…for all those BBC hacks, with their selective memories, who are currently pushing the “Angry American Right” narrative:
Frei, Webb, Mardell, Mason et al – a bit of balance and a sense of perspective would be nice.
A reminder…
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That is s uperb little compilation – proving that both extremes can be nutty. But of course to the BBC there is only one extreme – in the US and also in Britain.
The BBC is on one of those extremes. As David P reminded us, according to Robin Aitken a BBC Newsroom had a ‘BushHitler’ poster without demur from its staff.
That’s a must for the Digest. If you’ve got time DB could you include a few links to the recent partisan piffle of Mardell and Frei on the ‘unprecedented’ anger of the Tea Party?
Whose the “silly billy” now Mr Mardell?
Justin Webb talked about the “nasty atmosphere” in American politics with Obama groupie Richard Wolffe on the Today programme last Saturday (3.28 in). For Wolffe it was all down to the rhetoric of conservative talk radio and Sarah Palin, and he mentioned “bullets” going through campaign office windows. In fact it was one bullet, it actually went through a Republican congressman’s window, and local police determined it was a result of random gunfire. All this was known by Saturday, but mentioning any of that wouldn’t fitWolffe’s (and the BBC’s) narrative.
Matt Frei asked NBC news anchor Brian Williams about “all this wrath and all this rage out there” on Americana on Sunday (about 3 mins in). Frei brought up the issue of “racists slurs”, referring to claims that Tea Party activists subjected black congressmen to a barrage of racist insults; in fact there is no evidence to support the accusations, even with an offer of $10,000 from Andrew Brietbart.
Newsnight’s Paul Mason is wondering about civil war.
Mark Mardell set the tone for a recent report with his opening sentence: “When the bearded activist in wraparound sunglasses put his hand on my shoulder, I felt his anger”. (To be fair to him he does raise the possibilty that the current anger might not be as unprecedented as some claim, what with all those actual riots in the 60s and 70s and all).
Thanks. Yes, MM refers to the riots at those times, but as the video shows, he has a complete memory hole of the ‘Dubya years only just gone. Mainly because he and his colleagues were fomenting the hate at that time.
Keep up the good work, DB. Like I keep saying, don’t trust the BBC on US issues.
I’ve tipped off Newsbusters about some of the things Brian Williams said to Matt Frei and they’ve told me they’re going to blog about it.
Here’s ex-BBC journalist Robin Aitken on the BushHitler poster in the BBC Newsroom:-
The video-journalist who spliced the piece has some insightful comments as well:-
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2010/03/025964.php
The BBC would be all over this if a Republican had said the following:
“My fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize.”
However, he’s a black Democrat so no doubt they’ll give him a pass.
Wow. This guy either had something slipped in his coffee or he is way beyond his reach. At least he didn’t write anything on his hand, then I’m sure the impeccably impartial MSM would have given him exactly the same treatment as Sarah Palin.