Marianna Spring watch

Appointed in 2020, Marianna Spring is the BBC's 'first disinformation and social media correspondent'.

A few weeks ago she was also recruited to work for BBC Verify, the new fact-checking team that has been launched 'to counter disinformation'.

Recently she has been presenting a Radio 4 series (and podcast) called 'Marianna in Conspiracyland', a programme title that is quite an accolade for someone who was largely unknown until a few weeks ago, and even now is probably unknown to most people outside the media bubble.

Anyway, I mention this not because I have anything against her but because the name sounded familiar and it was only yesterday that I finally remembered why.

Readers probably won't remember this, but in 2015 I took part in an Oxford Union debate. It provoked some controversy, which I wrote about here, because the idea for a debate about the morality of the tobacco industry came originally from Imperial Tobacco, who offered to sponsor it and provide a speaker.

It all kicked off and the student journalist who reported the story for Cherwell, the Oxford student newspaper, was none other than ... Marianna Spring.

To be fair, it was a comprehensive, well-balanced piece, far better written than most student newspaper reports I've read (and I've edited two student newspapers so I have some experience of them!).

I hope for her sake though that her current role doesn't define her career, although she seems to have entered into it quite happily and over several years.

It's hard enough being a top journalist without having a target on your back, and when you've been appointed by your vainglorious bosses 'to counter disinformation' in order to meet 'the rigorous editorial standards the BBC is proud to uphold', the pressure will be enormous.

And while the BBC Verify team may be 60-strong, Spring appears to be its public face.

Anyway, I'm glad I finally remembered her Cherwell report (‘Union tarred by Imperial Tobacco sponsorship dealings') because it had been bugging me for weeks.

See also: 'The BBC’s phoney war on disinformation' (UnHerd) and From Cherwell to the BBC: Marianna Spring in Conversation (Cherwell).