Thursday 21 October 2010

Here's to you, Mr Robinson

I'm sure that having your broadcast used by protestors to make political points is a little bit annoying, but only if you think that your selection of what counts as information is paramount. I'm inclined to feel that if you go for an outside broadcast, you should accept what's going on. Otherwise, you may as well stay in the studio. Few things are more patronising than insisting on showing you the door to No. 10 to demonstrate you're talking about politics, or standing outside Buckingham Palace to remind you that that's where the Queen lives.



This is Nick Robinson, the BBC's political correspondent. In case you wondered about his political views, he was President (sounds dangerously Republican) of the Oxford University Conservative Association, and therefore isn't in any way biased.

I wonder why he didn't politely complain to the sign holder, or simply walk away.

2 comments:

Benjamin Judge said...

Vole loses it!!!

Is your argument that Nick Robinson is in some way fueling a right wing inferno of the public freedoms by taking away some morons broomstick?

(I use the word moron with some confidence - "You should be ashamed of yourself...all those troops dying for what?" - he seems to think Nick Robinson invaded Iraq.

You manage, in a very small blog post, to take what is very obviously just a man annoyed at not being able to do his job and spin it into a conservative conspiracy to curtail freedom of speech.

Would politely complaining have worked?

"I say sir, do you mind awfully moving that sign?"

"What? This sign I have specifically made to display behind your broadcast? Of course. Why didn't you say earlier? How embarassing."

What if the sign had something deeply racist? Should he have just done the broadcast with a sign saying "*********** go home" on it?(I have put a random number of asterisks so you don't get the wrong sort of traffic but you know the sort of thing I'm implying.)

Vole, you are doing important work with Uppal - don't ruin it with silly Socialist-Workeresque reactions to all and sundry. You are cheapening yourself.

Ewarwoowar said...

Great comment Ben, and I agree.

I don't like Nick Robinson - he's the kind of person I bullied at school - but he was totally right here.