A correspondent sent this story from the Belfast Telegraph.
BBC Northern Ireland last night apologised after leading Radio Ulster presenter Gerry Anderson told his listeners he wanted George Bush “to rot in hell”.
The Radio Ulster host was presenting his morning show yesterday – July 4, US Independence Day – when he said it was also the American President’s birthday.
After telling his listeners Mr Bush had just turned 60, he added: “May I say I hope you rot in hell”.
ADDED LATER: And another thing: “We apologise for any offence caused” is a mingy apology. “We apologise for being offensive” was what Mr Anonymous Spokesman should have said. Or rather, “I apologise for being offensive” was what Mr Gerry Anderson should have said.
LATER STILL: Just looked at the referrer log. It said Instapundit. Or possibly Instapundo’Toole. Welcome one and all.
mind you if he’d said god bless george
bush his p45 would have been waiting at the front desk for sure.
“Ironically, the popular presenter and Belfast Telegraph columnist got the birth date wrong…”
A job at BBC News beckons.
.
Sorry to lower the tone, but we can assume that Anderson never w*nks while thinking of GWB can’t we? No need to ask him.
mask? what mask?
haarrumph
“Mask, what mask”? The mask of the BBC’s pretense of neutrality when covering the “news”.
The BBC HATES America and Americans. You don’t have to listen too long to figure this out.
He must have come from the male prayer room before saying that.
As an American, I say to Mr. Anderson and the BBC: “To hell with you.” The reason we celebrate the 4th of July is because we freed ourselves from sods like you!
I personnaly don’t intend to visit Eire anytime soon . . . .
Cool! Is the BBC planning subtle changes to its broadcasting style?
“Hello and welcome to BBC Radio Ulster. I’m Gerry Anderson. Death to America. Death to Israel. On tonight’s show, we talk to Jade Goody about her new book and…”
Increase, PLEASE don’t supply any more fuel to the tossers who think Americans don’t get irony!
Gary, Eire and Northern Ireland are two different countries. Although I’m sure you’d easily find Anderson’s sentiment on RTE or in the Irish Times. It’s just easier to rant like a fourteen-year-old about GWB than actually face the world’s problems and how to solve them.
I think it’s a terrible shame that the producer who brought us “Captain Scarlet” and “Space: 1999” should become such a cranky old man. I suppose without Lew Grade to keep him in line, the bitterness must flood out.
Mr Pomeroy,
You have rendered nugatory the considerable self control I exerted not to make any Thunderbirds references while writing that post. Hang your head in shame, FAB?
Naaaaaaaaah! S-I-G!
If that radio commenter had any wish to get his facts straight, he would have found out that the President’s birthday is not on the 4th, but on the 6th.
Not only he’s a foul mouth, he’s also stupid. Figures.
Also Johnny Walker on Radio 2 yesterday said “once America gets rid of the nutjob in the white house, we can go back to normal again”.
Some thoughts for tomorrow.
I bet the BBC is out there gathering more whinging stories about Islamophobiam rather than trying to see where the Islamist extremism and terrorism is being proseletised here in Britain.
(Incidentally, I went to the Alhambra at Granada a few days ago. If that is the height of Islamic art and architecture, I’m not impressed.)
Classic BBC ‘discussion’ on London News tonight: three guests discussing Muslim integration (or lack of it). The panel, naturally, was completely skewed:
The head of the “Islamic institute of Political Thought”, no prizes for guessing his opinion;
A classic lefty-Anglican, all talk about of “reconcilliation”, “understanding”, the usual white guilt.
A barely comprehensible Asian female ‘yoof’.
All three agreed it was the government’s fault, Iraq, etc. No mention of radical Imams, Islam’s pathalogical victimhood, or endemic Muslim violence and hatred towards Jews and homosexuals. Not a word. In fact, one of the guests preposterously claimed that “Islam has very good relations with all communities in Britain” and the presenter didn’t even notice.
All in all, the standard rigged debate.
Increase Mather:
“Mask, what mask”
Increase Mather | 05.07.06 – 4:38 pm |
i know i know! i was trying to be facetious!!
You have rendered nugatory the considerable self control I exerted not to make any Thunderbirds references while writing that post.
Count yourself lucky that Pomeroy beat me to it.
I blame Bush.
amimissingsomething: sorry, maybe I had too much coffee today.
I remember the bicentenial of American Independance in 1976 – there was a sort of Uk USA celebration that year – the then American president visited the original Washington in County Durham – there was even a commemorative stamp issued by the Royal mail. How did we get from there to here? The BBC surely has made a good job of turning us against our cousins and allies – I hope the BBc rot in hell.
Many Americans are now quite used to this kind of offal from media elites (or was that medialites?) wherever they get attention by saying what they really think. I don’t think it made the news over here except through the blogosphere. It’s laughable that Gerry was sudddenly at a loss for words:
“BBC Radio Ulster presenter Gerry Anderson today remained tight-lipped after an anti-Bush remark he made yesterday forced the BBC to apologise.”
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northwest_edition/story.jsp?story=697575
I’d somehow thought the city of Van Morrison, George Best, Louis Macneice, Ciaran Carson was above this sort of thing. I guess Mr. Anderson’s brain is a suspect device. (gratuitous Stiff LIttle FIngers reference).
Did any of you go over to Slugger O’toole’s website?
