Gordon Brown sinks the Labour Campaign

[sausage roll]

What a ****ing idiot!!!

[jlwah]

But did Labour stand any chance BEFORE this gaff?

[Lady Penelope]

Sarah's going to kill him ...unless all the Blair Babes get him 1st

What a brilliant shot to the foot or should that be head!!

respect for the views of the people???!!! yet another great example of NOT doing so

Roll on May 6th

[Conshine]

Yes, he's a t**t, but I'm sure that they all say things like that off the record, but he got caught..... Definitely a Hung Parliament now.

Ben

[Lady Elanore]

..... but I'm sure that they all say things like that off the record, but he got caught.....

Ben

They do, they are only human after all and I think it was irresponsible at best, for SKY (I belive it was SKY) to let this become public. Very very unprofessional imho. I’ve worked in TV broadcasting for over 25 years and this is a new low for broadcasters. Of course all politicians say such things, they are mostly normal people, deep down. The number of times my colleagues (not me as yet) have been slow to close a fader and something inadvertent went out on air, is legion. But this should have never been made public. I would say this no matter which leader had been caught

Edited 28 April, 2010 by Lady Elanore

[jlwah]

They do, they are only human after all and I think it was irresponsible at best, for SKY (I belive it was SKY) to let this become public. Very very unprofessional imho. I’ve worked in TV broadcasting for over 25 years and this is a new low for broadcasters. Of course all politicians say such things, they are mostly normal people, deep down. The number of times my colleagues (not me as yet) have been slow to close a fader and something inadvertent went out on air, is legion. But this should have never been made public. I would say this no matter which leader had been caught

I thought it was the duty of broadcasters and journalists to report things that are in the public interest.

Brown and his colleagues have gone on and on about how in touch he is with the electorate, how only he understands their needs and aspirations, he knows best, etc., etc. and here he is demonstrating one view in public and the complete opposite in private. Not to mention the sheer rudeness and arrogance of his comment. I think that's a prefectly legitimate thing to report on.

What, for me, is more astonishing is that a party that's been in power for so long and would seemingly be the most professional at managing these sort of meet the public events forgot to notice that Brown was still wearing a lapel microphone and didn't make him aware of it.

It's as though most of the people on his side want to see him make mistakes so that he'll be voted out of office . . . . . . . . . . . oh . . . . . . come to think of it, they've been doing that ever since he became PM

[Lady Elanore]

I thought it was the duty of broadcasters and journalists to report things that are in the public interest.

Brown and his colleagues have gone on and on about how in touch he is with the electorate, how only he understands their needs and aspirations, he knows best, etc., etc. and here he is demonstrating one view in public and the complete opposite in private. Not to mention the sheer rudeness and arrogance of his comment. I think that's a prefectly legitimate thing to report on.

What, for me, is more astonishing is that a party that's been in power for so long and would seemingly be the most professional at managing these sort of meet the public events forgot to notice that Brown was still wearing a lapel microphone and didn't make him aware of it.

It's as though most of the people on his side want to see him make mistakes so that he'll be voted out of office . . . . . . . . . . . oh . . . . . . come to think of it, they've been doing that ever since he became PM

We have had an understanding that we wouldn’t do harm to a person by transmitting something they had no prior knowledge about if we were making a recoding of them. A certain degree of trust is usual a given, when interviewing people, especially those in high office. Not only could this clip be agued to show bias, but it makes all our jobs a lot harder and it only makes politicians even more guarded. Having recorded Tony Benn on a few occasions, he used to always bring a small cassette recorder with him so he had a full copy of nay interview. Once, when I couldn’t furnish him with a direct feed, he stuck a pair of headphones over the recorders condenser mic. Pretty smart thinking really, but it shows how paranoid these people can be. I have worked with political conferences for al the major parties for many years and even chatted to Prime Ministers about football (Tony Blair) and I could never have connived that something said off the record or candidly might make it’s way to the outside. I see it as a betrayal of trust, which you might argue is what the average politician shows anyway, but it is not what broadcasters normally do if they have any professionalism.

As for speaking whilst wearing a radio mic, I challenge anyone to wear one for more than half and hour and not forget you are wearing one.

['daiking']

I have nothing to say except...

