Just what is the point of Mark Mardell?
When he reports a story his own politcal leanings colour his reports…getting it wrong on Boston, Obama’s foreign policy and Benghazi….but that’s when he bothers to report a story:
Two recent eye catchers don’t seem to have raised his interest judging by his Twitter feed…the Obama government targeting political opponents and journalists who embarrass them:
Wider Problems Found at IRS
Probe Says Tax Agency Used Sweeping Criteria to Scrutinize Conservative Groups
The division of the Internal Revenue Service that improperly scrutinized the tax-exempt status of conservative groups sent confidential information on 31 conservative groups to the well-funded liberal nonprofit journalism organization ProPublica, according to a revelation made by ProPublica Monday.
“The same IRS office that deliberately targeted conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status in the run-up to the 2012 election released nine pending confidential applications of conservative groups to ProPublica late last year,” according to the ProPublica report.
That story is on the BBC…but not under Mardell’s name.
Ah here he is: ‘From what we know so far this appears to be an A-grade scandal – a shocking abuse of power with apparently political motives.’
An ‘A grade scandal’…but not big enough to get onto his Twitter feed to provide a link to the report? Curious lack of priority….and yes, Twitter is now a major source of news for people, even for journalists looking for a breaking story…way back in 2008 this was recognised:
‘If I didn’t hear about something important happening by watching my Twitter stream, it’s the first place I go to get an idea of what’s going on. Years ago I would have turned to the cable news channels, now it’s Twitter.’
Secret U.S. Trawl of AP Calls Decried by Press Groups
Media groups and government watchdogs said the U.S. Justice Department interfered with press freedom when it secretly collected telephone records from Associated Press reporters and editors over a two-month period last year.
“This is really a disturbing affront to a free press,” Arnie Robbins, executive director of the American Society of News Editors in Columbia, Missouri, said in an e-mailed statement. “It’s also troubling because it is consistent with perhaps the most aggressive administration ever against reporters doing their jobs.”
mark mardell comrades,,,mark mardell,,what is he like heh,,,what is he like,,,dear oh deary,,, i need say no more comrades……….
I have added som marinal comments to Mark’s analytical piece.
From what we know so far this appears to be an A-grade scandal – a shocking abuse of power with apparently political motives.
President Obama says he’s outraged – and has moved quickly to make it clear he knew nothing about it.
[Everyone copacetic? – HE KNEW NOTHING ABOUT IT. He didn’t ‘claim’ or ‘say’, n1o he has made it clear so Obama is in the clear and the real culprits are minions in the IRS]
It is true that plenty of groups claim to be non-political when most sensible people would say that politics is their main purpose.
[It’s true and we have plenty off examples in the UK such as the mutitudes of fake ‘carities’ and orther adocacy/lobbing entities which are overwealmingly leftist]
But on the evidence so far, it seems only right-wing groups were targeted – and more bizarrely still only small local ones, not the huge lobby groups.
[could it be that thers are less able to defend themselves ?]
This affair, along with the justice department’s raid on the Associated Press, is likely to have a political impact.
[How about explaining the implications of the raid Mark in terms of motivation? Uncomfortable with that?]
Conservative groups have long claimed an overbearing administration is targeting their freedoms and that abuses of power are ignored by a complacent media.
[Conservatives ‘CLAIM’ Obama ‘makes it clear’]
The events of this week will strengthen their belief that someone is out to get them.
[THEIR belief eh Mark? I contend that the evidence that there ARE people targeting ‘the Right’ and my BELIEF is that this includes the BBC]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22529435
A1 copper bottomed evidence of party political activism by ‘place men’ in government jobs. Perhaps the BBC could throw in an analysis of the activities of the now ex Detroit mayor (D) to give us an idea of the sort of corruption that can happen in the USA
Even if we accept – naively, ostrich-like – that the President had no idea what His minions were doing, He’s still responsible for setting the Administrative tone which led to this.
