Evan Davis: Slut Praising

This was the big scandal while we were away.

Evan Davis made a light-hearted passing reference on Newsnight to gay sluttery, and some gaybores went on Twitter and whined about it.

Wow!

PS Mind you the whole tedious storm in a dating app did inspire a rare moment of humour from Pink News.

Guy Burgess: Stranger In Moscow

An interview recorded with Soviet spy Guy Burgess in Moscow in 1959 and lost for over 50 years has been discovered.

Recorded by Canada's CBC it is believed to be the only filmed interview with Burgess.

The notorious old poove appears to be very, very drunk.

More footage can be viewed on the BBC News website - a full report will be shown on Newsnight this evening. [Edit: 10.45 in here. LOL intro by Evan Davis; 'He was gay before it was allowed...']

PS Here's Benedict Cumberbatch as Burgess in The Turning Point. 1982 Newsnight feature on the opening of Another Country, with Rupert Everett as 'Guy Bennett'. Thought Alan Bennett's An Englishman Abroad would be on YouTube, but sadly no... [Edit: A devoted reader has pointed out it's on something called Vimto x].

Evan Davis: Tinsel Tits No More

Evan Davis takes issue with Jeremy Paxman, his Newsnight predecessor, who witheringly noted that the current affairs programme is now made by 13-year-olds. “I mean, they are shockingly young, but I put them more at 15 to 20-year-olds,” says Davis. “Still, they love their politics and they just know the answers to everything.”

By the way, while Evan wisely saw that he would have Mandrake to answer to if he had dispensed – in the manner of Robert Peston – with a tie when he presented Newsnight, what has not so far been acknowledged is that the affable 52-year-old broadcaster also took the line of least resistance on his collection of rings.

“I used to wear them, too, but now they have gone,” he told me at the launch of the new Sherlock Holmes exhibition at the Museum of London. “I don’t mind, though. The whole lot of them were only £5 from a shop on Kensington High Street.”

Daily Telegraph Diary.

Stephen Fry: Digs Some More Holes, Jumps Right In

The front page of tomorrow's Daily Mail awaits!

Update: Would have thought this tale of underage sex and drugs and Stephen Fry would have been a shoo-in for the Mail, but not a peep.

David Cameron: Digs Dudes Kissing

Telegraph.

Stupid smug patronising posh tory twat.

The gay stuff is about 9 minutes in. Skipping the puke-making self-justifications of the rest is highly recommended.

Evan Davis: Can You Imagine!!?

Then there are the inevitable comparisons with his predecessor. If Paxman was an attack dog, then Davis is more of a wolf in sheep’s clothing – or, as some tabloids point out, the kind of clothing that you might find down your local bar on a Saturday night (the subtext being that Davis is – shock horror! – gay). He has been photographed in low-slung jeans and skin-tight T-shirts that show a flash of tattoo and hint at rumoured intimate piercings.

But while this is all great fun – can you imagine John Humphrys wearing trousers so low they showed off his boxer shorts? – I am not quite sure what it’s got to do with his ability to grill a politician. It’s not as if he’s going to front his first show in a pair of leather chaps with a riding crop. Today, Davis is wearing a cardigan and jeans – he looks like a cool, metrosexual geography teacher, if such a thing exists.

“I’m just not Jeremy Paxman,” he says, “and it would be worse if I was trying to be Jeremy Paxman. I’m so not Jeremy Paxman.”

Telegraph.

TV Caption Of The Week: "Gareth"

Watch video.

'A stroll on Hampstead Heath appears to have inspired Ed Miliband’s conference speech as he quoted from chance conversations in the park with software worker Gareth, chef Xiomara and two students who wished he was the actor Benedict Cumberbatch...'

The Guardian.

Question Of The Week: Evan Davis

The arrival of Evan Davis on BBC2’s Newsnight on September 29 is anxiously awaited. Why the anxiety? Because Newsnight, once a BBC powerhouse of political influence, is in a state of worrying decline. It has a small nightly audience, around 600,000. That wouldn’t matter if the audience were special and the guests the best. But top politicians and serious experts often scorn Newsnight now. Will the arrival of Davis be the start of a relaunch?

Ian Katz, Newsnight’s latest editor, arrived from the Guardian last year. Jeremy Paxman, roost ruler for 25 years, soon announced he would be leaving the programme, was persuaded to stay until this June. In August the BBC announced the new “lead anchor” would be Evan Davis, team member of Radio 4’s Today for the past six years...

Daily Telegraph.

I do hope so - anything will be better than bloody Paxman.

Tinsel Tits makes her Newsnight debut on Monday.