Christ, what a mass of America-hating pork-offal he has gathered there. Dumb bastards are CHEERLEADING for Mr. Anderson, saying he didn’t go far enough, that ALL OF AMERICA needs to rot in hell…
This is why I’m glad I’m only a quarter Irish – if it were any more, I would feel responsible for the stupidity of my fellow Irishmen… But my family seems to have come from Northern Ireland, which gives me the advantage of being able to say (while only stretching the truth a little) that I’m really British. Which I would only say to piss off the Micks.
This may seem strange, but I rather like the fact that Anderson has, so far, not apologized. Seems more honest, somehow.
Me too…just shows what a pathetic sad bunch of leftist freaks infect the BBC…….and childish too…….
Leave him in post…….let the world see what a real bunch of Biased Communist West Loathers the BBC really are…..lol….
NEWSFLASH: The BBC just turns out to be ANOTHER left wing preaching media outlet…….nopthing special about it at all…following the Lefty herd…….
Shocking! A BBC commentator who believes in Hell. They’ll have a word with him about that.
Well… he is Irish, so they know what it’s like….
I’m just surprised that the BBC finds it acceptable that one of their broadcasters said that he wanted the American President to “Rot in Hell”…….
Does it sound like an Impartial Public Service Broadcaster?
I would have been less surprised had the program started like this.
“In the name of Allah, the merciful, the compassionate: Hello and welcome to BBC Radio Ulster. I’m Gerry Anderson. On tonight’s show, we talk to Hans Blix about Iran’s home-made nuclear weapons. These crude devices are mostly harmless, and have never caused any fatalities. Yet the fascist George W Bush proposes a preemptive war.
Also on tonites panel are MP George Galloway, Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari from the MCB. Also we have very special guest, former Tory Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain whose spirit is being channeled tonite by Ms Uma Cyfory.”
Personally, I welcome Gerry Anderson’s forthright comment.
With this as a guiding principle it makes it so much easier to express one’s feelings about other public figures.
I’m looking forward to HYS Tributes to Tony Benn, Nelson Mandela….
Must be because Bush is the first US President to refuse Gerry Adams a Visa on account of his terrorist background
Makes me all the more determined to take my sons to see the Allied cemeteries in Normandy, so they can see just how many Americans died in defence of our and Europe’s freedom. Why don’t we ALL just refuse to pay the TV licence. They can’t put us all in prison.
I wonder if any BBC reporters will express the sentiments of the majority of UK citizens tomorrow, and announce ‘I hope the 7/7 bombers rot in hell’
Something tells me they won’t.
Is it just me, or have the beeb removed “News Watch” from their front page? Seems to have been replaced with “Editor’s Blog”, which I’m sure will be really impartial.
From Samizdata:
“There is a fine article in the Telegraph rebutting anti-Americanism and another which features a splendid quote from an unnamed US embassy spokesman who responded to claims that a poll has found many British people are opposed to the US decision to overthrow Saddam Hussain and suggesting many had a low opinion of US civil society:
“We question the judgment of anyone who asserts the world would be a better place with Saddam still terrorizing his own nation and threatening people well beyond Iraq’s borders. With respect to the poll’s assertions about American society, we bear some of the blame for not successfully communicating America’s extraordinary dynamism. But frankly, so do you [the British press].”
http://www.samizdata.net/blog/archives/2006/07/facing_down_ant.html
The British Queen is expensive and irrelevant, and monarchy sucks and makes us into a world laughing stock. But how would most British people feel if some American broadcaster quite rightly pointed out that the ‘king has no clothes’?
Actually the government, and therefore the country, makes a net profit from the Monarchy. They say we have to pay 56 pence per person per year, or there abouts, for her allowance but this doesn’t take in to account the fact that all the royal properties are held by the government, and that her income is actually paid out of the money they bring in. It’s a lot more than she gets paid, lets put it that way.
Now, I appreciate that the US has a good system going. They’ve taken the idea of the essential stabilising effect of an essentially neutral monarchy and given it elections. This is good. It works. Even with party political affiliations, it still works. Great. Unfortunately such a system wouldn’t work over here until we got rid of all the hard-left scumbags and the idiots who would give us a clone of the French presidency, or a bureacracy-ridden EU-style managerial commission. Given the choice, I prefer to retain the stability of the system we have, and start reforming the bits that are broken before even considering any sort of move to a presidential system. If it ain’t broke, as they saying goes, don’t fix it. That’s conservatism, comrade. 😉
archonix,
With the current levels of corruption in “our” politicans only an idiot socialist would suggest a fix would be a more powerful politician.
The queen is weak politically, but enormously powerful constitutionally, that’s why the system works remarkably well.
The President, congress and house of representatives are the roughly equivalent of The Lords, the commons and the queen.
Archonix, you said,
‘I prefer to retain the stability of the system we have’.
Well, in an argument far too subtle for the bbc, I would submit that this ‘stable’ system of ours over the centuries has stimulated the flight of millions from our country though economic, religious, and political persecution and disadvantage. Our home oppression actually helped establish the U.S. and a few other places as well. Our brain drain is world famous. If that’s stability, give me a republic any day. Don’t you think we should have a say in who our head of state should be. Let’s have a proper election with unloaded, non-bbc type questions fairly put to the electorate.
Not only the BBC. Capital Radio this morning played back a statement from George Bush in 2003 after the initial victory in Iraq. (Effectively saying that we won) You may not have heard it as I did but can probably imagine the smug broadcaster giggling through the sentence plus ‘er…right..cough cough” at the end. I look forward to a similar parody on , say, the next statement made by North Korea’s KIM Jong II.