Monthly Archives: December 2003

What’s THIS? (thanks etc to Healing Iraq) Update. I’ve realised that this Turkey, unlike the Presidential one, has a real political message- though not one that has been adequately reflected by BBC coverage of Iraq. Reading Healing Iraq and other sites, and looking at this pastiche, I’d say that Iraqis’ biggest fear is being delivered back into a Baathist quagmire.

It’s nice to know one is not alone in one’s views. At about 5.50pm today Radio Four had on one of those “listeners’ feedback” programmes. It said that “few of those who wrote in supported the Plain English Campaign.” Then it replayed the Rumsfeld clip, followed by audio clips from three members of the public saying nice things about how Mr Rumsfeld was clear and concise.

I was left feeling quite benign towards the Beeb.

But as the Great Cham of the Blogosphere says, the BBC still hasn’t mentioned the other award Rummie won recently.

. Perhaps it seems that this blog is wildly supportive of George Bush. Maybe it seems that we have a blind attachment to a Trans-Atlantic fantasy known as the ‘Anglosphere’. Or maybe it’s just the quality of the opposition (ironically, and weirdly, considering that we have a Labour Government in the UK- and I do mean Labour), and the way the British Press with ample encouragement from the Beeb snuggle up to the worst that the Dimmiecratic gossipers can come up with. Maybe it’s the genius of George Bush (machievellian illiterate that he is- probably couldn’t even read the Guardian, let alone revel in its literary magic. tongue. in. cheek.) to have the world focus on the reality or non-reality of a Turkey. As wise man say, ‘there are known unknowns and unknown unknowns…’ and whatever (sorry Natalie to mangle this genius of clarity). The serious point about the Rumsfeld quote is that what the Press can’t understand in a nanobyte (don’t bother, I made it up- I imagine), they feel utterly free to laugh at, ignore, or turn into front page news- whatever- so that garrulous people (me? Nooo) spend months on and off talking about it. Bizarro! (Truly, there are greater things to talk about)

And maybe it’s just the BBC’s tendency in the light of unwelcome geopolitical reality to raise insignificant rumour-mongering to acceptable canards- whether it’s over Kyoto, Private Jessica Lynch or, insult of insult to that august institution of British probity, a Turkey. Nicholas Vance alerted me to the Lynch story- and he has covered the BBC’s reporting of it on the BBC News previously with his usual thoroughness. For Turkey (the bird), see below post for casual anti-Bushisms. On Kyoto- a liberal consensus, a stick to beat the nasty Texan Oilman- it’s all been there on the Beeb. Update. Recycled, ‘pre-prepared’ Turkey. Ugh. For antidote, click original TURKEY above.

. I think someone should start a ‘Stop Mad Matt Frei’ campaign. I don’t want him reporting on the US in my name. Why can’t the BBC employ someone who actually likes the country, or at least can keep their dislike under rational lock and key? This article is I suppose intended to be light-hearted, but it’s the kind of humour that in many circles would just (or ought to) get you a smack in the face sooner or later. For a start he suggests that US companies are ‘stingy’ with holidays. Yes, Matt, but your sympathy won’t stop you ridiculing the ‘super-rich self-indulgent Yanks’ this Christmas, will it? Then he suggests that the Union compensates for it with ‘pagan’ holidays. Excuse me, when was it pagan to remember Abraham Lincoln (godly man, abolished slavery), Martin Luther-King and the Founding [I mean Pilgrim] Fathers? Just because they’re not called ‘Saint’s Days’ doesn’t make them pagan. Oh, then Frei contradicts himself somewhat by calling Thanksgiving ‘solemn’- though that’s tempered by a stab at the ‘genocidal’-my word, his implication- Founding Fathers. (re: pagan/religious- can’t he understand the ‘opt in, opt out’ aspect of US culture? Yes, but he doesn’t want to communicate it.)

