Zena Marks
@zenamarks.bsky.social
Science + natural history journalist and producer-director for TV, digital and radio. Social evolution specialist. Sceptical, not cynical.
"I'm with you on the free press. It's the newspapers I can't stand." Tom Stoppard
December 4, 2025 at 11:53 AM
"I'm with you on the free press. It's the newspapers I can't stand." Tom Stoppard
Reposted by Zena Marks
Lead Post reporter on that story Alex Horton served in the infantry in Iraq.
Q: So you didn't see any survivors after that first strike?
HEGSETH: I did not personally see survivors. The thing was on fire. This is called the fog of war. This is what you in the press don't understand. You sit in your air conditioned offices and plant fake stories in the Washington Post
HEGSETH: I did not personally see survivors. The thing was on fire. This is called the fog of war. This is what you in the press don't understand. You sit in your air conditioned offices and plant fake stories in the Washington Post
December 2, 2025 at 10:48 PM
Lead Post reporter on that story Alex Horton served in the infantry in Iraq.
Reposted by Zena Marks
Small changes to ‘for you’ feed on X can rapidly increase political polarisation
Small changes to ‘for you’ feed on X can rapidly increase political polarisation
Study finds that a week of political content can bring about a shift in views that previously would have taken three years
Small changes to the tone of posts fed to users of X can increase feelings of political polarisation as much in a week as would have historically taken at least three years, research has found.
A groundbreaking experiment to gauge the potency of Elon Musk’s social platform to increase political division found that when posts expressing anti-democratic attitudes and partisan animosity were boosted, even barely perceptibly, in the feeds of Democrat and Republican supporters there was a large change in their unfavourable feelings towards the other side. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 27, 2025 at 9:39 PM
Small changes to ‘for you’ feed on X can rapidly increase political polarisation
I take issue with the summary clauses and judgement here www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/u..., from the #HighCourt on #GBNews v #OFCOM. For example, clauses 65, 67 and 71 (part of the summary of GB News' position) do not withstand scrutiny. They summarise arguments which are not legitimate.
www.judiciary.uk
November 27, 2025 at 5:12 PM
I take issue with the summary clauses and judgement here www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/u..., from the #HighCourt on #GBNews v #OFCOM. For example, clauses 65, 67 and 71 (part of the summary of GB News' position) do not withstand scrutiny. They summarise arguments which are not legitimate.
Reposted by Zena Marks
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
November 25, 2025 at 9:26 AM
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
#Gibb knows what impartiality looks like having been a #BBC current affairs producer - so how can he defend directly leaning on BBC news staff, as recent government spin doctor & hands-on owner of an error-prone pro-Netanyahu Jewish Chronicle eg during Gaza scenario of last few years? Step down man!
November 27, 2025 at 3:17 PM
#Gibb knows what impartiality looks like having been a #BBC current affairs producer - so how can he defend directly leaning on BBC news staff, as recent government spin doctor & hands-on owner of an error-prone pro-Netanyahu Jewish Chronicle eg during Gaza scenario of last few years? Step down man!
The notion of #OFCOM needing to regulate the BBC more closely, given OFCOM's complete failures re: #GBNews, is making me fume at the ears. Is there a campaign to make OFCOM act on GB News' serial failures of principle? Without any exaggeration: it's absolutely disgraceful.
November 27, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Reposted by Zena Marks
The real BBC bias story, narrated by Anna Ford
November 19, 2025 at 12:12 PM
The real BBC bias story, narrated by Anna Ford
Reposted by Zena Marks
The BBC Scotland commentary for Kenny McLean’s halfway line goal is glorious. Stuff of dreams. 🔥
Congratulations #Scotland, see you at the World Cup.
Congratulations #Scotland, see you at the World Cup.
November 18, 2025 at 10:00 PM
The BBC Scotland commentary for Kenny McLean’s halfway line goal is glorious. Stuff of dreams. 🔥
Congratulations #Scotland, see you at the World Cup.
Congratulations #Scotland, see you at the World Cup.
Wes Streeting on #Labour leadership challenge briefings: "the worst attack on a faithful since Joe Marler was kicked out and banished in the final" ♥️😆👏 #CelebrityTraitors
November 15, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Wes Streeting on #Labour leadership challenge briefings: "the worst attack on a faithful since Joe Marler was kicked out and banished in the final" ♥️😆👏 #CelebrityTraitors
Have had enough of vested interests in the media and political commentariat trying to bundle the failings of the politically-compromised #BBCboard up with inaccurate criticisms of the new govt (and #BBC as a whole) to allow the former to escape scrutiny. Cornered rats will do anything to escape.
