Ten minutes to one and as I wandered into the kitchen a public-school English voice was describing the evils of U.S. capital punishment, with lots of doomy-gloomy incidental colour (“we drove on, our mood – and the weather, overcast … incongruously a mynah bird was crying out in the next room …each morning we loaded up the van and drove to the frontier of life and death …“.
“Not Clive Stafford Smith again – he must have a contract with them, he’s on so often. Hang on – it should be “From Our Own Correspondent” at this time of day, surely ? They’re not giving him a slot on that, are they ?”
No, not Clive Stafford-Smith – but one Vivien White, who has been around a long time. It’s a tribute to his dispassionate reporting that they’re so easy to mix up. You can judge for yourself if you click the link for Saturday on the FOOC page – about 20 minutes in.
His piece had an especially touching ending.
As he could not shake hands with the convicted rapist and murderer he had been interviewing, due to the prison security glass, instead each pressed his palm against the glass opposite the other’s as they said farewell.
Objectivity at work!
I heard that too, there was a similar story, smeared with anti-Americanism a few weeks back on that smug show which took over from Home Truths. That time they had some smug singer make up an anti-American ditty as part of the yank bashing package.
Funny how the BBC is so obsessed with the USA executing murderers and rapists, but pays so little attention to Muslim countries killing people in bulk in public executions and stoning women to death for much lesser crimes.
Clearly BBC identifies with murderers rather than there victims – notice how vicitims families were not given a voice in the matter.
What kind of name is ‘Vivien’, anyway?