As George Galloway pulled off one of the most surprising election results in recent political history, the BBC aired pre-recorded programming and Asian business news.
Okay so it was late at night that the result started trickling through, but soon Twitter was buzzing about the result. It wasn't as if the warning signs weren't there, with Ladbrookes having closed the book on backing Galloway the day before the by-election. And as Sky News grabbed an interview with Galloway and kept switching back to the count in Bradford, the BBC seemed to pretty much ignore the whole thing in favour of incredibly dry and pre-scheduled programming. The BBC didn't even broadcast Galloway's victory speech live.
Isn't this what the BBC is for? To cover a moment in British politics that could have big ramifications and that marks one of the most memorable by-election outcomes in recent times? Or were the political bods in the corporation so badly misinformed that this was down as a sure-fire Labour win, that it wasn't deemed worthy of putting any resources into covering properly? Whatever the reason, this is exactly the type of stuff the Beeb should be on top of, not neglecting.
1 comment:
That's one hell of a protest vote against Britain's political classes.
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