Saturday 1 March 2014

'Newsnight' - 24-28 February 2014



Time flies. It only seems like last week when we did this last time. 

Yes, it's time again for Is the BBC biased?s now-regular listing of all the stories covered over the course of the week by BBC Two's Newsnight.

Here's what they chose to report this week:


Monday 24/2:
1. Labour's Harriet Harman tells Newsnight she doesn't think it was a mistake to be associated with a paedophile organisation in the past. Interview with Harriet Harman.
2. Moscow's "fury" at the 'coup' in Ukraine.
3. Sir David Nicholson, head of the NHS, is retiring next month. A personal report by Sir David on the state of the NHS, followed by an interview with him.
4. Scottish independence. David Cameron's "publicity stunt", holding a cabinet meeting in Aberdeen.
5. What's wrong with a butcher advertising where meat comes from? Why are we (allegedly) so squeamish about knowing? Interview with food writers Jay Rayner and Zoe Williams.


Tuesday 25/2:
1. Unite's Len McCluskey calls on Ed Miliband to rule as a minority government if Labour doesn't win the next election outright. Interview with Len McCluskey.
2. Laura Kuenssberg on the links between paedophile group PIE and the left-wing civil rights group NCCL, in the light of the row over Harriet Harman, Jack Dromey and Tessa Jowell's role in the 'scandal'. Interview with Professor Lawrence Gostin, former head of  the NCCL (now with the WHO).
3. An IRA suspect in the Hyde Park bombing trial is released because of assurances sent to him "by the British government" [it transpired later in the programme that it wasn't the present British government].
4. 'Conflict gold' [a story based on a whistleblower at Ernst & Young who passed on information to a campaign group who, in turn, passed it on to 'The Guardian', Al Jazeera and the BBC].
5. Spitting Image. 30 year anniversary. Interview with Spitting Image producer John Lloyd, victim of Spitting Image Edwina Currie & impressionist Rory Bremner.


Wednesday 26/2:
1. Angela Merkel is in Britain tomorrow. Will David Cameron get any concessions out of her?
2. Coalition 'machinations'.
3. The sentencing of Adebolajo and Adebowale for the murder of Lee Rigby. [Jeremy calls them "two Muslim fanatics"]. What should be done with them while they are in prison? Interview with Peter Neumann, Professor of Security Studies at King's College London.
4. Why are so many animals going extinct? Is this a sixth mass extinction - and are we to blame, via climate change? Interview with author Elizabeth Kolbert and Emma Duncan of the Economist.
5. How governments play fast and lose with statistics (following the telling off for the government for its dodgy 'spending on flooding' stats). Interview with Labour MP Chi Onwurah & Prof David Spiegelhalter, Professor of the Public Understanding of Risk at Cambridge University.
6. Jerry Springer on whether television serves up poor people as a freak show to the amusement of coach potatoes [based on complaints about Benefits Street]. Interview with Jerry Springer.


Thursday 27/2:
1. Did 187 letters to republicans nearly bring down the Northern Irish government? The collapse of the Hyde Park bombings trial. Interview with former Labour advisor Jonathan Powell, David Ford of the Alliance Party and Gerry Kelly of Sinn Fein.
2. Following a string of recent acquittals, should decades-old accusations be left to lie? Interview with Alison Saunders, Director of Public Prosecutions.
3. Why are some North Korean defectors now keen to return to North Korea?
4. 'The Triple Package': The controversial theory of Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld that certain cultural groups in America consistently do better than others because of three factors: 1. a superiority complex, 2. insecurity & 3. impulse control. Interview with Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld.
5. An exhibition at Sotheby's of various collected items, ranging from Nelson's teapot and Al Capone's cocktail shaker to, Rudolf Nurevey's coat-stand and the original script of Citizen Kane.


Friday 28/2:
1. Could Russia's sending of troops into Crimea escalate into war with Ukraine?
2. What are the links between the new government in Kiev and the far-right?
3. Why is Nigel Farage trying to shut down questions at UKIP's spring conference?
4. Corporal punishment. "Does a thrashing at school set you up for a successful life? Sir Alex Ferguson thinks so. Does anyone think he could be right?" Interview with Kathy Letts and Anne Atkins.

1 comment:

  1. Saw only a bit of last nights.
    The "Farage no-show" surely merited comment-the BBC windups in Torquay as well as the likes of Michael Crick smarming around clearly took their toll.
    The BBC are despicable-I saw their running attack on UKIP through the day and the selective soundbites and sideshows that were run on the hour.
    They really are out of control.
    2. That awful Kathy Lettes crap on Alex Ferguson was awful too-as Ann Atkins said, Maitlis deliberately misled the audience on what he himself had actually said...but the BBC would much rather we think on what the BBC would LIKE him to have said-which is the same thing to Katz and his liberal lefty goons.
    I predict some riots very soon if they carry on lying like this.

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