This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/17/brexit-sun-sleeping-bbc-journalists
The article has changed 4 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| The Brexit nightmare inside the Sun’s sleeping BBC journalists ‘scandal’ | The Brexit nightmare inside the Sun’s sleeping BBC journalists ‘scandal’ |
| (30 days later) | |
| Fri 17 Nov 2017 10.52 GMT | Fri 17 Nov 2017 10.52 GMT |
| Last modified on Wed 14 Feb 2018 15.30 GMT | |
| Share on Facebook | Share on Facebook |
| Share on Twitter | Share on Twitter |
| Share via Email | Share via Email |
| View more sharing options | View more sharing options |
| Share on LinkedIn | Share on LinkedIn |
| Share on Pinterest | Share on Pinterest |
| Share on Google+ | Share on Google+ |
| Share on WhatsApp | Share on WhatsApp |
| Share on Messenger | Share on Messenger |
| Close | Close |
| Early in the play Ink, James Graham’s brilliant portrayal of the birth of the Murdoch Sun, the embryonic tycoon explains to the future editor of his new tabloid, “You gotta be a pneumatic drill, Larry, never letting up, powering on through.” Rupert Murdoch never, ever, lets up. | Early in the play Ink, James Graham’s brilliant portrayal of the birth of the Murdoch Sun, the embryonic tycoon explains to the future editor of his new tabloid, “You gotta be a pneumatic drill, Larry, never letting up, powering on through.” Rupert Murdoch never, ever, lets up. |
| His newspapers have an institutional grudge against the BBC. To their executives this vast corporation bestrides the media landscape, hiding behind the claim of impartiality to pump out the establishment view. It is out-of-touch, irrelevant, and insulated from reality by what is worst of all about it: it is publicly funded. On the back of the licence payer’s pound, it hoovers up digital bandwidth, squeezes out unsubsidised rivals, and filches the News Corp’s executives’ bonuses. | His newspapers have an institutional grudge against the BBC. To their executives this vast corporation bestrides the media landscape, hiding behind the claim of impartiality to pump out the establishment view. It is out-of-touch, irrelevant, and insulated from reality by what is worst of all about it: it is publicly funded. On the back of the licence payer’s pound, it hoovers up digital bandwidth, squeezes out unsubsidised rivals, and filches the News Corp’s executives’ bonuses. |
| The James Graham play invents a fictitious “knickers week”, where every Sun reader who writes in gets sent a pair of ladies’ knickers doused in Chanel no 5. It has no purpose but to prove the marketability of lubriciousness, which it does with stonking success. | The James Graham play invents a fictitious “knickers week”, where every Sun reader who writes in gets sent a pair of ladies’ knickers doused in Chanel no 5. It has no purpose but to prove the marketability of lubriciousness, which it does with stonking success. |
| The BBC too has a universal appeal, its perceived high-mindedness concealing a vein of stories that are rich and thick and told, always, in a way that is bound to inflame the indignation of the hard-working Sun reader. | The BBC too has a universal appeal, its perceived high-mindedness concealing a vein of stories that are rich and thick and told, always, in a way that is bound to inflame the indignation of the hard-working Sun reader. |
| The Sun fails to draw attention to the fact that the eight pictures were taken over a period of four years | The Sun fails to draw attention to the fact that the eight pictures were taken over a period of four years |
| Thursday morning’s front page flaunted a new TV licence fee scandal, the third or maybe fourth in the recent past: it was a picture of newsroom journalist, head on his folded arms, headphones askew, fast asleep at his desk, apparently getting paid for being asleep. That’s BBC Newzzzzzz for you. | Thursday morning’s front page flaunted a new TV licence fee scandal, the third or maybe fourth in the recent past: it was a picture of newsroom journalist, head on his folded arms, headphones askew, fast asleep at his desk, apparently getting paid for being asleep. That’s BBC Newzzzzzz for you. |
| The story, written with the tabloid’s trademark flair and the deployment of real facts in a way guaranteed to mislead (“£450 is top whack for a night shift at BBC news channel”, for example, without reference either to the fact that the news channel is not on air overnight, or reference to the actual pay of any of those pictured). Nor does the Sun draw attention to the fact, acknowledged deep in its “full story” inside, and tucked between quotes from two of the BBC’s more colourful critics – the Tory MPs Peter Bone and Andrew Rosindell – that the eight pictures (one used twice) were taken over a period of four years. Nor does it consider the possibility that the journalists were simply on a legitimate break. | The story, written with the tabloid’s trademark flair and the deployment of real facts in a way guaranteed to mislead (“£450 is top whack for a night shift at BBC news channel”, for example, without reference either to the fact that the news channel is not on air overnight, or reference to the actual pay of any of those pictured). Nor does the Sun draw attention to the fact, acknowledged deep in its “full story” inside, and tucked between quotes from two of the BBC’s more colourful critics – the Tory MPs Peter Bone and Andrew Rosindell – that the eight pictures (one used twice) were taken over a period of four years. Nor does it consider the possibility that the journalists were simply on a legitimate break. |
