BALLS ON NEWSNIGHT

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Did anyone else see Ed Ball’s car crash interview on Newnight last evening? Here is it for your enjoyment and a great example of accidental public SERVICE broadcasting. Poor Ed.

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20 Responses to BALLS ON NEWSNIGHT

  1. Guest Who says:
    February 4, 2015 at 11:48 am

    Looking at twitter, it seems to have been seized upon by many as clear evidence of BBC bias against Labour.

    The BBC itself will likely chalk this one up to that renowned balance they strive for.

    Thing is, asking direct questions is what they are meant to do, without fear or favour, of all. All the time. you know… hold power to account.

    I find most challenges of Tories and Nigel mostly useful as they either serve to winnow out the weak or show a bit of desperation as Jasmine shrieks down the earwig to stick it to him/her no matter how deranged.

    Was this line of questioning really so hard? He was the one who raised the battalions of high profile supporters, so it really was not too unfair to offer him the opportunity to name… one.

    It is also possible.. just.. that a modicum of professional integrity is creeping in, as the likes of the Eds, Hattie, Chukka, Tristram, etc make it pretty plain they expect soft balls on their terms and start throwing all sorts of toys out of prams when their feet end up in their mouths.

    Even some Beeboids might grasp that a country lead by some bubble-breds who collapse as soon as they are out of their comfort zone… may not last long in a competitive world.

    Well, excepting the market rate top floor dwellers, for whom astounding uncuriosity and early onset Alzheimers seems more a mandatory, along with lordly get-out attempts or ‘purposes of’ exemptions of the power they wield being held to account, ever.

       40 likes

    • Ember2014 says:
      February 4, 2015 at 3:22 pm

      Bias against Labour?

      Not really: Balls dug his own gold plated hole by forgetting Bill’s name.

      What was the BBC meant to do? Edit out the dialogue?

         24 likes

      • But Labour says... says:
        February 4, 2015 at 10:34 pm

        Well yes, in the eyes of lefties, the BBC is *their* broadcasting outfit and if anything is harming Labour then it should be silenced and failure to do so is clearly bias against Labour. Attacking the Toreez and UKIP is what the BBC is for and nothing else.

           17 likes

        • Ember2014 says:
          February 5, 2015 at 1:45 pm

          The BBC isn’t that stupid to make their bias obvious by editing out clips which are unpalatable to the Labour party + members.

          It would be like standing in the library, holding a bloody dagger, after a murder is committed in the kitchen.

             2 likes

  2. Marsh says:
    February 4, 2015 at 1:20 pm

    “Well, excepting the market rate top floor dwellers, for whom astounding uncuriosity and early onset Alzheimers seems more a mandatory, along with lordly get-out attempts or ‘purposes of’ exemptions of the power they wield being held to account, ever.”

    As a matter of interest, is this how you speak in real life? And if so, do Mrs Who and the Wholets understand your strange cryptic dialect, or do you have an interpreter on hand at all times to facilitate family communication?

       7 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      February 4, 2015 at 2:20 pm

      As a matter of interest, how often do you think a unique section of the crowd address matters of BBC inaccuracy, lack of integrity or objectivity, and how often does the focus seem more dedicated to who is writing what, who they are and how it is being written?

      Cryptic it may be, but those who I am happy to reach appear to understand and appreciate my little allusions (as a hint, that para encompasses: the DG trying a get out of accountability stunt (failed) based on his enoblement, the SOP of CECUTT and FOI Departments and the main out-take from the £3M Pollard Report) while those I am less concerned about simply get infuriated, often vocally. Which can lead to all sorts of interesting revelations. So it’s really a win-win.

      Now, promise me that you will not at some future opportunity return to tell me how much you don’t care what I think or write about, as that can wound, but hasn’t really worked out as intended before.

      Yours, as ever in civilisation and debate,

      Gusset

         18 likes

    • Jagman84 says:
      February 4, 2015 at 5:28 pm

      Re; Marsh…. Playing the man, not the ball, as per usual. I thought you would embrace the diversity of literary expression. So no disagreement with the content of the post, I take it?

         14 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      February 5, 2015 at 12:08 pm

      As a matter of interest, nudging towards the real, OT life world of BBC commentary, does Partner (hate to make any sexist or relationship designation presumptions) Marsh or any of the Marshminnows have any thoughts on, as Mrs. Merton might put it, what it was about massive political failure by one party in Rotherham that so repelled the BBC from much mention if any of the case, much less complicity of main protagonists?

      http://www.thecommentator.com/article/5538/shifty_bbc_s_new_strategy_for_whitewashing_islamist_terror

      Not that the top floor would ever stoop to interfering with editorial integrity you understand, so the strategy of denial, deflection or dragging in others must be more an organically institutionally-nurtured talent.

