And so it came to pass that the slew of revelations about Cambridge Analytica, the various parts of the Leave campaign, and potential vote fraud reached the inner sanctum of the BBC, where someone decided it would be a good idea to ask the Observer’s Carole Cadwalladr to appear on the paper review sofa of The Andy Marr Show (tm). But there had to be a catch, in the shape of rabid Brexiteer Isabel Oakeshott.
Isabel Oakeshott - butter wouldn't melt
We knew what was coming: as soon as Ms Cadwalladr made her pitch, she would be interrupted and shouted down. The only imponderable was the form of the intervention; what was absolutely certain was that Ms Oakeshott had her instructions, and had rehearsed her attack lines. She duly angrily demanded that she be shown “one provable link” between Cambridge Analytica and the Leave campaigns. More than once.
Ms Cadwalladr gave it her best shot, but it was not easy to make headway against the bullying barrage of interventions. Nor did it reflect well on Marr, who failed to keep Ms Oakeshott in check. There followed sneering dismissal of the Observer’s investigations, as Ms Oakeshott damned her fellow paper reviewer with faint praise before accusing her of doing nothing more than “Chasing Unicorns”. But there was a problem.
That problem was twofold: one, Ms Oakeshott is in no position to call out others for suspect journalistic practice, not least after her crude and poorly researched biography of Young Dave (which was a Michael Ashcroft hit job), her failure to make friends and influence people in her time at the Daily Mail, and her misleading Vicky Pryce, which got the story, but landed Ms Pryce with a criminal record and a jail term.
And two, the effect of her clumsy and bullying intervention had the opposite effect to what she might have expected. “You could really see the desperation in Oakeshott's eyes as she attempted to shout down @carolecadwalla on #Marr. The lady doth protest too much” opined one Tweeter. SNP MP Joanna Cherry noted “Poor Isabel Oakeshott desperately trying to shut down @carolecadwalla on #marr over the #CambridgeAnalytica story. She knows her #Leave & #Tory mates are in the soup. Carole’s conclusion that electoral spending law needs looked at 100% right”. And there was more.
“How clever of #Marr to invite arch Brexiter @IsabelOakeshott to drown out @carolecadwalla … #marr Isabel Oakeshott brought on to shout down the intelligent journalist who knows what she is talking about … Oakeshott panicking on #Marr about Cambridge Analytica. And Looking on enviously at a real journalist”.
Lauren Gavaghan, who you can tell as she’s a doctor, summed it up: “Fascinating hearing Oakeshott tell .@carolecadwalla that she is ‘chasing unicorns’ & suggesting ‘conspiracy’ - clearly something in this Cambridge Analytica / Brexit story”. Quite.
Isabel Oakeshott could have just stated, simply but forcefully, that she was not convinced by the Observer’s revelations, and left it at that. Instead, she made so much noise that the inevitable impression was given of desperation, panic and guilt.
Her pals will be congratulating her for seeing off the Rotten Leftie (tm), but Isabel Oakeshott knows she just put the ball in her own net. No surprise there, then.
12 comments:
"as Ms Oakeshott damned her fellow paper reviewer with faint praise before accusing her of doing nothing more than “Chasing Unicorns”. But there was a problem."
Provably false. Only Brexiters believe in unicorns.
Reminiscent of shouting down of Nick Davies by various Murdoch media minions in the aftermath of the NOTW phonehacking revelations.
That tactic didn't work too well then. However help from the Us was needed then and is more than likely to be forthcoming now as a joint effort against the two heists against "democracy" that have taken place.
The BBC long ago lost public trust in any of its "news" or "politics" programmes.
They are a major source of misinformation and lies fronted by seedy Winston and Winifred Smiths.
The Ministry of Lies.
Oakeshite never fails to deliver
Tim - you say 'own goal' but Oakeshott successfully achieved what she set out to do. The time allotted to the Marr paper review is short and they have a number of stories to talk about and when it came to the Observer story she effectively drowned out Cadwalladr's input.
Oakeshott doesn't care what anyone thinks about her or whether she has any journalistic integrity left, this was proved in Piggygate. She is a Home Counties Katie Hopkins, a non-beer swilling Farage and thus on every news and politics show's producers' speed dial
If Newton Done can make multiple TV appearances, why not Oakeshott?
Same far right shit, different gender. Which is which is a matter of opinion.
"Reminiscent of shouting down of Nick Davies by various Murdoch media minions in the aftermath of the NOTW phonehacking revelations.
That tactic didn't work too well then."
To be fair Rob that tactic did work - that scandal that Nick Davies exposed has become dominated by phone hacking, when it was actually about the considerably worse criminal activity, namely the corrupting of more than a few civil servants, cops, military personnel etc plus the links between the papers and politicians. Neither has been effectively tackled even now (the only people who got banged up were the sources, bar one hack, and the link between the media and the political class was amply demonstrated by Oakeshott's antics today and her career up to this point).
@ Anon 15:14
"tactic did work"
But only for a while. It needed a shove from the other side of the pond and a greater one from the legal profession. I think there is greater interest in this story in the USA as it involves their hijacked election so it is not going away.
It is unfortunate that our national broadcaster has been seen to have feet of clay either because they are compromised in some way or they have too many people with associations with the ruling Party (class?).
Anyways the phone hacking saga has led to Court trials (not yet concluded) which have shed further light on the dark arts practised by the UK media and shown up the government to be in their thrall by not instigating Leveson Part 2.
Interestingly Faisal Islam is reporting that the security forces should be investigating the collusion behind the "anti democratic" stories about Cambridge Analytics and Vote Leave coming out now.
Sounds like the tactics Trump and his supporters use when they think they can sway the general populace.
But I have always wondered about our secret services and their absence when Labour Ministers were surveilled illegally by Murdoch's minions and their apparent lack of input over the paedophile scandals. Don't suppose they would care to help Corbyn either?
Isabel necessary? As the old joke goes. Clearly not.
The poor lass was clearly rattled. Her ''will you investigate remain expenses'' to Ms Cadwalladr was utterly desperate.
Firstly, and inconveniently for Ms Oakenshot, the story was not about remain, but the (at this stage allegedly) dodgy tactics used by leave.
Secondly, when a remain volunteer comes out with a similar revelation, then she can talk.
And thirdly, Oakenshot is supposedly a journalist (stop laughing at the back there). Why can she not find any similar wrongdoings at the remain camp? Either she can't or cannot be bothered.
On this occasion the fact that Oakeshott writes in a gossipy manner is useful:
https://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2015/11/isabel-oakeshott-brexit-campaigners-dont-know-friend-from-enemy.html
There she is in 2015 saying that Vote Leave was planning on using the services of CA - something denied on the Marr show
Correction to post 21:19 25th March
Faisal Islam was tweeting about an MEP called Bannerman who was calling for a security forces investigation into potential collusion behind the "anti democratic" stories about Cambridge Analytics and Vote Leave.
What a difference a few inadvertent omitted words make!
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