Tag: BBC

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Political bias from The Guardian and BBC

This article by Mattha Busby presents a deeply confused piece of opinion conflating wrangles over Brexit with John McDonnel’s view of Winston Churchill. As if characterising Churchill as a villain could somehow negate any position, let alone the Labour position on Brexit.

The Guardian

Laura Kuenssberg injects a squirt of capsaicin into the conjunctiva with her comment on Twitter, “these remarks at @politic event could stir a lot of trouble”, especially when framed by partisan political editors.

Laura Kuenssberg

Both Kuenssberg and Busby misquote McDonnel. He actually said Winston Churchill was “more villain than hero”. A subtle but substantial difference. Yes Churchill was a great wartime leader, but there are many more situations in which his actions could, at best, be described as villainous.

Both Kuenssberg and Busby could do worse than listen to an episode from season two of Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History podcast, “The Prime Minister and the Prof”. They might also benefit from taking a few minutes to read Tom Heyden’s article for the BBC “The 10 greatest controversies of Winston Churchill’s career”. What are the odds both know Churchill’s history but choose wilful ignorance of the bad stuff.

Revisionist History
BBC

Both Gladwell and Heyden offer a very different view of Churchill. Yes he did great things for this country, but he also had some very unsavoury attitudes, and took some “villainous” action. To wilfully ignore and misrepresent this aspect of Churchill is an act of “villainy” all of its own.

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Embarrassed by The Apprentice

If capitalism were a brand, what kind of brand message is THE APPRENTICE sending? I didn’t sit down and watch last nights episode. It was already on when I got in, and stayed on in the background while I busied myself with other things. In that half aware, peripheral vision, wallpaper kind of state, I was struck by how juvenile it all is.

I realise these people are there as much for entertainment as anything else, but if these are the brightest and the best, Lord Sugar’s business is in trouble. They go about their task like a blind man in a patch of brambles, staggering here, tripping there. As far as I can tell, they’re so busy trying to elbow their way to the front of the line, they don’t see the others in their team as anything but competition.

The worst of it comes when they get to the boardroom. The team with slightly better result is rewarded with a trip to a peep show circus, and the others, the ones who did that bit worse, get to play the greasy spoon blame game.

The post task autopsy is like watching a child caught pinching a sibling. They shift the blame, and obfuscate, while holding their knees together, hoping Sugar will believe them. If they are, it’s off to slime another day. If not, they’re on their bike, doomed to poverty, and the arbitrary nature of the labour market.

If I were the brand manager of capitalism, I’d be embarrassed by The Apprentice, and what it says about my product.

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