Imagine you are a BBC news producer. Which of these stories do you place higher up the running order in your news programme? Is it...
A) The Director of Public Prosecutions making it known that he will resign if the Attorney General Lord Goldsmith blocks charges relating to the Cash for Peerages Inquiry
or is it
B) An unknown Tory Town councillor, who's on the Party's candidates list, sends a politically incorrect email and is thrown off the list by the Party?
Well, you've probably guessed it. Story B was the number three news items yesterday on BBC News, while story A was hidden away as a minor mention on the BBC politics website.
Now that's not to say I don't think story B was a story - but when you think that this email has been doing the rounds since 2002 (when a US politician resigned over it), does it really deserve to be that high up the news agenda? The story changed later on in the day when it was discovered that unbeknowst to him, someone had put it on Boris Johnson's website. He then became the focus of the story. This is news management gone mad.
I am the first one to complain about political correctness gone mad, but this is not an example of that. The email wasn't even funny. Sure, we still have the right to offend in this country, but in my humble opinion, this went beyond that. CCHQ had no alternative but to suspend Mrs Bland.
...cue accusations of toadying/toeing the party line/plugging 18DoughtyStreet - delete as appriopriate. Bovvered? Do I look it?
"...cue accusations of toadying/toeing the party line/plugging 18DoughtyStreet - delete as appriopriate. Bovvered? Do I look it?"
ReplyDeleteMy, we are a bit touchy this morning! Agree with you on the news management though.
Come on Iain! Where's the Inigo Wilson defence now? You couldn't wait to proclaim his rights to free speech
ReplyDeleteI quite agree; a Tory candidate being accused of closet racism is certainly 'not news'. Seems pretty standard 'dog bites man' stuff to me :P
ReplyDeleteNot sure that you quite intended that to be your main message, Iain!
I've read the poem before and found it mildly amusing in a totally politically incorrect way.
ReplyDeleteOf course these days, you are only allowed to hold a certain narrow range of opinions and thoughts.
I can see a day (not too distant future) when mandatory thought-retraining will be required for all those daring to offend the PC brigade.
News management was on overdrive yesterday, With the anointed one waiting in the wings, and nothing but crap on the horizon, Blair ought to do the decent thing with the bottle of whisky and the revolver in the library- I just do not want to see him at the Cenotaph on Monday.
ReplyDeleteAstonishing . that e mails was doing, the rounds months ago . I raed it in the office .I must say I thought it was slightly funny but also quite unplesant and I am not PC I hope.
ReplyDeleteGood point on bias
The Director of public prosecutions will resign if Tony's mate doesn't step aside?
ReplyDeleteI thought Directors of public prosecutions only resign if they are caught kerb crawling?
Doom.
the Boris Johnson connection, which is being mentioned everywhere is an outrageous slur against him. It implies he had involvement, which he did not - his assistant post stories and the public can post what they like in response.
ReplyDeleteIt is clear from the site that the comments have got no more to do with Boris than the comments on The Guardian's blogsite have to do with Alan Rusbridger
Perhaps it was because someone asked Ken MacDonald whether the story in the Evening Standard (that he would resign if Goldsmith stepped in) was true...and he said, "Er, no."
ReplyDeleteHere's what it says in today's Times:
Ken Macdonald, QC, who heads the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “There is no question of my having threatened to resign on this or any other issue.”
"Sure, we still have the right to offend in this country"
ReplyDeleteAre you sure?
The BBC loves stories about racism. It is less keen, post-Hutton, on stories about bent politicians.
ReplyDeleteCan anyone remember the items covered on this blog the day the Greg Barker story broke?
ReplyDeleteReally B is a non-story. The email was sent from her Council email account so she got rightly flamed by CCO. (Frankly I was amazed that someone of her calibre was on the party's approved list anyway. But that's another issue).
ReplyDeleteTwo aspects of the circumstances surrounding are of note. First, the central role of the National League of Hypocrites aka the Lib Dems in stirring up a storm in a teacup. Could this be the same party of tolerance and respect who has fielded "family friendly" candidates against openly gay opponents? Second, the real race story was not covered by the BBC. I refer to the news that three quarters of young black men under 35 are in the DNA database. A really important and worrying issue that is pushed aside for some Johnsonian "piffle". Oh, and not a peep from the Cretins of Cowley Street on it....
"Blair ought to do the decent thing with the bottle of whisky and the revolver in the library"
ReplyDeleteWell, guthrum, Cousin Barrington reminds me that whenever this approach was suggested for the Blessed Margaret, the general opinion was that That Great Lady would most probably down the entire bottle and then shoot the Men in Grey Suits on the spot.
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteFor a sneaky peek at some lovely racism in the comments section of Conservative Home read the reaction to the suspension of Cllr "Oh yes" Bland.
http://conservativehome.blogs.com/goldlist/2006/11/candidate_suspe.html
11:32 AM
And what is the reason for that Paul?
