Thursday
May162013
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill New Newsnight editor eulogises 10:10 campaign
May 16, 2013 BBC Ian Katz, the deputy editor of the Guardian, has been appointed the editor of BBC's flagship current affairs programme Newsnight.
You can probably work out where he stands on climate change issues, but if you were in any doubt here's his eulogy to the "beauty" of the 10:10 campaign, of exploding children notoriety.
A always think it's interesting to analyse where the BBC recruits externally and where its staff go to when they leave. I'm thinking of Polly Toynbee's departure for the Guardian for example. Perhaps readers can suggest other examples of revealing departures and arrivals.
Reader Comments (42)
Tony Hall seems to almost exclusively recruit from the fellow liberal left wing believers in all things to do with climate alarm, multicultural destruction of our home culture and anything that promotes homosexual and deviant lifestyles. Anything that will attack the strength and security of the "nuclear family" and give cause for an ever more powerful state to take more and more control over people's lives.
To compare and contrast, when the 'Evil' Rupert Murdoch's News of the World was exposed as employing phone hackers, he closed down the News of the World.
The BBC by comparison has been employing and actively covering up for predatory paedophile rapists, operating from BBC premises on BBC time, for many decades, and they sought to deflect criticism by libelling a former conservative party minister.
Close the perverted BBC down!
I think we have a moral duty to close down the Guardian and the BBC, remove the left wing Luddites who are trying to destroy Western civilisation and start again.
Personally I would put Rupert Murdoch in charge of this process.
Plus ca change -
Here's a list I made a few years ago - when I used to have a blog charting the "revolving door" between BBC & Labour:-
An abbreviated list of known Labour supporters and the postions they've occupied at the BBC since the the early 90's:-
Chairman Gavin Davies (later Labour adviser)
Chairman Sir Michael Lyons (previously Labour council chief)
Director General John Birt (later Labour adviser)
Director General Greg Dyke (previously Labour donor and candidate)
C.O.O Caroline Thomson (previously Roy Jenkin's aide)
Head of Political Research Bill Bush (later Labour spin doctor)
Deputy Head of ditto Catherine Rimmer (later Labour spin doctor)
Director of Strategy Ed Richards (later Labour spin doctor)
Head of Corporate Planning James Purnell (now Labour Minister)
Head of Northern Ireland News Tom Kelly (later Labour spin doctor)
Scottish News Editor Tim Luckhurst (previously lLabour spin doctor)
Political News Editor Joy Johnson (later Labour spin doctor)
Political Editor Andrew Marr (student Labour organiser)
Home News Editor Celia Barlow (now Labour MP)
Head of European Affairs Chris Bryant (now Labour MP)
Newsnight Producer Phil Woolas (now Labour Minister)
Foreign Correspondent Martin Sixsmith (later Labour spin doctor)
Current Affairs Reporter Ben Bradshaw (now Labour Minister)
Current Affairs Reporter Lance Price (later Labour spin doctor)
"Question Time" Editor Gill Penlington (previously Labour researcher)
Many of them actually worked for the Labour party before, after and even during their BBC employment.
http://bbcpioneers.blogspot.co.uk/
Don't expect anything new on climate change in the serious analysis department. In his Huffington Post biog it says he has a special interest in the environment. Looking at his twitter feed (rather dull) he recently retweeted a tweet by Magnus Linklater who said that "climate change denier" Lawson was calling for us to leave the EU. Given his support for the 10:10 campaign we know all we need to know about his approach to the environment and journalism.
Will the BBC ever learn?
Astonishing, and they are the ones above the radar. Well done FG.
One wonders: Will he publicly renounce the 10:10 video when they start blowing up real people, or will he pretend it has nothing to do with his endorsement of it?
Pre Copenhagen rhetoric, but important none the less.
If you read that article 4 years down the line, the smug liberal left moralising looks more out of place. Nothing has changed at the BBC, but the world has. There is less of an audience for the grandstanding of these people.
This is real end of "BBC" empire stuff. They have no idea about the world outside their windows or how to change to survive.
Just as an aside, despite Katz talking about the possible "hundreds of thousands" of 10:10 subscribers putting pressure on the government, the Guardian 10:10 page hasn't had an update in two years. So Katz was right on the money there...
Otter
When Al quida are blowing up real school children in Iraq and Afghanistan.
So question for the BBC Trust ,did this Ian Katz see the shocking 10 10 video before it was released. And if he did he do anything to stop it.
After Savile another potential Newsnight Scandal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMYESJK1bUQ
Warning if your a school kid doing your Climate Change homework wondering what we talking about please don't watch its too horrible.
