"The BBC's activities and ambitions are chilling"

[Starkers]

If Gordon Brown ever gave a straight answer to a straight question I'd agree, but he did his usual thing of ignoring it to talk about saving the world again. If he were a better public speaker he'd have made mincemeat of her, Mandleson would have, but its just not GB's strong suit...actually not sure what is!

The Sun switching away from Labour isn't the big thing it would have been 10 years ago.

 

[Pingfah]

Did anyone see Sian Williams taking Gordon Brown to pieces on Breakfast this morning?

She is a great interviewer, and that is the kind of objective journalism we risk losing if Murdoch and the Conservatives get their filthy hands on the BBC.

you call that great journalism? i thought it was a fucking waste of time, they just kept interrupting each other. all she was doing was asking 'but where's the money coming from?' repeatedly and not giving the poor bastard a chance to answer. typical of these Breakfast reporters who think they're something special when they're not. Charlie Stayt's the same.

great journalism is asking a question, getting an answer and then asking an intelligent follow-up question not interrupting to repeat yourself and not give the poor sod chance to say anything.

He wasn't attempting to give an intelligent or honest answer. He was hoping to coast it and she wasn't letting him.

He had every chance to answer, she only interrupted him when he attempted to skirt the question. This wasn't the Nixon tapes, she had a few minutes to get something approaching policy out of him instead of talking points.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Did anyone see Sian Williams taking Gordon Brown to pieces on Breakfast this morning?

She is a great interviewer, and that is the kind of objective journalism we risk losing if Murdoch and the Conservatives get their filthy hands on the BBC.

you call that great journalism? i thought it was a fucking waste of time, they just kept interrupting each other. all she was doing was asking 'but where's the money coming from?' repeatedly and not giving the poor bastard a chance to answer. typical of these Breakfast reporters who think they're something special when they're not. Charlie Stayt's the same.

great journalism is asking a question, getting an answer and then asking an intelligent follow-up question not interrupting to repeat yourself and not give the poor sod chance to say anything.

He wasn't attempting to give an intelligent or honest answer. He was hoping to coast it and she wasn't letting him.

He had every chance to answer, she only interrupted him when he attempted to skirt the question. This wasn't the Nixon tapes, she had a few minutes to get something approaching policy out of him instead of talking points.

Basically like when Andrew Marr was asking him questions, particularly when he asked if he was on pills, and he just said no and started talking about his eye.

 

[Pingfah]

I didn't see that, but it sounds like typical GB

 

[Bob The Skutter]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00n13px/The_Andrew_Marr_Show_27_09_2009/

The interview starts about 23 minutes in, the question about taking pills is at about 47 minutes.

 

[Deckerd]

That was completely out of order. A Conservative blogger starts spreading a rumour that GB is addicted to painkillers and suddenly Andrew Marr is asking him this on live TV? He didn't avoid the question. He answered it. Andrew Marr brought up his vision too and he answered that. I'm no apologist for GB but get your facts right. I actually watched the interview.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

That was completely out of order. A Conservative blogger starts spreading a rumour that GB is addicted to painkillers and suddenly Andrew Marr is asking him this on live TV? He didn't avoid the question. He answered it. Andrew Marr brought up his vision too and he answered that. I'm no apologist for GB but get your facts right. I actually watched the interview.

I watched it too, he did state that it was a rumour that was going round, he also couched the question in the terms of medical history of American leaders being know, and American journalists asking him about his eye, he didn't actually ask about his eye until after he started talking about it.

Yes there was a tenuous link there for him to start talking about his eye, but the answer consisted of no, and "I don't like the question" phrased with different words.
He was also giving non-answers or passing the buck on a lot of things throughout the interview.

I was surprised by the question, because I hadn't heard the rumour, but if there was a rumour then why shouldn't the question be asked?
Seemed to me like he was avoiding the question because I'd be more likely to believe him saying no if he actually said anything more than just no and calling it a game.

 

[Deckerd]

I disagree. I think AM was bang out of order. It basically means anbody can write smears on a blog and they will be treated as serious allegations. They can write any damn thing that pops into their nasty little heads. The US are obsessed with the health of the President / senior politicians. I ask you this Bob and it's very pertinent to you. Would GB going blind mean a damn thing as regards his ability to do his job?

