I had considered tagging this link Not Safe For Work, but truly it is Not Safe For Anywhere. One of my favourite parts of watching the Daily Show is when they show the ridiculous graphics and bombast of American election reporting. And then, on a night like last night, with a few council elections I have to shake my head at the nonsense that now presents itself as election coverage here. David Dimbleby has now ossified in his role as presenter, snappy, rude, not listening to anyone and making jump-cut links whenever he decides and usually when the gallery aren’t ready. I am used to that. What I am not used to yet is Jeremy Vine, who has taken over Peter Snow’s role as the man with the graphics. Snow had a way with stats, and an expansive excitement in the ways that new technology could help explain in layman’s terms how an election was progressing.
Vine is just a twat. No, sorry that’s a bit harsh. ON TWATS. Sorry, I still haven’t recovered from this bit of footage which was on at about 1am last night. Results were slowly rolling in, a little bit of punditry had happened and then Dimbleby suggested they go over to Vine who had something that he thought Charles Kennedy (a guest) might like. Now I know a lot has been said about Charles Kennedy over the last few years, but I believe nothing more insulting than the fact that he might like this:
Jeremy Vine explaining the position of the Lib Dem leader via the medium of a roboticised Clegg doing a tin can shootout in a Western Saloon. (Make sure you restrain yourself before clicking through and have nothing with which to gouge your own eyes and ears out).
You have been warned about the link. Clearly Vine, his script writer, the graphics producer and potentially his accent coach have all colluded to make the dumbest three minutes of election coverage I have ever seen. If there were using the Peter Snow model of graphics making something more accessible to the layman, they are clearly assuming the layman lives in Deadwood, has a bizarre US accent and can only understand percentages via the amount a tin can will jump when shot. I was preying that robo-Clegg would shoot Vine instead. No, this was an all time low for election coverage: and that includes David Dimbleby interviewing Don King for the last US presidential election. Or indeed a previous insult from Vine to the Lib Dems via the medium of Mings Bling. For shame BBC, for shame.