" ...the Guardian 10:10 page hasn't had an update in two years...."
Ooo! That is a bit embarrassing! Expect a short flurry of activity there in about, mmm, a couple of weeks?
That is to say, shortly, but not so soon as to be thought to be reacting to that particular comment!
There is a history of green/environmental/climate change "initiatives" which are heralded with fanfares in a sympathetic main stream media but then quickly deliquesce. Al Gore's efforts in the USA are a fascinating study. There is a lot less support for radical green than the media would have you believe.
WWF, FoE etc: soak up most of the support. It is a shame that they have been so corrupted. I used to support both of those organisations. No longer.
Moan, gripe....all right...I will shut up....
10:10?
Who?
Can't remember anything about it. Something to do with eating your fruit and veg? Ten portions every ten days?
And there was a mad woman called Fanny involved. But not Craddock.
Others may be able to help more.
Ian Katz will be in good company with the delightful Susan Watts, Newsnight Science Editor since 1995: From the Beeb blurb, (I haven't looked recently)
"She joined Newsnight in January 1995. Since then science, health, medicine and technology - and their social and political impact - have become central themes on the programme.
Susan has broken major stories on issues including climate change, GM food, nuclear power, human cloning, HIV vaccines and biochemical weapons.
She was a prominent witness at the Hutton inquiry, a judicial investigation in summer 2003 into the death of biological weapons expert Dr David Kelly.
Susan was responsible for much of Newsnight's coverage of the unfolding BSE crisis, for which Newsnight gained its first Bafta award.
Susan joined Newsnight after ten years in print journalism. She was science and technology correspondent for the Independent newspaper, where she won many awards for her investigative reporting including the Environment Council's Science in the Environment award for a story on Oxfordshire tests of engineered crops.
She was technology correspondent at New Scientist magazine in the late Eighties and, before then, news editor at Computer Weekly. She has a degree in physics from London's Imperial College."
'So question for the BBC Trust..'
May 16, 2013 at 10:14 AM | jamspid'
***
You can try. But as Lord Patten has made clear, questions are what the BBC asks of others, and no one, but no one gets to hold the BBC to account other than the BBC... trust... him.
As I recall the Graun CiF on the 10:10 launch had to be closed rather quickly as the number of referrals was getting embarrassing, especially as most were Graun loyalists not impressed with the commercial, or the Graun's support.
The BBC, ever loyal as part of what now seems a clear exchange programme with one of the country's smaller public-representing broadsheet papers, of course wheeled out a review that excelled in semantic accuracy, saying views were 'split'.
Totally accurate, as 100:1 appalled and against was, indeed, a 'split'. But it does rather put how the BBC and Guardian editorial like to phrase things when it's not looking too good for the narrative. It's how things get sold to the masses in palatable portions.
Mr. Katz should fit right in. And he can always get the missus in to tell the country how the 'average' (depending on one's definition of average... a bit like 'split') 'mum' feels about it all.
G. Watkins said:
"above the radar" - a good point, the echelons of managerialists working away in the bowels of the Beeb machine goose step in line - to a common purpose beat.
A friend bemoaning the news output of the BBC yer know........"Harry in NY!" "M&S - new lines!" "Hollywood star has breasts removed!" - remarked upon viewing all the apparatchiks clearly visible beavering away behind the newcasters heads in the cavernous beeb news HQ - "what do the rest of them.........what do they actually do?".................................
"Ah well" - I said and then l gave him a clue.........................Climate change, common purpose, the EU, toeing the line and promoting all things cultural Marxism and furthering the
Labour partyTrotskyist political party.BBC organ of the promulgation and champion of the EU - they should exchange the 'British' title for BRUSSELS - and become [what we all know it to be]: the Brussels Broadcasting Corporation.
Latimer Adler:
10:10?
Who?
You can see full details of 10:10 and Franny Armstrong here, but I haven't checked on them since then:
The Environmental Activist mind-set: The Age of Utter Stupidity
http://sppiblog.org/news/the-environmental-activist-mind-set-the-age-of-utter-stupidity
"The campaign has amassed huge cross-societal support including Adidas, Microsoft, Spurs FC, the Royal Mail, 75,000 people, 1,500 schools, a third of local councils, the entire UK Government and the Prime Minister, (then Gordon Brown, no doubt the new incumbent has been happy to go along with it as well) 10:10 launched internationally in March 2010 and, as of July 2010, has autonomous campaigns up and running in 41 countries, where some of the key sign-ups include the French Tennis Open, the city of Oslo and L’oreal.
