The Mail And Stephanie Flanders

With the certainty of night following day, anyone appearing in front of the camera at the BBC is routinely attacked by the obedient hackery of the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre for being, well, someone who appears in front of the camera at the BBC. Because this, as any fule kno, means that they are part of the rotten leftie conspiracy that lies at the heart of the Corporation.

What's f***ing wrong with kicking BBC staff, c***?!?

And in recent years there has been no greater hate figure than a presenter who is (a) female, (b) unmarried (Oh! The shame of it all!!), (c) attractive, (d) highly intelligent, (e) on top of her subject, and (f) once dated not one, but two leading figures in the Labour Party. Step forward Stephanie Flanders, who, during her tenure as BBC Economics Editor, was the target of The Full Dacre spite attack. Several times.

The Mail lost no time telling readers that Ms Flanders once dated Mil The Younger and, later on, “Auguste” Balls. This meant that she was, by association, just as rotten and leftie and damn socialist as they were. The scene being by now duly set, the hacks and pundits just needed to go into “colour by numbers” mode and it was “job done”. An early example was an exchange with Young Dave.

Ms Flanders was sceptical of Cameron’s “recognition of marriage in the tax system”, asking “I'm not married. I have a small child. Are you saying the Conservative Party would like me to be married?” which was sufficient for tedious and unfunny churnalist Richard Littlejohn to assert that Ms Flanders was “symptomatic of the whole BBC/Guardianista/New Labour mindset”.

Later, the Mail clearly sided with Iain Duncan Cough after he had unsubtly accused Ms Flanders of “peeing all over British industry”. She was accused of siding with Labour, Duncan Cough was quoted in full, and just to make readers sure which side they should support, it was stressed that she had been privately educated and lived in a house worth over £1 million.

That story was recycled as the Mail dutifully reported on “the liberal, left-wing leaning of the state broadcaster”. It wasn’t the only slice of knocking copy aimed at Ms Flanders (see HERE). Even human interest stories about her were patronising and snarky, as witness the characterisation of Ms Flanders as “The Credit Crunch Crumpet” (this from a female author, too).

So how do the Dacre doggies deal with the news that Ms Flanders is to leave the BBC to join J P Morgan Asset Management? Whoops! Out go all the “rotten leftie” insults. The Beeb is no longer a profligate and money-wasting machine. Instead, readers are told to be jealous because she is going to be paid A Huge Sum Of Money, the amount having been invented in the newsroom.

And no apology for all the malicious tat of the recent past. No change there, then.