Tony Hall clearly has no control over the direction of travel the BBC takes politically….how can he claim impartiality is in the BBC’s DNA when it’s prime time current affairs programmes are stuffed full of people with quite obvious leftwing tendencies?
Guido reveals that Newsnight has, unbelievably?, hired a Labour stooge as its economics editor:
Newsnight Hire Pro-Labour TUC Wonk as Economics Editor
TUC’s senior economist Duncan Weldon has been hired as Flanders replacement. Weldon is a former Labour Party staffer who has blogged for the Fabian Society, Left Foot Forward and written a series of posts praising Labour politicians and attacking the Tories on LabourList. If that were not enough he also writes regularly for Owen Jones’ launched and Unite-funded CLASS think tank. Guido looks forward to his fair and balanced reporting…
BBC sources say that it would be unfair to blame the former Guardian deputy-editor Ian Katz who is now Newsnight’s editor for the hire as James Harding (ex-Times editor) signs off the hires. Katz seems sensitive to complaints about the politics of Newsnight:
@MediaGuido Excellent work!…thought it would take you longer to expose whole conspiracy—
Ian Katz (@iankatz1000) March 14, 2014
The BBC is the major news source for the majority of people in this country and therefore holds a particularly powerful and influential position…..and therefore should be held all the more rigorously to its charter and legal obligations to be impartial.
That clearly isn’t happening.
There is hardly a day go by without a Union representative, a Charity worker or a Labour politician being given airtime for some grievance against the government which then dominates the news agenda for that day, managing to paint a picture of destitution and ruination spreading across the nation despite an economy on the up, employment rising and inflation falling.
What to do with a dishonest BBC? Keep sacking the DGs until they get a grip (unlikely with the hopelessly untrustworthy BBC Trust in charge)…or take them to court….after all it is a legal obligation to be impartial not merely a nice to have thing that can be disregarded if it doesn’t suit.
This appointment is outrageous.
There is nothing the BBC can say that can hide the fact that Duncan Weldon is anything but a rabid Labourite.
This appointment is a declaration of war by the BBC with their opponents the Conservatives.
Shameful utterly shameful
Decided to endure the Guido thread morons to see if anything interesting cropped up, and near the end there are some twitter grabs from him that would pack out the ‘In their own tweets’ thread here in their own right.
The shredders will be working overtime to convince anyone this guy is leaving his politics at home.
Katz seems to have let his brain cop a swipe from a bottle of Bolly as his lifeless corpse oozes down the old Newsnight slipway.
They are either going for broke, have a cunning plan, or really are thicker than bat guano.
I bet the Newsnight Facebook page has more than its usual three posters soon, not that they read it anyway.
It’s a wonderful appointment that will just speed up the inevitable death of Newsnight. Can they make Owen Jones their political editor?
apart from this moronic programme with all its leftie biased 4 panelists last night on i hope the doomed bbc 3 called free speech that banned free speech on a debate about gay muslims at the extremist birmingham central mosque of homophobia yesterday another bit of left wing dna biased programming happened last night,did you watch newnight last night,well they had a debate about the legacy of bob crow,who did they put up as there guest to debate this? yes you have guessed,the bbcs favorite leftie the middle class oxbridge educated living in the poshest party of leafy stockport owen jones,yes owen jones again.at least bob crow knew a bit about the struggles of the working classes because he was working class himself.why does somebody who is not working class like like owen jones is always wheeled out by the bbc as the voice of the working classes,that really pisses me off and tony hall should be sacked as the head capo of this totally left biased organisation called the bbc.
Owen Jones is wheeled out for one reason, and one reason only…
To the average middle class home counties dweller, he appears to be one of those typical, northern, salt of the earth type.
Any genuine northerner (Manc in my case) can see through the little shit, he’s a wannabe, you see them all the time in ALL towns, wannabe manc, wannabe scouse, wannabe cockney, they want to invade the space of the average man, yet they are nothing of the sort.
Tossers.
Back of the net Chop ( sorry Alan Partrtridge ) saw the little wannabe Jones claiming his old man was at Orgreave fighting for the miners. What was a middle class dick like him doing there, if it actually happened. Just trying to claim his false working class credentials, I feel your pain brother.
Thanks for reminding me of Owen Jones!
Paddy O Connell did ask us all about who might yet step into Benns slippers or Crows size nine workmens boots…who will now speak for the ordinary chap on the London Omnibus…the blue collar stiffie, the plebs, the nannies and the darling gofers at the BBC?
BH were stumped-poor Paddy was fretting…and now, we have our answer!
Owen Jones…follow him Jeeves!
A pimply Oxbridge homosexual as a tribune of the workers? Can’t see it myself.
One things to be said for Crow and Benn- they were always ready with an argument. Chav-Jones just mouths leftist slogans and when given a hostile interviewer descends into word salad.
