After Emily Maitlis, the former anchor of Newsnight, said the BBC was “Tory-infiltrated,” Laura Kuenssberg attacked her former coworker for breaking the impartiality guidelines with her Dominic Cummings lockdown “monologue.”
This week, Maitlis and the BBC got into a verbal altercation when she criticised her previous employer for criticising her after the broadcast regarding Boris Johnson’s then-chief advisor in 2020.
She said in her introduction to Newsnight’s report that Mr. Cummings “flouted” lockdown regulations by travelling 260 miles from his house to County Durham, making the public “feel like idiots” for obeying them.
The BBC, according to Maitlis, who left the organisation last year to join the media conglomerate Global, “sought to placate” No. 10 by delivering an apology “within hours.”
Additionally, she inquired as to whether the BBC “could be delivering a message of comfort straight to the Government.”
However, Kuenssberg said in a recent interview with The Times that she has “never been directed what to say” and that the job of BBC journalists is to “discover the truth.”
People often comment that you are severely confined since you can’t do this or that, she added. That’s completely backwards in my opinion since the BBC’s whole premise is that you don’t follow the script; instead, all you’re doing is looking for the truth.
I’ve never been instructed what to say or, perhaps more crucially, what not to say.
This comes after David Dimbleby harshly criticised Maitlis’ monologue in an interview with the corporation’s Today programme, calling it “polemic” and “a mistake.”
Full transcript of Laura Kuenssberg’s conversation with The Times: “I’ve never been instructed what to say.”
Regarding BBC objectivity
People often remark, “Well, you’re very constrained; you can’t do this or that.” That’s completely backwards in my opinion since the BBC’s whole premise is that you don’t follow the script; instead, all you’re doing is looking for the truth.
I’ve never been instructed what to say or, perhaps more crucially, what not to say.
Regarding the presidency of Boris Johnson
He will undoubtedly always be remembered as a prime minister of great significance.
Because, regardless of your opinion of the UK’s choice to leave the EU, there is a reasonable case to be made that his participation tipped the scales, but there is also a reasonable case to be made that if he hadn’t won the Tory leadership in 2019, Brexit would not have taken place.
He will thus have a sizable chapter in UK history. Additionally, the prime minister was in control throughout the epidemic and came dangerously close to dying from the illness.
about Liz Truss
People that she later outlasted or outwitted have frequently looked down on her. She has been really resilient.
She is [or is willing to be] relentless, shape-shifting, pragmatic, and eager to have a little fun on her own dime. She has instincts.
about online abuse
There is no denying the poisonous nature of social media.
I use it much less now. A journalist should be on the phone, meeting people, or travelling to search out information rather than sitting and updating their screen.
It’s a matter of prioritisation. How should I spend my time? Does it check notifications? No, therefore stop using Google and turn off your alerts.
“I essentially don’t look at it,” is how I’ve managed to accomplish it. Accepting constructive criticism is one thing, but giving room or airtime to bullies on the playground is not something I should be doing.
On growing up and entering the media field
If you put in a lot of effort and are kind to others, fantastic things might happen.
Because striving for success is perhaps the most undervalued quality. Grafting is not emphasised as much as it should be when people ask “how did this person manage to achieve that?”
I was raised with the belief that living a meaningful life is important.
“What I feel in my bones is that [it is] a pretty vital thing for people to know what’s true in any nation,” the author says.
The 83-year-old veteran television broadcaster and host of Question Time said the speech ought to have been worded as questions rather than as assertions.
In May 2020, Maitlis said at the contentious opening remarks: “The country can see that Cummings breached the norm, it is amazing the government cannot.
The general feeling is one of rage, scorn, and agony.
“Well, not everyone may have been startled… maybe, but it is a question to pose,” Mr. Dimbleby said on the Today show. A polemic ensued. That, in my opinion, was the error.
Following the disclosure that Cummings travelled from London to Durham after testing positive for the coronavirus, including a now-famous stop at Barnard Castle, Maitlis made his remarks. At the time, the PM backed Mr. Cummings, who resigned in November 2020.
In just two days, the BBC received more than 40,000 complaints about the broadcast, many of which were angry at both her remarks and the BBC’s assertion that it had broken the rules.
However, Kuenssberg insists that the BBC has criticised those who claim that its impartiality is limited and that it continues to be “the trusted friend” for news stories.
After Andrew Marr left the BBC in November, Kuenssberg was preparing to host Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, the network’s premier Sunday political programme.
After seven years, she left her £260,000-a-year position as political editor in December.
She said of her interactions with Boris Johnson: “He will, without a doubt, always be seen as a prime minister of enormous consequence.”
Because, regardless of your opinion of the UK’s choice to leave the EU, there is a reasonable case to be made that his participation tipped the scales, but there is also a reasonable case to be made that if he hadn’t won the Tory leadership in 2019, Brexit would not have taken place.
He will thus have a sizable chapter in UK history. Additionally, the prime minister was in control throughout the epidemic and came dangerously close to dying from the illness.
Regarding potential successor Liz Truss, who is vying to succeed Mr. Johnson and is currently competing with former Chancellor Rishi Sunak, she continued, “She has frequently been looked down upon by people who she then outwitted or outlasted. She has been really resilient.
She is [or is willing to be] relentless, shape-shifting, pragmatic, and eager to have a little fun on her own dime. She has instincts.
It follows accusations that the former political editor of the BBC tweeted “in defence” of Dominic Cummings during the controversy surrounding his lockdown trip.
Kuenssberg had reacted directly to Pippa Crerar, the political editor of the Daily Mirror at the time, who had originally reported on his family’s 260-mile trek from London to County Durham.
Critics said that her tweet served as the Prime Minister’s top advisor’s reaction, and the BBC reported receiving a “substantial” number of complaints.
That followed a BBC Trust decision in 2015 that determined she had falsely claimed that Jeremy Corbyn, the then-leader of the Labour Party, opposed shoot-to-kill in Britain in the aftermath of the 2015 Paris terror incident. However, it discovered that there was no proof of prejudice.
There is no doubt that social media is loaded with poison, according to Kuenssberg, who is talking about sexist trolls on there.
I use it much less now. A journalist should be on the phone, meeting people, or travelling to search out information rather than sitting and updating their screen.
It’s a matter of prioritisation. How should I spend my time? Does it check notifications? No, therefore stop using Google and turn off your alerts.
“I essentially don’t look at it,” is how I’ve managed to accomplish it. Accepting constructive criticism is one thing, but I have better things to do than to give folks who act like schoolyard bullies airtime or mental space.
But I would also add that journalism is not a popularity contest. Don’t work in journalism to meet people.
She said, “[There are] journalists working in other nations, like my colleagues who attended the anniversary in Afghanistan and my colleagues who are travelling to Ukraine.
“The online world is harsh, but it’s not the real world,” said one user. You don’t have to lose your bearings.
On Sunday, September 4 at 9:00am on BBC One, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg premieres.
