I’ve spent a fair bit of time criticising Novara for some of the positions they take, and I stand by that criticism, but it’s clear they are being used by many broadcasters in the same way right wing provocateurs like Brendan O’Neill are.

Even when they don’t have a trash position on something, their contributors are still sought out in the hope that they can add a little trash to the debate. They’re being exploited to provoke further debate. This stuff isn’t meant to educate or inform, it’s designed to incite.

The irony here is that as soon as the producer discovered Sarkar wasn’t going to bang the drum against the Proms, she was dropped, even though Ash was providing the overwhelming majority left perspective on this totally confected debate.

A little self-awareness from Novara might lead them to realising they have *always* been deployed for this purpose by the mainstream broadcast media, but that’s probably asking too much at this point

So I take it from this that a producer chose to reject the opinion most representative of the majority left in order to find a fringe voice to add to the boiled piss. Journalists can’t blame politicians for the “culture war” while editors & producers are pulling this shit.