Andrew Marr paid a Tory minister a compliment – are people really freaking out about it?
Really? What, by saying this:
Unbelievable! Would Marr whisper such sweet nothings to a Labour or SNP politician? I highly doubt it. https://t.co/oqEP4WpLdZ
— Another Angry Voice (@Angry_Voice) February 11, 2018
Or this:
https://twitter.com/ToryFibs/status/962657187079360513
Or this:
https://twitter.com/ScouseGirlMedia/status/962652032300670977
Or this:
#marr Andrew Marr caught off camera whispering to Penny Mordaunt …… "that was very good" pic.twitter.com/cRtG9lmKfX
— Philip Tattaglia (@PhilipTattagli) February 11, 2018
But isn’t it right to criticise a journalist who is supposed to be impartial for showing favouritism to a member of the political party he prefers?
Here‘s the Mirror:
The BBC’s Andrew Marr paid a Tory minister a compliment and some people are very upset about it.
International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt was on the BBC’s flagship Sunday morning interview programme, discussing sexual misconduct allegations against Oxfam workers. The interview later turned to Brexit , with the minister insisting she was still “chipper” about the process.
But in the moments after Marr drew the interview to a close, the presenter appeared to give Mordaunt a “thumbs up” and tell her “that was very good”.
The Marr Show‘s editor, Rob Burley, has apparently been at pains to justify his presenter’s remark. At one point, according to the Huffington Post, he stated: “I hate to spoil what you see as the final, clinching evidence of a high level conspiracy, but he was just being nice like an actual human as he is to everyone he interviews, regardless of party.”
Okay – where’s the proof? How many Labour politicians have had such supportive words from Mr Marr at the end of an interview?
Or do they get the cold shoulder of “I won’t be seeing you again” that Stand Up for Labour supremo Crispin Flintoff had from Jo Coburn on the BBC’s Daily Politics last week?
Was it a display of partisanship? Or simple politeness? What do you think?
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Partisanship.
He does with every remain mp and and anti NHS mp he interviews, it is after all the biased broadcasting corporation
Again, we need evidence of this.
I don’t watch any BBC news or current affairs programmes and haven’t done for many years. It became clear to be decades ago that the presenters were largely right-wing Establishment stooges.
I think its pretty clear by now that Marr is a right wing stooge. Labour play in to their hands however. Their press strategy is pretty poor when it comes to avoiding fall on your face traps that Marr and others are. If you want to point out this guy is simply a Tory stooge don’t ever be interviewed by him. There is absolutely no millage in doing so. Let the public see what the Labour Party knows these people to be. They are there to hammer the life out of any Labour politician, that is what they are paid for. Don’t go there. Doing interviews with a Tory isn’t an interview its a five minute argument, no good at all. Isolating these main stream plants is the very best way of showing them up for what they are , biased. The BBC will soon get rid of Marr when his show becomes one round of head-nodding for Tories and he isn’t hurting Labour. Labour should think very hard about their social media stating to get their individual messages across. The American left do it much better than we do. Its important Labour find a way around depending on people like Marr to get arguments across.
You make a very good point about BBC interviews with Labour MPs or supporters being five-minute arguments.
When I worked as a newspaper reporter, the point of an interview was to get a person’s views on a subject and, if there was a disagreement, present the argument to the reader who could make up his or her own mind. That doesn’t seem to be happening.
Look at my own treatment by the Sunday Times – the reporter didn’t like the information I provided, so he ignored it and used false information instead. Admittedly, that is an extreme case that has put him and his newspaper in serious trouble, but it seems symptomatic of the wider malaise.
The other interesting point about all of this is the comparison between the interview prior to this one, where Marr was grilling down on Labour’s Andrew Gwynne and spoon feeding Penny Mordaunt.
What is also apparent is the attacks made by Marr and Mordaunt on Oxfam, for some none story being hyped up to make Oxfam look bad, indeed Oxfam had quietly sacked people after an investigation, over allegations of sexual impropriety, when not a matter of months ago Tory ministers had to be forced out office due to public pressure, whilst they happily tried to sweep it all under the carpet.
The underlying circumstances of the Tories postion on this, should raise questions asking about the real Tory agenda here, is it because they don’t like Oxfam that highlights the impact Neo-Liberal governments are having on poverty?
Are they deliberately trying to make a mountain out of a molehill in order to shut down an organisation that is working in the public interest, the dummhead Marr would never go beyond the script to question Tories.
There are I believe sinister machinations behind their attacks on Oxfam, that has conducted an investigation and applied the appropriate action. So they did it quietly, unlike of course the Tories who always wash their dirty linen in public… or am I forgetting they can get it all swept up if they go to the whips office, who will hang it over their heads when ever they dare step out of line.
Marr, only the odd time, has a “Labour Politician”, appeared on his show!
All the others, are right-wing Blairites!
Peddling their byle and lies about the left in Labour!
Much the same as all the political broadcasts coming out of the BBC!
They clamour, pushing and shoving for a slot on the BBC, to do their worst, anything to bring our leader Jeremy Corbyn down!
If they carry on, their days of being a MP are numbered!