Her father, Peter, is co-founder of the OneWorld Network and director for the OneWorld International Foundation, although their site shows no activities since 2008. He is described as a former BBC radio and TV producer and a policy advisor to governments and international bodies on the use of information and communications technology for global sustainable development."
"Ian Katz will be in good company with the delightful Susan Watts, Newsnight Science Editor since 1995"
---
Indeed, and the editorial team relationship he has with her will be more than interesting.
One cannot but recall the huge previous success with her story on the Obama speech, and subsequent glowing reviews and support from outside the BBC and, of course, within, through editorial up to the Trust.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/susanwatts/2009/01/restoring_science_to_its_right.html
Closed now, of course. Worth reading all, especially towards the end where folk share their experiences with BBC 'we get it about righ... complaints'.
There's also the hilarious response from one Peter Rippon who, ironically, was also up for returning to the role he so obviously was made to fill.
When one has a winning formula, why change it (even if actual facts, quotes, running orders, etc, are fair game... Newsnight sources say)?
DennisA, May 16, 2013 at 10:38 AM
Susan Watts, inter alia - an environmental jouno............with a degree in physics - what a waste of taxpayers money.
Was it Peter Sissons who said that the agenda for the BBC News was often set by what the editor had read in the Guardian that day?
No surprises here then.
Bishop, I know you are interested in education so you'll forgive that this is slightly OT
Michael Rosen.
I can't listen to him any more on the radio knowing what bile-filled nonsense he spouts in Guardian.
Apparently some viewers now refuse to submit any longer to the BBC Extortion Fee.
I couldn't possibly comment.
@dennis a
Thanks...but my tongue was firmly in my cheek when I made my contribution.
I distinctly remember dear Franny wanting to blow me to smithereens. Lest she read this, I can assure her that the feeling is mutual.
But I'm not at all surprised to see that the latest news on the 10:10 website is about basic pushbike maintenance, not about Saving the World.
The once popular Transition Towns has become a sort of Green WI too. My local branch now specialises in rug making workshops rather than the immediate replacement of the capitalo-industrial complex with yurts and yogurt.
Seems like all the 'green movements' that sprang up in those happy pre-Copenhagen days have had a nasty dose of reality and started their slide into being just footnotes in history.......
They will not be missed.
So the question still remains did this Ian Katz see the gory 10 10 Video before it was released?
On a lighter note I finally found this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHWfIZ5uiFo
Not as funny as the Michael Owen last minute 4 3 Equaliser Man United against Man City and the Oasis split and Justin Beiber Tickets. But no one gets brutally executed for their political beliefs by state sponsored Eco Death Squads in any of them.
Media types seem to take to corruption and state control like ducks to water.
Ken Hall
I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "homosexual and deviant lifestyles" but, speaking as an exclusively heterosexual man and mate to several homo friends, I'd suggest you pull your head in. Sexuality is a complicated issue, almost as complex as the climate. Please don't conflate left-wing militancy with sexual politics. The majority of poofs, lesbians and TGs I know are quite conservative in their views of political economy, and other issues. But they rightly, in my opinion, demand respect and equality for their choices.
I'm quietly proud that a National (conservative) New Zealand parliamentarian commended this in support of gay marriage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRQXQxadyps
I idly wondered what happened to the career of the girl who played the schoolteacher Lydnsey Graham following her ill-judged appearance in 'No Pressure'
It bombed.
Sorry Lyndsey. Use your head as well as your 'heart' next time.
The appointment of the deputy editor of the guardian to Newsnight comes after the appointment of a former editor of the times to head of news. These two key posts represent a massive failure of and a lack of confidence in a whole generation of BBC 'leaders' that were groomed for high office. Normally such posts are filled by BBC lifers so these appointments, from print, are very unusual.
BBC lifers in these, and other posts, have not been up to the job when it counted. Pete Rippon, former ed of newsnight, is now something in the digital archive project on the same massive salary he was at news night. Adrian von Klaveren, former head of news gathering, head of radio 5 live and stand in head of news night, is now something to do with preparations for WW1 programmes, also still on his massive BBC salary. Entwhistle we know has gone with a massive payout.Helen Boaden, former head of news has also moved to another job, this time head of radio, also with no reduction in BBC salary.
Do not forget that ten years ago BBC management was also seen to be failing as the Hutton report showed and that saw the moving sideways of Rich Samborok and Marc Damazer - the no 1 and 2 in the news division at the BBC - again at no reduction in salary.