Yes-exactly, and as much the product of Lefty policy, principles and practice as we`re needing to see.
As I say…him and Laura Penney as the dream team of the New Left!
If that doesn`t create a decent English nation once they`re done…then my name is Chelsea Manning as well.
Yep. Add Chris “shut that door” Bryant and the Eagle Brothers and they’ll have a nap hand.
Tristram Hunt 2/1. looks like he’s done a few shifts at coal face. NOT
Stuart, no offence intended but your typing reads like John Prescott sounds – incomprehensible.
Mr. Nazi. I’m on record as not being too swayed by the ‘likes’ counter, but given you are currently on a 0 to 50 ‘split’ (as the BBC would call it), it would seem reasonable to gather a fair few found what stuart wrote comprehensible enough to endorse, whilst your effort has, until now (I appreciate the irony that it is me doing so, of course) been ignored.
Maybe poor grammar but a good point beats a beautifully-crafted one liner that is merely on person but off topic?
No offence.
Totally agree GH, if the point is good, grammar does not matter.
I don’t go in for message borad conspiracies but it’s pretty obvious the ‘likes’ on this site can’t be taken seriously.
I agree. How you have managed to get two likes is staggering.
He’s up to six now. Perfect bookend for Mr. Nazi’s haul. Coincidentally.
But I do suspect the irony meter just melted in the process.
It will also be interesting if Mr. Nazi also has a spelling itch that he has to scratch, too.
Flokk on Flokk professional courtesy suggest he’ll resist.
I see you do go in for the conspiracy theories then…and again….and again…and again.
I can see a patter emerging here.
‘I can see a patter emerging here’
Pitter ye not.
If that doesn’t see Mr. Nazi busting a blood vessel holding back, I don’t know what will.
Good luck with the algorithm.
I heard some thing on R4 around 430. Humphreys and a.n.other duscussing BBC leftyness.
Pre-emptive strike ?
Humpreys almost sounded apologetic for years of leftyness.
I took no notice .The rot is so far into the fabric that it is time to cut it out . That it will kill the BBC is neither here nor there.
The hive has done it’s work well. England on the way to abolition and simpering leftyness everywhere.
If they give awards for services to the destruction of old England then the BBC is right up there with the best of them.
unlike the bbc i admit to my mistakes,so to clarify my mistake,that marxist big gob shyster owen jones was on this week last night on bbc 1 after question time and not newsnight,boy did andrew oneil give that big gob a good kicking,worth watching.
There was a time when I would become angry at learning of appointments such as this. But ever since i cancelled my TV licence, I am sanguine about these things. After all, it’s not my money.
However, having said that, I am rather surprised that people are shocked at the appointment of Duncan Weldon.
Newsnight & the BBC have an ulterior motive of wanting to destroy Britain & the British people. So, they will always hire “talent” that have the extraordinary ability to make British people want to destroy each other & destroy the country. At the same time the BBC want to preserve & strengthen their position as the only organisation that is ALWAYS right & behaves impeccably at all times.
But some of us know better. Let’s hope the BBC is destroyed before it destroys us.
Guido has updated his post. Apparently, Weldon was a Labour general election candidate in 2010 and had previously been an economic adviser to Harriet Harman. Weldon loves Labour nearly as much as James Purnell, and Purnell loves Labour a lot. And swoon – a Conservative MP has written a letter of complaint to James Harding.
Economics adviser to Ms Halfman, you say. Does that mean he was also connected to PIE or the NCCL (or Liberty as it is now called)?
I believe he’s also connected to Kevin Bacon in some way.
The first key political appointment which HALL made was that of Labour Party’s PURNELL, which set HALL’s leftist political direction for the global propagandist broadcaster in motion.
And we see the consequences, even before a Labour government is in power, e.g.-
“Blair crony hired by the BBC on £295,000 gives key role to ex-colleague within weeks of his arrival”
(Nov 2013).
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2496473/Blair-crony-hired-BBC-295-000-gives-key-role-ex-colleague-weeks-arrival.html#ixzz2vyk2CTx9
‘Telegraph’ (£)-
“Bias row over appointment of union official as BBC Newsnight Economics Correspondent.
“A new row about alleged BBC bias has broken out after one of the corporation’s flagship news programmes hired a TUC official to report on the economy.”
By Christopher Hope.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/10699368/Bias-row-over-appointment-of-union-official-as-BBC-Newsnight-Economics-Correspondent.html
Well, golly, what could ‘the blob’ possibly say about itself that shows all this fuss to be worthless?
—
“A BBC spokesman said: “BBC journalists do not bring political views to work and Duncan will be no different.”
—
Well, there’s a surprise. Possibly also only to the man himself:
—
“..there are some twitter grabs from him that would pack out the ‘In their own tweets’ thread here in their own right.
