I don’t think I have heard a single thing critical of Clinton on the BBC. I’m sure there must be the odd piece here and there that takes a serious look at her and yet that’s not the thrust of the BBC coverage which I suspect, if you were counting, would be found to think Trump was the only candidate for President. Trump has been treated with a massive contempt (not least by Cameron who has done a flip-flop and now loves Trump as well as the Islamist loving Sadiq Khan) and all we have heard is derision, scorn and mocking from the BBC’s finest. Which makes the following BBC analysis of the presidential campaign something of a condemnation of their own prejudiced coverage and approach that has been so stridently based upon attacking Trump so far…..and yet Clinton is as controversial a figure as the BBC believes Trump is……but that is by no means reflected in their reporting on her and the way presenters, and the usual comedians, make comments in passing during their programmes…..
I spoke to a large number of the bikers before we set out on the ride. And something struck me – yes, there were Trump diehards who think he will prove to be the saviour of a fallen nation that has lost its way.
But many others were much more nuanced. Many people said to us that he would be the lesser of two evils, the clear implication being that Hillary Clinton was the bigger evil.
One person, when I asked what he thought of Secretary Clinton, said: “She’s trash, she should be in prison.”
Another man told me that his views were simply unbroadcastable on television.
The polls say that both Trump and Clinton suffer big negatives and low approval ratings.
This election might come down to a question of who voters loathe the least.
My totally unscientific, random, non-adjusted focus group at Rolling Thunder suggests that might well be the case.
In a country of 320 million people, how did it come down to such an unappetising menu choice?
Do you want the dish with the listeria or the salmonella?
That was written by Jon Sopel who seems to have reverted to type in his latest report in which he seems very affronted that Trump dares to criticise the sainted Media...this seems as much a defence of Sopel than anything else…
Spoiler alert – before you read this you should understand that I am almost certainly disgusting, invariably dishonest and an inveterate liar. Well, that seems to be the considered view of Donald Trump on journalists.
From the way the BBC has treated Trump maybe he has a point.
Sopel whinges on….
There’s the famous HL Mencken quote from decades ago when he said that the relationship between a journalist and a politician ought to be the same as a dog and a lamp post – and I have always hated it.
The presumption is that we are pure, and all politicians are venal and deserve the crap kicked out of them. Nearly all the politicians whom I have come to know have been motivated by a commitment to making the world a better place – yes, they may be ambitious, self-important people – but tell me one walk of life where you don’t find people like that.
It is our job to test our elected officials, to subject them to scrutiny, to ask the questions the public want answering and hopefully to be fearless in our pursuit of those questions. And to do so respectfully.
That is our job, and a free press able to do that is one of the cornerstones of a liberal democracy.
To rework the Mencken quote, Mr Trump seems to think that we are the lamp post.
Note this especially…’It is our job to test our elected officials, to subject them to scrutiny, to ask the questions the public want answering and hopefully to be fearless in our pursuit of those questions. And to do so respectfully.’ If that is the job description then Sopel and Co have failed miserably. Funny how thin skinned these journos are….they dish it out but can’t take it.