This is too good to pass up. In the open thread, I called attention to a tweet from the anchor of BBC World News America, Katty Kay, where she actually criticized the President for having too many white men in His cabinet.
How depressing is the photo accompanying this piece? NYTimes: Obama’s Remade Inner Circle Has an All-Male Look, So Far nyti.ms/UGK1Y8
— Katty Kay (@KattyKayBBC) January 9, 2013
That was yesterday. Today, Katty was on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”, co-hosted by former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough (who went native after a while, sort of like Nick Robinson, but has been straying off the reservation for some time now) and Leftoid hack Mika Brzezinski. Now that she’s on national television, the highest- profile Beeboid in the US is dutifully defending the President against charges of sexism. Her contribution is right at the start of this video clip, then she rejoins the discussion after about 5:30 in. Notice the anger she displays. (Here’s a link in case the embedded clip doesn’t work for you.) Impartial or what?
Sure, the Morning Joe producers obviously asked Katty to speak up for the President in the debate, just like any producer would be trying to get a guest to take a stance on the issue of the day. That’s why she was brought in: to give an opinion. But what a joke. Yesterday, she was criticizing the President, today she defends Him. And what a defense: Last term, the President had women in high places, so it doesn’t matter if it’s back to an old boys’ network now. Classic.
Katty Kay: hypocrite, partisan hack, your national broadcaster’s representative in the US. Is she in violation of the BBC guidelines? Judge for yourselves (NB: Katty is technically one of those pay-my-corporation “freelancers”):
Public Speaking and Other Public Appearances
15.4.13
It is important that no public speaking commitments or other public appearances are seen to undermine the objectivity or integrity of the BBC or its content, or suggest BBC endorsement of a third party organisation, product, service or campaign.
Although freelance presenters of BBC programmes may gain a proportion of their non-BBC income from off-air public appearances, they must guard against appearances which undermine their on-air role. They should not allow the use of the BBC’s name or brands in connection with advertising for a public appearance. There should be no suggestion of a BBC connection or endorsement of the third party event or organisation, unless it is editorially appropriate and has been approved by the relevant head of department.
News and Current Affairs Staff, Global News and News Staff in the Nations
15.4.15
BBC News and Current affairs staff, BBC correspondents on non-staff contracts and freelances known primarily as presenters or reporters on BBC news and current affairs programmes, must remain impartial when speaking publicly or taking part in similar events, such as a public discussion or debate. They must not promote any political party, campaigning organisation or lobby group. They should not chair conferences which are a promotional exercise for a commercial company, that supports any political parties, or is one-sided on a matter of public policy, political or industrial controversy or any other ‘controversial subject’.
Katty Kay is a bog-standard BBC appointment – a Republican-hating Obama-puppy, not an investigative honest journalist, an agenda-monger. We pay for her? Jeez, what an obnoxious woman. I’d like to see whose signature at the BBC was on her employment appointment letter.
“Last term, the President had women in high places, so it doesn’t matter if it’s back to an old boys’ network now. Classic.”
So she’s defending him for taking a retrograde step in relation to that all important agenda of increasing the representation of women in political life.
Okay. Perhaps the President ought to borrow some of those binders of women from his former opponent.
From a phoney ‘war on women’ to the reality of an administration the apparently barely acknowledges them. A step in the right direction, I’m sure.
…and how many women did that old macho man G.W. Bush nominate for positions of power? Many more than the current POTUS, I’ll bet – and none of them token non-entities either.
Katty’s defense is that one past act redeems future acts. She knows in heart that The Obamessiah’s heart is in the right place on women’s issues (He pushed for government-subsidized birth control, after all.), it doesn’t matter now if He surrounds Himself with old white men, and she doesn’t care if He pays women in His Administration less than men.
But it’s amazing how Katty can tweet a real and valid (according to her criteria) criticism, but then spare no energy to defend Him to the hilt on national television on the very issue she thinks He got wrong. Impartial or hypocritical? Partisan, quasi-religious devotion caused her to violate her own principles on national television. Pretty astounding.
I’m sure defenders of the indefensible will claim that she was merely playing a part in the panto, as she was asked by the MSNBC producers to come on and take that side of the argument. Anyone watching the video will know there’s a bit more to it than that.
The bbc employs too many women in too many prominent positions. There, I’ve said it. I’m sick of it. And the only station that I regularly listen to is bbc4 extra and it’s been ruined by the content focus on feminised non-entertainment programmes (not sure what else to call them), fatuous, mainly unfunny and an excessive number of comedy programmes and gut-grindingly awful continuity announcers. But then I think the bbc has become feminised; masculinity seems to have been banned. And I am uneasy in saying these things lest I appear to support the misogny of muslims, because I don’t.
I’ve noticed for some time that the sports roundup on the weekend BBC1 news is invariably presented by a woman. Because we all know that women are just as interested in sport as men, don’t we.
Almost all sports presenters on all the main news bulletins on all channels seem to be female.
Jobs for the girls.
Correction: jobs for the pretty girls. Is BBC “ugly-ist”?
Ms Kay is rightly confident that she will not be warned off by BBC for publicly expressing her habitual political affiliation to Obama and Democrats.