      Seems footyballista’s wonga is the main concern in beebworld currently.

      Oh, and this…

      Glasgow bin lorry deaths: Driver ‘has no memory of crash’

      Various DGs and Hugs best look out.

         4 likes

  3. NotaSheep MaybeaGoat says:
    February 4, 2015 at 6:12 pm

    BBC 6 o’clock news on BBC 1 desperately spinning for Labour over this piece of news and today’s PMQs.

       14 likes

    • Wild says:
      February 4, 2015 at 6:27 pm

      The Guardian readers at the BBC whose jaws are firmly clamped around the public teat desperately spinning for Labour? Surely not! Is there an election coming?

         23 likes

    • George R says:
      February 4, 2015 at 11:46 pm

      Beeboids censor out reference to ‘Labour Party’ in on-line main news item on Rotherham Council.

         20 likes

  4. #88 says:
    February 4, 2015 at 7:03 pm

    The earlier part of Balls’ interview has gone without much comment.

    Apparently Balls’ chosen (pre agreed?) subject for the interview was ‘infrastructure’, criticising the Tories for prevaricating over things like Heathrow expansion

    Under some pretty anaemic and not particularly persistent BBC questioning, he then proceeded to prevaricate about what Labour would do about it.

    Pathetic.

       23 likes

  5. Deborah says:
    February 4, 2015 at 10:35 pm

    Like NotASheep noticed at 6pm, so at 10pm careful use of language to spin for Labour. It wasn’t just that Balls forgot the name of ‘A’ Labour business supporter but he was asked to name one, and couldn’t. Then Robinson explaining that Millipede went on ‘the front foot’ ……no he didn’t, he just repeated his often used mantra that he was on the side of working people. Oh, said Robinson, wasn’t Milliband clever, calculating that his voters would prefer Labour being on the side of hard working people rather that fat cat business men. Truth is that Miliband always sounds like the third form debating team, and like Brown, has his favourite lines that he uses whether it is appropriate or not.

    The BBC spinning hard for Labour.

       22 likes

  6. Percy Titsham says:
    February 5, 2015 at 4:43 am

    The Jeremy Vine radio programme yesterday (which is still not on BBC iPlayer for some reason) played some archive clips of Politicians forgetting the names of important people including Boris Johnson struggling for words – not that Boris was exactly out-of-character, of course.

    I’m not sure that Jeremy or the rest of the BBC would have dug deep into their audio archives if it were a Conservative or UKIP political cock-up that had spawned the embarrassment.

    I remember John Prescott swearing live on BBC News 24 (as it was called in ‘dem’ days) and then saying, ‘Okay, let’s do that again from the top’, thinking he was being recorded. The news presenter in the studio informs John that he’s live, and all Mr Prescott does is laugh and carry on. I have tried to find this clip on the internet but there is nothing. You can bet that if it were a Conservative or other party member, the BBC would have made damn sure they saved that video footage for posterity and that it would have been leaked everywhere!

       17 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      February 5, 2015 at 7:12 am

      A high hubris politician’s blood in the water with vast comedic potential, and so the shark pack’s immediate reaction is…. professional courtesy? And making with the band aids?

      How very supportive.

      Maybe HIGHF and MTW will reject their usual formats and run serious, compassionate sets on the real problems of early onset dementia and other disabilities to show incoherence in world leadership is no laughing matter, and in fact a vital rung in the ladder to ultimate power.

      Unless, as you say, it is an ideological foe, in which case the knives will be out dawn to dusk all week.

         5 likes

    • Roland Deschain says:
      February 5, 2015 at 7:33 am

      PM played probably the same clips. And, for good measure, brought on some Labour politician called Baroness Tosser to say what a storm in a teacup it all was.

         12 likes

  7. Betty Swollocks says:
    February 5, 2015 at 2:16 pm

    Even Labour loving Emily Titless must of thought what a prize pilchard the useless Balls is !!

       7 likes

  8. Glen says:
    February 5, 2015 at 9:44 pm

    it doesn’t really matter what the bbc did or didn’t do in regards to liebour support, the fact is that balls shown himself to be exactly what he is…an utter moron.

    The thought of this imbecile being given another chance to destroy the country’s economical future sends shivers down the spine…FSA, Gold reserves, giving the banking bosses knighthoods and then blaming everything on them, just a few examples of how balls played his part in the worst ‘REAL LIVING CRISIS’ this country has ever seen.

    If you think balls and Brown were bad just imagine balls and milipede running the country!! 1930s? They would drag us back to the 1800s.

       3 likes

  9. Scotty says:
    February 6, 2015 at 10:36 pm

    Ed Balls used to teach economics at Harvard university.

    Google it if you don’t believe this poof.

       0 likes