Right, then we get to the meat, which is, naturally, the place where GWB gets his grilling. Do you get the Turkey motif now? It’s really clever. To sum up these paragraphs I think it is reasonable to say that the President makes Frei sick, Thanksgiving makes him sick, and American culture makes him sick. Finis. Actually, we finish with the real reason Frei is sick: he can’t see a future for the Democrats at the next election, and he can’t stand America in its patriotic mood. Frei can only stand a ‘let’s pretend’ America, which leads me to my marching slogan- ‘Mad Matt Out NOW!’ BTW, Nicholas Vance doesn’t care for Frei either (see Dec 2nd News), and Tim Blair has had fun dissing [brilliantly] the Turkey-Bush motif. Update. More Turkey-talk about anti-Bush sickness courtesy of Instapundit via Ranting Profs

. Further evidence of the BBC’s failings when it comes to their much vaunted World coverage. This article at BBConline originally ran with a headline something like ‘Report Condemns Nigeria Human Rights’, or something very similar. Now the headline is ‘Nigeria ‘Upholding Human Rights’ ‘. So, great news story. I wonder if they’d run a similar one about the UK: ‘UK ‘Upholding Human Rights’ ‘? Sounds snappy, doesn’t it? On second thoughts, no, they’d never do that while we are allied to the USA and the Guantanamo Bay policy.

So why the ridiculous headline? Why the change? Well, if you read the opening of the story it looks like the BBC has been ‘favoured’ with a visit or a long phone call from ‘a Nigerian Presidential Advisor’. The Nigerian Embassy in London is an impressive, large-looking building quite near Charing Cross- probably to cope with the extensive links and large number of Nationals exchanged between the two countries (mainly in this direction, but then there’s the oil). I suspect that being on site in this way has enabled someone to pounce on the BBC, and the BBC, like an obliging guilt-ridden ex-colonial organisation, obediently rolled over. The article was changed from a critical one to an opportunity for President Obasanjo to get good PR and see off some critics. Nice one Beeb. Update. Notice how the critical report is merely the product of a ‘lobby group’- which is a phrase the Beeb normally reserves for pro-Fox Hunt or Pro-Jewish groups, in other words, for the outer darkness.
Update . The lobotomised critical article has disappeared from the Front Page of Beebonline. It has been replaced by this fawning little one. And all just before the Commonwealth States’ meeting this weekend. How simply super for the Nigerian Government, and how very impartial of the BBC.

The Plain English Campaign gave a gobbledegook award to Donald Rumsfeld the other day. If you are interested, I gave my plain opinion of the Plain English Campaign on my blog here. In this post I’d just like to point out, that of course the BBC zoomed in on this story like flies to honey. As usual, the Beeb did not waste any valuable sneering energy on actually examining Rumsfeld’s remarks to see if there might, after all, be something in them. And, as usual, they got the story slightly wrong in a characteristic direction. On Radio 4 News yesterday the announcer, revelling in it, hastened to say that George Bush and John Prestcott were runners up. No they weren’t. According to The Scotsman “the awards always attracted nominations for Mr Rumsfeld’s boss US President George Bush as well as British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott ” – i.e. the Great British Public, or the letter-to-the-editor-writing subdivision thereof neglect no opportunity to be smug. But even the Plain English Campaign, ignorant though it is of the complexities of either intelligence work or the philosophy of the limits of knowledge, can differentiate between a tendency to verbal slip-ups and the obfuscatory language that should be its main business. The BBC doesn’t seem to be able to. On occasion it might not care to – there is material for a dozen Golden Bull awards in this blog.

, this one’s for the diehard fan. What I mean is that there’s nothing new in it, and certainly not the polemical tone, but it makes some connections that might interest some people. Greg Dyke’s recent speech (see several posts below) was interesting for his suggestion that ‘the free marketers have got it wrong’. The Val Macqueen article I’ve linked to goes ballistic in response to Dyke’s superior tone, courtesy of Nicholas Vance.

. Another interesting move by the BBC in the War on Gilliganism. It’s exactly the kind of costly draconian measure I’d expect from an organisation that is more interested in self-preservation than reform. Update.Stephen Pollard tidies up a couple of stories for us.

. A gulf of epic proportions emerges between these two pieces by Fox and the BBC on Iran’s nuclear programme and the controversy surrounding it. No doubt Greg Dyke would take that as a sign of success, but after reading them I know which I find more convincing, and I know which gives me words from the horse’s mouth as opposed to a luke-warm second-hand mush of pandering UN-speak where the voice of the journalist and the politician are indistinguishable. Thanks to Dan in the comments below for pointing this out.