The Week UK 01Feb2020

20 NEWS Talking points

THEWEEK1February 2020

For 25 yearsafterhefounded

Amazon,JeffBezosmanaged

tokeeparemarkablylow

profile,saidTheWashington

Post.ThatchangedinJanuary

2019 when,daysafterthe

billionairerevealedthathe

wasdivorcinghiswife,the

NationalEnquirerranan

11-pagespreadabouthis

secretaffairwithaformer

TVpresenter,LaurenSánchez.

Therefollowedafeverishhunt

tofindoutthesourceofthe

tabloid’sscoop.Itspublisher,

AMI,insistsitgotthestory

fromSánchez’sTrump-

supportingbrother.Butat

thetime,Bezossuggested

SaudiArabiamightbeinvolved;andlastweek,

hisinvestigatorspointedthefingeratCrown

PrinceMohammedbinSalman(MbS)himself.

Accordingtotheirreport,Bezos’sphonestarted

to“leak”vastamountsof data inMay 2018,

afterhe’d openedaWhatsAppmessagefrom

MbS(thepairhavingexchangednumbersin

April,whentheymetatapartyinLos Angeles).

In Novemberthat year,MbSsentBezos aphoto

of awomanlooselyresemblinghis lover,witha

cryptic messagehintingat divorcenegotiations.

TheSaudis havedismissedas “absurd” the idea

thatMbShackedBezos’sphone–butthereport

hasbeengivencredencebythe UN,said The

Times.Its investigatorshavesuggestedthatMbS

targetedBezosin aneffort toinfluencecritical

reportinginTheWashington

Post,whichheowns.Itwas

eightmonthsafterThePost

startedemployingtheSaudi

dissidentJamalKhashoggias

acolumnistthatbinSalmanis

allegedtohavetargetedBezos;

andweeksafterKhashoggi

wasmurderedattheSaudi

embassyinIstanbul,thatMbS

senthimthemessagehinting

atknowledgeofhisaffair.

Onthefaceofit,theideathat

MbSwouldpersonallydeliver

spywaretoBezos’sphoneis

outlandish.Theriskof

exposure,foramanposingas

aliberalreformer,wassurely

toogreat.ButMbSisnotarationalactor,said

StephenM.WaltinForeignPolicy.Heisa

“loosecannon:reckless,paranoidandabit

ofafool”.Heallegedlyorderedthemurder

ofKhashoggi–thoug hthejournalistposedno

threattohisrule.“He launched awarinYemen

thathasbeenahumanitariandisasteranda

militar yfailure.”HeenduresbecauseSaudi has

lotsof oil, and DonaldTrump hasprovedan

unswervingally.Buthis“enablers”intheWest

mustbe wonderingwhoelse’sphonehemay

haveinfiltrated–andwhetherhe’d bereckless

enough toturnonthem,saidDavidWearing

inTheGuardian. Meanwhile,“wiserheadsin

Washingtonand London” will begrowingever

moredismayedattheprospectofhaving todeal

with this“dangerous”figurefor yearstocome.

Pickoftheweek’s

Gossip

Jeff Bezos: the hacking of abillionaire

“Ifyoufindyourself afflicted byasuddenurge

to destroytheBBC,Ihavetheideal remedy,”

saidJonathanFreedlandinTheGuardian:spend

sometimein theUS.Itshows whathappens

whenthereis nomajornewsbroadcasterthat

isobjective, impartial,and insulated from

commercialpressures.In theUS,people

of differingpoliticalviewswatchdifferent

networks, andget differentfacts:Fox News

facts,orMSNBCfacts.The result isapartisan

“cacophony”, with “two sides shouting ateach

other”. Theneed to thinkabout this has arisen

becausetheBBC is “inperil ”–yet again. Its

director-general, Tony Hall, is stepping down.

BorisJohnson’s government is openlyhostile

to thecorporation, and hassuggested thatthe

licence fee hashad its day. This week, 450 jobs

were cut atBBCNews. So it’s time to pointout,

once again,tha t“thecountry’s collective life

wouldbe undeniably impoverished without it”.

The BBC brings the nationtogether,with its

sports androyalwedding broadcasts,itsnews

andlandmarkdocumentaries, itscomedies and

dramas,andcrucial services such as local radio.

The problem, though, is that the BBC isn’t

impartial,saidCharles Moore in TheDaily

Telegraph. It has itsown “impermeable,

uniform right-onculture”,which“treats

GretaThunberg as Joan of Arc andthe wider

populationasprejudicedidiots”. Thisfailure

to representgreatswathesofBritainhasactually

helped toexacerbatesplitsinoursociety.Of

this,Brexit–whichthe BBCclearly opposed

–“isthefinalproof”.Yetanyonewhowants

to watchTVmustpayapolltaxof £154.5 0 per

year totheBBC,on painofbeingdragged tothe

magistrates’court.Movingtoasubscription

modelisthe BBC’sonlyhope,said RodLiddle

in The Spectator. Ifithad tofight forviewers,

the BBCmight suddenly“comprehendthe need

tounderstand itsaudiencealittl ebette r”.

Moving tosubscriptionwouldbethe deathof

theBBC as we know it,saidCamillaCavendish

in the FT.It would turn it into something like

the US Public BroadcastingService–“dignified,

but with littl ereach” .Yet the BBC is facing

some fundamental questions. Canamonopoly

licencefee b ejustifi ed when itisreachin gfewer

people,particularly young people,every d ay?If

it is to continue in itscurre nt form, it must make

more effortto rep resentagenuine rangeof

opinion: not just Euroscepticism, but radical

socialismtoo.And itneedstoget l eaner. “It

currentlyrunsfive orchestras,and two24-hour

newsoperations.”Inshort, it shouldstriveto

look less as it is portrayedin theBBC’s own

satireW1A:like acomplacent metropolitan

behemoth,entirely “removedfromreality”.

The BBC: in peril yet again

BezoswithSánchez:targetedbyMbS?

Penny MordauntandPhilip

Hammondoften clashed

during their time together

in government. And at The

Spectator’s Parliamentarian

of the Year Awards,

Mordaunt seemed in no

mood to bury the hatchet.

“I have it on good authority

that he is in line foravery

important job,” she said

of her former Cabinet

colleague. “Given his

reputation for being able to

rain on any parade, suck the

oxygen out of the room, and

putadampener on things,

civil contingencies are about

to deploy him to Australia.”

Brian Blessedwas taken

by surprise when he was

invited to audition for the

Catsmusical ahead of its

first stage run in 1981.

“Cats?” he exclaimed.

“F***inggorillasmaybe!

Bears!” But onalater trip

to theNorth Pole, the

sheer scale of the show’s

popularity became clear to

him. “I came across an igloo

and there was an Inuit

inside, playingMemoryon a

banjo. Now that is success!”

WhenDavid Baddielarrived

at the BBC’s Salford studio

to be interviewed about

Holocaust denial last week,

he found he’d been the

victim ofaratherregrettable

mix-up. On announcing

himself at reception, the

comic–whose Twitter

bio reads simply “Jew” –

discovered that he had been

named on the BBC’s visitor

list asDavid Irving.“Do

youknow who that is?”

Baddiel asked the puzzled

receptionist. He found a

photo of the Holocaust

denier on Google, and

showed her his phone. “If

he turns up claiming to be

David Baddiel,” he told her,

“don’t let him in.”