She’s at it again! Maitlis sparks new outcry over Newsnight bias
‘ I take full responsibility for everything this government has been doing in tackling [the virus] and I am very proud of our record ’
What Boris Johnson told MPs
‘ When it comes to excess deaths, Britain’s currently a world leader. Is that really something to be proud of? ’
What Emily Maitlis said on Newsnight
EMILY Maitlis has risked new accusations of bias after she appeared to mock Boris Johnson’s claim that he was ‘proud’ of the Government’s record on coronavirus.
Despite being reprimanded by BBC bosses for breaking impartiality rules with her monologue about the Dominic Cummings lockdown controversy last week, she once again appeared to take aim at the Prime Minister.
In her introduction to Wednesday’s Newsnight, Miss Maitlis referred to research which suggested the UK was currently the ‘world leader’ when it came to ‘excess deaths’ from coronavirus, pointedly adding: ‘Is that really something to be proud of?’
Last night one Tory MP said the programme was ‘clearly intent’ on ‘attacking the Government at every opportunity, regardless of the facts’. They raised concerns about the ‘dubious’ statistics that the show had used.
It comes a little over a week after the Newsnight presenter provoked a huge impartiality row at the corporation with a highly critical monologue about the Cummings lockdown story.
She had said Mr Cummings ‘broke the rules’ and had made the public ‘feel like fools’. She also accused Mr Johnson of showing ‘blind loyalty’ towards his adviser, who had driven 260 miles from London to County Durham during lockdown.
Within 24 hours the BBC had issued a statement saying the programme had not met ‘standards of due impartiality’ and said staff were to be ‘reminded of the guidelines’.
This week it emerged that more than 56,000 complaints had been made to the BBC over the row. About 33,000 had been from viewers angry at the corporation’s treatment of Miss Maitlis. Another 23,500 related to claims her comments had been biased against Mr Cummings and the Government.
On Wednesday’s episode of Newsnight the programme opened with remarks made by Boris Johnson in Parliament.
He had said: ‘I take full responsibility for everything this Government has been doing in tackling coronavirus and I am very proud of our record.’
But when Miss Maitlis opened the programme, she told viewers: ‘When it comes to excess deaths, Britain’s currently a world leader. Is that really something to be proud of?’
The presenter then said the programme would ‘tell the story of this pandemic through our care homes’ asking how many ‘extra lives’ had been lost ‘because of a failure to test, protect and value those within them’.
Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen said there had been question marks around data which had been used in the programme. He said: ‘It would appear despite BBC apologies for a lack of impartiality that Maitlis and Newsnight appeared to almost have doubled down. And quoting such dubious statistics, they’re clearly intent on attacking the Government at every opportunity, regardless of the facts.’
Miss Maitlis retweeted a post by journalist Jenni Russell which praised the ‘great opening’ by the BBC presenter, saying ‘last week’s govt bullying hasn’t cowed them’.
Last night a BBC spokesman said: ‘Newsnight was posing a challenging question about the Government’s record on coronavirus which is the job of journalism.’