Why the BBC and Sky are still highlighting THAT interview

In their election coverage, the BBC and Sky news are still highlighting that Ed Miliband was interviewed by Russell Brand on his YouTube channel The Trews (which is a contraction of 'true news' if you were wondering).

But he wasn't the only party leader interviewed or even the only former MP standing for re-election that was interviewed. For some reason, the BBC and Sky don't like to give balance to their coverage and therefore don't report that Green leader Natalie Bennett and their only MP Caroline Lucas were also both interviewed on The Trews.

You might be thinking "well, it's only the Greens" but recall that Natalie Bennett took part in ITV's seven-way leaders debate on the 2nd of April and also in the so-called challengers' debate on the BBC (plus numerous other appearances, e.g. this Newsbeat one for young voters on 29th April). So she's certainly part of the General Election and the broadcasters should report her Russell Brand interview in the interests of balance.

But what about David Cameron? Has he been interviewed by anything other than the established political media? Well, he did an interview with Heat magazine, a magazine for pointless celebrity gossip, where he got asked such insightful questions like "how do you unwind at the end of the day?" and "what would you do if you were invisible for a day?" by minor celebrities. You can see a video of this completely useless 30th March interview here.

Cameron on Heat

Even Heat were surprised by the interview, stating (at above link):

We’re not going to lie – getting 10 Downing Street to allow us to interview the actual Prime Minister of this country was pretty mad. We’re still not sure how it happened.

Many would find Heat far more of a joke than Russell Brand, especially when Brand is a recognised political activist and actually spends a lot of his time discussing politics. But how often have you seen the BBC or Sky News show a clip of David Cameron's Heat interview to balance their clip of Ed Miliband's The Trews interview? I haven't seen it happen once.

Although Brand is famously against voting, he actually devoted six episodes to the General Election under the banner The Trews: Politics Week. In the Green interview episode, he explains he doesn't vote because he feels

"like a lot of people, that the country is really run by these unelected interests"

a sentiment which I think many voters will agree with (he's talking about big banks and transnational corporations). It's not that he doesn't care but it's "learned indifference" because it's wealth that runs the country.

His Green interviewees agree with him. Caroline Lucas says it's

"because politicians have chosen to give that power away" 

and gives TTIP as a current example where even more power will be willingly transferred to the corporations. Natalie Bennett calls for media-reform, blaming our current politics on

"a right-wing media that tells people to support right-wing politics"

Of course, the media don't want to highlight interviews where they are being attacked. But do people who watch TV news actively seek out the entire video of a clip the broadcaster uses? It is extremely doubtful that they do. So the media could still highlight that Russel Brand has interviewed more than just Ed Miliband without showing the anti-media sections of those interviews.

Why, then, has the BBC and Sky news chosen to keep the Green interview a secret? Why not show Cameron's Heat interview?

It is because both the BBC and Sky are anti-SNP. They know that the only real alternative to a David Cameron led government is one where Labour does a deal with the SNP. Clearly, neither broadcaster wants the SNP to have any influence whatsoever in Westminster.

This is why they highlight Russel Brand's interview with Ed Miliband and then show a clip of David Cameron calling them both a joke:

But Russell Brand is no joke. Nor is he new to politics, having guest edited an edition of the New Statesman political magazine in October 2013 and occasionally writes for The Guardian (a paper which highlights it's Winner of the Pulitzer Prize 2014), penning for them a piece on the death of Magaret Thatcher amongst others. BBC and Sky don't highlight those facts, or that he has been voted the world's fourth most influential thinker. Or that the Brand-Miliband interview went down well with the youth vote. No, it fits their narrative better to present him as a 'joke' and not a serious political commentator.

Despite his previous stunts and chequered background, he's clearly a highly intelligent individual who wants a change to the established Westminster political system. In other words, he's a danger to the state. Just like the SNP. Unfortunately for the media, they threw everything at Scotland during the independence referendum but it only made the SNP more popular. They know they can't block the SNP by attacking them (though they can't quite stop themselves from doing it anyway).

So they attack Ed Miliband instead. In short, Miliband is a proxy for the SNP.

The only way to stop the SNP surge from producing real influence at Westminster is to kill off Labour's chances of gaining power. That is why they won't mention David Cameron's Heat interview or show the Green's being interviewed on The Trews. Instead, they concentrate on representing Ed Miliband as a joke by repeatedly highlighting that he was once interviewed by Russell Brand.

Next time you see 'Red Ed' being attacked by the BBC or Sky news, just remember they're really attacking the SNP and the democratic will of the Scottish people.