The BBC did itself proud today heaping praise on Gordon Brown. Online Reeta Chakrabarti was leading the way with this incredible pile of Brown-boosting. Notwithstanding the fact that she highlights the cheesiness of the conference speech occasion and its artificiality (not that she adequately describes how set up the whole edifice was), she squarely falls into the trap of simply praising Gordon.
Look at the segue in the following:
“he pushed all the right buttons – personal about how the NHS had saved his sight – political with some crowd-pleasing Tory-bashing.
‘Pro-market’
Serious about the economy – and substantial when talking about the Labour agenda.”
We go from the standard language of “button-pushing” to the stupid cheerleading of Gordon’s supposed qualities.
What about the observation that this year there was no no more boom and bust? What about the absence of the usual crowing about his own long-term management of the economy?
Instead Gordon was boasting that he was the man for the crisis. There’s no downside to Gordon’s rhetoric, is there? Just what kind of dupes do the BBC have to be to fall for this so completely and without reserve? The only reserve they can muster is that this speech might not be enough for public opinion. But then the public are mad, aren’t they (when they oppose Labour)? It’s child’s play to score a hit against Gordon, but the BBC’s kid gloves were tailor-made for protecting such a moron.
One final point: it is true that other media also reported Gordon’s speech as a good one. But they (eg. Sky) made clear that it was good from the partisan point of view. And they (eg. Sky) do not habitually acquiece to the Government’s own notions of its competence. The BBC is uniquely funded and uniquely wedded to the delusions from which Gordon drinks so deeply.