Edited 28 April, 2010 by daiking

[boomsly]

he ****ed that one up didnt he

[Brimma]

I only came in on the end of her rant at him, so am not in a position to personally comment on what she said, but who's to say his opinion wasn't right ?

And BTW - I'm not a Gordon Brown fan, but enjoy playing Devil's Advocate

[Babs]

We have had an understanding that we wouldn’t do harm to a person by transmitting something they had no prior knowledge about if we were making a recoding of them. A certain degree of trust is usual a given, when interviewing people, especially those in high office. Not only could this clip be agued to show bias, but it makes all our jobs a lot harder and it only makes politicians even more guarded. Having recorded Tony Benn on a few occasions, he used to always bring a small cassette recorder with him so he had a full copy of nay interview. Once, when I couldn’t furnish him with a direct feed, he stuck a pair of headphones over the recorders condenser mic. Pretty smart thinking really, but it shows how paranoid these people can be. I have worked with political conferences for al the major parties for many years and even chatted to Prime Ministers about football (Tony Blair) and I could never have connived that something said off the record or candidly might make it’s way to the outside. I see it as a betrayal of trust, which you might argue is what the average politician shows anyway, but it is not what broadcasters normally do if they have any professionalism.

As for speaking whilst wearing a radio mic, I challenge anyone to wear one for more than half and hour and not forget you are wearing one.

I agree with most of what you're saying, having worked in similar environments. However, these people should also be aware of the dangers of radiomics!

[jlwah]

We have had an understanding that we wouldn’t do harm to a person by transmitting something they had no prior knowledge about if we were making a recoding of them. A certain degree of trust is usual a given, when interviewing people, especially those in high office. Not only could this clip be agued to show bias, but it makes all our jobs a lot harder and it only makes politicians even more guarded. Having recorded Tony Benn on a few occasions, he used to always bring a small cassette recorder with him so he had a full copy of nay interview. Once, when I couldn’t furnish him with a direct feed, he stuck a pair of headphones over the recorders condenser mic. Pretty smart thinking really, but it shows how paranoid these people can be. I have worked with political conferences for al the major parties for many years and even chatted to Prime Ministers about football (Tony Blair) and I could never have connived that something said off the record or candidly might make it’s way to the outside. I see it as a betrayal of trust, which you might argue is what the average politician shows anyway, but it is not what broadcasters normally do if they have any professionalism.

As for speaking whilst wearing a radio mic, I challenge anyone to wear one for more than half and hour and not forget you are wearing one.

But isn't that what those around him are supposed to do - look out for the possibilities of being tripped up? As for prior knowledge, well someone miked him up and no one removed it, so I'd say he should have been aware.

I never liked much in the way of Tony Benn's views, but as your example shows, he had a degree of professionalism, knowledge and understanding way in excess of Brown. In truth, I doubt anyone would have heard Tony Benn say one thing in public and the opposite in private. But this episode shows up Browns' utter contempt for not only the electorate at large (his attacks on the other parties are often carried out with equal two faced disdain) but his contempt for life long Labour supporters - he truely has lost the plot!

I doubt you'll find many people outside the Brown clique that think this is poor journalism, so I think your profession can rest easy. I don't think John Majors' off air "bast**ds" remark did the profession much harm at the time or since, ether.

Politicians need journalists & broadcasters just as much as journalists & broadcasters need politicians!

[westerdam2]

Remember a similar thing happening years ago immediately before a broadcast church service. The sound engineer went for a quick fag and the vicar went to the little boys' room. Unfortunately the vicar had his radio mic attached to him and it was faded up!

The congregation were suddenly blasted over the public address system by the noise of water flowing like Niagara Falls and 3 very distinctive thunder clap type 'noises' plus a belch.

The Sunday School pupils were in hysterics. The start of the recording was delayed by around 10 minutes as order was restored in the aisles.

The first hymn was 'O God our help in ages past'! Memorable

[jlwah]

I only came in on the end of her rant at him, so am not in a position to personally comment on what she said, but who's to say his opinion wasn't right ?

You can check it out on Youtube or any news channel website.

But the real irony here is that he had dealt with her questions in quite a positive manner and she had seemed generally quite happy with his responses, so his private verbal attack was odd to say the least. He's managed to turn a positive in to possibly the worst of all negatives.