Given this institutional failure of its home grown talent it is to be hoped that an influx of journalists from the print media, with no broadcasting experience, can do better!
At least the two newcomers are proper journalists and can write copy for their newspapers. The characters mentioned above were 'managers' who presided over and judged the work of other journalists without being able to do it themselves, or at least not for many years.
Who wants to take a bet on the odds that when Katz takes over the reigns at newsnight he starts of campaign of 'renewed' environmental reporting focused on the impacts of climate change - and will Susan Watts survive, or be superceeded by one of katz' environmental friends brought to the bbc from the guardian.
Latimer check a DVD from an independent American film called "Living in Oblivion.
Stars Steve Buscomie who stars in BroadWalk Empire and was Mr Pink in Reservoir Dogs and Catherine Kleener who play Steve Carrolls girlfriend in 40 Year Old Virgin.
It shows everything about how to make and shoot a feature film.
Actress Lynsey Graham is credited with a professional appearance for No Pressure.
Then use IMD and the BFI database .So we can can find who cast the school children the company employees.Who is credited as the Director, Make Up ,Sound, Location Scout, Script Cameraman. All that fake blood Special Effects Tecnicians or might be CGI post production.
Everyone on the production must have a credit somewhere.
Trace right back from Peter Grouch ,the rest of the cast the crew to actual producers and writers
Richard Curtis and the rest of the Producers buck stops with them. Find them and name and shame them. They viewed the rushes they viewed and okayed the final cut.The rest are just jobbing actors and Technicians.No blame for them.
Then it was submitted to the BBFC the censor for distribution ,there must be a record of who certificated it .Im against censorship. But im pleased its on Youtube because disgusting as it is it shows them for what they are.
Someone could have stepped in and said this is wrong and stopped it and tried another approach to their view across.
Jimmy Savile was a turning point a Sexual Predator using Exploiting the BBC and the Showbiz Media to get his next victims but not for his own political ends.
There's a civil war raging in Syria and a civil war just ended in Sri Lanka and there been appalling Human Right abuses and atrocities across the world. My family and my country have given more than enough to defend our democracy.
If anyone thinks that state sponsored execution for innocent people expressing their political believes either Climate Change or Not is funny or even justified should not be working for the BBC or any other Mainstream Media Organisation.
Oh. My. God.
Reading that bilge, all that springs to mind is; "what a tit" [apologies]
And a verbose one at that.
I was amused, however, at the serendipity of our new BFF, Kevin Anderson, getting a mention in despatches:
"But it is significant that some of the most exacting experts in the field have endorsed the campaign as being in line with what the science demands – figures such as outspoken British climatologist Kevin Anderson who has criticised both politicians and his colleagues for failing to be honest about the perilousness of our position"
With no sense of irony, the Kev Anderson video that Katz links to is part of the "Climate Change and Violence Workshop". Now I understand what they had in mind by "Violence". No Pressure, eh?
:-)
This sort of thing happens in US govt agencies, usually at the end of an administration. It is called "burrowing in", and it usually involves a political appointee in an agency applying for a civil service job. The political job is about to be lost, so the person "burrows into" the agency via the civil service, where they will continue to exert influence without fear of retaliation, because civil service is protected from that. See, e.g., James Hansen at NOAA (although he was never a political appointee, I believe, but always a lifer)
Interesting to see that the progressives use this technique in the UK by having members of the chattering class burrow into the BBC. Does it happen in the govt, as well?
I wonder if the BBC being OK with blowing up children has something to do with the tolerance of that late BBC personality with such an infamous taste in young people?
A widowed Jewish woman, still in good shape, was sunbathing on a deserted beach in Florida .
She looked up and noticed that a man her age, also in good shape, had walked up, placed his blanket on the sand near hers and began reading a book. Smiling, she attempted to strike up a conversation with him.
"How are you today?"
"Fine, thank you," he responded, and turned back to his book.
"I love the beach. Do you come here often?" she asked.
"First time since my wife passed away 2 years ago," he replied and turned back to his book.
"I'm sorry to hear that. My husband passed away three years ago and it is very lonely, she countered. "Do you live around here?" She
asked.
"Yes, I live over in Coral Springs " he answered, and again
he resumed reading.
Trying to find a topic of common interest, she persisted, "Do you like pussy cats?"
With that, the man dropped his book, came over to her blanket, tore off her swimsuit and gave her the most passionate lovemaking of her life.
When the cloud of sand began to settle, she gasped and asked the man, "How did you know that was what I wanted?
The man replied. "How did you know my name was Katz ?"
Youbetcha! rxc (have I got that right?)
