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Thursday 30 November 2017

BBC In A Far Right Mess

The BBC has been caught before trying too hard to achieve “balance”: inviting on a scientist with decades of research in the field of climate science and then a self-appointed climate change denier like James “saviour of Western civilisation” Delingpole, who would not understand climate science if it leapt up and fly-hacked him in the undercarriage, for instance. The Corporation went similarly awry over the EU referendum.
Ann Coulter

This search to be shown to “balance” the mainstream by giving loudmouths, cranks and bigots airtime has continued in the wake of the row over Combover Crybaby Donald Trump Retweeting three dodgy videos from not-at-all-racist-honest Britain First, the group that inspired Thomas Mair, who murdered MP Jo Cox last year. Rather than just mention the kinds of people out there on the far right, the Beeb had to give them airtime.
Sebastian Gorka

Not content with interviewing Sebastian Gorka, someone with suspected neo-Nazi links and an Islamophobe whose view of Islam is shared mainly by the “Alt-Right” and fringe oddballs, the BBC decided to do more of that “balance” on the Radio 4 Today Programme this morning by inviting Ann Coulter to be interviewed. Gorka had declared that the murder rate in the USA was down to “Black African crime”. What would Annie say about Trump?
Nick Robinson soon found out. As the Guardian has reported, “The interview with Robinson became fiery, with the BBC presenter and Coulter disputing the accuracy of the videos shared by Trump and the claims attached to them. Robinson called for Coulter to ‘answer the question’ about whether Trump should have criticised May and Coulter responded by telling Robinson that she had a ‘little tip for him’ - that he should spend time on Twitter and ‘figure out’ that people retweeting videos do not research the biographies of the people who originally shared them”. This was supremely disingenuous.
Not only has Trump left the Tweets up, he has aggressively and dishonestly defended them. He and his staff have now had plenty of time to “research” the content, something Ms Coulter had not - hence her claim “it’s not a faked video”. At least one of them was.
Could it get any worse? As if you need to ask: Radio 4’s World At One doubled down on Today and back came Sebastian Gorka to spin another pack of lies that will be half way around the world before they get fact checked. The reaction was as predictable as it was hostile. The discussion starts about Trump’s endorsement of the far-right and ends up with another phoney scare story about supposed Islamic terrorism.
We know that the BBC agonises over balance in its presentation. But to so cravenly give the far-right - neo-Nazis, white supremacists, racists, Islamophobes, segregationists - hold of the megaphone is beyond the pale. The revulsion at the presence of both Coulter and Gorka on the airwaves should have sounded alarm bells at New Broadcasting House. But, given the regularity with which this sort of thing occurs, maybe it did not.
The Beeb needs to get wise about the false promise of “balance”, and the vicious modus operandi of the US far-right. Otherwise they risk losing that Gold Standard trust rating - and none of us wants to go there.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

The "special relationship" is the same kind of relationship between a dog owner and his poodle. The UK is the poodle.

As for BBC "News" and politics......Do me a favour. That load of hypocritical phonies have been at least right wing for decades, often much worse. It's all very well cottoning onto it now but it's been that way long before this item got picked up.

And don't kid yourself there isn't in this country an equivalent of the US Operation Mockingbird. That too is part of the "special relationship".

If politicians in this country had any courage whatever - which they haven't - they'd tell the Yanks to go fuck themselves with a barbed wire baseball bat. Instead, the next time that Rogue State wants to start a war somewhere you can bet some craven careerist like Fallon or Bomber Benn will lick their boots while shouting, "Yessir!" For examples of which see the ineffable Cameron and Blair. It's just a matter of time.

As for Trump and Gorka......Just suited up gobbos, attacked by the establishment only because they make everything so obvious. They're so stupid they can't learn how to look sincere while - like Obama for instance - committing mass murder and lying in their teeth.

The BBC (and all the other "news" organisations) is merely symptomatic of this deliberate cultural poison. Which is why they are all a laughing stock in the eyes of any free-thinking individual.

SimonB said...

While the BBC is generally excellent, it's News & Current Affairs is lamentable.

This, however, is a new low.

I recommend complaining. If enough of us do they will pay attention.

Anonymous said...

Those videos.
The crutches one was a Netherlands citizen who was caught. He went to jail. He wasn't an immigrant. The Dutch Embassy tweeted this fact at Trump today. The building one was apparently from the Morsi riots in Egypt. The third one? Al Qaeda smashing a statue of Mary.

Anonymous said...

Not only Ann Coulter.in the 8.55 slot Melanie Phillips gave her objective opinion. No guesses where her sympathies lay. Was waiting for Katie Hopkins to turn up and make the Winning hand in raving right Top Trumps

Andrew Barker said...

The audience of R4's Today programme has probably the highest average IQ of any TV or radio audience in the UK. They expect intelligent and revealing news and discussion.

Ann Coulter's moronic ranting, raving and outright lies added nothing to the subject in hand.It was a waste of the interviewers time, BBC resource and my time. The audience expects better than this.

For World at One to repeat this error by bringing on Gorka was unforgivable.

I hope that the inevitable complaints about these interviews lead to the BBC reflecting seriously on what they have done and the resulting offence caused. This is not the first time they have given an outlet for fascism.

Perhaps the interviewers think they can get a few points over on these bigots. It never works. The bigots just shout the interviewer down.

Yes, 99% of listeners, know they are speaking tosh, but it still acts as a megaphone which attracts a few idiots to their evil cause.

Anonymous said...

The repellent gorky gave Rhod Sharp a rough time on Up All Night.
A nasty shit, onna stick.

Andy McDonald said...

Unfortunately, "good telly/radio" (Which generally means starting a shouting match) seems to have supplanted "Inform, educate and entertain".