Laura Kuenssberg thought she’d caught out the man who confronted Boris Johnson. Paul Mason set her straight.
On 18 September, Boris Johnson was confronted by an angry parent while visiting a children’s ward.
The parent said the situation was “not acceptable” and told the PM:
There are not enough people on this ward, there are not enough doctors, there’s not enough nurses, it’s not well organised enough.
The NHS has been destroyed … and now you come here for a press opportunity.
But that canny political editor at the obviously totally unbiased BBC, Laura Kuenssberg, thought she’d caught the man out:
Turns out the man who challenged the PM is also a Labour activist
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) September 18, 2019
Enter Paul Mason
Luckily journalist Paul Mason was on hand to set the record straight:
Thanks for reporting that. It shows that our party of 500,000+ people is everywhere, among people suffering as the Conservatives destroy our health and welfare systems, and that even chosen at random they can make the PM look like a pillock…
— Paul Mason (@paulmasonnews) September 18, 2019
Because whether or not the man is a “Labour activist” is totally beside the point. And unlike Johnson using sick children as a press opportunity, this parent confronted him because he has a sick child in the hospital:
https://twitter.com/OmarSalem/status/1174301286692532224?s=20
It gets worse
Kuenssberg then sent out a tweet identifying the parent to her 1.1m followers:
This is him here https://t.co/77Hqqo9Avz
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) September 18, 2019
Although the parent had tweeted that himself, people pointed out to Kuenssberg what the impact of her highlighting him might be:
Jesus, what on earth are you doing? You have a large, privileged platform. You shouldn’t use it like this.
Do you ever wonder why people question your impartiality?
— Rachael Swindon #WeAreCollective (@Rachael_Swindon) September 18, 2019
https://twitter.com/Pieford/status/1174331330978635777?s=20
Other people highlighted what the real story is:
Your journalistic prowess should allow you to notice that people have a go at Bohnson wherever he goes. That a parent of a sick child in the ward when Bohnson arrived supports Labour isn’t the story. The state of the NHS is the story. Does his politics demand he keeps quiet?
— 💥Guido Tallman💥 (@GuidoTallman) September 18, 2019
Others questioned:
https://twitter.com/JennieMacfie/status/1174323708946763778?s=20
The bottom line is that the parent of a sick child confronted the PM because he happened to turn up at the ward where his sick child is being cared for. Yet somehow a BBC journalist thinks providing evidence of his activism somehow negates his views or his experiences.
This really is a new low, even by the BBC‘s abysmal standards.
Featured image via screengrab and Wikimedia/Marta Jara
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Also important to note that our Prime Minister’s first reaction is to lie when face to face with a member of the public. MSM has allowed him to tell lies without challenge and so it is inevitable that his instinct when confronted is to lie. Right on cue here is his favourite journalist doing everything she can to divert attention away from that lie.
Pathetic response from Laura Kuenssberg. Talk about missing the point, can’t see the trees for the wood!
Perhaps every time Kuensberg is mentioned in future in the media immediately after her name in brackets should be (Turns out the woman is also a Tory activist).
“Alan Gurney, chief executive of Whipps Cross hospital, apologised for the care given to Mr Salem’s seven-day-old daughter.
He said: “We are constantly reviewing staffing levels on our wards to ensure our patients are safe at all times, but occasionally – as in fact happened on this ward last night – an unexpected emergency in one part of the hospital can cause a temporary pressure elsewhere.””
So the chief executive of the hospital acknowledges that Mr Salem’s gravely ill daughter did not receive the care that was her due, but Laura Kuenssberg clearly wants us to think that the man’s concern is for publicity rather than his daughter, and clearly thinks herself that the girl’s illness, her poor treatment and the management’s acknowledgement of it, about which she says absolutely nothing, are all rendered insignificant because the man is a Labour activist. It is the clearest evidence of outright political bias by the BBC’s political editor, and as such is in breach of the BBC’s charter. This woman should be sacked immediately.
Any normal person would empathise with Mr Salem – the fear, the helplessness, the lack of sleep were so evident in his voice and body language. Thank goodness he is a political activist and used to speaking up in public. A parent who felt exactly the same, but hadn’t the same confidence, might have been too intimidated to say what he thought. And he did us all a favour by catching Johnson out in a Trumpworthy lie.
I was pretty disgusted by the management lackeys who tried to hush Mr Salem up. I also wondered if those staff members shown chatting with Johnson (or being chatted at by him) were under any kind of threat if they refused to comply.
Johnson’s conducting an election campaign at the moment without calling an election, which means the ”balance” between the parties that the broadcasters are meant to show during a campaign doesn’t apply. I hope it all backfires against him and only serves to show people what a meretricious, mendacious, cold-hearted charlatan he really is.