We call them the "Quangocracy".
QUANGO being Quasi Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisation.
The words "autonomous" and "non" can be pretty well ignored.
The modus operandi is for politicians and their associates, of little discernible talent, to persuade their colleagues to appoint them to these nebulous bodies - over 1000 of which control every aspect of our lives here - from marketing potatoes to teenage pregnancy.
Although often political appointees in the first instance - your "burrowing in" phrase perfectly describes how they strive to attach themselves permanently to the host body. Once "burrowed in" they can use the considerable power and influence to keep themselves in the style to which they feel their importance entitles them.
Since those on the political left (your "progressives") naturally tend to seek out opportunities to make a living out of public service - they tend to proliferate in the quangocracy.
Frequently, when a new government comes to power (especially a conservative one) they announce that massive waste and bureaucracy will be eliminated by having a "bonfire of the quangos".
Mysteriously, these "bonfires" blaze only briefly - before being extinguished by a steady drizzle of influence peddling and horse trading.
It's quite hard to imagine anything less like democracy.
My greatest complaint is not that Katz has been appointed but in essence that another cornerstone of ojectivity has finally slipped its moorings. At least the wife will be pleased that I will no longer ask to watch Newsnight as I have done for decades. Bizarrely, the only place where there is any objectivity left on the BBC these days is on the blokish Radio 5 especially at night. I have recently taken to listening to Radio 3 which at least does keep in touch with a nicer more settled world to which I can relate.
A tangent, but in the same freedom-hating oppressive spirit as the 10:10 campaigners:
In the mentality of the 10:10 fanatics, 100+ climate activists aka extremists storm a public meeting of a college's Board of Managers (called Trustees at most universities). The extremists seized the mike, took over the public meeting, and drowned out all attempts at response with pounding and chanting. Here is the present and future of our "democratic freedoms" under these fanatics:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324216004578483080076663720.html?mod=trending_now_2
Or
http://wattsupwiththat.com/tips-and-notes/#comment-1307165
Also, re: previous item, this is only one small college but it’s an example of how extremist are the McKibbenites and how contemptuous they are of all dissenting views which do not go along with their notions of “climate justice” — making ”justice” one of the most ill-used words in the modern lexicon:
http://swatmountainjustice.wordpress.com/blog/
The Guardian and the BBC have long been two cheeks of the same rear end , its a positively incestly relationship reflected in the way most BBC jobs end up being advertised only in the Guardian while its long been know that flatten some tready North London streets would result in wiping out of most of the media .
From the Telegraph:
44 million? That is serious p****ing away of money. Just imagine what you could with 44 million in today's media market?
So he seems to be leaving at an opportune time. And of course with a lack of financial accountability (someone will always pay the bills) he should fit right in at the BBC.
Guardian daily circulation figures in Jan each year...
2013 358,844
2012 302,285
2011 279,308
2010 215,988
2009 204,440
155,000 loss since Copenhagen (not linking the events, just the influence)...
43% loss... since 2009
And is it already down 10% (on last years figures) for this year. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/table/2013/may/10/abcs-national-newspapers1
Nearly 50% in four years... Way to go Katzy boy!!!
Sorry...
2009 358,844
2010 302,285
2011 279,308
2012 215,988
2013 204,440
Final comment...
and despite laying off over a 100 staff, Suzanne Goldenberg still manages to get all expensive paid jaunts to the most remote and attractive... sorry "threatened"... parts of the world.
"43% loss... since 2009"
I wonder how long Autotrader can keep subsidising that? I find it wryly amusing that if everyone did the paper's bidding and stopped motoring, they'd be dead in the water!
Hall ran the Royal Opera House, another overpriced place of nonreality, and ended up with total payments of £390,000p.a.. He now ''runs'' the BBC, being paid even more, but doing nothing of value like getting some decent programs made instead of the repeats we still get.
All these Grauniad/BBC jobs go round and round with ever increasing saleries and the BBC ones on the backs of the license payer.
Just tying up with another thread I see that Kevin Anderson part of the welsh Climate Change Commission who signed up to 10:10 has also published on it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/cif-green/2009/sep/03/10-10-kevin-anderson
The first comment contains a good quote of the article:
"eat meat only as a celebration; and bath with a friend."
Professor Kevin Anderson is director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
And this will save the world ????
WEll, well, well, look who Katz is married to...
H/T Biased BBC commenter.
http://biasedbbc.org/blog/2013/05/17/mumsnets-the-word/
As the BBBC post quotes: : "Note all the friends in high places and just how powerful Mumsnet is reckoned to be"