November 15, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Love this phrase: "reculer pour mieux sauter" - to fall back in order to take a better run at something (lit. 'jump')
November 14, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Love this phrase: "reculer pour mieux sauter" - to fall back in order to take a better run at something (lit. 'jump')
Essential 4 min viewing - to understand what's going on behind the scenes at the #BBC re: #TimDavie #RobbieGibb #Trump www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/... - courtesy of @rosatkins.bsky.social
Ros Atkins on... how the BBC is run
The BBC's analysis editor looks at how the organisation works - to understand why two bosses quit over the weekend.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 12, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Essential 4 min viewing - to understand what's going on behind the scenes at the #BBC re: #TimDavie #RobbieGibb #Trump www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/... - courtesy of @rosatkins.bsky.social
November 10, 2025 at 11:23 PM
Reposted by Zena Marks
Should Gibb be sacked? yes, obviously. He's an abomination of basic journalistic standards. His GB News channel spreads conspiracy theory & disinformation. His Jewish Chronicle newspaper spreads invented stories. He is plainly trying to undermine the BBC so it's as bad as everything else he touches.
November 10, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Should Gibb be sacked? yes, obviously. He's an abomination of basic journalistic standards. His GB News channel spreads conspiracy theory & disinformation. His Jewish Chronicle newspaper spreads invented stories. He is plainly trying to undermine the BBC so it's as bad as everything else he touches.
If only the BBC's editorial standards board - bizarrely comprising of former Conservative spin doctor Robbie Gibb, and almost no journalistic experience in the 21st Century - had done its job and acted appropriately, and earlier, on editorial issues. #BBC
November 10, 2025 at 1:43 PM
If only the BBC's editorial standards board - bizarrely comprising of former Conservative spin doctor Robbie Gibb, and almost no journalistic experience in the 21st Century - had done its job and acted appropriately, and earlier, on editorial issues. #BBC
Very good piece: www.thenewworld.co.uk/alastair-cam... #BBC
The malign right can't be allowed to destroy the BBC
Panorama made mistakes but this ‘scandal’ is the work of populists trying to control the airwaves. They won’t rest
www.thenewworld.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Very good piece: www.thenewworld.co.uk/alastair-cam... #BBC
Surely the buck ultimately stops with the #editorialstandardscommittee of the #BBC? 👀
November 9, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Surely the buck ultimately stops with the #editorialstandardscommittee of the #BBC? 👀
Reposted by Zena Marks
If you’ve been watching the Hack there’s an ITV documentary on phone hacking at 10.15 pm this evening
November 9, 2025 at 9:59 PM
If you’ve been watching the Hack there’s an ITV documentary on phone hacking at 10.15 pm this evening
Reposted by Zena Marks
Michael Prescott and Sir Robbie Gibb both bailed out of journalism years ago, and enjoy lucrative careers in corporate PR. And now they are the arbiters of BBC editorial standards. Go figure www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/media/...
The BBC has bigger impartiality problems than its coverage of Trump
It is the BBC’s entire governance structure–rather than individual stories–that should cause most concern
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
November 8, 2025 at 7:59 AM
Michael Prescott and Sir Robbie Gibb both bailed out of journalism years ago, and enjoy lucrative careers in corporate PR. And now they are the arbiters of BBC editorial standards. Go figure www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/media/...
#TheHack is amazing television. #Murdoch is playing life like Jonathan Ross plays #CelebrityTraitors #TheTraitors. The audacity! When are the faithfuls going to break him down?!
November 6, 2025 at 11:56 PM
#TheHack is amazing television. #Murdoch is playing life like Jonathan Ross plays #CelebrityTraitors #TheTraitors. The audacity! When are the faithfuls going to break him down?!
An #incometax rise at this time, or any rise which breaks the Labour manifesto commitments, would be a spectacularly bad idea - both in party political AND national interest terms. It would throw the country into political upheaval once more.
November 5, 2025 at 12:50 PM
An #incometax rise at this time, or any rise which breaks the Labour manifesto commitments, would be a spectacularly bad idea - both in party political AND national interest terms. It would throw the country into political upheaval once more.
