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Wednesday 28 December 2016

Laura Kuenssberg - Royally Wrong

The saga of the Sun’s infamous - and infamously wrong - “QUEEN BACKS BREXIT” front page splash has been covered here more than once: the initial and wrong claim, the clear motive of prime suspect Michael “Oiky” Gove, and the paper’s grudging acceptance that not even sham press regulator IPSO was prepared to wipe its backside for it this time have all been featured on Zelo Street. It was no more than mischievous speculation.
Laura Kuenssberg ((c) Guardian)

And there it might have stayed, had it not been for the kind of intervention that, in many other professions, would have been disastrous. The BBC’s Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg, already under fire over the way the news of a shadow front bench resignation was timed, and her attitude to the Labour leadership generally, has blundered into the debate over the Sun story, and by so doing has legitimised it.

As the Guardian has reported, “Nine months after the Sun sparked controversy by publishing a headline, ‘Queen backs Brexit’, in March, Kuenssberg recalled what a contact had told her … Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Kuenssberg revealed she had been told something similar but decided not to report it because it came from a single source”. Is she saying she was tempted to report single-sourced hearsay as news?

Here’s what Ms Kuenssberg said: “In a casual chat with one of my contacts, they said, ‘Do you know what? At some point this is going to come out, and I’m telling you now and I don’t know if the BBC would touch it, but the Queen told people at a private lunch that she thinks that we should leave the EU,’ … Apparently at this lunch she said: ‘I don’t see why we can’t just get out. What’s the problem?’” And there was more.
It's still nothing more than Gove gossip

My jaw hit the floor. Very sadly, I only had one source. I spent the next few days trying to prove it. I couldn’t find the evidence. Lo and behold, a couple of months later, someone else did”. No Ms K., they didn’t. The Sun claimed to have two sources. It’s not just possible, but highly probable, that the paper’s second source can be traced back to the first one - whom we can now be confident in naming as Gove.

It gets worse: because the BBC’s Political Editor has effectively legitimised the Sun’s bogus story, this has emboldened the Murdoch goons and their hangers-on, with the paper claimingSun Scoop Backed”. The equally Europhobic Mail announcedThe Queen 'DID back Brexit but the BBC didn't report it because they only had a single source’”. Metro has gone withThe Queen ‘backed Brexit’ before the EU referendum, according to BBC political editor”. Ms Kuenssberg’s imprimatur used to legitimise mere gossip.

She knew what she was doing by going on the Today programme - that most authoritative of current affairs offerings - and even suggesting that the Sun’s story was a legitimate one, rather than an organised plant based on gossip Gove had shared at a meeting with the Murdoch inner circle a few days previously. We know she is still unsure of its veracity, as she has concluded “the story did eventually emerge, whether it was true or not”.

So why even say anything, knowing what would happen? Why claimI would die in a ditch for the impartiality of the BBC” after emboldening the Murdoch goons to invent yet more fact-free drivel? Laura Kuenssberg has made a seriously bad mistake - the problem is that the lobby mentality which she shares cannot see it that way.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Or, perhaps, the Queen does hold this view after all? That's not to say The Sun were right to run the story: the Queen's role is supposed to be non-political, but that doesn't mean the story is bogus.

Fishman Dave said...

if Kuenssberg's jaw really did "hit the floor", we would've heard it. A jaw like hers hitting the floor wouldn't be quiet. She's like Desperate Dan in knickers

Anonymous said...

Those with eyes can see this saga has been nothing more than x face off between the BBC and the aggressors at Don Rupionis dives.

The sooner the advertisers ditch the rabnle, the better.

I wouldn't want them advertising any business of mine anymore than Adidas or Nike would probably want fat arsed Fawkes advertising their tracksuits!!!!!!!

A.Robot (Mrs) said...

Kuenssberg requotes a supposedly verbatim report of what the queen said. I don't expect a lot of Ms K and I certainly don't expect her to have a particularly sensitive ear for language, but you'd have to have a tin ear (or be an American scriptwriter for 'Elizabeth Two: The Movie') to believe that 'I don’t see why we can’t just get out. What’s the problem?’ has the authentic regal stink to it.
I'm not saying it's not what the queen believes but you'd think Kuenssberg and her 'source' could have come up with something a little more convincing to express it.
Maybe they should have consulted Whispering Nicholas Witchell on the matter.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps she does. However, the political editor of our biggest and supposedly impartial news provider should not be dropping such flimsy gossip into the conversation. "Someone told me" is editorially useless. This is weasel journalism of the worst kind. "I didn't report it because I couldn't confirm it, but now I'm telling everyone anyway". Ludicrous behaviour for someone in her position, and had this story not been in line with Murdoch and Dacre's own preferences, they'd be dragging the BBC over the coals for it.

Anonymous said...

@Anonymous 15:18

She was kind of forced to speak about it after the huge noise that Murdoch's Muppets made about it.

Still, it doesn't make it any truer.

Anonymous said...

@FishmanDave comment#2: probably best to chuck your rank sexist bigotry back into the fetid swamp where you fished it from. Not welcome here.

Unknown said...

It no longer matters if the story is true or not - these clowns have now bound the Queen to the Leave side.

This means the future of the British Monarchy is now intertwined with Brexit. If Brexit proves to be a disaster for Britain, the Monarchy is going to be one of the recipients of blame.

That's Brexiters for you. Not only do they want to trample all over our constitution by usurping Parliament in favour of a referendum with the same level of legal standing as a YouGov poll, but they now want to pressgang our Head Of State into another constitutional crisis.

Crispin Fisher said...

Kuenssberg always seems to give Gove an easy ride when she interviews him. During the referendum campaign she went all the way to Aberdeen to interview him and sat passively nodding her head while he told blatant lies about the EU ruining his father's fishing business.

She will have a top job in the Murdoch empire within the next 6 months.

Fishman Dave said...

LOL thank you anonymous. Who are you?