BBC DG Meets Tories - Press Silent

Once again, our free and fearless press brings us another reminder that its power lies not merely in what it chooses to print, but what it does not: a story has been broken by an online news source, and only one national daily has picked it up, despite it being about the hated BBC. The one paper to break ranks has had to mimic the name of its owner rather too much, too.

Tim Davie

It was Kevin Schofield of the HuffPost who told yesterday that “BBC director general Tim Davie will address the next meeting of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers”, following up with the observation “To say this is highly unusual would be an understatement”. So it would. What is worse is that Davie is a former Tory party member and candidate.

His candidacy was for a seat in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, a council that would later become a target for the Tories’, shall we say, more radical fringe, like lawyer Donal Blaney of Young Britons’ Foundation infamy. Tory MPs Stephen Greenhalgh and Greg Hands also began their political careers as councillors at LBHF.

So who, among those who scrabble among the dunghill that is Grubstreet, has chosen to publish this news, and how are they spinning it? Surprisingly, it is the Daily Brexit, still called the Express, and part of Reach plc. And Reach is what the paper is doing, not least with its claim of an Exclusive, when Schofield had already prefixed his version with the word SCOOP.

And the spin applied? “Gary Lineker row triggers massive showdown with BBC chief Tim Davie and Tory MPs in days”. Eh? The “Gary Lineker Row”, to use the Express’ happy phrase, has already been and gone. Have a more wide-ranging go. “The Director General of the BBC Tim Davie has agreed to meet backbench Tory MPs amid growing fury over the BBC's coverage”.

What fury would that be, perchance? “BBC Director General Tim Davie has accepted an invitation to come to talk to Conservative MPs over increasing concerns that the national broadcaster is biased with an anti-Conservative, woke agenda”. Bullshit. The Express wouldn’t even be able to define the word “Woke”. And “anti-Conservative”? Seriously? Away with you.

But there was more. “But the meeting next Wednesday comes at a particularly sensitive moment with the BBC facing the prospect of being banned from Israel for appearing to report Hamas propaganda as factual news”."Appearing to report”. And “being banned from Israel”? That would be another very long Reach. Would the Daily Brexit care to be more specific?

“The Corporation incensed the Israelis and Conservative MPs at home by claiming that Israeli forces had blown up a hospital in Gaza when there was no evidence beyond allegations being put out by Hamas”. No evidence beyond a lot of dead bodies, the Israelis putting out a now discredited chat between two Hamas operatives, and the Israeli version changing over time.

Also, the jury is still out on who sent the munition that hit the hospital, where Forensic Architecture’s analysis “suggests a munition larger than eg a Spike or Hellfire missile commonly used by IOF drones. It is more consistent w/ the impact marks from an artillery shell”. Hamas don’t have those. And the direction of delivery is not from the direction the Israelis have claimed.

This is included to emphasise that putting out one side’s claim as data, and under duress, is not a wise move. Nor is making it about one presenter the Express doesn’t like. As in “MPs are still angry that the BBC backed down and changed the rules to allow Lineker to use his platform as its top-paid star to launch attacks on Government policy”. Nor is whining about WOKE.

What the Express, and anyone else out on the right, is missing is that for someone who is not merely BBC Director General, but has a political past with the party to whom he will be speaking, it looks very bad. Because it is very bad. Will Davie be speaking to the Parliamentary Labour Party? How about the Lib Dems and SNP? Would anyone take bets? Maybe not.

It’s not about Lineker or Israel. It’s about the Beeb’s credibility. That is all.

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