On Being Insignificant 49


After an eight hour delay, I have just been telephoned back by what sounded like the most junior member of the Newsnight team. He told me that in the “Editorial judgement” of the BBC, I was not a “Significant candidate”.

I will therefore not figure in BBC coverage other than the mandatory two second caption at the end. For Newsnight, Michael Crick will give the statutory mention this evening.

By denying me any media exposure the BBC are, of course, consciously attempting to make their prediction of our failure a self-fulfilling prophecy, and to silence one of the most known voices against the political establishment in the UK.

I do hope the people of Norwich North will prove the arrogant and super-rich executives of the BBC wrong.


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49 thoughts on “On Being Insignificant

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  • Jaded

    ‘He told me that in the “Editorial judgement” of the BBC, I was not a “Significant candidate”.’

    I love it… ‘The BBC’. It’s always the institutional cop out isn’t it. It’s that darned BBC. You should have asked him who was responsible for that decision. I bet they all try to pass the buck. It would turn out no one has a clue who made the ‘Judgement’. Well, it was just so wasn’t it. Persistance could shed light on blocking tactics like this, as there is inevitably a chain of command in place, but you obviously don’t have time for that right now. We all need to focus on that in the future. It’s ‘they’ who are insignificant, not you. Keep fighting.

  • Kebz

    Hang on a minute. These bastards have had the BNP on their programmes fairly regularly recently. They also regularly love to feature Zionazi spokesman and apologists for torture and illegal wars. I guess it tells you something about the mindset of senior BBC editors and management. I will put in a complaint as well but I doubt whether it will go any further than some junior busybody who gets paid to delete complaints.

  • mary

    The reply from Michael Crick. A one-liner. My questions about who made the decision not to include Craig’s name was not answered.

    ‘Keep watching. He should be on a list at the end of the programme. M’

    A 2 second flash of a list of names introduced at the end by Paxman.

    I agree with MJ about NN’s attempt to demonize Press TV and Iran. Press and Al Jazeera were the only sources of accurate and live coverage of Operation Cast Lead. The ‘major’ presenter who has left Press TV is Nick Ferrari, who was the MC and cheerleader at the Trafalgar Square celebrations for Israel’s 60th Birthday last year ie a celebration of Al Naqba, the theft of the Palestinians’ land. Ed Balls was on the stage along with others including the Chief Rabbi and Union flags were being waved amongst the Israeli flags. Earlier a grand dinner for this birthday had been held at Windsor Castle courtesy of HM Queen.

    @ Eh We do not crave attention from NN. We are licence payers for the national broadcaster and demand fair and equal treatment for everyone. See 3 and 4 of the Charter.

    3.The BBC’s public nature and its objects

    (1)The BBC exists to serve the public interest.

    (2)The BBC’s main object is the promotion of its Public Purposes.

    (3)In addition, the BBC may maintain, establish or acquire subsidiaries through whichcommercial activities may be undertaken to any extent permitted by a FrameworkAgreement. (The BBC’s general powers enable it to maintain, establish or acquiresubsidiaries for purposes sufficiently connected with its Public Purposes ?” see article47(3) and (4)).

    4.The Public Purposes

    The Public Purposes of the BBC are as follows?”

    (a)sustaining citizenship and civil society;

    (b)promoting education and learning;

    (c)stimulating creativity and cultural excellence;

    (d)representing the UK, its nations, regions and communities;2

  • Iain Orr

    In addition to complaining via the BBC website as Stevie suggested, I have also complained by telephone to the BBC on 03700-100-222. I had a considerable wait (some 5 minutes) for an operator, but I think this was worth while. I expanded considerably on my written complaint (see below) by emphasising my concern that the BBC should not show favouritism for the established political parties in coverage of elections, especially in a period when a large part of the political news has been corruption within the main parties. I added that I was concerned that the BBC was not meeting the standards of the Electoral Commission for impartiality in hustings coverage, and was thereby giving a publicity bonus to big parties (who pay no more as a deposit than smaller parties or Independent candidates). At the end I was offered the choice of a response by telephone or in writing. I asked for it in writing and by emphasising my wish to know that they have taken on board Electoral Commission guidance, I hope this makes it harder for them to give me a pro-forma response of the sort which will no doubt soon be posted on the website. If they give me a bland reply, they will get a further written complaint. I am also going to complain about the BBC’s election coverage to the Electoral Commission, to my MP and to other places that bloggers here suggest.

