LOL
‘BBC Panorama whistle-blower reveals racist and Islamophobic programme
Criminal investigation underway as BBC Panorama whistle-blower reveals racist and Islamophobic programme on Tower Hamlets
I believe the programme is being used for political campaigning and electioneering purposes just weeks before local and Mayoral elections in May.’
Lutfur Rahman
The BBC seems to have overcome its inbuilt reluctance to deal with ‘sensitive’ communities and has set Panorama onto Lutfur Rahman (tonight 20:30 BBC 1)….to investigate claims that Tower Hamlets’ Mayor, Lutfur Rahman, has “used public funds both to promote himself and to create a political power base” and says that it has evidence “suggesting” the mayor has refused “to answer opposition questions about spending decisions involving millions of pounds of public money”.
A bit of a wasted opportunity really…a mere half hour programme looking at one very specific accusation….when there is so much more going on in Tower Hamlets, and all related to one issue….the BBC seems to be looking at things purely from a ‘technical and political’ point of view:
The programme exposes serious inadequacies in the checks and balances of a directly elected mayoral system, particularly when there’s a context of dysfunctional party politics.
Rahman doesn’t like the attention via Guido:
The BBC and the undercover production company, Films of Record, have also been referred to the Information Commissioner and there is now a criminal investigation underway.
….the BBC, he pronounces, being racist and Islamophobic…
[Which must be a bit of a problem for our long term resident race card playing troll on this site who shouts racist and islamophobe whenever Islam is mentioned.]
‘A dossier passed to us by a BBC whistle-blower has revealed it to be in total breach of the BBC’s editorial guidelines as a public broadcaster. It has clear racist and Islamophobic overtones targeting the Bangladeshi Muslim community in Tower Hamlets.’
Not only that but the BBC is attempting to alter the result of an election he alleges:
The BBC’s targeting of our borough is nothing short of a direct intervention in the outcome of an election.
Just as most accusations of ‘islamophobia’ don’t bare scrutiny Rahman’s own racist reaction, they’re white/non-Muslim, so they must be racist/Islamophobic, doesn’t stand up to close, or even the slightest, inspection….the last ditched, desperate defence of someone who has no other argument, no evidence, no substance, to back up their own case.
Panorama doesn’t even mention Islam/Muslim in the web report….they base their accusation solely on particular communities receiving grants for votes….no suggestion it is an Islamic conspiracy.
I guess Rahman and Owen Jones must have a lot to talk about…the BBC being the tool of the Far Right producing islamophobic and racist propaganda.
The BBC though, should be investigating the politics and cultural issues within such communities and force them into the open, especially as many wish them to remain hidden:
‘I do know that many, many Bangladeshis are terrified about speaking out in public for fear of vilification in their own community.’
Eric Pickles says:
“There is a worrying pattern of divisive community politics and mismanagement of council staff and resources by the mayoral administration in Tower Hamlets.”
But that isn’t the BBC’s issue…it is ignoring that ‘divisive community politics’.
The BBC doesn’t report Pickles saying that, merely this:
“Panorama has unearthed some very serious allegations that demand an answer,” he said. “I think the allegations or questions that Panorama raise are of a completely different magnitude to worries and concerns that I have with other councils.”
Slightly different.
Playing the race card seems to be a theme in Tower Hamlets:
Alibor Choudhury, the man in charge of the borough’s £1.2billion budget thought he had a good gag when he wanted to accuse Labour’s Bow West councillor Ann Jackson of being a racist and a fascist. Heck, she was wearing a black cardigan, so, er, wow, like Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts she must be part of John Biggs’s “black cardigan brigade”.
How tasteful.
The problem was she was wearing a black cardigan because she was in mourning for her ex-husband, whose funeral she had attended the day before.
Don’t remember this on the BBC….
THESE extraordinary videos show a town hall meeting descending into bitterness and chaos after an Asian councillor likened white colleagues to Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts, while another claimed his community had been branded “curry people”.
Playng the race card is a highly aggressive and political course of action that is designed to put the ‘guilty’ person on the defensive having to deny such an accusation or smear, knowing that ‘mud sticks’……but this shows just how convenient such a devious and malignant method it is as Asian members of Tower Hamlets had previously praised the designation of the area as the ‘Curry Capital’…..an ‘honour’ they called it…..
8.1 Question from Councillor Motin Uz-Zaman on the promotion of the ‘Curry Capital’ during the Olympics:
‘What steps did the Mayor take to promote Curry Capital during the Olympics? What was the total budget allocated to promoting Curry Capital and Brick Lane and will the Mayor provide a breakdown of what this budget was spent on?’
Response by Councillor Rania Khan, Cabinet Member for Culture:
‘The Mayor was successful in ensuring Brick Lane and Spitalfields received the honour being designated Curry Capital 2012.’
Perhaps one day the BBC will start investigating the East London Mosque and the extremists it harbours despite reassurances from the BBC that it is a place of tolerance and peace….
Adherents of a multi-faith society looking for a good news story about Islam could do a lot worse than spend an afternoon at the East London Mosque.
Or you could compare that with what Harry’s Place says: