(Thanks to reader Septimus Lupo for this classic.)
“Row erupts over golly exhibition” – the BBC England page finds room for this major story.
A row has broken out over a golly exhibition at a Hampshire museum.
A row. Gosh. Gollygosh. Tell more.
A collection of golly badges on display in Westbury Manor Museum in Fareham has been criticised for its perceived racist connotations. Dr John Molyneux, from the University of Portsmouth, said the items should not be regarded simply as a childhood pastime or hobby. But Nick Martin who owns the collection said the exhibition had been very popular and no-one had complained.
I see. One person says it’s racist. We have a BBC story. A story big enough for the England page.
And who is this one person ? It sounds awfully like this John Molyneux.
“John Molyneux is a socialist, activist and writer. He is a member of the British SWP (Socialist Workers Party) and of RESPECT. He lectures at Portsmouth University, and writes mainly about Marxist theory and art.” There’s more at Wikipedia.
I would just love to know the processes by which this ‘story’ found its way to the BBC and onto the England page. You don’t think he just rang up a mate, do you ?
Dr Molyneux has every right to pursue his political agendas as best he may. Whether it is right that the BBC should act as the megaphone for an SWP activist’s one-man ‘protest’ I’m not so sure.
(Note btw two other reports on the front page – the believed arrest of a believed man for what police believe was a hammer attack – and the deaths of two ‘graffiti artists’. Didn’t they used to be called vandals ?)
UPDATE – this might be a lazy journalism/bias mix rather than the old comrades network in action. The story appeared in the Johnstone Press-owned Portsmouth News on the 10th, was picked up by the Daily Mail the same day, and the Mirror the following day (note that none of the foregoing are financed by compulsory taxation). Two days later the rehashed story appeared on the BBC. They might have done a bit of checking, but why bother when it rings all the right bells ? (Even nobler, unmercenary bloggers may be guilty of such sins on rare occasions.) Thanks to Matthew in the comments at Tim Worstall’s.
UPDATE 2 – Andrew points out that the BBC certainly know who Dr Molyneux is.
Bring back the Black and White Minstrel Show!
He lectures at Portsmouth University and writes about Marxist theory and art – as from his website.
Is public money used to fund this man and provide him with income, apart from what the BBC puts in his pocket? Blair went on about ‘education, education, education’. Is this where the funding goes for ‘education, education, education’?
Assuming you’ve got the right Molyneux, Laban, it looks like the BBC know full well of his political pedigree too – see: here – a grammar school boy no less. Chance would be a fine thing for those of us too young to have had the chance 🙂
This row reminds me of the ongoing battle for Fazer licorice boy in Finland.
British Labour MEP Claude Moraes is currently attempting to ban the licorice boy from the package of Fazer licorice bar.
You can see the picture of this licorice boy here:
http://www.finlandforthought.net/2005/12/05/racist-finnish-candy/
He sure looks a lot like the golly character.
Political correctness has gone way over the top with BBC leading the way.
No, Alan Man, political correctness has not gone way over the top. You share a common misconception that political correctness is well-meant, although sometimes some over-enthusiastic people take it over the top. This is known as “political correctness gone mad”.
But political correctness was always a mad concept because it was designed to control what was formerly free speech. And, indeed, to get people into the habit of self-censoring their thoughts before speaking. Another name for “political correctness” is “thought fascism”.
This was always the intention. It is a fascist construct and has been wildly successful in Britain.
No mention of this story on R4 PM programme today [Saturday]. Its probably because they devoted most of the programme to Gordon Brown.
We had a report from Gordon Brown’s conference today where (according to the BBC reporter Sean Curran) “it was an opportunity for Gordon Brown to be a bit more expansive and show us what he’s really like”, and references to Brown’s ‘fascinating’ article in todays Telegraph. This went on until 5:18 PM, with only a couple of minutes in between for any criticism, which was provided by the leader of the SNP.
The BBC are now doing this on a pretty much weekly basis. Sending news crews to follow Gordon Brown around and report in glowing terms his speeches and ‘plans for the future’. There was zero news value in today’s report, yet they saw fit to spend approximately half their 30 minute news bulletin on it. It is pure Brown/Labour propaganda, regurgitated by the BBC, and paid for by us.
I bought a delightful coffee set in Rhodes last year featuring this guy:
http://www.europages.com/logos/002607032.gif
You don’t think he just rang up a mate, do you?
What, you mean an extreme lefty might have contacts in BBC Views Online’s Hampshire region?
http://biased-bbc.blogspot.com/2004/04/andrew-bowman-writes-one-story.html
http://biased-bbc.blogspot.com/2003/05/in-which-rob-snaps-at-aunties-ankles.html
Surely not!
BTW., BBC Hampshire is running this major story…
Man racially abuses Muslim woman
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/6258411.stm
Best part abourt gollywogs was imagining where the strawberry jam came from
The suggestion is, not that Molyneux got on to the BBC, but that the BBC, on learning to their dismay that no one had complained about the gollies, telephoned Molyneux and invited him to shoot his mouth off. Then they could report a row.
The suggestion is, not that Molyneux got on to the BBC, but that the BBC, on learning to their dismay that no one had complained about the gollies, telephoned Molyneux and invited him to shoot his mouth off. Then they could report a row.
Yes, this is definitely worth digging deeper into.