    My complaint on the BBC website was:

    “I was saddened that a public broadcaster should ignore entirely a significant Independent candidate in the Norwich North by-Election, Craig Murray. As a trenchant critic of the government on human rights, he is a good example of the willingness to speak truth to power. It is deeply disturbing that the BBC considers such a voice “insignificant”.”

  • Bananas in the Falklands

    The bbc probably have been told that if they interview you they will get no special treatment from the labour party.

    Covering only two parties is much easier for the lazier staff in the media.

  • Barrie

    Craig,

    If it’s any consolation, I heard your name mentioned in a radio report on the election on yesterday’s PM.

  • Stevie

    Again, for all those who can’t make it to Norwich please could you send an email to The Independent complaining that the article by Andy McSmith in their paper today gave no reference to Craig Murray who is leading a strong, local campaign. Their email address is: [email protected]

    Please can you also continue to post links to the Norwich North By Election website which is: http://www.putanhonestman.org/

  • JB

    “Esp. post-Hutton, the BBC is a eunuch.”

    A red-herring. The BBC are the same as they ever were – a propaganda vehicle for the powerful. In the run-up to Iraq they were the most pro-war broadcaster for example.

    http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/jul2003/bbc-j10.shtml

    An ex-British diplomat who was sacked for exposing the torture practices of an ally and who is widely known in the anti-war movement and beyond, and who is now getting better odds than the Lib Dems and Greens is “not notable enough” for Newsnight? They must think we were born yesterday.

    We see through you BBC.

  • VamanosBandidos

    Have you all forgotten the Death of Dr. Kelly and the role of Newsnight in discrediting Gilligan?

    Newsnight is more aptly ought to be named Spooksviews, has long been free loading on the backs of evident eviscerations of the preconceived enemies of the moment, for blood sports viewers.

    Paxo gladiatorial and beat the guy with the wet end of his torn arm style of presentation along with his inflated opinion of himself leave very little room for facts, and lots of room for kind of “not the newsnight antics” along with smattering of irrelevancies to keep it current.

    Therefore not approved by Newsnight candidate ought to carry some weight among the thinking population, whom do not subscribe to the notions of; there ought to be a law passed against thinking for yourself, and brains are for sitting on to keep brand new and not thinking.

    If you recollect Gilligan’s crime was to say Tony Blair’s Iraq dossier was “sexed up”! Since then truth has proved that Gilligan was mildly, very mildly describing the pack of lies presented as reasons for war, however in the mean time poor Kelly was Suicided, and Gilligan was sacked, and we found out Susan Watts is a gopher for spooks, along with the rest of SIS assets in the BBC.

  • HappyClappy

    @ eddie

    Reading your own biography is akin to watching a repeat on the sky channel, but hey, different strokes for different folks eddie, aye?

    now git.

  • Duncan McFarlane

    That’s a ludicrous decision by the BBC. They gave coverage to Nick Griffin’s farcical press conferences before the Euro-elections and went on about the BNP so much they helped create a self-fulfilling prophecy. The government did the same by talking about the BNP all the time. I’m starting to wonder if the government are trying to boost the BNP vote.

    I hope the BBC change their mind on this – you’re a highly significant candidate.

  • Manas Shaikh

    This is utter nonsense on BBC’s part. In the past one year BBC seems to have taken a sharp downturn in it’s outlook. It doesn’t even pretend to be neutral now.

  • Duncan McFarlane

    RogerThomas wrote

    “Insignificant in The Independent, see poll at bottom

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-candidate-faces-mission-impossible-in-norwich-byelection-1728002.html

    That’s not a poll Roger – that’s the result in 2005, when Craig Murray wasn’t a candidate. He was standing in Blackburn.

    You’re also missing the point, which is that the amount of coverage each candidate gets affects their poll rating and the vote they get. So arguing as Michael Crick does, that coverage should be proportional to share of the vote or poll rating, is a circular argument and a self-fulfilling prophecy – and flies in the face of the BBC’s claim that it provides unbiased coverage

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