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Saturday, 21 December 2024

BBC Farage Promo BLOWS BACK

Whether well-intentioned or not, what the BBC’s political editor Chris Mason did, live on air last week, was to polish the political turd that is Reform UK’s self-appointed OberscheissenfĂĽhrer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage to the point of apparent endorsement, or at the very least, acceptance of his legitimacy. It did not take long for reality to intrude on this establishment love-in.

Chris Mason

Here’s what Mason said: “Never before have we seen a man as rich, with a megaphone as large, so willing to get stuck in to politics not just at home but abroad, and that is pretty profound in its consequences. Little wonder Nigel Farage’s domestic political rivals are fretting, frankly, about just how influential he’s proving to be at the moment”. Added to that was another telling remark.

Nigel Farage is a man who is a master of political storytelling”. The problem with that comment, and Mason should know how serious a problem it is, is that Farage is, as I have concluded after observing so many of his claims, a congenital liar, in addition to being a racist bigot and a con man.

Worse, Mason’s knowledge of media history is woefully lacking. Maybe he never heard of Max Beaverbrook. Or perhaps he forgot about Rupert Murdoch. Maybe he also missed who is handing Farage that large megaphone of which he speaks. That would, whisper it quietly, be the BBC, which has once again given Mr Thirsty a seat at the Question Time table to dispense his lies, bigotry, and worst of all, his false prospectus.

What Farage is so keen to dispense to his all too easily persuaded followers was demonstrated in the aftermath of a deadly attack on a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg. A man drove his car into the crowds attending the market: thus far, five have died, and more than 200 have been injured. The suspect was originally from Saudi Arabia. Cue Farage.

We have allowed people who hate us and our values into Europe. Christmas is their target. Any guesses why?he mused on Twitter, X, or whatever his pal Muskrat is calling it this week. He’s not making accusations, you understand, he’s just a concerned citizen asking the kinds of questions that lead those being dog-whistled to the conclusions required by Himself Personally Now.


The problem for Farage was that, although the suspect was Saudi Arabian, he had arrived in Germany to take refuge because he was an ex-Muslim, someone who had renounced Islam. Worse still for the occasional MP for Clacton, the suspect had endorsed German far-right party AfD, and had spoken approvingly of Stephen Yaxley Lennon, aka Tommy Robinson.

This mildly inconvenient fact has been brought to us by, among others, Shashank Joshi, defence editor at The Economist, who has told "German attack suspect: 'I can say from experience, everything that [Tommy] Robinson says, what Musk says, what Alex Jones says, or anyone who is called radical or right-wing extremist by mainstream media - they are telling the truth’”.

Joshi goes on to quote further from Der Spiegel. “The alleged perpetrator A. is obviously a fan of the AfD, according to an evaluation of … his social media accounts by the SPIEGEL. Eight years ago, he wrote on Twitter that he wanted to start a project together with the AfD: an academy for ex-Muslims”. Musk has endorsed AfD. Farage has endorsed them too.

Even former Murdoch editor Andrew Neil has urged caution: “The Saudi doctor behind last night’s deadly Christmas market massacre in Magdeburg appears to be not quite what many on social media rushed to assume”. And why target a Christmas market? Isn’t Christmas a Christian thing? So it is. But Jesus of Nazareth is also a revered prophet in Islam.

So those killed and injured could quite easily be non-Christians. None of this helps get Mason and the wider BBC off the hook, of course: they keep giving Farage the megaphone, then say “look, he’s got a big megaphone”. Overnight, Farage has shown the BBC who they are promoting. Lying, dog-whistle racism, and the con that is Reform UK. Not a good look.

Nigel Farage has scored more than five million views with that Tweet. The dogs have been whistled; more rabbit holes dug. Hello BBC Farage fans.


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10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mason is an utter weasel even by far right corporate media "standards". A dried out tiny symptom of an immoral culture long ago abandoned to lies, thievery and criminality.

Nothing new there.

Anonymous said...

An altogether nasty little weasel of a man

Burlington Bertie from Bow said...

Still, you have to feel pleased for Tommy.
Being banged up over the most sacred dates in the Christian year can't be much fun for a man of his undoubted Pietism, but seeing his own name back in the news, and in connection with the violent act of a middle-aged self-publicising refugee with confused identity issues, well it's the best Christmas present he could have had.

Come back soon, Tommy. Journalism needs you.

Anonymous said...

The BBC has become, as survey after survey shows, nothing more than a propaganda tool for right wing govt, and a talking shop for right wing motor mouths like Farage. Putting Gibb in charge was the final piece in the puzzle.

Yet our permanently bemused right wing chums endlessly claim the BBC is 'full of lefties' and 'peddling wokeisms'. What they really mean, and conversations between the thick and proud of it online are finally confirming it, is the BBC is not 'right wing enough'.

Masons comments sound awfully like those of the media back in the 1930's, when the Daily Mails favourite politician ever was around...

Anonymous said...

There is nothing "well intentioned" in Mason's words. He's a servant of the state. Like Gibb, Kuenssberg, Robinson, Bruce and all the other corporate media guttersnipes. He knew perfectly well what he was saying and what the intended effect was.

James said...

I fear for our country if Musk gets his hands on it.

Anonymous said...

...and rightly so. https://futurism.com/neoscope/elon-musk-kills-child-cancer-spending

James said...

I think Musk is really Damien from The Omen.

Anonymous said...

Mason did a live OB after the Hartlepool by election with some local voters. Voters said they voted against Labour and for the Tories because of the state of the NHS. Mason failed to point out to them the basic fact that the NHS was under the full control of Tory government in Westminster and local politicians had no say on it.

Anonymous said...

So why have the Labour Party not addressed the issues of Right Wing Bias in BBC programming? They’ve had 3 months and done NOTHING !