As the allegedly conservative Ross Douthat says in the NY Times:
Even though an American Civil Liberties Union official described their excessive interest in right-wing groups as “about as constitutionally troubling as it gets,” the bureaucrats in question probably thought they were just doing their patriotic duty, and giving dangerous extremists the treatment they deserved.
Where might an enterprising, public-spirited I.R.S. agent get the idea that a Tea Party group deserved more scrutiny from the government than the typical band of activists seeking tax-exempt status? Oh, I don’t know: why, maybe from all the prominent voices who spent the first two years of the Obama era worrying that the Tea Party wasn’t just a typically messy expression of citizen activism, but something much darker — an expression of crypto-fascist, crypto-racist rage, part Timothy McVeigh and part Bull Connor, potentially carrying a wave of terrorist violence in its wings.
Read the whole thing and note just how much the behavior of liberals and the media Douthat describes resembles BBC coverage of these issues. The BBC will continue to shift blame, regardless.
‘The Blaze’:-
“OBAMA ADMINISTRATION UNDER SIEGE FROM 3 HUGE SCANDALS:
HERE’S WHY IT COULD ALL COME CRASHING DOWN”
http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/obama-administration-under-siege-from-3-huge-scandals-heres-why-it-could-all-come-crashing-down/
torture,beatings,sexual atrocitys,slavery.no,this is not benghazi or syria,this is oxford in england 2013,another muslim paedophile gang,more white child victims,how worse can this get.
Why doesn’t somebody set up a separate blog for anti-Muslim rants? I’m tired of being associated with this.
I agree, this site is suppoed to be about BBC bias.
Totally agree. Strangely only last week I was chastised by some “regulars” for suggesting that nearly every thread rapidly moves to anti-Muslim/Islam ranting.
I believe that I supported your complaint at the time, as I have supported those who complain about homophobic abuse ad homs etc.
Thanks.
They don’t want separate blogs, they want to discredit this one.
As has been shown in the past I am sure that if “those with power in this blog” objected such comments would be removed and the perpetrators banned from posting. .
Agree with this. I agreed with the banning of posts/posters (lefties) who were trying to deflect threads by making a series of stupid accusations. Bringing up things about Muslims which has norelevance to the BBC I think should also be removed.
Mardell is an editorialist, an opinion-monger, not really a front-line reporter, so he isn’t required to have by-lined articles or to tweet links to every breaking story. Is he surplus to requirements? Probably.
But would his absence not leave a rather large void in your musings? LOL
Plenty more where he came from, you can be sure.
Its not his Twitter account?!?!? This is an outrage!
lets hope your children never fall prey to these paedostanis david preiser,its not anti muslim to highlight issues and bias in the media,thats why this site was set up in the first place i thought,
There are lots of posts on the Open Thread about the BBC bias in (not) reporting Muslim paedophile gangs, so it’s best to comment there and not to divert this Mardell thread.
Personally I would hope that no child falls victim to any abuse by any person of any nationality, ethnicity or religion but on here I guess such sentiments make me, in the eyes of some, a “liberal tree hugging lefty”!!
No, they don’t.
It makes you sound like the opposite to be true.
No, this site was set up to highlight bias in BBC reporting and broadcasting. Complaining about Muslims in general isn’t the same thing at all. There are plenty of other places online to do that. You could at least have had the courtesy of putting it on the open thread.
i dont mean to be rude to you mark mardell,we know you look on this site every day,so a bit of advice mark,listen and learn to your collegue at the bbc mark urban the diplomatic and defence correspondent ,he is balanced,unbiased and quiet educated in the matters of defence and world events,i hope i have not offfended you mark with these unbiased comments.
whats up with you stuart and your love in with mark urban ? thats 4 posts now i have read where you have heaped praise on this guy
Curious lack of priority
Possibly also an astounding lack?
But as Pollard showed, that can see the lift take you up of a morning.
“OBAMA BETRAYS MEDIA LAPDOGS:
SECRETLY, ILLEGALLY OBTAINED RECORDS OF JOURNALISTS.”
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2013/05/obama-betrays-media-lapdogs-secretly-illegally-obtained-records-of-journalists.html