ReplyDeleteIs it because bent politicians are only claimed to be by one source and not the two required?
I doubt you can back up your claim of post Hutton censorship. All I require is evidence, not gossip.
Doom.
Just imagine if it was a Tory government in the same circumstances. It just proves the left bias at the BBC. When Mark Thompson does not think there is any, this proves the point.
ReplyDeleteIain -- Story A didn't run because, er, it's not true.
ReplyDeleteI give you an extract from today's Times:
Ken Macdonald, QC, who heads the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “There is no question of my having threatened to resign on this or any other issue.”
news is new. while the tory blogosphere is very excited over the ins and outs of the cash for peerages business, the rest of the world is waiting for something to happen. we all know who thinks what, basically, and who would be upset by who else doing what.... rest assured that everyone will cover it all in a big way when something happens that is concrete and understandable to the rest of the world.
ReplyDeletea confusion has arisen thanks to blogging about the difference between fact, speculation and threats and opinion. that's at the centre too of your complaint.
BBC 10pm news last night also did not cover Tony Blair's ill-tempered spat with Adam Boulton at his monthly Press Conference - it wasn't even mentioned - what a surprise!
ReplyDelete(Mind, I was surprised at how Adam Boulton went after Blair, thought they were bestest chums these days after Adam invited Tony to his wedding. Obviously not from the way Boulton pinned him to the wall over Saddam's possible execution, and the tetchy, snotty way Blair spoke to him)
Don't get me started on editorial bias.
ReplyDeleteYou wouldn't know that the trial concerning one of the nastiest racially motivated murders in recent history was drawing to a close, that of the murder of Kriss Donald, a fifteen year old who was stabbed and set on fire.
Of course, the Damilola Taylor trial played daily, as did the Anthony Walker case.
Did anyone know or care that in fact, according to the Observer:
"Nearly half of all victims of racially motivated murders in the last decade have been white, according to official figures released by the Home Office.
The data, released under Freedom of Information legislation, shows that between 1995 and 2004 there have been 58 murders where the police consider a racial element played a key part. Out of these, 24 have been where the murder victim was white.
The disclosure will add to the intense debate over multiculturalism in British society. The figures also overturn the assumption that almost all racial murders are committed against ethnic minority victims."
Oh, and Kriss Donald, in case you havn't heard, unless you dig deep, was murdered by Muslims. Evidence, if you needed it, that we are being told a Big Lie about multiculturalism in this country.
Now I wonder why the BBC didn't follow that one in depth?
I think the poem had also been posted to Adam Boultons blog.
ReplyDelete"Minutes later, the Conservative Party pointed out to us that someone (Mikal Green the Real World West Wales) had also posted the poem on my blog back in May. I apologize unreservedly for failing to mediate the poem out then. It is not the sort of material which I regard as fair or constructive comment and I should not have inadvertently put it up. Like Boris Johnson I can only plead an oversight. I have now removed the comment from my site."
Rog: "Of course these days, you are only allowed to hold a certain narrow range of opinions and thoughts."
ReplyDeleteNot true - you can say what you like. No-one is stopping the lady in question from saying anything - although she is now denying she distributed the poem.
The reason that this is a story is that people have a right to know that Dave's "caring sharing" Tories are the same old racist headbangers they always were.
Iain, nothing less than condemning that email totally will do. Facile 'it wansn't funny' will not do - the way that this woman was dismissing it as 'lighthearted' shows she hasn't begun to understand how offensive it is.
ReplyDelete"Story B" as you call it is the 4th "most watched" politics story on BBC news online. "Story A" is an anorack-y story about a man most people have never heard of, apparently saying something he didn't say.
ReplyDeleteRacism is big news in Britain because most of us are appalled by its continual presence in public life.
Also, Mistral points out the neglected Kriss Donald trial (a fair point) but the Guardian article he quotes does actually discuss it, undermining the validity of his claim its been completely ignored.
Incidentally, he/she also cuts the following para from that story:
"Fahy also warned of caution in over-interpreting the figures. He said that the 24 white victims also included those who were Jewish, 'dark-skinned' Europeans or gypsies. In addition, seven of those were killed by white attackers, four by black, six by Asian, with seven whose racial background was not identified.
Police have suggested that some white-on-white killings may be a result of attacks between Scots, English, Irish and Welsh people."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,1928602,00.html
Racism against Britain's minority ethnic groups is abhorent. The repeated down-playing of it and denial it exists is prejudiced too.
B
mistral 1:12 pm
ReplyDelete"The data, released under Freedom of Information legislation, shows that between 1995 and 2004 there have been 58 murders where the police consider a racial element played a key part. Out of these, 24 have been where the murder victim was white."