The shredders will be working overtime to convince anyone this guy is leaving his politics at home.”
—
It’s like they don’t grasp how limited and predictable their repertoire is. We are also treated to ‘BBC sources’ (spokesmen off the record) trying the Neil-Clarkson line. But the 2:20,000 (ok, 4 when they try Robinson or Patten, or six with Harding or Cook… really?) BBC concept of a split to show balance (beyond ignoring the history & facts) is the stuff of desperation. Especially when reduced to one degree of separation kapos whispering in corridors or on blogs.
Meanwhile in other new.. complements:
http://autonomousmind.wordpress.com/2014/03/14/bbc-bias-john-humphrys-confirms-bbc-tactic-of-bias-by-omission/
“The BBC has begun its effort to sanitise, downplay and distort the comments”
Of course they have. Trouble is, again there is what the Blob is comfortable and satisfied in believing about itself, and what named individuals are on record as confirming:
—
“Because I don’t edit the programmes, I don’t decide who gets interviewed and that is crucial to it.”
—
Now who does decide? Oh, yes, Editors.
Editors hired via a patronage system that runs downhill (literally) from Hall through Purnell to Katz to the newest market rate talent on the block.
It’s also not clear, but was this role also filled without that silly process less unique entities than the national broadcast hypocrite would be held to account for in a heartbeat?
“BBC chiefs in new Left-wing bias storm as Newsnight hires TUC man who used to advise Harriet Harman.
“Labour adviser Duncan Weldon has barely any journalistic experience.
“Other recent controversial appointments: Ian Katz, former executive on The Guardian, as Newsnight’s editor; ex-Labour Cabinet minister James Purnell as director of strategy and digital.
“Gillian Tett, of Financial Times, and Ed Conway, Sky News’s economics editor, were tipped for Newsnight job following departure of Paul Mason.”
By JAMES CHAPMAN.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2581463/BBC-chiefs-new-bias-storm-Newsnight-hires-TUC-man-used-advise-Harman.html#ixzz2w1YAgeMv
What would Gillian Tett of the FT know?
Only one of the classic books on the financial meltdown of 2007/8…only many appearances on Jeff Randall and the like, which is no place for economic oafs(politicians excepted).
A great writer, lots of anthropogical and historical context and has forgotten more that Flanders, Mason etc have ever learned…
No wonder the BBC won`t have her….a mind of her own, and able to explain things honestly and clearly.
Hardly suited to the chip and pin BBC stiffer is she?
Is it legal to deny someone a job because of who they used to work for in these circumstances?
If he’d worked for the BNP do you think it may count against him if he applied for a job at the BBC?
Probably entirely legal. That’s what candidate selection is about.
If the applicant criteria had included a requirement to be objective, politically non-partisan, and unbiased, with a reasonable journalistic background and skills….. then perhaps he might not have made the shortlist – or even the long list. But then that was never likely to be the sorts of criteria on which any applicants are judged by the BBC.
Well, a question was asked by you Dunc, and answers provided (unlike the BBC in most cases).
Work out as planned?
Guessing the issue may revolve more around the title of the site.
Most people prefer to be totally unaware of what the politics of their bringers of information and education are because their professional efforts are objective. The BBC does however rather seem to fish from one, very limited, noisy pond, and seems content to reap what it flaunts.
Not always so cool if uniquely funded by compulsion and under the spotlight anyway.
I asked a question, you obviously read something into that. Work out as planned for you?
The point surely is not to employ someone who is objective, but that they are objective once employed? Otherwise you are ruling out anyone who’s worked in any political capacity, or for any newspaper….or maybe even any commercial operation. And of course, I’d presume you wouldn’t want the BBC just recruiting from within the BBC. What does that leave?
The BBC doesn’t recruit from just inside the BBC. It recruits from the Guardian, the Labour Party and other extreme left-wing groups. Of course they all share the same very narrow and bigoted world-view so it is effectively the same as recruiting from within the BBC. And if you can’t see that, it reflects rather unfortunately on you.
‘Work out as planned for you?’
Have to say, after a glorious day getting the logs cut for next winter, coming back to such a po-faced response was rather a cherry-picked Morello on the cake. So yes.
Of course you just asked a question. Because questions are always being asked. But reflecting the BBC house style, much can often be read into what questions get asked and what falls by the wayside seeking to drive the narrative it is meant to inspire.
You then come back with a barrage more questions, evidently on the Patten (that’s Chris, not Gen. George) basis that keeping moving beats getting pinned down. Hardly effective if so blatant.
‘I’d presume you wouldn’t want the BBC just recruiting from within the BBC’
I’d rather the BBC recruited the best person for the job, wherever they hail from. As it stands, some feel a tribal policy wonk with little experience of distilling complex economic detail into forms explicable to the public was already a curious objective choice. The CV backstory was just… unsurprising, on top.
