Today‘s Evan Davis and BBC political correspondent Louise Stewart had a lot of fun at the expense of David Cameron and Nick Clegg this morning over their disagreement over internships. They returned to the subject later, after which Evan talked to Gus Baker. The Today website describes Gus as “a student and co-founder of pressure group Intern Aware.” Evan Davis described him in similar terms on the programme. Mr Baker criticized the prime minister.
His Twitter account tells us a bit more:
Gus Baker
@gusbbaker Bristol
President-elect of Uni Bristol Students Union. Proud and independent minded Labour Party activist and NPF member. Co-founder @internaware.
Is it unreasonable to think that Mr Baker’s Labour affiliations should have been mentioned?
The same question applies to BBC Online’s write-up of the same interview (Cameron and Clegg differ publicly on internship places) which merely describes him as “from the pressure group Intern Aware” (and generously links to his website).
The Today programme interviewed no-one other than Gus Baker on the subject.
It’s the same old story. Right of centre thinktanks and pressure groups are so described, whilst left of centre ones are not deemed to need the qualifying prefix. To the BBC right of centre beliefs are at best suspicious if not downright evil. It’s a mindset.
>>Is it unreasonable to think that Mr Baker’s Labour affiliations should have been mentioned?<<
No.
OT, I’ve just heard a report on the BBC World Service that Assad’s security forces have opened fire on funerals of those mourning those killed at the demonstrations.
Is that coming out elsewhere on the BBC?
Good job the BBC’s Middle East Editor is otherwise indisposed to censor news reports adverse to his pal Assad.
Surprisingly it’s the top story on Ceefax.
At least for the moment. Soon ’twill begin its perilous descent to the revolving headlines at the bottom of the page, and thence into the void where inconvenient stories go to die.
Any guesses as to how many active supporters Intern Aware has? More than 200 would be a surprise to me.
EDIT: I see Johann Hari is signed up to the cause. Shocker.
The intern sideshow has hade more BBC attention in a day than the Blair / Brown row had in a year. Funny that!
A very slow news (holiday) weekend? Well, politically, at least, especially with pols on holidays that even Nick Robinson could only dream of.
But they are all at it.
The effect is the same, but difference between the BBC and the rest of the gutter media (ie: the entire MSM) seems extra ideology and agenda on top of the allure of Westminster bubble*-ober inflated ratings perceptions.
I just watched SKY hype Mr. Huhne weighing in on AV behind Mr. Clegg, against Mr. Cameron, and simply came away with even more distain for the whole politico-media estate. This was not sensible debate; simply ya-boo posing.
*Matched, currently, only by the Royal Wedding delusion. I wish the couple well, and a holiday is welcome, but just switched off SKY ‘news’ with a simpering peroxide sink ‘interviewing’ an overpaid ‘expert’ about how I, apparently, am going to be glued to my TV set. Er, no.
The studios of our broadcast media are like reverse aquariums, with a few pretty, pointless, pampered creatures swimming about aimlessly in a small incestuous tank, thinking they are observing outwards. Sadly, they seem to have access to the mics and transmission towers, so have managed to convince many who pay for their feed this is the case.
As if on cue…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/royal-wedding/8470465/Royal-wedding-No-place-for-Tony-Blair-and-Gordon-Brown.html
I’d say Aunty might be walking on eggshells around this one.
Or, maybe, will pretend nothing has happened. Like usual when interests don’t converge quiet as they ‘should’.
BBC… sticking with what they know… and love…
BBCPolitics BBC Politics Clegg criticises Cameron over AV http://bbc.in/gis1bn
BBC Journalism has its own intern programme, that specialises in giving internships to poor educationally-failed applicants often from ethnic backgrounds, none of whom are related to white wealthy BBC Senior management.
It has to make sense.
I have just watched the Marx show – disgusted at the sneerring behaviour of the papers reviewer. 1) Blain and Pa Broon not invited to the wedding – they are not Knights of the Garter, 2) Would you invite someone to a family wedding who made a habit of extracting political capital from deaths in your family?
Anyway, the BBC has nothing to hide when it comes to helping progeny into good jobs. Clearly all the below got their nice jobs entirely on merit alone.
The Dimblebys, Dan Snow, Zoe Ball, Sally Magnusson, Mike Sergeant, Roland Buerk, Fearne Cotton, Caron Keating (rip), Tom Ravescroft (John Peel’s son) etc.
Then we come on to the matter of ‘assisted applications’ for under represented groups (not at the BBC) whereby people are selected as repesentatives of communities. This is of course entirely consistent with the fundamental principles of equal opportunities
There was a strange twist to the interns story a couple of weeks ago on Radio 4’s Broadcasting House.
Presumably making fun of Nick Clegg, Paddy O’Connell announced at the start, “It’s 9 o’clock. Good morning. Welcome to Broadcasting House. This is our intern..” “Hello”, replied the intern’. The programme then used “Jordan the intern” as a sort of running ‘joke’, throughout, reading statements from the News of the World and so on.
Where is got weird was during the paper review when Paddy asked young Jordan if any story had caught his eye?
This was what Jordan said:
“Yeah, what erm drew my attention was on page 5 of ‘The People’, the very sinister-sounding headline with ‘ITV chiefs plot Comic Relief rival programme’, which is where you’ve got Ant and Dec being lined up for a show on ITV to rival Comic Relief. And I just thought at what point have ITV decided is it about charity or is it about figures of the viewing…of the people…”
So ‘Jordan the intern’ uses the opportunity to attack one of the BBC’s main rivals!! Unbelievable. One of the three paper reviewers then joined in with a sneer at ITV. Paddy O’Connell allowed the attack to stand, saying nothing in defence of ITV & moving on to organic food.
That was weird but worse was to come.
At the very end of the show Paddy O’Connell said. “The editor was Ryan Dilley. The intern was his cousin Jordan Welsh, keeping it in the family”.
The diarist at the Independent noted that the nepotistic use of the producer’s cousin in the programme was a bit of an own goal by the show – whether Jordan Welsh really is an intern or not, whether he was paid or not (but especially if he was paid).
Surely even worse though is the producer’s cousin then making a ‘spontaneous’ attack on one of the BBC’s main rivals.
Very questionable indeed.
Bill Gross of PIMCO described UK government bonds as ‘… resting on a bed of nitroglycerine’. Albert Edwards of Socgen describes the UK as being ‘two recessions away from Japan’ (whose GNP has yet to return to its 1995 level.)
Meanwhile in the UK with the BBCC acting as Cheerleader-in-Chief we are supposed to have to bother ourselves with sh!te like Intern Aware and sundry other Yoohoo Everyone It’s Me Me Me !!!!! Twitterure like UKuncut.
Come in BBCC, your time is up.
Do you mean the Today programme didn’t interview their own “Red Jim” on the subject of internships.
Strang that!