Hignfy - Bbc Director-General To Face Dcms Committee

[naomi24]

The BBC is facing fresh scrutiny over impartiality and anti-Tory bias after Boris Johnson and Liz Truss were subjected to a relentless barrage of highly personal attacks on primetime TV.Have I Got News For You.

//Last night, Tory MP Sir John Hayes said: 'Clever satire requires clever people, but TV comedy has fallen a long way. All the wit of great British satire has been replaced with snide sneers and crass cruelty. What you saw on Friday was a series of spiteful insults.'

Peer and former Labour MP Ian Austin said: 'Suggesting one of the most powerful women in the country is hysterical and in need of a padded cell is blatant sexism. Satire is incredibly important – but I thought tropes about women being mad were a thing of the past. Clearly not.'//

Strangely enough I can't see that the BBC is carrying this story - perhaps they're just slow off the mark with this one - but has this programme, having become all too 'clever' for its own good, passed its sell-by date?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11177259/New-claims-BBC-anti-Tory-bias-comic-makes-c-word-jibe-against-Boris-Johnson.html

[Hopkirk]

I gave up watching it some time ago. Way past its best.

[davebro]

I don't think they should be spending my licence money broadcasting the HIGNFY rubbish.
No doubt they will say if it was a different gov they would also be the butt of their cruelty - 2 wrongs don't make a right.

[emmie]

i too gave up watching it years ago.

[davebro]

Hislop is a chancer - he will push things to the point of illegality as demonstrated many times in Private Eye.

[davebro]

//he will push things to the point of illegality//

And beyond!

[douglas9401]

Grasping, self-interested, workshy MPs take huff over jokes.

Country says 'grow the *** up'.

[Gromit]

Very misleading article by the Mail. Reading it you would think the Director General of the BBC is to be grilled by MPs BECAUSE of Fridays episode of HIGNFY.
The meeting has long been in Tim Davie‘s diary. MPs and the BBC Director General meet every year, and questions of impartiality are usually discussed.
It is good to know the Mail and some Tory MPs dislike HIGNFY. It is succeeding in holding our politicians to account.
Boris Johnson did not turn down appearing on the show the 4 times he was the guest presenter, and nor did a plethora of other Conservative MPs who have appeared.

[davebro]

//Peer and former Labour MP Ian Austin said etc//

The Mail & some Tory MPs ?

[Gromit]

Ian Austin is not even a member of the Labour Party.

[Hymie]

Whilst I might agree that the program is well past its sell by date (smug gits program); most of the material on Boris and Truss was accurate – backed up by recordings of what they actually did and said.

I can’t see a complaint succeeding where the material shown was truthful, any formal investigation is likely to conclude this and only prolong the public agony for these fools.
Best forget about it and move on.

[Gromit]

HIGNFY has run for two series a year for 32 years. It keeps getting recommissioned because it still pulls in millions of viewers.

The Conservatives have been in power for 13 years, so of course Conservatives will feature heavily, until a new Government comes to power and makes mistakes.

ABs right wingers may not watch the show, but millions of ordinary voters do.

[davebro]

//Ian Austin is not even a member of the Labour Party.//

Who said he is?

[Gromit]

If you say someone is a former Labour MP, now elevated to the Lords, the inference is that he is a Labour man.
Why else is this non entity being quoted by the Mail? It is a poor attempt to appear balanced and unbiased, but as usual with the Mail, it fails.

[naomi24]

// It is a poor attempt to appear balanced and unbiased//

Oh how funny! A better attempt than the BBC make, that's for sure. ;o)

[Mozz71]

It seems that the Tories, to paraphrase Corporal Jones, "Don't like it up 'em."

[davebro]

does anyone? (don't answer that!)

[William51]

I thought the programme was very good. Boris and Liz Truss are like anyone else, fair game for satire. Satire is all the programme was, and very good too.

[Gromit]

HIGNFY was cruel to Labour MPs and the Labour Government when it was in power. I don’t think the tub of lard ever lived it down.
The show usually has a swipe at SKS and other Labour members. But Friday’s show was about the Conservative leadership competition. Now that voting has ended, and the show cannot influence the winner, they concentrated on that one event.

[gulliver1]

This programme is too close to the truth for the Tories
They have talking about closing it down for some time

[tomus42]

I can't take anything the Daily Mail says seriously. It hates the BBC and takes every opportunity to attack it.

If there was a similar story anywhere else I might believe it was actually a story and not just an article concocted to get DM readers foaming at the mouth.