The mother of a British soldier in Afghanistan didn’t stick to the narrative in so many ways this morning on Nicky Campbell’s show (42 mins in, Judy from Bracknall) in which he asked
‘Is the future of Afghanistan worth the price our troops are paying?’.
That question alone should tell you all you need to know about the BBC’s attitude throughout the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The only time Campbell and Co are interested in British troops is when they come home injured or in a body bag…and can then be used by the BBC to tell us about the ‘cost’ of this war…and ask as Campbell has: ‘is it worth it?‘…before shoving a microphone into the face of a grieving wife or mother to demand if she is ‘angry’.
However today Campbell was shaken. The mother revealed she had once been a BBC employee and was loyal to it…but no more, not since 2003.
Why? Because the BBC had offered no support to the troops…the BBC had been entirely negative and only reported the bad side to the war…they had let the troops down.
She did have her hero though proclaiming:
‘God Bless that scallywag Rupert Murdoch because the Sun has supported the troops throughout’
Campbell was taken aback and suddenly she was no longer welcome….Campbell declared ‘well we’re not going to talk about the BBC.’
BBC presenters never do want to talk about the BBC, and are highly reluctant to accept that it is even remotely possible that the BBC could be at fault.
Humphrys was similarly silenced into a spluttering confusion a couple of years ago when an army officer came on and denounced, unexpectedly for Humphrys, the BBC’s dire coverage of Afghanistan which was consistently downbeat and negative. Humphrys found it harder to brush off the comments of a respected officer who knew what he was talking about…but he did try.
God Bless Rupert Murdoch.
Last week the Beeboid reporter told us that McGuiness had been an IRA commander and his command had been responsible for the death of “British troops” – they wouldn’t be “our troops” would they?
Rupert Murdoch may be a bit anti-British but compared to the BBC he is Nelson, Wellington and Churchill all rolled into one.
And I hope that when the dust settles, Mr Murdoch dishes out to the bbc, the guardian and the mirror all that they have coming to them, as well as Mr Watson, MP and the other self-regarding destroyers in the labour party.
Quite right John. I suspect that Murdoch is keeping his powder dry at present, but when the time is right he will go nuclear. Personally, I can’t wait.
Same here. The likes of Mr. Watson, Mr. Bryant and all those others who have displayed a complete lack of impartiality and decency during Leveson’s bore-fest will have to keep their noses very clean. As MPs, they should do anyway, but we all know from the expenses scandal just how venal and dishonest many are.
The lady was awesome. Nicky Campbell was genuinely speechless. She was followed by Operation Shoebox but guess what, the last word was negative. “no other choice…”
I have just listened to this lady, who must have started bells ringing in the BBC appeasement workshop. When she mentioned Murdoch…my oh my. Good for you lady, you have my respect.
Funny how people are honest because their careers are not at stake. It explains clearly how dishonest the salaried staff of the BBC are, knowing their career depends on an unspoken line to stick to. The Invisible Narrative. Nicky knows.
When is this lady’s interview on (roughly)? The clip featured on the site link is not the one mentioned, for obvious if typically venal reasons. Not sure I could stomach Mr. Campbell’s faux sanctimony all the way through to get to it.
42 mins in …judy from Bracknall,
Parliament should take a leaf from Rupert Murdoch’s book and divide the BBC into two parts: news programmes that the reader/listener pays to access and entertainment cultural programming that is paid for by a (reduced) licence fee.
Alan, I flagged this in the open thread. Thanks picking up on it.
Yes, indeed, the Beeboids’ little liberal hearts just burst at the thought of our lads being put in harm’s way… well, except when it’s something like this:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2167103/UK-troops-told-Dont-shoot-unless-shot–Helmand-casualties-soar.html
Another point to realise is that the bbc are directly responsible for many of the British casualties.
Our forces are constrained in the level response they can offer to potential threats, because of theCommanders’ fear that even the slightest mis-judgement on their part, will be blown out of all proportion by the bbc.
Note the BBC republishing unverifiable claims that US troops have burned/ flushed down toilet copies of the Koran. Every time they do so to inflame simpleton Islamists they cause dozens of deaths. Manslaughter charges against bBC excutives please?
…and meanwhile Christian churches are being destroyed all over the place, wherever Islamic nationalism is on the rise, and you’d barely notice if it weren’t for online sources. Conservative nationalism, when it has an Islamic flavour, is absent from the narrative. This is in contrast to any other form conservative nationalism, which is given the full demonisation treatment.