 

[Bob The Skutter]

As I said I hadn't heard the rumour in the first place, so I don't know if there's any truth to it, or if it came from someone who may have inside info, so it depends on if it's just someone spouting shit or not.
That is pertinent because if he may not be trustworthy to do the job he's doing if he is addicted to something.
His health is only pertinent if it is something that could/is effecting his ability to do the job.

 

[Pingfah]

This whole affair passed me by as well. I wasn't aware of any story regarding pill popping.

I tend to agree though that if there has been no evidence presented, then pressing him on sheer rumour related to his personal life is not really on.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

This whole affair passed me by as well. I wasn't aware of any story regarding pill popping.

I tend to agree though that if there has been no evidence presented, then pressing him on sheer rumour related to his personal life is not really on.

I do agree that if there's no basis for the rumour or it didn't at least come from a reliable source then it isn't right that to press him on it as if it was, but I also don't think it should be ignored simple to save him his blushes. If the rumour is already out there in the public eye then it's right they ask him and he should address it like an adult and let people know the truth. But to me his response seemed more like an evasion which makes me more likely to believe it.

If it wasn't out there in the public yet and was just inside knowledge then it would only be right for them to report it after it was verified or they had some sort of proof.

 

[Deckerd]

What part of 'no' is an evasion, just as a matter of interest?

 

[Bob The Skutter]

What part of 'no' is an evasion, just as a matter of interest?

Because he didn't say no and let it stand to be questioned further or not as the case may be, he said no and accused him of playing a Whitehall game, then continued on to talk about his eye(s).
Which going straight on to talking about a different subject seemed to me to be trying to change the subject to distract from the question about painkillers/pills.

If there was no basis for the question then I guess he is right that it was a Whitehall game, one that a Conservative blogger started. But I assumed since it was Andrew Marr asking it there was a little more to it than that, and it was a rumour I simply hadn't heard until now.

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

It wasn't just a rumour in a blog by Sunday, it had made it to the newspapers the day before, that made it a question worth asking in the public interest, although I must admit that AM could have asked it better.

 

[Starkers]

Given that Churchill was drunk half the time I don't think our leaders have to be in perfect health to lead us properly, but image is important. Why else would Sarkozy be obsessed with his height, Putin with being photographed doing the most macho things he can, and going back a bit in history why Roosevelt hid the fact he was in a wheelchair.

I have little sympathy for GB, I'm sure he wouldn't have compalined if Andrew Marr had questioned Cameron/Osbourne on those dirty smears the labour bloggers planned. Sauce for the goose, mr Saavik

 

[Bob The Skutter]

It's not so much the health thing that bothers me, it's lying/concealing things, especially things that are pertinent to our decision making on who to vote for.
I wouldn't necessarily think any less of him if he were on painkillers, so long as he felt he was still able to do the job and admitted it when questioned, and had let people close to him know to keep an eye on him in case he went a bit nuts on the job.

Does that make sense? I don't particularly like they policies or the way he conducts himself, but it isn't a case of he couldn't get any lower in my opinion, it's a case of I do think he deserves a private life to the extent he can get it and how he conducts himself in private is none of anyone's business, but if it is something that could efffect the job he does and the way he runs this country, well then we deserve to know the truth.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

I think Rupert Murdoch should start a new British TV network on which to import all of his American FOX shows. His new British network should be called FAWKES.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I think Rupert Murdoch should start a new British TV network on which to import all of his American FOX shows. His new British network should be called FAWKES.

He has FX and Sky One already. Sky One have the rights to 24, Lie to Me, Bones, House, and probably a couple of other Fox shows.

 

[Captain Shaw]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/oct/02/jeremey-hunt-conservative-conference-cuts?CMP=AFCYAH
Shadow culture secretary talks about the BBC.

 

[wamdue]

has there been any talk of the BBC having an angling website? has the BBC website put any magazines out of business? the BBC used to have a Cult Section & a Soap section (that covered all the major soaps) are we meant to believe that these were closed down so that the joke that is soap magazines, were kept in business? There has always been plenty of cult magazines as well.

Hunt, who would take charge of broadcasting policy as culture secretary, says the BBC should respond by "cutting its cloth", pointing out that 47 BBC executives earn the same as, or more than, the prime minister's £197,689 salary.

isnt this playing to people who dont know what an executive does? tell those people that executives earn many times more than them, and you get a reaction?

Plus I have yet to find any evidence that the BBC has been over paying anyone based on market rates.

If some people had there way, the BBC would be run by work experience kids, and only have presenters or actors who graduated from university a maximum of 5 years ago.