Friday, May 11, 2007

Oppugning opprobium...

Edited 12/05/07...by oxythymous Ows. [oxythymous (archaic) adj. - quick-tempered; easily riled]
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Did you wait for Howard? BBC bias and, to be quite frank, in my opinion inappropriate reporting. Peter Barron is editor of Newsnight and also writes on the Editors' Blog of the BBC News website, which often has some good articles/posts. However, this evening I've just been stunned by what Mr. Barron has written; I know it's their blog but presumed the, what seems to me, anti - Conservative bias wouldn't be so blatant. He was referring to Michael Howard's performance, mainly 'against' Alastair lying-bastard-bully Campbell, "The former Conservative leader already holds the accolade for the greatest-ever Newsnight moment"...Not a very eventful programme then, one presumes. Barron goes on to add:

"Howard and Campbell were live in Newsnight's studio discussing Blair's legacy, and as midnight hovered into view something of the night seemed to overtake Mr Howard"

...clearly reference to you know what; there are even links to watch it and the decade old 'other' incident

"In case you'd already gone to bed, click here for another chance to enjoy."

Those are his words and I've removed the link. His post is very short but managed, from the title to the last word, to portray glee at what I can only assume he thought was another 'great' Howard-bashing moment in Newsnight's obviously poor archives. Read it HERE. I know his comments aren't really that bad but they really riled me; I was thrilled to read the comments from posters where all but 2 disagreed completely - please read the comments, it wasn't just a load of Conservative voters commenting. I hope Barron reads them and realises he's mistaken.

Other links to BBC Bias:
The BBC's commitment to bias is no laughing matter - Tom Leonard [DT LINK]
BBC Bias and complaints (chronological 1999 to present) - [Labour Watch]
The Internet Forum: BBC Bias - 5 pages [LINK]
Biased BBC (Blog Link)
S.O.
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oppugn v. - call in question; deny; resist; conflict with.
opprobrium n. - the state of being scornfully criticized.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Ows,

I wasn't being nasty or anti-Conservative at all. The 1997 Howard interview with Paxman was voted by our viewers as their favourite Newsnight moment. Last night's moment had nothing to do with Howard-bashing, it was simply a great piece of TV theatre which I thought was extraordinary and therefore wanted to pass it on to others to enjoy. Where's the odium in that?

Peter

Span Ows said...

Thanks for the comment; maybe I'll tone down my last sentence after your explanation; however, I told it as I read it...as it seems did most of the others that commented; surely after reading all those comments it must have dawned on you that perhaps it wasn't so clear cut as you made out. Having said that I wasn't aware that the original clip was actually VOTED for, I thought you were just 'building it up,. Anyway, my post edited as of now...

Paul said...

Alastair Campbell needs taking down a peg or two, all this look at me I'm raising money for charidee schtick makes me want to vomit.

Michael Howard comes across as mild mannered and thoughful, as all retired politicians do. Paxman's famous interview was laughable in the extreme but then Paxo does have an appeal to sixth formers and BBC types that flies in the face of what is generally acceptable behaviour. Did he think Howard was a idiot savant but without the savant bit.

Anonymous said...

Put the link back, Span. It's a link to the Howard/Campbell spat.

I agree with you. I thought Howard was calm, considered and pertinent.

Campbell came across as the bully thug he is.

Also - I wouldn't give ANY credence at all to Peter Barron's comments. He's the editor of Newsnight - what the HELL is he doing posting biased stuff like that?

Span Ows said...

Paul/ Sarnia, that was exactly what I thought (and all the others who commented!) The original interview just made me think Pax was a twat, why waste the viewers time with his silly games; of course at the time people loved it because it was Howard but then compare that with how Pax bent over backwards to NOT upset Gordon Brown and instead of questioning him gives him a free party political broadcast (this was years ago, not now)

Sarnia, the link to both clips is in Barron's article so thought that enough...not sure if you read the post before I edited it but I referred to Barron as using his hand to play with his reproductive organ :-)

Actually I was pleasantly surprised taht he bothered to comment.

Curmy said...

Span, I totally agree with you about Newsnight's bias.
They've always been like that.
I read an article by Joan Bakewell recently, they're all Guardianistas !

Span Ows said...

Hellooooooooooooooooooooooo curmy!

I've just seen your reply on the MB so thought I'd see if you ahd posted something...welcome back to Owsblog.

btw I've been back posting for 3 weeks...16 posts; I hope you'll read them all with exam questions at the end of this month to make sure ;-)

Curmy said...

Hello Span I'd almost given up on you ever posting again !