The BBC’s Andrew Marr caused controversy – and considerable outrage – on Sunday morning when he aggressively jabbed his notes toward her face and angrily told her he was as democratic as she is.
Class thinktank director and Labour prospective parliamentary candidate Faiza Shaheen concluded Marr’s behaviour was because “the number of women and people of colour coming forward and challenging the establishment is growing and the establishment is not taking it at all well“.
But the BBC denied there was any issue or even any behaviour out of the ordinary, telling the SKWAWKBOX:
Andrew used his interview with Baroness Chakrabarti to robustly challenge her views about the proposed Brexit deal and used the same approach as he would when interviewing any other politician.
But regular Marr watchers would question this, as the BBC man has a reputation for going soft on Tories – earlier this year, for example, he was captured on screen giving front-bencher Penny Mordaunt a thumbs-up and telling her how well she’d done.
So the SKWAWKBOX made a video comparison.
To ensure the comparison gave Marr the benefit of any doubt, the SKWAWKBOX chose an extreme case – an Marr interview with Prime Minister Theresa May, who would be expected to receive the toughest of grillings – and the most damning of topics: May’s despicable ‘hostile environment’ policy.
This was set next to Marr’s interview with Shami Chakrabarti.
The results were startling:
May – even as PM and on such a clear-cut, damning subject as the hostile environment that has blighted the lives of Windrush citizens and others – was allowed long, uninterrupted silence to complete her answers.
Chakrabarti, by contrast, was often given as little as one or two seconds to start a response before Marr interrupted. There were a very few longer periods not shown in the video for brevity, but the Chakrabarti interview was peppered with periods of single-figure of seconds before interruptions.
And that was before the angry exchange about being democratic or patronising.
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Is the BBC blind, or wilfully ignorant?
Or racist?
ALL of them, plus perverted, profligate and mercenary.
He was rude and boorish and he deserved a slap.
Well I doubt marr congratulated chakrbarti afterwards, like he got collared bang to rights with that toerag mp (mordaunt?)
The Tories use the BBC as an extension of its political arm.
The bbc – as biased as they appear now – have been an extension of both the toerags and the bliraite Govt. They are as politically promiscuous as they are morally defunct.
The ONLY way to knock their flip-flopping bias on the head is to make the bbc a subscription service a-la sky. Then you know what you’ll be getting by who funds them, not by the Govt of the day.
The BBC is much, much more than their polluted news output – which has undoubtedly taken a nose-dive.
Don’t fall into the Tory trap – ‘subscription service a la Sky?’ No thanks – we have enough in the hands of plutocrats.
The news output is a result of the plutocrats having influence through the Tory Party. The answer is to remove the indirect political control that has grown incrementally..
The BBC wishing he did!
I saw it and he was his usual borish self, only worse!
“Who”, are the BBC trying to kid?
He loves interrupting Labour spokespeople, while letting his Tory guests finnish, before speaking!
Mitchelmore on QT is the same, continually baracking and cutting them short, anyone who is a Labour MP!
Haven’t heard Cliff Mitchelmore’s name in a while… not sure if Dimbledore would be offended or flattered 🙂
Shows how old I am!
My memory isn’t what it used to be.
Nonetheless, you corrected my mistake.
Sorted!
I had to look him up though bbbarabas – couldn’t get the name Attenborough out of my head re QT despite knowing it was wrong – we’re all getting older 🙁 I have to use google a LOT.
And there was me thinking it was Fyfe Robertson.
You guys think you’ve got problems? There was me thinking it was Hans and Lotte Hass. Had another stab at it though; Remember Richard Hearne, AKA, Mr. Pastry?
Well thanks for showing me up for an idiot, Paulo 🙂
Never checked it but all the while Dad’s Army was around I had it in my head that Clive Dunn (LCpl Jones) had been Mr. Pastry.
Shit, we were easily pleased when we were kids.
Then I’ll be browsing ebay thinking, “I must look up ‘X’ when I finish with this” and thirty seconds later can’t remember what ‘X’ was – or I’ll wake up remembering some nonsense like Old Mother Riley from the Fifties.
Sometimes I have to check my spelling too – for the first time in sixty years – and that’s scarier than anything.
Sharp as a fifties cut throat most of the time though, David, a proper Mr. Cut and Pastry
and you know when to use a F.S.
I urge everyone sick of this stup using iplayer & live tv, cancel your TV licence Use online prerecorded services & catchup you’ll save yourself £12 a month (which covers Netflix if you do desire) You’ll feel better not poo suing these 19th century chumps wages
In my experience the BBC simply goes through the motions when dealing with any complaint. This is quite extraordinary given the fact that these days independent recordings of many of the issues around which people have raised a complaint are readily available. (As in the case). In short the very facts of the matter are very often there for everyone to see and judge for themselves.
Rather than expecting any sort of response let alone action or apology from the Beeb the most effective thing to do is to give the widest publicity to the evidence . That’s to say that the recordings of those instances where the Beeb have failed to make the grade should be made as widely avaiable as possible
Just got my complaint replied to by BBC – about QT when brazen Tory foghorn Claire Perry slandered Corbyn by calling him falsely an Antisemite – and Dimbleby did nothing to admonish or correct her.