More on Molyneux
http://www.port.ac.uk/departments/academic/adm/staff/title,2039,en.html
I’m sure it’s deliberate bias.
The BBC has him as:
“Dr John Molyneux, from the University of Portsmouth”
where as Portsmouth Today has him as:
“University lecturer John Molyneaux, Portsmouth convener for the anti-racist Respect political party”
The BBC description:
* gives him his doctorate, adding credibility.
* describes him as “Dr John Molyneux, from the University of Portsmouth”; in other words they are further enhancing his credibility by implying that his views are spoken with the authority and blessing of the University, and implying that he is speaking on behalf of the relevant department at the university. The Portsmouth Today story simply refers to him as a university lecturer, without implying that he is speaking with the backing of the University.
* they omit any reference to his far-left extremist politics.
While on his blog we find (http://johnmolyneux.blogspot.com/):
“Marxism is not only against capitalism, it is also for socialism and now seems a good point to say something about the kind of society Marxists aim for and struggle to bring into being.
The workers of the socialist future will be very different from the workers • or any of us • today because they will have been profoundly changed by the process of overthrowing capitalism.
[snipped out more Marxist claptrap]
Real human freedom will be realized.
[This is] why socialism is a goal worth fighting for.
”
Below that is more articles written for a Korean socialist newspaper.
So in other words this guy is about as extreme on the left as you can get, and yet the BBC are happy to quote him without any mention of what he is (namely a far-left extremist), in an attempt to create story.
Hmmmm.
If you check the story out now the ‘Row’ has been downgraded to ‘Criticism’
Caught with their hands in the cookie jar yet again, the BBC retreats….
HSLD writes:
”
Caught with their hands in the cookie jar yet again, the BBC retreats….”
Isn’t it curious how quiet are the likes of “Reith”, MrMinit and the other BBC apologists, whenever the Corporation is caught bang to rights, like this?
99% true, but in this particular instance it could simply be because Reith rarely comments on weekends.
“…writes mainly about Marxist theory and art.”
That’s not the most compact euphemism for “malignant imbecile” I’ve ever heard, but it’ll do.
“The anti-racist Respect party”, moo? I’m not familiar with that one. The only Respect party I know of is the one George Galloway adorns. I imagine I’d like the anti-racist one better. But I imagine a lot, sometimes.
Molyneaux is true to Marx’s creed. The old boy hated golliwogs:
“It is now quite plain to me — as the shape of his head and the way his hair grows also testify — that he is descended from the negroes who accompanied Moses’ flight from Egypt (unless his mother or paternal grandmother interbred with a nigger). Now, this blend of Jewishness and Germanness, on the one hand, and basic negroid stock, on the other, must inevitably give rise to a peculiar product. The fellow’s importunity is also nigger-like.
Letter of Marx to Engels 1862 (he’s dissing Lassalle, one of his ideological rivals and a one-time suitor of one of his daughters).
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1862/letters/62_07_30a.htm
Neither the Mail nor the Mirror mention the Respect connection, so maybe they just copied the Portsmouth News story poorly. But none of these stories mention that lecturer John Molyneux is Dr John Molyneux, whereas the BBC does. Hence they must have checked him out (or already knew who he is.)
The BBC do this all the time getting someone with an agenda to comment on something without giving their back story. The BBC can’t claim it’s a mistake as it happens too often and never happens to anyone right of centre.
‘Man racially abuses Muslim woman’
You get a hammer head in your skull and it’s not racist but someone claims they had their veil (a religious symbol) pulled off and everyone calls it racist.
If you wrote him up as a Private Eye-style Dave Spart, you couldn’t make it funnier. Just hilarious. ‘University of Portsmouth’, eh? The ultimate Meeja Studies sinkhole.
And one day, when they write the history of the BBC’s plunge into shoddy incompetence, the story of this particular ‘story’ should go on the front page.
On ‘Dr’ John Molyneux, what was the subject of his doctoral thesis?
There is a long history of the BBC and these minor soi disant academics from the former polytechnics.
In the period before the second Gulf war, when the Stop The War crew were hammering away (if one may use that word), there was a great deal of airtime given to a tightly-knit little bunch of Marxists, to air their views.
A careful listener would have noticed the same handful of names being read out, over and over again, on any programme with a readers’ letters element. The same communist agitators were also given exceptional treatment on DNHYS, to which they flocked.
It seems they still get priority tratment from the “unbiased” BBC today.
GCooper-
I’d forgotten them!! Wasn’t there someone from the Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford, threatening massive Allied losses thanks to the Iraqi military might? I must go a-Googling to find him.
Chuffer:
That person may have been Paul Rogers…
“world-renowned security expert Paul Rogers”
http://www.ibtauris.com/ibtauris/display.asp?ISB=1845112059&TAG=&CID=ibtauris
Our mission is to find one of his “All our troops will be toasted” predictions, although I suspect it was before the Kuwait Gulf War, so way back in the mists of time.
Does the Gradniau have a search engine that far back?
Look at this cover of Paul Rogers Book “Iraq and the War on Terror” – Notice a name on the back who has endorsed it? I’ll give you a clue-he works for the BBc and goes native with the Taliban.
http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/sbtwc/other/video/video.htm
Is this the same John Molyneux “veteran SWP leader”?
http://cpgb.org.uk/worker/553/swpdemocracy.htm
Maybe you want to read his blog.
http://johnmolyneux.blogspot.com/