OFTEN in this newsletter I find myself picking fault with the mainstream media, but credit must be given where it is due.
Last week, an undercover sting documentary by Verbatim – which was broadcast by Channel 4 – revealed Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and other senior members celebrating secret new foreign donations.
James Orr, the party’s head of policy, and Dan Jukes, a close aide to Farage, were caught arranging for a US company to fund three influential polls that the party had commissioned.
They did not know that the supposed donors behind the US company were actually an undercover team posing as a wealthy American and his UK-based son, “William Lockwood”.
Both Orr and Jukes stepped down from Reform over the incident and questions over it dominated the party’s conference in Birmingham.
The conference was billed as setting out the party’s plans for its first 100 days in office should it win the next election, but the staggering revelations in the programme ensured Reform wouldn’t be able to control the narrative this way.
It has been incredibly refreshing to see a mainstream media company broadcast something so damning about a party which has regretfully enjoyed such an easy ride for far from the BBC. Much to Reform’s annoyance, it set the agenda for the weekend and led to one of the more combative interviews between Laura Kuenssberg and Farage where he claimed he “wasn’t listening” during the talks .
The BBC came in for heavy criticism last month for its Welcome to Glasgow documentary that suggested parts of the city had become a “no-go zone” because of “crime, homelessness and antisocial behaviour”.
Police, victims of crime, and the organiser of a vigilante street gang calling themselves “Scots Active” were all interviewed by the journalists behind the documentary, which asked: “Has disorder in the city become worse, or is tension simply being stoked online by those who trace every problem back to immigration?”
This appeared to help fuel Reform UK claims the city had become “lawless”.
The agenda-setting effect the documentary shown by Channel 4 has had in contrast really shows the BBC up as pandering to Reform UK’s agenda even while polls suggest their popularity is plummeting.
It’s no longer just left-wing figures pointing at the BBC accusing them of platforming Reform, it’s now obvious to everyone.
Instead of having an appropriate level of suspicion about the party’s financial dealings, the extent of the BBC’s investigative ambitions seems to be taking claims made by Reform MSP Thomas Kerr that Glasgow is “lawless” and then seeing what it can find to prove they have any basis.
The BBC did, of course, defend the programme claiming it was fair and balanced and reflected a broad range of perspectives, but it left a sour taste in the mouths of Scots who simply did not recognise the city the BBC was trying to paint.
Journalists should be a bridge between political parties and the public and so should be seeking to dig deeper to tell voters about matters beyond the spin to ensure they are well informed.
This what this documentary did and credit to Channel 4 for broadcasting it, something I can’t imagine the BBC would’ve done.
