Welcome To Zelo Street!

This is a blog of liberal stance and independent mind

Monday 25 July 2016

Kelvin McFilth Ups The Stakes

As Zelo Street regulars will recall, former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie demonstrated his talent for forthright bigotry recently when he went after Channel 4 News presenter Fatima Manji, who had committed the heinous crime of not only fronting Channel 4 News, but also dressing in the same way she always does. The latter involves wearing a headscarf, or hijab. For most viewers this does not present a problem.
But for Kel, coming at the time of the Nice attacks, it meant the broadcaster was in league with the Scary Muslims (tm), and was a provocation of a severity not known since someone went up to one of Derek and Clive at a Spurs home game against Arsenal and said “Hello”. What was Kel to do? He wasn’t going to be put upon by someone doing something worse than coming up to him and saying “Hello”, was he?

So Kel not only went after Ms Manji, Jon Snow, and anyone else he could connect to Channel 4, he also doubled down on the abuse later, which led the presenter and her boss to complain directly to press regulator IPSO. Around 2,000 other complaints had already been received by IPSO by that stage. The regulator is now facing the prospect of bawling out the Sun, or demonstrating that is is a toothless sham.

All this has put Kel in what Spike Milligan might have called A Very Difficult Position. He’s been called out for his boorish, aggressive and bigoted behaviour, but saying sorry is out of the question for those who live in their hermetically sealed elite media bubble. So he is not just going to continue to play the helpless victim, he is also going to complain about Channel 4 to media regulator Ofcom. Seriously.

We know this because he has spelled it out in his latest lamentable column for the Sun, where he firstly says the BBC nearly banned symbols of religious affiliation, but didn’t, and then suggests the Beeb’s consideration for so doing - “especially at a time of heightened religious tension” - automatically applies to Channel 4, even though the BBC didn’t rule on the issue, and what they decide is not binding on other broadcasters.

He then deploys a diversionary tactic, combined with faux appeal to authority, by telling “I am the liberal in this argument as progressive female Muslims look upon the headscarf as a sign of submission … Don’t take my word for it … I know a Turkish Muslim who [miraculously agrees with him]”, before dropping his bombshell: “I will be looking at making a formal complaint to Ofcom under the section of the broadcasting code which deals with impartiality”. A Sun pundit will call lack of impartiality on a broadcaster. Ri-i-ight.

And the reasoning? “Since the question of religious motivation was central to the coverage of the Nice attack, I would ask whether it is appropriate for a newsreader to wear religious attire that could undermine the viewers’ perception of impartiality … For television dealing in such sensitive issues, surely it makes sense that reporters, when dealing with Muslim terrorist outrages, don’t wear the headscarf”. No it doesn’t.

Kel says he’s going to make his decision next Friday, which is code for “Ofcom is more likely to act than IPSO, so withdraw your complaint, Channel 4 people, or I’ll have you worked over, because I can”. If Ofcom have any cojones, they will be waiting for the SOB and will refer him to the precedent legal case of Arkell versus Pressdram 1971.

7 comments:

Michael Nimmo said...

Colour me interested in this and perhaps someone better informed than me is more knowledgeable about the subject. I was under the impression that the headscarf - or any sort of covering - was culturall, not religious.
http://nationalgeographic.org/media/hijab/
My Gran wore a headscarf, and I'm pretty sure she was a Christian!
In addition - to this, Christians don't have to wear a cross for their religion, unlike Sikhs for example.
So how could the newsreader be wearing religious attire?

Anonymous said...

Have just seen that advert for the well known opticians which shows scenes from Trevor McDonald's reporting history, including scenes from South Africa during apartheid, Did Mr MacKenzie object to Mr McDonald being sent to South Africa ....???

Anonymous said...

Good grief.

The man gets more insanely malevolent with every column. His head must be a nest of writhing hate-filled Nazi vipers.

Funny enough, Lizzy von Windsor wears a head scarf when visiting her horsies. She also wears green wellies. The type was successfully lampooned in the Monty Python Upper Class Twit of the Year Show sketch.

Not that tenth rate racist thicko MacKenzie would notice. Or even understand if he did. He's too busy stirring hate. Like all Murdoch marionettes, it pays him to.

Brian Higgy said...

these so called "symbols of religion" are only so if you make them that. I have worn a cross in my time and I'm an atheist. It was a nice piece of decoration and that was all.

rob said...

If he goes ahead I hope Ofcom will charge him the expense of wasting their time. They have much more important matters to cover such as considering whether The Murdochs are fit and proper persons to be running any sort of organisation in the UK.

Especially companies with a structure that defy "democratic" accountablility.

Anonymous said...

“I will be looking at making a formal complaint to Ofcom under the section of the broadcasting code which deals with impartiality”. He's all piss and wind. Unless I've missed something, there is no foundation in the Ofcom code for the sort of complaint he's 'looking at making'. See: http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/broadcast-codes/broadcast-code/impartiality/ His bluster could be described as 'sabre-rattling' but he doesn't even have a scabbard let alone anything to put it in.

Peter said...

Working many moons ago as an air steward, I remember the female crew had a delightfully coloured red scarf as part of their uniform. They were encouraged to wear this in different styles.

Often, they wore it either over their heads to look as exotic as their Emirates counterparts.

They were all Glaswegian and in no way could be thought of as Scary Muslims (tm) Lucky for them that Kel was too focused on The Truth (tm) at the time. otherwise I might not have offered the Diamond Service and refused to fly!