Laura Kuenssberg’s Sunday Show panel lacked a single opposition voice: what happened to Auntie’s vaunted ‘balance’?

And why does the BBC give airtime to a small cadre of right-wing commentators – who have multiple platforms to voice there opinions elsewhere?

BBC Director General Tim Davie’s impartiality drive continues to reflect poorly on the Corporation’s reputation for a common-sense interpretation of 'fairness'.

Of course, as I have said many (many) times, the decision of the BBC Board to appoint a former PepsiCo salesman with a Tory Party background and zero editorial experience was always fraught with potential opportunities for blockheaded policy mistakes in the political arena.

Occasionally editorial decisions taken by the BBC News & Current Affairs are baffling.

Think of Laura?

Case in point 23rd October’s edition of Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.

Kuenssberg herself has faced accusations of bias towards the Conservatives, a proportion of which have stuck, whilst her claims that, “Nobody at the BBC tells me what to say, or not say!” was viewed by some as inadvertently confirming that she was already pre-programmed to favour the right without any especial steer from BBC bosses.

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks", as Queen Gertrude said in Shakespeare’s Scottish Play.

At this time of political crisis, was it such a cracking idea for Kuenssberg and producer Katy Searle to have a panel consisting of Lord Mervyn King (former head of The Bank of England), political scientist Professor Jane Green and 'Quiet Man of Politics', failed former Tory Leader Iain Duncan Smith?

Yep, that’s right, no-one from Labour, the Lib-Dems, or the SNP.

As our axed PM, the unmoored-from-reality Liz Truss would say.

"That. Is. A. Disgrace."

Terrific.

Still, at least the ubiquitous Amol Rajan, the famously 'sharp-elbowed' broadcaster seemingly has been hired to present every other BBC show didn't make an appearance.

Small mercies and all that.

Kitten who got the cream by Meta Pluckebaum (1876 - 1945)

Bring Out the Gimp(s)

Recent months have also seen appearances on BBC News/Current Affairs shows of GB News' Tom Harwood, TALKTV’s Piers Morgan (both on Question Time), plus regular manifestations of Claire Fox, Isabel Oakeshott, and Ben Habib, all of whom already receive the publicity fixes they so obviously crave on GB News and TALKTV, albeit to miniscule audiences.

Difficult to see either channel letting Victoria Derbyshire, Faisal Islam or Ros Atkins invited to provide commentary on current events - that is, IF Auntie ever gave them leave to appear.

The BBC’s frequent on-air indulgence of opaquely-funded reactionary ‘think tanks’ in the shape of Institute of Economic Affairs head Mark Littlewood has not escaped the notice of commentators.

This month The Guardian’s George Monbiot went as far as saying that “Right-wing thinktanks run this government. But first, they had to capture the BBC.”

Incidentally, a former TV boss of mine went onto join the IEA, after (or perhaps still) working for tobacco industry group Forest (‘voice and friend of the smoker’).

Which says much about their character.

Or lack of it:

In the last few days, the airtime Auntie gave Boris Johnson's backers to shill/b*llshit for him (Jacob Rees-Mogg especially) was embarrassing, with journalists notably failing to interrogate possibly inflated claims of MPs supporting his attempted comeback.

And to dun the message in, BBC Newsreader Martine Croxall, suspended after this understandable reaction to the risible news that cowardly Boris Johnson bottled the latest contest:

And, for the sake of ‘impartiality’, we shouldn’t neglect Sky News, who also provide a platform for similar idealogues, including perma-smug ‘PR’ executive Alex Deane, goblin-like Lord Moylan, hectoring tabloid rent-a-gob Carole Malone, and Daily Mail’s self-described ‘Tory Boy’ Andrew Pierce (his Twitter handle proclaiming ‘impish, or total bastard, depending on your point of view’).

Pierce appears to live in a permanent state of deluded Boris adoration; witness his recent comments on the disgraced former PM, whose yellow-bellied backing out of a fresh leadership contest he characterised as,"a remarkable act of magnanimity quit the race on Sunday evening for the good of both the country and his party."

Medication Time?

Although to be fair to the Beeb, it was amusing watching TALKTV's unpleasant Mike Graham ranting and throwing his toys out of the pram yesterday regarding the BBC’s ‘anti-Boris/pro-Sunak' bias.

As former Speaker John Bercow might say, “Mr Mike Graham, calm yourself. Take some sort of soothing medicament if that is what is required, but, above all, calm yourself.”

Maybe if the BBC (and Sky) could occasionally book some fresh faces from the right who are not GB News/TALKTV faces it would be less noticeable.

Something for producers to consider?

Just One More Thing – Dr Who: The Power of The Doctor

Admittedly Sunday’s special was the first full(ish) episode I've watched of the show since 1982, which I found overstuffed, over-amped and overacted, but it is after all, aimed at 10 year-olds (and ?younger).

?Any who, Chris 'Chibbers' Chibnall could have been a wee bit more original in his use of Rasputin (The Master - an unhinged Sacha Dhawan), who was recently portrayed in a remarkably similar fashion by Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) in 2021's lousy King's Men prequel.

Incidentally, Tom Baker (excellently) played the horny Siberian mystic in Nicholas and Alexandra (1971).

?Stephen Arnell October 25th, 2022