“Day-o, Day-ay-ay-o
BBC come and me wan’ go home….”
Harry Belafonte is the sort of guy guaranteed a warm welcome from the BBC and so it proved this morning on Today at 8.20am. Sarah Montague fawned over Belafonte, the “activist and singer” as the BBC so carefully describe him. Treating him as a latter day combination of Martin Luther King meets Ghandi, Sarah seemed strangely disinterested in exploring some of his more colourful thoughts. Here are some pickings…
” Three years ago, he disparaged Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice as “house slaves” toiling on the Bush plantation. Miss Rice he compared to a “Jew” who was “doing things that were anti-Semitic and against the best interests of her people.”
He’s helped raise money for the Rosenberg Fund for Children, an organization whose stated mission is to provide “for the educational and emotional needs of children of targeted progressive activists, and youth who are targeted activists themselves.”
The fund is named for Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. Such progressive activists were they that they betrayed atomic bomb secrets to Russia. And were justly executed for their treason.
In 2000, Belafonte visited Cuba and spoke at a rally honoring the Rosenbergs. His pal Castro, another progressive activist, was hailed by Harry for his role in keeping Cuba “an example of keeping the principles the Rosenbergs fought and died for alive.”
In the early 1980s Belafonte journeyed to Europe to participate in pro-Communist “peace” rallies that demanded unilateral disarmament by the U.S. and its allies. When American Indian Movement radical Dennis Banks was sentenced to three years in jail for rioting with a dangerous weapon and assault, the always helpful Harry sent a statement to the court on his behalf.
More recently, Harry identified the real culprit of September 11th. Speaking at St. Sabina’s Church in Chicago in early 2003, Belafonte was quoted by the Chicago Sun-Times:
“We move about the world arrogantly, calling wars when we want, overthrowing governments when we want. There is a price to be paid for it — look at 9/11.”
Is it any wonder Sarah hung on his every word?
The BBC has no responsibility, but an abundance of certainty.
Like a naughty child with indolent parents, the difference between right and wrong,
is lost forever in a life of important arrogance.
As usual – the BBC fails to describe an interviewee as a “far left-wing” or “raging red”. Double standards everywhere – Old Harry is just an “activist”.
There are lots more instances of Belafonte’s intemperate outbursts.
Come on, they can’t be ‘extremists’ unless they’re white working-class folk who aren’t happy about their towns being transformed in to Third World slums.
And we wonder why Britain has been going down the plughole for the last 30 years with subversives like Montague doing the flagships.
The BBC: Paxo Britannica
Surely you know that fighting against apartheid and supporting Obama trump everything else?
You’re only a ‘pressure group’ or ‘lobbyist’ if the BBC don’t like you….other wise you’re a heroic ‘activist’ or as in the case of ‘Occupy’ you’re the ‘new Democracy’.
Not sure how a group of layabouts who are essentially blackmailing people are democratic.
BBC loves the ‘ethnic’…and hates the White/Western….
Nicky Campbell caught with his guilt complexes showing this morning in discussion about Syria and Assad….he thought he had the final word signing off that Assad and family were ‘of course all supported by the West’……Kim Howells managed to wrestle the mike off Campbell and put him right…saying ‘Let’s get the record straight…Syria was a major client state of the Soviet Union…..and still is with Russia.’
Why did Campbell feel the need to say that? It served no purpose apart from being a misrepresentation of the reality.
and let’s not forget it was the Russians who armed the Israelis in 1948 when the Americans wouldn’t.
“all supported by the West… Why did Campbell feel the need to say that?”
I wonder if this tweet, sent shortly before the Howells interview by Campbell’s Muslim friend Mo Ansar, had anything to do with the R5L presenter’s line of questioning:
What could Mo have been so keen to tell Nicky? Well, here’s what he had to say on Sunday:
Sounds like quite a similar opinion to the one Alan says Campbell offered (didn’t hear the interview myself).
Is there anyone on the Right able to dm Campbell like that? Defenders of the indefensible are welcome to try and pick that cherry.
Looking at it again I think that particular DM was probably sent after the Howells interview . Still, as David Preiser says, there’s no evidence of similar cosiness between Campbell and people with right of centre opinion.
Unless I’m mistaken, Ansar has a nice picture of himself with Campbell on his Twitter page.
Yeah, yeah, does not imply endorsement, etc.
Lord alone knows how many fellow travellers old Harry gave cover for during his many years.
I imagine that many Leftie/Commie groups in the USA are grateful to Belafonte for the cover.
A useless Leftie idiot-and like Earle, Baez, Buffy St Marie, Cooder and Bruce…privileged lotus eaters.
Indeed I do like a few of these…but their predictable politics seems to get them more publicity than what they`re doing today.
Like Jackson Browne and the like…they`ll all back Obama, because its beyond brains, and they`d never work again in Hollywood if they did anything other.
Sheer monoculture…
“because its beyond brains”
You’re right there…don’t think…just FEEL.
Emotions are so much easier to come by, and so much more marketable to their group-think, socially conscious audiences
Here’s my Twitter exchange with professional Mancunian (and former BBC Radio Manchester presenter) Terry Christian earlier today.
And there our discussion ended.
An archetypal media dickhead with credulous 4th form lefty views about Cuba. No worse than the US or UK? What a moronic prick.
Good lord that reflexive praise for Cuba’s health service and alleged lack of starvation is shocking. Even though I should know better, have heard it from these people a million times, the sheer Walter Durantyism still makes me shake my head in disbelief. Does the man really have such twisted morals?
Missed this one:
In Terry’s knee-jerk world opposing Cuba’s totalitarian regime makes one a neocon apartheid lackey.
Not the sharpest pencil, is he?
No he never was.
Is he back on Radio Manchester then?…thought he`d been sacked and gone to an employment tribunal.
In this case, the BBC were right to lose him…typical gobby punk gone to seed and still dreaming of the end of Thatcher and the recognition of H-Block IRA boyos as political prisoners.
One of the Children of the Revolution, it`s been so easy to fool since 1972…and he`ll die without having learned anything apart from the name of Johnny Marrs dog.
Sometimes there`s a case for NOT bringing back grammar schools as long as the like of Tex issue forth from them.
I don’t think he’s back on Radio Manchester – I posted this as related business rather than direct Biased BBC stuff.
@terrychristian should just admit fact that he’s Communist luvvie whose worldview doesn’t include commie body count #gulaglackey
terry christian@terrychristian 28 May 12
@4d2b @indiaknight @BBCr4today Cuba’s brutal regime you mean only caribbean island with a health service, free education and starvation free
Funny how the BBC can look at inner elements when it suits them. Haven’t seen this kind of comparisons made when referring to (evil) Israel though.
I’m guessing that the BBC will be using Belefonte’s banana boat song with a slight alteration to introduce their Taliban poetry show – ‘Come Mr. Taliban tally me banana’