James O’Brien spreading ‘fake news’ via the BBC is a must-watch

The row about ‘fake news’ and the ‘crooked media’ appears to be ongoing.  And every time the BBC and other mainstream media mention it they present themselves solely as the victims of such phenomena.  So let us turn to just one edition of the BBC’s Newsnight.

On Wednesday of this week the programme was presented by James O’Brien.  Now in the first place Mr O’Brien is a strange choice to present this programme.  Not just because his awkward, cut-out, Lego man gait makes it obvious why he has made his career in radio, but because he is the sort of hyper-partisan figure who, if they came from the opposite political side, would never be hired by the BBC.

But back to Wednesday’s Newsnight. Just after a ‘Viewsnight’ slot given to Tariq Ramadan – dauphin of the Muslim Brotherhood – it was back to the studio for a discussion about President Trump with two guests down the line from Washington.

Here is how O’Brien introduced them: ‘Anne Gearan from the Washington Post and Asra Nomani who has written for outlets such as Breitbart and The Hill.’  To say that the way in which O’Brien introduced the latter was acidic is to understate matters.  Even on the Cathy Newman scale of ‘ostentatiously introducing someone as though they are a bad smell’ O’Brien excelled.  ‘Here’ – he was clearly saying – ‘is a really reputable woman.  And here, by comparison is a lowly, nuts-oid blogger lady who we can all interrupt and laugh at.’

Unfortunately for O’Brien the technology failed and we lost Anne Gearan.  Then, even more unfortunately for O’Brien, Nomani used her opening moments to politely correct the BBC’s introduction of her.  An introduction that had indeed been fake and crooked.  For as Nomani informed O’Brien, she is not just some broad who has ‘written for outlets such as Breitbart [lemony face] and The Hill [expectorate]’.