The BBC, never known to flinch from airing dirty linen, becomes strangely hesitant when reporting on the Kerry-Edwards ‘love-in’. It is hard to imagine that they are reporting the same event as the LA Times [requires free registration] and the Washington Post [requires free registration]. In the Times story we read–
But praise for the two running mates was overshadowed by angry and mocking comments directed at President Bush. The tone was jarringly dissonant from the sunny message Kerry and Edwards have emphasized on their first few days together on the campaign trail.
Jessica Lange denounced the current occupants of the White House as “a self-serving regime of deceit, hypocrisy and belligerence,” accusing Bush of violating international law. Chevy Chase accused the president of invading Iraq “just so he could be called a wartime president” and quipped that the most recent book Bush had read was “Leader of the Free World for Dummies.”
In a song called “Texas Bandido,” John Mellencamp sang, “He’s just another cheap thug that sacrifices our young … You’re going to get us killed with your little white lies.” And Meryl Streep bemoaned Bush’s frequent invocation of religion, saying, “I wondered to myself through the shock and awe, I wondered which of the megaton bombs Jesus, our president’s personal savior, would have personally dropped on the sleeping families in Baghdad.”
Goldberg, who repeatedly referred to Edwards as “Kid” throughout the night, delivered the most inflammatory performance of the show in a comedy bit that involved a sexual pun playing off the president’s name.As the audience roared with embarrassed and horrified laughter, she retorted: “C’mon, you knew this was coming. It’s what I’m trying to explain to people: Why you asking me to come if you don’t want me to be me?”
The Bush campaign condemned Thursday’s concert fundraiser, which was produced by Rolling Stone magazine founder Jann Wenner and movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt noted that Kerry told CNN’s Larry King earlier in the day that he had not had time to get briefed about reports of possible new terrorist threats. Yet, Schmidt said, “he found time to attend a Hollywood fundraiser, filled with enough hate and vitriol to make Michael Moore blush.”
The Washington Post article contrasts the candidates differing values and includes these paragraphs:
At the fundraiser, Kerry praised speakers and performers, some of whom lambasted Bush as a liar, “thug” and killer. Singer John Mellencamp sang an anti-Bush song called “Texas Bandito,” in which he called the president “another cheap thug who sacrifices our young.” Actress Whoopi Goldberg repeatedly referred to Edwards as “Kid” and made a crude wordplay on the president’s name.
Kerry said every performer conveyed the “heart and soul” of America. Afterward, Kerry spokesman David Wade said: “Performers have a right to speak their mind. John Kerry and John Edwards speak their minds and Americans know what they believe.”
Where do the Beeb’s sympathies lie when they fail to report embarrassments like this? (Hat tip: Hugh Hewitt)
BBC spin aside, this was just another example of political candidates walking in muck to raise a lot of bucks. This time it’s the Democrats. Not so long ago it was the Republican crowd telling off-color jokes about the Clintons and allowing humiliatingly stupid words to come out of their mouths. This year, of course, the Republicans will give us country and western singers dressed in flags and singing anthems.
Entertainers have the right to air their opinions. The evidence indicates, however, that the opinions are most often vacuous.
I am not a regular on this site.
In fact, I just searched for “BBC Bias” on Google after watching my first BBC newscast earlier tonight. Not suprisingly, I found literally thousands of hits when entering those words in Google.
One piece was by correspondent Matt Frey. This piece desribed the senate report on WMD, and had Mr. Frey virtually orgasm on screen while praising the rantings of Left-wing Senator Jay Rockefeller. Absolutely shameless…
Another was a piece supposedly on the utter despair of farmers in the midwest, and how they are turning on the President. Nothing negative was said of the president in the interviews. Still, the reporter had the utter intellectual DIShonesty to flat-out conclude that a critisism of farm efficeny was sign of the heartland turning on Bush…Pathetic!
I am from Nebraska. Bush is going to win the state in a landslide
in November. I wonder if that will be reported at the BBC?
Another sampling of the “Key Stories” sidebar:
“Vote USA 2004
KEY STORIES
Bush military records ‘destroyed’
Kerry-Edwards launch campaign
US media positive on Edwards
Net helps Kerry get message out
Paper sorry for Kerry ‘exclusive’ ”
Nope, no BBias here…move along.
From the New York Times: “An article yesterday about the destruction of some payroll records of National Guard members, including President Bush, misstated the record of White House acknowledgment of the loss. The White House indeed took note of the missing information last Feb when it released hundreds of pages of Mr. Bush’s military files. In a briefing paper for reporters on Feb. 10, summarizing those files, it noted that payroll records for the third quarter of 1972 had been lost when they were transferred to microfiche.
In other words, this “scoop” was disclosed by the Bush Administration 5 months ago. I’m glad the Times admitted its error. Here’s hoping that those who made hay over the Times’ “disclosure” also issue corrections.(Michelle Makin’s blog)
Yet the BBC have not made any change to their ‘scoop’ either.! How unusual for the Beeb and how representative of their bias…..if the lefties at the NYT can admit they were wrong why can’t the Beeb?
Here’s the BBC version:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3880141.stm
Note that it doesnt mention until the 2nd last paragraph that the records were destroyed 8 years ago. It would rather leave the impression with the headlines
“Bush military records destroyed.
Documents that could have decided a dispute over President George W Bush’s days in the military 30 years ago have been destroyed, the Pentagon says.”
Sad
What was even worse is, and even more contradictory was Radio 4’s “from our own corespondant” piece by Justin Webb. He went on about assumptions about society in the southern US which go beyond the vulgar and were simply lies.
He had a few of them, the one that stuck out in my mind was a passage where he was describing the height of sophistication in the Carolinas (where John Edwards is from):
he referred to “men spitting their chewing tobacco out of the window of the pick up truck, and not on their female companions” as our height.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/2850485.stm
Look at his web page – he’s a train wreck. The BBC web site is littered with different “image shots” of this winner. He doesn’t realize that news is not about the news reader.
If Americans would be so kind as to vote Bush out of office in November, I’m sure those of us from civilised countries can promise to cease all bias against him and his loathsome mates from then on.
So often entertainers consider themselves gifted with special moral insight or analytical ability.. but why would a singer, dancer, actor or comic have any more moral insight than a plumber, cabdriver, salesman or clerk? It makes no sense.. all the entertainers have is a microphone and some attention from an audience.. and while this seems to compel them to spasms of moralizing, it ends up embarrassing them when the public learns how vapid and idiotic they are..
part of it is, they can’t help but feel like people care what they think, since they are constantly interviewed/badgered for soundbites and opinions.. but still, it takes a real dope to conclude that tabloid style media attention means a mandate to lecture the world, fingers wagging..
gawd I just wanna puke..
I assume Dave’s comments are directed at Liz Taylor.
…and Robert Kilroy-Kilk, doubtless.
Err, Silk, even.