PS Fagburn sees 'Paxo' will be hosting Channel 4's general election coverage, Sadly, I appear to be washing my hair that night.

Evan Davis: Oh, Mr Davis!

Daily Mail.

This wouldn't have happened with that nice Eddie Mair.

PS You could at least spel her name right...

Wednesday's Mail Online - Will this be a regular feature?

Evan Davis: So Tough

Well done Evan.
x

PS Fagburn, friend of the stars!

@Fagburn I'll miss you commenting on me on Today.
— Evan Davis (@EvanHD) July 21, 2014

Newsnight: Here We Go!

Might get myself a tellybox.

Oh hang on, that might mean our Eddie stops doing PM!

Worst idea EVER!!!

PS Our Eddie on FILTH!

Press Awards: Scoop Of The Year!

The Mail on Sunday’s exclusive into former Co-Op bank chief, Paul Flowers, saw the paper awarded the Scoop of the Year Award alongside being crowned the News Team of the Year.

It was described by the judges as a consistently great story-breaker that continues to produce quality journalism.

Press Awards.

How does this scuzzy, scummy act of paid entrapment constitute a 'scoop' of any relevance?

'The Mail on Sunday and its sister paper have printed a lot of things about me. I remember dear old Michael Foot once describing the Mail group as the Forger’s Gazette.

'I find the Mail on Sunday and its pseudo-fascist far right tendencies which make Valdimir Putin look like a bleeding heart liberal utterly abhorrent.

'The reality is a considerable amount of what the Mail on Sunday has printed has been pure and utter fiction.'

Paul Flowers in last week's Newsnight interview.

Watch it here.

Paul Flowers: Hell

Newsnight is showing an interview with Paul Flowers tonight!

Fagburn wonders if any regular viewers can think of another fairly decent gay man who has recently quit a prestigious job, and then some media thought it would be fun to give him an endless kicking?

PS: The Daily Mail did not like this, surprisingly.

Mr Flowers was allowed to insinuate that the Mail on Sunday's allegations were at least partly false without being invited to specify which of them he was referring to. When he preposterously suggested that the paper had 'pseudo-fascist, far-Right tendencies [that] make Vladimir Putin look like a bleeding heart liberal', Paxo did not demur. etc etc.

Ben Cohen: Gay Spokesman

Well done Newsnight!
Who better to get on the programme to talk about homophobia than... a straight man?!!
Might have been a bit better still if they could have found one a bit more coherent than Ben "You know, you know" Cohen.
Oh well, at least it made a change from seeing Saint Peter...

Thanks to How Upsetting who first showed up how absurd and insulting this was...

Let’s relive the moment last night when Newsnight rather bewilderingly asked a straight man on to discuss a ‘homophobic tweet’. The discussion is asinine, with both Wark and Cohen resorting to hypothetical ‘gay sons’ to try and compensate for their lack of insight into this issue...

Update: Hilariously during Splash! on Saturday evening Peter Tatchell tweeted this old BBC News interview about Tom Daley's coming out with well-known expert on the sports... himself!

Thought For The Day: Rupert Everett

“Today the world has gone full circle. Gay people seem to be doing all the decent things the straights used to do – getting married, having babies and recycling. I feel like an old grandmother, sitting in my rocking chair, writing to you, dear Russell, during a break from my knitting. The past is all twinkling lights in the woods on a snowy night. Was it revolution? Or were we just crashing up and down on a much deeper wave, as history ploughed on regardless? Did everything change in ’67 with the new law? Was Stonewall the defining moment? Were we as free as we felt in the Seventies? Are we as free as we think we are now?”

From Rupert Everett's article on how far we've come from Wilde's day.
In the new New Statesman - guest-edited by Russell Brand.
In the shops now, but not online til Monday for some reason.

PS And here you can watch a bunfight between Mr Russell Brand and Mr Jeremy Paxman on last night's Newsnight.
Some have told me they detected a distinct homoerotic undertone.
Whatever, pseudo-radical wankers across perfidious Albion appear to have taken this as a stirring (not) call to arms.

Thought For The Day: Peter Wilby

Child abuse is a reality and, in the past, the full extent of it was often swept under the carpet. The guilty still at liberty far outnumber the innocent behind bars. In nearly all the instances I list above, children were abused, sometimes in large numbers. They suffered terrible trauma, and the effects were often lifelong. To point out that journalists – along with politicians and professionals such as social workers – strayed into wild fantasies is not to defend or trivialise abuse. Nor does questioning some convictions denote "support" for paedophilia, any more than questioning the Birmingham Six convictions denoted "support" for IRA bombers.

The great media analyst Peter Wilby, writing for The Guardian.

