And so the long, indeed overlong, process of appointing a successor to the now former host of
The Andy Marr Show™, the BBC’s flagship weekend politics and current affairs offering, came to an end yesterday with the widely-predicted result. Marr’s permanent
replacement is to be Laura Kuenssberg, the Corporation’s outgoing political editor.
Why this was predictable is not difficult to figure out: Marr himself had been BBC political editor before he succeeded David Frost with the show initially called
Sunday AM. What was also predictable was the outpouring of occasionally sincere and consistently gushing congratulations from others in the media class, accompanied by silent approval from those who rabbit-in-headlights Director General Tim Davie fears the most.
What might the DG fear? The Murdoch
Sun, for a start, which has nodded through the news
with comments such as “
The corporation's outgoing Political Editor will grill ministers from the hot seat formerly occupied by Andrew Marr”. And the
Mail, where those often devastating headlines
have been replaced with the anodyne “
Laura Kuenssberg says its a 'genuine honour' as she's unveiled as new £340,000-a-year host of BBC's Sunday morning politics show”.Even the
Express, the
Daily Brexit,
was not unhappy.
“
BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg will put her years of experience on the BBC to use on BBC One's Sunday Morning show from September”. The right-leaning part of our free and fearless press has no problem with the appointment. And, just to underscore the right-wing approval of Ms Kuenssberg, nor do the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines
and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog, aka The Provisional Wing Of CCHQ™.
“
Kuenssberg’s Sunday Morning Gig … Laura Kuenssberg has confirmed she’ll be taking over the prized Sunday Morning politics show as she enters her final week as the BBC’s political editor” tells The Great Guido. Not a word of dissent, no snide comments, no sign of the smears doled out to Jess Brammar and Emily Maitlis. And there was more.
Reporting on the appointment for the i Paper, Paul Waugh confirmed that the righteous Tory right
also approved. “
[Steve Baker] on why [Laura Kuenssberg] will be a formidable successor to Andrew Marr: she has looked ‘deep into the hearts and minds and souls of MPs in extended crisis’”. Baker has clearly just finished a binge watch of
Smiley’s People.
No, the concern over Ms Kuenssberg’s appointment
is not over her having been carpeted over misrepresenting Jeremy Corbyn’s stance on shoot to kill,
her participation in a junior shadow minister resigning live on the
Daily Politics, which benefited the Tories and wrong-footed Labour,
her disclosure of postal ballot returns, her Leeds General Infirmary
howler, or her perceived closeness to alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson.
The concern, for an increasing number of onlookers, is that the right-leaning press, and the Tories, are all too clearly intensely relaxed about the appointment. The people who are preparing to line up behind Bozo over Partygate and tell the electorate that it’s no big deal that we have a Prime Minister who stands before the House of Commons and routinely lies through his teeth, just so he can get through the day’s news cycle.
This is an appointment of which the Tories and their establishment pals approve. I hope Ms Kuenssberg disabuses them of their relaxation.
But remain sceptical of that outcome.
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4 comments:
Kuennsberg has to be the worst. Even worse than Nick Robinson. The late John Cole was superlative in comparison. Marr was poor enough anyway. None of them for years have been good. At least Maitlis was more honest. Kuennsberg was moniored. She is partial, partisan, her choice of language and her intros are always totally loaded with statements hat plant right wing perspectives, and she is not even very bright. But none of the BBC News and CA presenters are any good- from Faisal Islam (woeful) to Kirsty Wark and the Newsnight sidekick Nick Watt, they fall over themselves to be pro Tory to get access and serve the BBC DG and Chair, both Tory appointees. The BBC is disgustingly riddled with elite Tory bias, but it always was. Ros Atkins is good. Sky presenters on the whole are better.
This Unit for one was amused to see TV's Cathy Newman struggling to contain her own mirth when reporting that Bloody Stupid Johnson hadn’t been invited to that meeting of EU high heidyins the other day. I've always liked her…
A former colleague has written an interesting thread on LK which sounds right to me: -
https://twitter.com/Baghdaddi/status/1509061196074336263?cxt=HHwWjoCyhbPKofEpAAAA
Whatever one might think of her personally it must be remembered she was hired by senior managers at the BBC for the role of Political Editor based on her supposed strengths and skill set which can be defined as being her "approachability" from her various "sources" and her "ability" to relay whatever they told her verbatim without any critical analysis.
So she's no longer Political Editor, but are the same mindset upper managers still positioned to get an identikit replacement or will the skill requirement change to something more suitable to a politics explainer? You know the kind, if they are told it's raining look out the window before recommending the carrying of an umbrella. I'm less than optimistic.
THIS is why she was picked out:
https://vocal.media/theSwamp/laura-kuenssberg
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