And BTW - I'm not a Gordon Brown fan

apart from Ed Balls, are there any?

[Lady Elanore]

There is a saying in telly that ‘you are never alone with a microphone’. The toilet incident is ridiculously common place, it really does happen all the time. Nobody can guard against saying something they shouldn’t when wearing a radio mic and neither can advisors stop someone from saying it. It all happens too fast and their minds are on other things. Those of you who have watched Look North here in the North west will over the years heard ‘aside’ comments, sometimes rude too. It just happens.

I am surprised that nobody has shouted political bias towards the media for showing this clip though and I can see the other 2 major camps really sweating about being overheard in their candid remarks by the media. I am at one of the declarations for a political leader next week (don’t think I am allowed to say who yet, as there is pretty steep security on it) and I will see how frosty the politician is when we try to mic him up. If he is tetchy, I will know who to blame.

On a related note, as many peeps on here who work in Theatre/TV/Radio will testify, if we recorded all the Celebs out there, the general public would be dismayed. It’s one thing for people to say ‘yer I bet so and so is a right pain’ but it is another thing to see that not only are they correct in this assumption, but most of the Celebs they like are actually pains too. I was very disappointed myself when I worked with a well known and liked, northern funny man, who turned out to be a grade 1 Ar$e. I had enjoyed all his TV series and figured him to be an OK kind of guy. I should have known better and wont watch his shows in future after I saw the way he treated his make-up woman.

Some things are best left unknown.

['daiking']

http://briskoda.net/forums/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=20534

[Loz]

I thought it was the duty of broadcasters and journalists to report things that are in the public interest.

It's not their duty, it's just a defence for an action in Tort Law! I agree though, I feel a bit sorry for him in a way. I don't like him, but he wasn't going to win anyway. Poor guy just can't do anything right! lol

[gadgetman]

Clear bias by Sky to make it public.

They knew there would be fallout like this.

[Brimma]

Clear bias by Sky to make it public.

They knew there would be fallout like this.

Just watching News at Ten, and it's clearly been used as a piece of blatant sensationalism and propaganda.

It verges on pathetic when the woman herself is hounded by a reporter asking how she feels about it.

Just lowers my view of journalists even further :no:

[cjb]

Just watching News at Ten, and it's clearly been used as a piece of blatant sensationalism and propaganda.

It verges on pathetic when the woman herself is hounded by a reporter asking how she feels about it.

Just lowers my view of journalists even further :no:

Indeed. Anyway, it's not like his comments were factually incorrect.

[Loz]

Indeed. Anyway, it's not like his comments were factually incorrect.

Why so? She asked about the very things a Prime Minister is there to deal with and wants to know which way to cast a vote. We all have our opinions, and could probably all be called bigoted. If he didn't expect it, why'd he take the job??

[VWD]

And those of you who have a female Labour candidate standing - how do you know that the selection process has chosen the best PERSON for the job . Locally ,our excellent MP ( I judge him by his past performance,not his politics) retired . We were then TOLD by the local party that his replacement would be a woman . The party members voting for a candidate would have been instructed that no male would be considered.And before I get jumped on - I'd just like to have to choose between the best each party can offer ,not the best of one group .So scratch one candidate from my list .

[Calomax]

It seems he was annoyed because she kept interrupting and wouldn't give him a chance to answer.

Sky is owned by Rupert and so is the Sun enough said.

But the clip was originally played on the Jeremy Vine Show when Gordon was on it, and he knew nothing about it at that time.

Clegg for PM

[SnailUK]

I cant see what the fuss is about personally.

We've all walked away from a conversation, and said things that no one was supposed to hear. Its always going to happen, whether its the PM, or the cleaner at asda.

The media fuss was hysterical. In his position, i wouldn't have even bothered going back to her and/or apologising.

[Aspman]

He (and Labour) have possibly made too many enemies within the press and they're sensing the opportunity to stick the boot in.

I have an old school friend who is a journalist, he told us just how unpleasant and slimy Labour was quite some time ago, thought Tony Blair was a lying git long before all the Iraq stuff started. Conversely he thought John Major was quite a decent bloke who had quite an unjustly poor image.