Following on from Iain's Lies Damned Lies and Statistics post, can any of you ex-Grammar school types with a decent grasp of statistics calculate how much more racist non-whites are than whites on the basis of this factiod? Lets assume that 6% of the population are non-white for this little exercise. Answers on a postcard to: the BBC Department for the Suppression of Non-Politiclly correct facts.
B
ReplyDeletewell said
undermining the validity of his claim its been completely ignored.
ReplyDeleteget real b, compared to lawrence and walker its been completly ignored.
The poem is racist. Totally and utterly, as Neil Kinnock used to say. And the poem is something that actually happened, whereas the Goldsmith story was something that may or may not happen. News is the former, the latter is speculation.
ReplyDelete"B"'s head up his posterior position really serves to make my point.
ReplyDeleteHe throws the word "racism" around with apparent ease and aplomb. Of course he does not realise, like many, that it is used universally to describe even mild criticism of ethnic minorities, the word itself having been hijacked by the usual pc suspects and subverted to turn those who object into victims themselves.
B is a scapegoater. In his little world of all things nice, we who dare to challenge received opinion are the new baddies. Well, you have to have a baddie don't you? It has to be THAT simple for some people.
Towcestarian makes a very good point, and to add to that, I believe that the police will interpret "race crimes" as meaning whites against blacks, and not vice versa, thus further masking the real truth.
I say again, Kriss Donald has been ignored by the BBC because they do not believe that Ethnic minorities are just as bad as anybody else.
And When I say that I don't want Muslims in this country because the majority want to change my way of life, and many want to kill innocent people, I am called a racist. So be it - I prefer to be known as a patriot.
Maude & Maples the new "dream team" for CCHQ & Maples sits for Angus's old seat- very cosy tell Dave. Will be a bit too snug for some.
ReplyDelete"right to offend" - you really are a fatuous man iain
ReplyDeleteYou are right, of course, on the relative news value of the two stories. However, I would question your description of it as merely politically incorrect when it was clearly racist.
ReplyDeleteIt feels as though Labour corruption has become so regular that the BBC don't bother reporting it. In fact, it's almost like the entire media doesn't think reporting those kind of headlines can still win them readers and viewers.
ReplyDeleteI think the BBC's bias is only part of the equation. If Labour investigating their own corruption isn't a front page political scandal, what is?
mistral - no doubt you would have used the same specious argument twenty years ago against Irish people living in the UK.
ReplyDeleteGrow up and realise that England isn't just for the middle class white people. Celts, Europeans, Asians and Africans have just as much right to live here - we did after all have no qualms about going over there and colonising them and 'changing their way of life'.
Saw the Daily Mirror comments section where they accused the whole Tory party being racist and nasty over this...and this from the rag that was owned by Robert Maxwell? I suppose that makes the Mirror and everyone there lying, cheating, thieving fuckers then eh?
ReplyDeleteOr is this not really how it works?
anon 8.39
ReplyDelete(They can't stand it can they?!)
1.Bollocks. The Irish have a right to live here or not. I am a Republican sympathiser, a peaceful one, and we British owe them big time.(Sorry if this confuses your simplistic opinion of me)
2.Let's get the terms right. Do you mean "England" or the United Kingdom"?
3. The only people who have a right to live here are born here. I include all people in this. Our country is a great one, our heritage is shared globally as a paradigm of civilisation. I expect people to live up to that, not to drag it down.
4.Citing "Colonialism" shows you cannot win the argument. It was a long time ago and we have moved on.
Perhaps it is time you moved on and stopped mouthing desultory platitudes.
I had another look to see what anonymous meant by 'the right to offend.'
ReplyDeleteTough one this, but I guess we have. Depends though on what.
Religion is touchy and can result in prosecution.Racism is a definite no no.
Humour, by way of Borat, seems to be offensive but has them rolling in the aisles.Myself included.
Those feminists get it good style. Joy.
A councillor sending a clear racist message? I didn't even have to think. Standards go higher if elected. Can't take it? Don't ask for election. Simple.
Dave was right in suspending her. She got worse when she opened her mouth.
Sack her Dave. Just sack her and be done.
Failure to do so will see you crucified sometime in the future.
You have used these tricks on the 'love a lout' saga and revenge is very sweet.
Doom has spoken.
Why should the Conservative Party be dancing to the fiddle of the Liberal Democrat's Campaign manager!?! I'd rather support a Conservative Party that had not suspended her. It's only a satirical poem!
ReplyDeleteThe lady at the centre of the storm was poorly advised to make an appearance on Radio 4's PM. She should have copied Labour MPs when faced with difficult questions - make themselves unavailable for interview!
I suspect the "silent majority" tend to agree with the sentiments expressed in the poem (even if it is decried as racist!).
Politicians seem incapable of accepting the idea that many taxpayers do not have an issue with immigration per se but are offended by people who arrive in the UK merely becoming a burden to the NHS and the welfare state!