Someone burns a book – headline news
Crowds burn dozens of churches – zzzzzzzzzz
…and there are no rampaging hordes of ranting Christians taking to the streets all over the world, burning, murdering and looting in response. It’s an important cultural difference that is never reflected in news coverage.
Islam = medieval culture
Despite revisionist historians, it had a pretty bad reputation in the middle ages and even , with many people, in the 7th century.
I’d say right now Islam is having a reformation like christianity did in the 15th, 16th, 17th century. Both religions are going back to their roots. Christainity is a religion of peace, God our creators own religion. While Islam is a false religion, a satanic religion founded on violence against everyone. The sooner radical Islam is stopped the better and all the Left-wing useful idiots that loved it are stopped the better.
” The sooner radical Islam is stopped”
Qualifying Islam as radical impies there is another more benign form, or have I read too much into your comment?
There is only “Islam” : more benign versions do not exist. Try reading Robert Spencer’s book “A politically incorrect guide to islam”.
As a regular listener and a huge fan of Nicky Campbell I’m always bewildered (and, to be frank, rather nauseated) seeing pieces like this on B-BBC.
Personally, I’m in no doubt as to the respect NC has for our servicemen.
I’ve just listened to the call he took from Judy and you have seriously mischaracterised it. He gave her free rein and it was great to hear her views.
As much as I would defend NC, Judy was spot on he what she said about the BBC overall.
Having now listened to the clip (must have missed the timing in the intro, so tx for that Alan), I must say that it is more nuanced than I had imagined.
Frankly Mr. Campbell appeared to be floundering around trying keep a bunch of plates spinning rather than suppressing the lady who, in a rare twist, seemed more to be steamrollering the interviewer more than the other way around.
Actually the whole thing merely confirms to me the absolute pointless snakepit that is our media estate. From strategic umbrella decisions at senior level that do create an environment where squaddies are looking over their shoulders lest a box-ticker wags a finger, to senior commanders desperately trying to walk a line between satisfying defending their men’s interests and not falling foul of reporters and anchors just itching for a ‘so what you are saying is..’ moment to capture a man’s career for the sake of a 30 second sound bite scalp.
Even the triviality of the ‘that’s all we have time for’ set up that governs a broadcaster not constrained by ad-breaks. A full flow debate on the lives and deaths of young folk serving in a foreign hell-hole, and at a charged, key juncture, the demands of ‘the schedule’ sees it get cut-away from to get… a traffic report.
All the rest are as bad, made worse by a trendy metro-mindset that has an unholy mix of right-on views mixed with an utter inability to grasp what it must be like for ordinary Afghans, soldiers on the ground… and the vast majority of the UK public being spoken at in an ongoing delusion that it is ‘for’.
I saw it on SKY today. The chocolate-toned anchor was interviewing a young man I presume was an ex-officer, who spent the entire time politely but firmly steering the guy away from what he wanted the situation to be from his comfy studio armchair outpost, with actual facts borne of experience on the ground at the sharp end.
Giving a person such as Judy an opportunity to share her views hardly seems a vast concession in the face of the overwhelming wave of negativity and hostile intrusion that characterises most reporting and ‘analysis’ of UK forces’ tasks and achievements. That this is seen as an amazing example of meeting even halfway is rather telling.
Maybe Mr. Campbell is not an active problem and even has integrity enough to sense when some balance is required. But he sure as heck is part of a machine that is a problem and long ago gave up on objectivity, from producers that set storylines, researchers who find what they have been told to find in support, reporters who report what suits and editors who leave out what doesn’t. And he is the smooth-talking front of it all.
Which sure as heck doesn’t make him much of a solution either.
you work for the bbc and I claim my 5 pounds
A rational study of the Islamic psyche.
http://islamversuseurope.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/moderate-muslims-and-nicolai-sennels.html
There is, however some here may not like to hear it, a perfectly rational case to be made against Nato policy in. Afghanistan.
This case has nothing to do with denigrating our soldiers.
The Neo Con/liberal attempt to bring democracy and nation building etc etc to that country has always been unrealistic. It should not be the function of an army to indulge in any such thing.
After smashing the Taliban after 9/11 the West should have withdrawn and left the country to it’s fate. With the proviso that any repeat of harbouring terrorists would bring immediate retribution.
Once again the West is guilty of a belief in the world as it wishes to see it rather than the world as it is. Meanwhile good men die. The same attitude is beginning to surface over Syria. As long as Syria poses no threat to the West it should be left well alone. It is not the function of a Western politician to bring democracy to anyone.