As expected, BBC say in response “it was a lively debate, well marshalled by Dimbleby who rightly left it to Barry Gardiner to answer for Corbyn, which he did robustly”.
What a waste of everyone’s time writing that bollox. Do they even believe the rot they come out with??
Usual “jump down their throats before they finish” technique taught by the BBC to budding journalists when interviewing Labour politicians! Only Ken Livingstone and Denis Skinner seem to have the balls to stop them in their tracks! No wonder they don’t appear on the Beeb very much!
Brilliant comparison well done SB.
The evidence is complete and damming . Clearly from his behaviour he feels secure and emboldened that as Shami Chakrabarti is not in power and is thus irrelevant , she can be ” dealt with ” accordingly , but when confronted by a female who pulls the purse strings at the BBC then he adopts a much more supine stance , typical bullying coward.
BBC change is coming ,you’re eff’d !
Why watch this stuff when you are only prolonging its demise and giving yourselves ulcers?
No Marr did not treat Shami Chakrobarty like any other interviewee. Do they think we are all stupid?? It was plain for all to witness that Marr’s behaviour was an outburst of abuse. He was undemocratic (contrary to how he laughingly described himself) and ‘misogynistic’. I couldn’t believe it. It shocked me. We listen to Marr almost every Sunday, always without exception all Torys and Blairites are treated differently from left leaning politiicians but the BBC seems to have a policy of deliberate disrespect for anyone left leaning. How dare they! The conclusion? They are out to stop Corbyn ofcourse. The BBC are clearly pleased with Marr. So now we know what to expect from them. I will be watching to see how interrogative he can be with future interviewees. HA!! Bland, bland, boring Marr. Constant interruption seems to be their method of undermining anyone one connected with Jeremy Corbyn. My husband once wrote to the BBC telling them that we noticed this with Jo Coburn (and Andrew Neil who has also been quite nasty on occasions toward Corbyn politicians on Daily Politics,) now carrying over into ‘Politics Live’. It’s so obviously unjust and so frustrating when you want to hear what they have to say but Jo Coburn just won’t let them get to the end of a sentence. All we get is interruptions compared to when the interviewee sitting next to a Corbynite politician is a Tory.
In that interview he was like Victor Meldrew with a migraine..
I saw this on Sunday, live, and I was amazed. He seemed determined to bully her, he interrupted her constantly and his whole tone was one of hostility. I actually thought he had lost control of his emotions. I imagine this would happen to me if I ever got to meet any of this senior tories with their compassion-deficits but wouldn’t expect it from someone who seems himself as a cool, rational journalist.
Dominic Raab then came on later, this the man who negotiated the Brexit deal they resigned as he didn’t agree with it, and the comparisons with how he treated Chakrabarti was clear. This man who has failed at his job in his own terms was treated with far more respect.
The differences between how a white, posh, Tory man was treated and a radical, young Asian woman were just astonishing.
Also, the silly regular comments about anyone who is deemed to not fit the fundamentalist faith of the writer seems to be called a Blairite on here. It’s inaccurate and just plain silly. Reading, learning, enlightenment, rationality and change are working class qualities. Fundamentalism is not.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=193hOTS5xUI
🙂
Same as Dimbleby, JoCo and A.Neil, Matliss will cut across left leaning women within seconds as opposed to with most centre right men. Its a bonkers tory world
The BBC is a propaganda vehicle for the NeoLiberal establishment ! It hates Corbyn Labour as much as the Tories do !
I first saw this happen when Mrs Thatcher had her first election campaign. I remember shouting at the television (I didn’t have one at the time and used to go to the hotel across the road). Conservatives were interviewed with leading questions – “So is your policy going to be about…” while Labour politicians were viciously attacked before they could almost get a word out “how could anyone possibly believe the nonsense that…” This went on for the entire campaign. I’d never seen it before.
Forgive my cynicism but………..when a prospective Labour Party Candidate chooses to cite how BBC addresses Baroness Chakrabarti of Kennington, CBE, as an example of how the establishment reacts badly to being challenged by women of colour it is a classic example of the Guardian on steroids. She is the Establishment! She has been a member of the Labour Party since 2016. She is yet another Labour Party Barrister & her son attends Public School (fees £19Kpa). Class thinktank think again; the reason why she is addressed with such hostility is because she supports JC, not because of her gender or colour.
“Class thinktank think again;”
TBF to Faiza Shaheen, Steve, she seems to reach the same conclusion as you and perhaps you should have made mention of that. As to her other comments, they are no more rhetorical/ lacking in supporting analysis, than yours or mine.
Hi Paulo. I would if I could. Please explain which conclusions Faiza Shaheen reaches as I. All my other comments are simple identification of facts & as such, can be verified. My problem is that she was addressed so aggressively, not because she is a woman of colour, but because she is a member of JC’s shadow cabinet. Any supporting analysis would have been ‘googled’ & investigation into the ‘Class thinktank’ begs some interesting questions about their terms of reference & make-up. In my family, my son’s mother is a woman of colour, so too one of my sisters. We have a tradition of challenging the ‘Establishment’ of which Baroness Chakrabati of Kennington is a part.