Sunday 17 August 2014

'Dateline' - Guest of (Dis)Honour (Update)



Here's an update to the post Guest of (Dis)honour, which listed all the guests on Dateline London, and revealed that the controversial Palestinian (extremist) journalist Abdel Bari Atwan was the programme's most regular guest by some margin.  

That post appeared in November 2012. Many editions of Dateline have passed since then. Who's top of the Dateline pops now? Well, here are the total number of appearances of all Dateline's guests since 30 October 2010 (with apologies for the list's untidy look). 

It shows that Abdel Bari Atwan keeps his crown as the most regular Dateline guest:

Atwan, Abdel Bari 45
Kielinger, Thomas 34
Goldfarb, Michael 34
Karkouti, Mustapha 33
Roche, Marc 29
Poirier, Agnes 28
Toynbee, Polly  24
Daley, Janet 23
Oraibi, Mina al 22
Katz, Greg 21
Fisher Burns, John 19
Ray, Ashis 19
Zadka, Saul  19
Chu, Henry 18
Maguire, Stryker 18
Malik, Nesrine 16
McAllister, Jef 16
Magombe, Vincent 16
Goes, Eunice 15
Aaronovitch, David 14
Ramdani, Nabila 14
Brown, Yasmin Alibhai 14
Leslie, Ann  14
Homouda, Abdallah 13
Temko, Ned 13
White, Michael 12
Deane, Alex 11
Margaronis, Maria 11
Baker, Stephanie 10
Shiskin, Dmitry 10
Birrell, Ian 10
O'Connell,  Brian 10
Montgomerie, Tim 10
Richards, Steve 9
Pepinster, Catherine 9
Raphael, Adam 9
Wei Liang, Diane 8
Piras, Annalisa 8
Mayer, Catherine 7
Ansari, Nazenin 7
Hilton, Isabel 7
MacIntyre, Donal 6
Owen Jones 6
Taranyuk, Irena 5
Karimakawenda, Tererai 5
Burrell, Bernard  5
Sadullah, Shahid 5
Taheri, Amir 4
Dourian, Kate 4
Lynch, Laura 4
Linnik, Dmitry 3
Dittert, Annette 3
Hewlett, Steve 3
Bahaijoub, Ali 3
Matthews, Francis 3
Caliskan, Emre 2
Kofman, Jeffrey 2
Lucas, Edward 2
Timur, Safak 2
Sacerdoti, Jonathan 2
Jenkins, Simon 2
Pasha, Hassan Fatah 2
Faiola, Anthony 2
Bolzen, Stephanie 1
Gordon, Tom 1
Huband, Mark 1
Macleod, Catherine 1
Martin, Iain 1
McIntosh, Lindsay 1
McKenna, Kevin 1
Nekrassov, Alexander 1
Patrikarakos, David 1
Satwa, Richard 1
Shabi, Rachel 1
Sharafedi, Bozorgmehr 1
Walker, Heather 1
Iversen, Tonje 1
Hari, Johann 1
Totaro, Paola 1
Hutton, Will 1
Orwell, Bruce 1
Shamis, Ashur 1
Xue, Xinran 1
Aziz, Abdul 1
Purcell, Bernard 1
Addison, Jake Awagah 1
Paviot,  Benedicte 1
Fuchs, Cornelia 1
al-Qassemi, Sultan 1

And just to break that down by adding the latest figures, since that 2012 post, which show the recent trends on Dateline. These then are the figures from 17 November 2012 to 16 August 2014. They show that the gap is closing on Bari's dominance of the programme but that, astonishing, he's still the most invited guest on Dateline:

Atwan, Abdel Bari 16
Kielinger, Thomas 15
Poirier, Agnes 15
Karkouti, Mustapha 14
Oraibi, Mina al 14
Roche, Marc 14
Goldfarb, Michael 12
Malik, Nesrine 12
Deane, Alex 11
Daley, Janet 11
Baker, Stephanie 10
Katz, Greg 10
Shiskin, Dmitry 10
Fisher Burns, John 9
Toynbee, Polly  9
Birrell, Ian 8
Chu, Henry 8
McAllister, Jef 8
Ray, Ashis 8
Zadka, Saul  8
Aaronovitch, David 7
Homouda, Abdallah 7
Margaronis, Maria 7
Ramdani, Nabila    7
Brown, Yasmin Alibhai 6
MacIntyre, Donal 6
Owen Jones 6
Goes, Eunice 5
Magombe, Vincent 5
Maguire, Stryker 5
O'Connell,  Brian 5
Richards, Steve 5
Taranyuk, Irena 5
Mayer, Catherine 4
Pepinster, Catherine 4
Raphael, Adam 4
Temko, Ned 4
Wei Liang, Diane 4
Ansari, Nazenin 3
Karimakawenda, Tererai 3
Leslie, Ann  3
Linnik, Dmitry 3
White, Michael 3
Caliskan, Emre 2
Dittert, Annette 2
Hilton, Isabel 2
Kofman, Jeffrey 2
Lucas, Edward 2
Taheri, Amir 2
Timur, Safak 2
Bolzen, Stephanie 1
Burrell, Bernard  1
Dourian, Kate 1
Gordon, Tom 1
Hewlett, Steve 1
Huband, Mark 1
Macleod, Catherine 1
Martin, Iain 1
McIntosh, Lindsay 1
McKenna, Kevin 1
Nekrassov, Alexander 1
Patrikarakos, David 1
Piras, Annalisa 1
Sacerdoti, Jonathan 1
Sadullah, Shahid 1
Satwa, Richard 1
Shabi, Rachel 1
Sharafedi, Bozorgmehr 1
Walker, Heather 1

