Monthly Archives: August 2010

NIGER’S PROBLEM

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In the prime post 8am news slot, Today ran an item on the famine that afflicts the African nation of Niger.
Mike Thomson explained the woes that the inhabitants of this country face with first drought and then flood causing endless misery. However I was struck by the fact that Mike mentioned, in passing, that despite being the poorest country in the world it has a booming population. Howe odd. He didn’t mention that fact that Islam has gained a firm grip on this land. I wonder why? Does he think that this has no impact on Niger? If so, he is deluding himself and misleading listeners.

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SOCIALISING SCHOOLS

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Martin Narey from Barnados seems a permanent fixture on the BBC these days and it is clear that his radical socialist views chime with those held bythe State Broadcaster. A favourite BBC trick is to invite the favoured interviewee into the Studio whilst the opponent languishes on the end of a phone line. So it was that Narey was in the studio this morning whilst David Green of Civitas was kept at distance on the phone line. That way, Narey’s voice sounds more powerful, more authoritative than Green’s and since Narey was advocating further social engineering in our schools it was important that he got as good a platform as possible.Even when they attempt “balance” there is always bias.

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BENDING HISTORY (AGAIN)

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I am a fan of Jimi Hendrix (since 1966!), and have also read widely about him; I am currently writing my own book which explains factors about him that have been over-idealised. Given the BBC’s record in mangling history, I therefore looked forward with some trepidation to a BBC Radio 4 programme broadcast earlier this week about this musical genius by the lefty singer-turned- broadcaster Tom Robinson. As I feared, it was mostly a car crash. Robinson spent a good deal of time telling us that Jimi was a supporter of the Black Panthers, and his overall message was that he was at heart a leftist sympathiser and sometime activist who supported – albeit sometimes covertly – every liberal cause around in the 1960s, including being resolutely against the Vietnam war. There were some qualifications to this picture, but the overall thrust was very clear: he was lefty icon and hero. Mr Robinson also disgracefully told us that the Black Panthers were virtually an unmitigated force for good, carefully omitting any reference to their many acts of violence.

The reality of Jimi’s life is very different and much more complex. I believe he did not condemn the Vietnam war outright because at the very least, he was ambivalent about it, having served as a member of 101 Airborne, and he had chums like thbe bassist Billy Cox who were also ex-servicemen. Nor was he a rabid supporter of the Black Panthers; the reality was that he knew that if he crossed them they would make his life hell in that they specialised in creating crowd troubles at selected events. Charles Cross, Hendrix’s most recent biographer, makes this very clear, and in fact mentions the Panthers only seven times in his 500-page analysis, virtually as footnotes. The real evidence suggests that if anything, Jimi – despite his showmanship – was by instinct a social conservative. But at any rate, his powers of analysis and capacity to become involved in any movement were severely limited by his drug addiction.

I could go on, but I think I have made the point. Yet again, here was a full-scale BBC effort to tailor historical reality to fit their own extreme world view – and to cheer, en route, for the Black Panthers. Shameful.

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BACK TO THE 80’S…

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I see the BBC have responded to the news that Asil Nadir is planning to come back to the UK by dragging up all those memories of the 1980’S emphasising his links to the Conservative Party. I’m not sure if this is the single biggest news story of the day, perhaps it is, but it is clear that the BBC does not miss an opportunity to put the knife into the Conservatives for the sins of the 80’s.  In that regard, every day is ground hog day.

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