EMILY Maitlis’s treatment of Rod Liddle, the Sunday Times columnist and ex-editor of the Today programme, after the BBC summoned him to the Newsnight studio to discuss his latest tome, The Great Betrayal (about Brexit, of course), had TCW’s Gary Oliver sharpening his pencil straight away.
Undeterred, apparently, by the fact that several of Rod’s illiberally minded journalist peers had decided to no-platform him – no, they would not be seen dead sitting in the same studio as he – Ms Maitlis proved quick to take offence herself. She appeared sensitive in particular to Rod’s critique of the Holy of Holies that employs her. He stated that 17.4million people had been betrayed over Brexit and also by the biased BBC. What followed was a sequence of accusations and derogatory smears – you can read Gary’s account of them here.
Unsurprisingly the BBC’s Queen of Bias has drawn flak, not just from Gary but from others who watched the programme. Complaints are piling up at the BBC, according to Liddle; we suspect this is due in no small part to Gary’s being quick off the mark and to the Stop BBC Bias campaign we’ve been highlighting.
We do hope Rod is grateful to Gary. And while we are on the subject of gratitude, we think Rod owes some too to regular TCW contributor David Keighley. The Great Betrayal quotes News-watch research authored by David but singularly fails to credit it or him – yet it is research that goes beyond counting and anecdote and on which rests the substantive proof of the BBC Brexit bias that Rod discusses in his book.
You can purchase The Great Betrayal here.
You can donate to the crowdfund to stop BBC bias here.