You may wish to compare and contrast it with this Independent piece by Owen Jones - again, someone who really should know better, much better - which reads like an exercise in hysterical, sanctimonious, point-missing and point-scoring.
And it is as silly as it is grotesque to suggest that merely pointing out that Steve Messham has withdrawn his allegation against Lord McAlpine is somehow to condone or enable the sexual abuse of children.
Let us pray to the great god Pan that Owen doesn't let his new-found fame, fame, fatal fame turn him into another Johann Hari.
We need him. 

PS Mail Online has managed to turn this sorry tale into 12 BBC-bashing articles today. Ironically, without the "news" about Newsnight and BBC News this seems to be quite a slow news day.

Update: 'Is Tom Watson in danger of fuelling a paedophile panic?' Nelson Jones, New Statesman.
Answer: Yes.

Update 2: "Days after allegations of sexual misconduct were made against Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash, they have been withdrawn - the claimant recanting his story..." The Independent.
No comment from Owen on this, yet. 

Newsnight: Just Like Eddie

Checking my blog stats at the close of play yesterday, I noticed a small yet intriguing surge towards this old post about Radio 4's Eddie Mair.
But for why?
Eddie - one of Fagburn's most favourite people - had presented Newsnight for the first time last night.
My hunch is that many people having discovered him for the first time, as you would, Googled three little words; "Eddie Mair Gay?"
Like anyone needs to ask.
His relaxed, affable, non-shouty style went down very well, even the usually anti-gaylord Guido Fawkes approved.
Guido reckons Eddie could be being lined up to take over from Paxman permanently.
Let us hope so.
If you want to see why, Eddie Mair is presenting Newsnight again tonight.
Hurrah!

Equal Marriage: Heated Debates

Conor Marron from Coalition For Equal Marriage vs the beyond evil Sharon Jones from Cunts For Marriage.
Think it's safe to say Conor wins this one.

Update: Newsnight hosted an embarrassing bunfight - poor show Channel 4.
The subject wasn't brought up on Question Time tonight - presumably the producers thought they'd "done that" last week.
And who could top Will "Nice But Dim" Young?
It was the hot topic on BBC Radio 4's Moral Maze this week.
Sadly, Melanie Phillips was away.
The highlight?
Michael Portillo: ‘Ben, can you confirm that one man cannot impregnate another man and bring about a child?’
Ben Summerskill: ‘I’m surprised you need to ask that question, Michael.’
Michael Portillo: ‘Help me out with the answer.’
Ben Summerskill: ‘I’ll assist you. It’s why you have no children, Michael.'

BBC: Praise Be!

The BBC World Service recently broadcast a documentary about America's Marin Foundation; God and Gays: Bridging the Gulf
In a puff piece on the BBC's website 'Why Conservative Christians Flock To A Chicago Gay Bar' they explained "[Andrew Marin]
works to try to bring Christians and gay people together in open conversation about sexuality and spirituality - and that includes running a large-scale meeting four times a year at Roscoe's, one of America's most famous gay bars."
The BBC make them seem like saints;
"The Marin Foundation believes that polite, honest conversation between people of all perspectives is essential if Christians are to address questions about sexuality more effectively..."
Bless.
If only that was all they were doing.
Mr Marin is actually trying to recruit the gays to his bizarre Christian death cult.
It gets worse.
Michael Signorile has repeatedly exposed Marin as a loopy homophobe who thinks being gay is a sin and secretly wants us all to pray the gay away and go straight.
Well done the BBC - another winner!

This just in!
Ofcom has cleared Newsnight over its handling of David Starkey's insane racist outburst in August.
It's a good day for mad old bigots.
(Media Guardian).

Daily Express: In Defence Of David Starkey

The Daily Express has leapt to the defence of David "Enoch" Starkey today;
'Dark Past Of The Rudest Man on TV'
Were you disgusted by his vile racist outburst on Newsnight on Friday night?
The Express's Anna Pukas wasn't - she thought it "was Dr David Starkey, aka Dr Rude, doing what he does best: giving voice to what the rest of us keep hidden in our thoughts."
Oh dear. Speak for yourself, dear.
"This was Starkey at his most provocative."
And most racist - you forgot to say racist.
The BBC has received more than 700 complaints about Dr Racist's comments.
But bravely the Express sought to understand where his "anger" comes from.
His difficult relationship with "his domineering mother", apparently.
Why thank you, Dr Freud.
It's a wonderful and enlightening piece all round - and it would be churlish to say that Anna Pukas's idea of "research" appears to have involved little more than reading David Starkey's Wikipedia page.
Well done to the both of you.
Well done!

• 'It was like Enoch Powell meets Alan Partridge' Owen Jones in the New Statesman.