Since you mention it, has there been any answer from Mr. Katz and/or the BBC (spokescadres) to the MP’s question on the processes that lead to this chap’s selection, including where it was advertised, etc?
It’s just that the BBC also now has a bit of form circumventing things like that, despite the fact that if another corporate body kept things ‘in the club’ in this way Panorama and Newsnight would be vying to ‘investigate’ before you could say ‘is BIJ off the naughty step yet?’.
There must be some factual answers, so it would be a pity if, yet again, all of the sudden the BBC decides that it is exempted from challenge.
The number of uniques enjoyed do seem to growing exponentially though, and folk are starting to notice.
Thanks for raising some outstanding points.
About as legal as it is to recruite only from the left
Support for the three main parties has never been so low, so its easier than ever to find people with no political baggage, this has been essential for the BBC, to meet its charter obligations to be impartial, and therefore exclude anyone with any political baggage whatsoever, whether Tory, BNP, Liberal, UKIP or even Labour.
But as regards its news people, comedy people and its science people, we are getting more and more evidence that the BBC is more left-wing than the Labour party, especially as regards the evidence that at least two Labour MP’s are frustrated about the extreme left-wing stance at the BBC, on its climate science seminar.
I think it is time for Lord Hall to be replaced by Christopher Booker, or any other Journalist who is censored by the BBC lefties, and therefore better qualified to sort out the morons at the BBC.
Anyone seeking strong government for the good of all can not only be frustrated by the calibre of those currently in charge, but also the utterly dire checks and balances offered by Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition.
However, in the case of the ambitious, social-engineering driven, policy-shaping, self and hence conflict-interested £4B media monopoly that is our national treasure, this frustration with Ed, Ed and Harriet GOAT-shambles in waiting can see them rather forget their place in the democratic process, by seeing their job as filling the role of unofficial opposition in near every way they can manage.
They are supposed to be there to report, not interpret events (unidirectionally) or shape narratives or whatever abuse of power function they have somehow got it into their heads they have the right to impose as the defacto unelected-for-perpetuity opposition until they get things at the top back as they like it.
I quite like the lefty BBC. Keeps all the liberals satisfied and busy talking their usual drivel.
Just pay it no attention and write it off as a tax extortion that just has to come to a bad end.
Technology and the turn of the world will see to that.
Dead broadcaster walking.
If that were the case the liberal inquisition would no strive so viciously to keep control of it.
Yes they do strive mightily. But liberalism’s day is done so it is so much wasted effort.
Look on it as keeping them away from reality and what is really going on.
I’m often intrigued at the forces that the BBC PR machine marshals when the enemy is at the gate.
And one tried, trusted (well, by them) and laughably lamentable inevitability is the wheeling out of the old guard from when it was a different time. That is, the good bits.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/10699536/Without-risk-the-world-is-a-dull-place.html
Actually Libby does roam wild and free, a bit, so I found it a worthy post. That said, trying to claim the BBC is the only hope for innovation in face of all the US offers via cacth-up is daft.
‘Dragons’ Den turned down the most inventive and necessary luggage idea for years – the children’s ride-on Trunki. One strap broke, and they couldn’t see past that to the brilliance’
DD is a travesty of the corporate, IP and VC process, that makes The Apprentice look businesslike, designed solely to pander to the Dragon’s egos, Evan’s supermarket opening fees and the BBC’s desperation for car-crash ratings.
He advised Harman?
Everything she comes out with is idiotic. Imagine putting that in your cv.
Well, depends who you are sending the CV to.
I would guess that it would go down well in the public sector, state education, NHS, Quango’s, the CPS, the EU, etc etc
“Deal or No Deal? Noel Edmonds says he is ready to buy the BBC with backing from rich investors to save it from ‘disaster.’
“Television presenter claims he has backing of investors across the globe.
“Has called proposed purchase ‘Project Reith’ after BBC’s first director.
“Blasted the broadcaster’s licence fee and its ‘bloated bureaucracy.’
“Thinks BBC should be a not-for-profit organisation.
“If five per cent of licence-holders stopped paying it would fold, he claims.”
By ALASDAIR GLENNIE,
TV CORRESPONDENT.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2582097/Deal-No-Deal-Noel-Edmonds-says-ready-buy-BBC-backing-rich-investors-save-disaster.html#ixzz2w9d77LdK
For a mere tea-break forum poster making the odd off the cuff observation, finding the forensic interest of the legend that is Craig fall on exchanges one has been part of can be daunting.
http://isthebbcbiased.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/bias-in-newsnights-recruitment-policy.html
‘…really does make it appear as if the BBC finds its almost impossible not to fish in that very limited, noisy pond’
All I can say is… ‘phew’!
Never did get an answer to that question on the selection process, either.