| In other times, this would be the kind of Sun fun that is easy to dismiss. The BBC Middle East correspondent Quentin Sommerville did just that when he tweeted a picture of himself flaked out in his flak jacket. And yet, 24 hours after the Daily Telegraph presented Tory rebels as mutineers in a way that stripped the word of its buccaneering implications and imbued it with a sinister whiff of conspiracy, it has a much more oppressive message. | In other times, this would be the kind of Sun fun that is easy to dismiss. The BBC Middle East correspondent Quentin Sommerville did just that when he tweeted a picture of himself flaked out in his flak jacket. And yet, 24 hours after the Daily Telegraph presented Tory rebels as mutineers in a way that stripped the word of its buccaneering implications and imbued it with a sinister whiff of conspiracy, it has a much more oppressive message. |
| As the BBC press office tweeted in response to the Sun story, the corporation is regarded by more than half the population as the UK’s most trustworthy news outlet (it’s in the top four in the US too). In the same YouGov survey, the Sun’s trust rating was below 1%. This is partly a story about trust. But the Sun’s interest in the kipping journalists was not about the what its readers think of its truthfulness and reliability: it was about what its readers think of the BBC. | As the BBC press office tweeted in response to the Sun story, the corporation is regarded by more than half the population as the UK’s most trustworthy news outlet (it’s in the top four in the US too). In the same YouGov survey, the Sun’s trust rating was below 1%. This is partly a story about trust. But the Sun’s interest in the kipping journalists was not about the what its readers think of its truthfulness and reliability: it was about what its readers think of the BBC. |
| In the warp and woof of life, it is a story of zero import, a paper dart that misses its target. But in the fractious and damaging dispute about who is really on the people’s side, it can be added to the tottering pile of the Sun’s great compilation of BBC failings, which attempts to show Sun readers they would be fools if they relied on anything that they see or hear on the national broadcaster. The message, all the more telling for not being spelt out, was that the BBC, like the mutineers, is part of the great London conspiracy that below the horizon is working tirelessly – sleeplessly, even – in a giant establishment plot to thwart the will of the people and prevent the UK leaving the EU. | In the warp and woof of life, it is a story of zero import, a paper dart that misses its target. But in the fractious and damaging dispute about who is really on the people’s side, it can be added to the tottering pile of the Sun’s great compilation of BBC failings, which attempts to show Sun readers they would be fools if they relied on anything that they see or hear on the national broadcaster. The message, all the more telling for not being spelt out, was that the BBC, like the mutineers, is part of the great London conspiracy that below the horizon is working tirelessly – sleeplessly, even – in a giant establishment plot to thwart the will of the people and prevent the UK leaving the EU. |
| The Brexit process is only just gathering speed. It is highly probable that no one, neither Sun reader nor BBC stalwart, will be happy with the result. Encouraging each to regard the other as the enemy is a dangerous path to start down. | The Brexit process is only just gathering speed. It is highly probable that no one, neither Sun reader nor BBC stalwart, will be happy with the result. Encouraging each to regard the other as the enemy is a dangerous path to start down. |
| • Anne Perkins is a Guardian columnist | • Anne Perkins is a Guardian columnist |
| Brexit | Brexit |
| Opinion | Opinion |
| The Sun | The Sun |
| Newspapers | Newspapers |
| Newspapers & magazines | Newspapers & magazines |
| National newspapers | National newspapers |
| BBC | BBC |
| comment | comment |
| Share on Facebook | Share on Facebook |
| Share on Twitter | Share on Twitter |
| Share via Email | Share via Email |
| Share on LinkedIn | Share on LinkedIn |
| Share on Pinterest | Share on Pinterest |
| Share on Google+ | Share on Google+ |
| Share on WhatsApp | Share on WhatsApp |
| Share on Messenger | Share on Messenger |
| Reuse this content | Reuse this content |