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Wednesday 13 November 2013

Katie Hopkins – You Knew What She’d Do

As the debris settles after another appearance on ITV’s This Morning by professional attention-seeker Katie Hopkins, which on this occasion had developed not necessarily to her advantage, one question has to be asked of the programme makers: just why do they keep asking her back? Do the presenters and other guests share some fond attachment to this supreme motormouth?
No Katie, nobody has one that big

One thing Ms Hopkins was certainly not asked on to do yesterday was to bring any knowledge of the subject being discussed, which was Attachment Parenting. What that? Well, you can see the blurb HERE: it’s a concept that has its supporters, but is also controversial. This Morning asked along Peaches Geldof, a supporter, who is generally not backward at coming forward.

Add to this potentially combustible mixture a Twitter argument between the protagonists kicking off well before broadcast, and it was all too obvious what would happen in the studio. So it happened: Ms Hopkins had brought along sufficient research on Attachment Parenting only to interject cattily and abusively whenever the opportunity presented itself.

That such tactics were inadvisable against someone whose parents are Bob Geldof and the late Paula Yates, and who therefore numbers Hughie Green among her grandparents, would be screamingly obvious to anyone who had cared to engage brain before mouth. Not Katie Know-all. By all accounts, Ms Hopkins went along courting disaster and pulled in style.

The press – always on the lookout for free clickbait – were unanimous, with the Mirror telling readers “Peaches Geldof on Katie Hopkins This Morning showdown: ‘You lose, sucka!’”. Metro recalled Ms Hopkins’ previous abusive form on the programme, concluding “‘Rent-a-gob’ Katie Hopkins slammed by Peaches Geldof in This Morning parenting debate”.

And the Mail was in no doubt who came out on top: “'The panto witch has FINALLY met her match': Peaches Geldof's joy as she obliterates Katie Hopkins in VERY heated television debate”. All also noted the occasional exasperation of the hosts at the Hopkins modus operandi. So, once again, why on earth do they ask her back? It certainly isn’t to raise the intellectual tone.

No, the first thought that occurs, as when Phillip Schofield offered his now infamous list of alleged Tory paedophiles to Young Dave, is that a channel funded mainly through advertising is looking to drive up ratings in the cheapest way possible. And they don’t come much cheaper than Katie Hopkins, who, like her new pal James “saviour of Western civilisation” Delingpole, is notorious mainly for being abusive.

After all, staff at This Morning have no complaint: they knew what she’d do.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

The trouble is, after reading this post is that I now want to watch this on YouTube or similar rather than go and do something less boring instead.

Neil said...

She was on the Jeremy Vine Show yesterday. In the blue corner we had Kate The Mouth Hopkins, in the red corner we someone from the Breast Is Best campaign trying to encourage mothers to breast feed their babies to at least six months old by offering high street vouchers. There was one ten minute round where The Mouth talked over her opponent, jabbed her with cynicism about not trusting the mothers to actually breast feed but take the vouchers and then floored the poor Breast is Best woman with stuff that could (and probably did) have come from the Tax Payers Alliance.

This was the BBC at its most dumbed down. Instead of a discussion about something important to mothers and their babies it turned into a Katie Hopkins ill-disciplined and equally ill-informed diatribe that downed out the other poor woman.

Hutcho said...

"why do they keep asking her back?"

Is this is a rhetorical question? (And is mine one too?)

It actually sounds like you're seriously asking the question though, when you must surely know the answer.

Moreover, the staff at This Morning would have no complaint anyway because they got exactly what they wanted.

Your post has confused me a touch.