The BBC

She’s a little bit terfy IIRC.

She's going that way, yes.

Are these not Starmer-era legal costs?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64248136

specifically legal costs arising from paying off people who would've lost because they're demonstrable liars

Fucking love this story.

Labour Party lawyers had initially resisted an attempt by one of the anti-Corbyn ex-staffers, whose private messages had been leaked, to say who they thought was responsible.

But then, there was a change of tack.

In what was described to me by someone with knowledge of the process as a "gamble", in October 2021 Labour's lawyers accused five prominent Corbyn supporters of putting the controversial document into the public domain.

the staffers have engaged famously assholish Carter Ruck to fight their corner. can’t have been cheap.

Someone at the BBC must have agreed as the headline has now changed.

wouldn't wanna give the impression BBC News was a political project

Lyse Doucet's reporting from Afghanistan has been incredible this week. Winter winds whipping around her as she shows us what life is like in the hills, in the coldest winter there in a decade. Just unbelievable stuff from her and her camera crew.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001hyc5

guess i'd never have made a good journalist. wouldn't occur to me to ask a rescue worker in the middle of a shift "how do you feel about what's happened to your country?"

Today was even more wretched than usual this morning, lots of hot air about Dahl and "woke" with the utterly horrible Mary Beard saying people should take inspiration from the oratory + debating club skills of the Romans rather than telling evil bigots to go and set fire to themselves. It says it all when the least hateable contribution was from the smug uber-melt, Phillip Pullman.

really want to Mary Beard more because of the stick she gets from the usual misogynists etc but 9 times out of 10 she's a bit rubbish

I can't tell if she's a f/t bigot or just completely incurious about the existence of anyone but people from her own comfortable social circle. I remember someone posting about being in attendance of one of her lectures and she made some hamfisted point about how the Romans used to laugh at disabled people and we don't do that anymore, without making it clear if this was a good thing or a bad thing.

basically her shtick seems to be hiding behind some (Roman?) notion of sanctity of debate, or some shit like that. Standard morally defunct terf apologism if we are being honest. And she follows all the worst ones on twitter.

Mary supports freedom of debate and has been consistent in taking that stance. But let us look at what that actually means in this instance. First of all, it is a debate about whether or not a fundamental identity exists or not (ones, indeed, currently recognised by law), and so it is I think reasonable for everyone to be aware of the consequences of seeking to debate those. I would invite Mary to consider whether she would be quite so cavalier when it comes to homosexuality. There are, after all, a number of religions that still hold that it is essentially against nature. Sure, we can have a debate about the contingency of sexuality and gender, and their development over time, but that's not what we are talking about here: it's about whether certain identities do or should exist at all. Second, there is no point encouraging debate on such fundamental issues if you are not actually going to stand up for your beliefs and values and argue for them. Otherwise, it is simply offering a megaphone, or worse, to those you claim to oppose. If it really should go without saying what those values are, then why not say politely but clearly to those angling to weaponise you in this dispute that you follow people despite their positions on these fundamental identities and that you are not seeking or welcoming their endorsement? Sure, you might lose some followers, but would that really be anything to lose sleep over?

this is from the blog that I summarising very badly about her twitter interactions with terfs

ah well forget her then, it's not like her tv shows on her actual job are any good

it’s true! where did she get this reputation??

maybe she has a level of academic chops, idk. doesn't mean that people who do are all capable of writing good non-academic books about their field, or good tv docs. there are a bunch of really dumb, painfully patronising one-liners in the programmes i've seen her do about Rome

she said some appalling shit a while back defending the oxfam workers who abused women and children in haiti and elsewhere (along the lines of how can anyone be expected keep their morality in places like these) and then posted a tearful selfie while characterising the criticism she received from black feminists as abuse - nothing to do with trans issues but still terfy as fuck behaviour

watching Dan Cruikshank's Around the World in 80 Treasures on the iPlayer is very soothing and enjoyable

proper old bastards being much better at doing history programs shocker! My son keeps playing a YT video of him going up the steps of big ben and that is probably conclusive proof that his voice does indeed possess soothing AMSR qualities. Not a compliment I'd give to Dan Snow.

exactly, he's refreshingly non-macho compared to today's Dans

I'm so grateful for the ordinary Dans that fill the bbc schedules these days rather than people like Berger and Brownowski - who weren't even hunks, for goodness sake!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64920557

how do you spell 'pyrrhic'?

("Gary Lineker to step back from presenting Match of the Day")

Ahhhh fuk

The problem for the BBC is that the impartiality needle they’ve constructed can’t be threaded: presenters can have opinions on issues that matter to them, but NOT if those issues are controversial and political. So you’re left with being able to voice your opinions about uncontroversial topics that political parties are not discussing. Best BTS member I guess, or what brand of toothpaste works best. It’s risible.

Hold on I thought the Beeb liked all sides of an argument expressed, e.g. climate change. Speaking of which:
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/mar/10/david-attenborough-bbc-wild-isles-episode-rightwing-backlash-fears

ffs

tories objected to being compared to the third reich. there's an easy way to stop that happening and it's not fining people for rescuing drowning refugees.

Everybody knows what Match of the Day means to me, but I’ve told the BBC I won’t be doing it tomorrow. Solidarity.

— Ian Wright (@IanWright0) March 10, 2023

Striker strike

What scab will be presenting it I wonder.

Damn Ian! Shots fired! I love it!

Everybody knows what Match of the Day means to me, but I’ve told the BBC I won’t be doing it tomorrow. Solidarity.

— Ian Wright (@IanWright0) March 10, 2023

Sorry lol xps

they introduced sats when I was at high school and all of the teachers refused to invigilate them except two - the malevolent home economics teacher and the evil woodwork teacher who had a hitler moustache.

trying to work out who the bbc sport equivalent of these people is and it's probably graham souness.

Shearer obv.

they could get matt le tissier on to talk about chemtrails over the vitality stadium

Here’s Raymond Domenech with the horoscopes

Christ they’ll get Baddiel in

get led by donky to do it

klinsman obv

Chappers’ll do it obviously

baroness chapman a big prem fan ?

this is baddiel's hot take. I mean my expectations were already low, but

Indeed. There *is* a 1930s equivalence, which is propaganda by the right-wing British press and British Blackshirts towards Jews seeking asylum. But in Germany, it wasn't about immigrants. The language of hate and disenfranchisement was targeted towards their own citizens. https://t.co/KlQDOczOjz

— David Baddiel (@Baddiel) March 9, 2023

gods bless Wrighty tbh

can now add moral cowardice to Shearer's long list of attributes (including bully and tory voting cnut)

and if you thought things couldn't get worse...

BBC statement on last night's @bbcquestiontime pic.twitter.com/Yunqb0Pp4X

— BBC News Press Team (@BBCNewsPR) March 10, 2023

She's an ambassador for Refuge and I hope they ask her to step down.