authority single Mum who doesn’t know how she’ll afford her next 6-week sabbatical if her 9-4 package doesn’t get gouged from a freezing pensioner.
Luckily I am making up a four for midnight doubles at Kirsty’s villa with Polly and Emily, so it’s more a concern how to keep the Chianti chilled and the tan less orange for us! Hee-hee.
Hugs, Helen
ps: Please try and make sure this doesn’t get published outside the 10,000 of us in on the ‘secret’. If the public get wind, well… you know. They don’t understand how ‘unique’ we are unless told correctly.
It’s not called rag week any more. The term was deemed offensive by someone with too much free time on their hands. It’s now called introduction week or something equally gay.
The rest is right on the button though.
Great post G.W. the last bit about vests still cracks me up ! 😀
The memo can be paraphrased as: ‘stop showing people what we’re really like.’
The BBC is a disease.
I’d say the BBC is a great British Institution infested by left-wing subversives who need fumigation at the earliest opportunity to restore its greatness.
“We also have brains”. Joke of the week. How old is this Boaden woman ? 12, 13 ? Where do the BBC find such immature third-raters ?
The Liebour party?
Most Universities?
The jobs section of the Guardian?
And who says this website doesn’t achieve anything ? Great result. The BBC finally admits to bias. Get rid of the lot of them !
My concern is still the idea that Jeremy Hunt has let the BBC off with some kind of deal to keep the licence fee, albeit frozen, for a further 6 years.
But the Treasury will have smelt blood. They will I think keep in mind the idea that £500 million has to be paid by HMG to the BBC each year for over-75s licences. As people live longer, that liability will be increasing. If the licence fee was abolished and the BBC moved to subscription funding, that liability would disappear. Or ….. if the licence fee was reduced by 20%, there is a cut in public expenditure of £100m p.a.
Many a mickle maks a muckle.
And even if some Ministers are too damn fond of the BBC, it will not pass the Treasury’s notice that there will not have been much public outcry about the present cuts in BBC funding.
………………….
We should assume that the Dept of Culture etc is “captive” to the BBC to a large extent. The Stockholm syndrome. It is the “sponsoring Dept” for the Beeb within Whitehall, and Depts are often far too close and friendly to the outfits they are supposedly meant to govern. I was involved in seeding the idea of privatising BT back in 1982 – the mere idea was anathema to the DTI, all hell broke loose. But the Treasury (and Maggie) could see the public benefit of kicking BT out of state control and off the public teat, and the possibility of getting a significant cut in income tax from the fruits of the sale.
Likewise, I think it could be the Treasury that may be the main driver for getting real reform of the BBC. Abolition of the licence fee, or very substantial reductions as part of a move to subscription, would reduce the effective “tax” burden on families, and also the amount of public expenditure in terms of paying the BBC for the over-75’s. And the Treasury is NOT “captive” to the BBC, it will remember that it has already swung £340 p.a. million off the Govt. books at one fell swoop, let’s go for the rest !
Many a mickle maks a muckle.
The BBC has been badly mauled. A real loss of income and they know it. Hence the demented wailing and hand wringing over the “cuts”.
Freezing the tax for 6 years is smart. It has been imposed on them without their beloved consultation process neutralising the effects.
Cameron has his faults but he has given the BBC a bloody nose and the public will not give a damn.
Great result, DB! We just have to keep chipping away – I reckon there’s more fact-based reporting on this site than there is in an average edition of Toady.
It’s great that Guido’s got this site on his radar. He’s a force multiplier.
B-BBC goes from strength to strength and well done Guido. More power to his elbow. There is one man who will not be intimidated !
“We also have brains and judgement”
Er no, if they had brains and judgement you wouldn’t have had to send the email you dozy cow.
I couldn’t believe that e-mail came from Helen Boaden. I thought it was a spoof that somebody at Guido or made up for a joke. But the comments here seem to be taking it seriously.
Typo:
I meant “…somebody at Guido or here…”
We also have brains and judgement
I rather think Helen was having an oblique dig at them there. I bet she couldn’t believe her Beeboid flock were stupid enough to do this.
Helen, it’s like this. Your flock can’t resist expressing how ‘right on’ they are to the world.
Bxxxx
Boaden is clueless. There is nothing controversial about the left wing views many BBC staff put on the web via Twiitter. Nobody objects to anyone expressing or holding these opinions, but BBC employees should do so in private, not in public.
Boaden should be asking why all these BBC Twitter opinions are left wing. She won’t though. She knows why.
Yeah, they got rid of anything that wasn’t during the interview process.
If we ever see a non-Left tweet from a Beeboid, it would be different. But they’re all Left, some of them vehemently far-Left. If the entire staff is that way, it’s very difficult to maintain an impartial atmosphere.
but the lefty bias was 10 years ago acording to Thompson. LOL
I think he said 30 years ago – when he were but a lad. That 30 nicely let him off the hook, of course.