Tonight’s hourly Radio 4 news summaries are carrying a story from Iran about how a few hundred political candidates have been stopped from electoral participation by Iran’s Guardian Council. This Guardian Council is a part of the theocratic political system in Iran.
Fair enough. Except that the newsreader adds
“…the Guardian Council is dominated by right-wingers”.
So the Guardian Council believe in individual liberty and responsibility, free markets, and a smaller state? Somehow I don’t think so. I would advise the BBC that applying the terms left-wing and right-wing to the complex political system in Iran is misleading.
While I’m on this subject, BBC2 has recently run a tedious series starring arch-lefty Stephen Fry called ‘Absolute Power’. One of the episodes featured another bunch of ‘right-wingers’ – a group of Countryside Alliance types who wanted to start their own political party.
Within two seconds of them appearing on screen, I turned to my wife & said ‘they’ll either be Nazis or repressed homosexuals – or both’. Sure enough, it transpires they really are Nazis, complete with swastikas.
Thanks BBC as always for your sensitive portrayal of non-left views.
Since a lot of people think the folks running Iran are religious fanatics, isn’t it a neat trick to equate that unfortunate habit with “right-wingers”?
I’m certain BBC would explain that “right-wing” is appropriate within the context of Iranian domestic politics. And that statement might have some credibility if BBC’s audience was confined within the borders of Iran.
Another example of this slanderous BBC misuse of British/Western/Democratic political terminology to tarnish the ‘non-left’ who the BBC despise so much is in another article about Iran at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3364345.stm
This article includes the following: “Meanwhile, hard-line right-winger, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, said at Friday prayers in Tehran…” etc. He doesn’t sound much like what would normally be meant by the current British English usage of the term ‘right-wing’.
This isn’t a new phenomenon either – Russian and Soviet hardliners are often described as ‘right-wing’ too – not least when the Communist old-guard mounted their unsuccessful coup against Gorbachev in, IIRC, 1990. The Beeb described the hardliners as ‘right-wing’, with the obvious implication that nice Mr. Gorbachev was the epitome of left-wing goodness (as opposed to dyed-in-the-wool Communist who’s reforms in an attempt to make Communism work (as if) rather ran away
…from him!).
To paraphrase Orwell, the BBC has more than a touch of the Animal Farm sheep about it – “Too left good, too right bad”.
It’s time to end the Beeb Tax – we should not be compelled to subsidise the political output of these Guardianista-wannabes.
The BBC usualy call the hard liners ‘conservative’, like here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/261300.stm, Iranian conservative slams Internet.
Strange seeing how Ayatollah Khomeini was so heavily influenced by radical left wing French intellectuals.
Eh? Since when has the traditional right believed in free markets, limited states and individualism? Those are Whiggish values which blended into 19C Liberalism.
Toryism – the right in other words – has its roots in monarchial authoritarianism. A Tory can quite easily believe that the individual should be subordinated to the race or nation. Many do.
If you are going to whinge about Auntie, at least get your terminology straight.
Ken.
Matt Frei has yet another off-the-wall commentary posted on BBC Online. This one demonstrates Mr. Frei’s overwhelming expertise in the aspirations and political viewpoints of Latino Americans. NOT!
Off Topic (a bit)
In this story about possible Syria-Israel talks:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3389799.stm
we get this gem of BBC even-handedness:
“The Syrians must first break their links with the Lebanese group Hezbollah and the Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad – all of which Israel and the United States brand as terrorist.”
“…brand as terrorist”??? Oh, of course, I understand: they are “freedom fighters”, or, at worst, “militants”. Silly me!
So the Countryside Alliance believe in free markets and a smaller state? Are you sure?
At least try to stay internally consistent.