5 comments:

  1. Nice work, Craig. The BBC likes to play the numbers game in their defense against bias, and here's something they can't refute. Busted at their own game. Goldfarb, the man without an original thought - but all the right-on ones - in his head is #3? And we know he's the BBC's go-to source when they want the 'correct' point of view on US issues, so the evidence stacks up. Further proof of bias is the fact that Janet Daley is the most frequent guest from the (sort of) Right. She's generally useless on BBC debates, regardless of how good she sounds in her columns. No wonder the BBC is happy to give her time. Plus two Guardianistas above her.

    No Starkey, no Murray, no Dale, to name a few better choices than what's listed.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks David.
      When I began monitoring 'Dateline' in earnest (2010-11),it followed a peculiar pattern when it came to the UK-based journalists appearing on the programme. There would be four weeks of left-wing UK journalists followed by an appearance by Janet Daley. Six weeks of more left-wing UK journalists would follow, after which Janet would receive another invite. Then after three weeks of more left-wing UK journalists, Dame Ann Leslie would appear (to show that Janet wasn't the only UK right-winger in the village).
      Thankfully, that situation has got better since. I've always hoped that that was because of a list I posted in the comments sections of a particularly well-read post at B-BBC, proving that 'Dateline' invited Guardian and Independent journalists onto the programme FAR more than all the journalists from the non-Left UK press put together. Two weeks later (coincidentally?), Tim Montgomerie of ConservativeHome made his first appearance and a few other UK right-wingers have followed, most recently the excellent Alex Deane (who used to run Big Brother Watch). The Left are still dominant (statistically) among the representatives of the UK press, but the bias isn't as bad as it used to be.
      Looking at the Top 10, it's revealing that only two are clearly right-wingers - Janet Daley and Thomas Kielinger (and TK is a very centrist, German CDU kind of right-winger). In contrast, 'Bari' Atwan, Michael Goldfarb, Mustapha Karkouti, Marc Roche, Agnes Poirie and Polly Toynbee are all firmly left-liberal in orientation. Greg Katz and Mina al Oraibi are harder to place.
      As a clear indication of where the programme's instincts lie on matters Israeli/Palestinian, Abdel Bari Atwan's continuing dominance remains particularly damning. Despite his record of extreme statements, he's still the programme's guest of choice. That's the thing I find hardest to stomach.
      Plus, at the risk of sounding like B-BBC's resident truther David Brims (except that I'm talking about BBC bias, something he rarely if ever does), it's interesting (revealing?) that four out of the Top 10 guests are Muslims...
      ...and, looking back, it's also noticeable how many 'robust' left-wingers appear on that list and how few 'robust' right-wingers there are. Ian Birrell, one of the new right-wingers, is a good example of that - a former Cameron speech-writer (from the days when Mr Cameron was trying to reach out to the likes of Polly Toynbee) who is about as right-wing as Nick Clegg. Alex Deane and Janet Daley aren't enough to balance things out. Your suggestions for supplementary right-wingers would be a good start.

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    2. That's a fair point, David.

      To answer your questions, the most regular guest who represents an Israeli perspective is Saul Zadka. His number of appearances is 19, which stands in sharp contrast to Abdel Bari Atwan's 45 appearances. And, yes, it is THAT Greg Katz.

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    3. Less than half the number of appearances? Hard to think of an excuse for that. Is that the Saul Zadka who wrote about Jewish militants (to coin a phrase, eh?) killing British soldiers before Israel's independence? Pretty slick, Beeboids, having the most prominent pro-Israel voice be someone highly likely to inspire a little antagonism in the audience in his own right. We know for a fact from what 'John Reith' used to tell us that there's a serious amount of resentment in house against Israel's existence for that, or at least a ready excuse to dismiss pro-Israel complaints about terrorism.

      It's that Katz? Ugh. I'm not a self-loathing Jew, see. I just loathe the self-loathing ones.

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  2. Maybe if America had the nous to lift its ban on Atwan he would not be so available.

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