If you read nothing else today...

Mr Cameron's 9/11 speech apparently targets anti-Americanism.  He should begin at the BBC.  The Today programme marked the anniversary of Katrina with an interview with Spike Lee.  This morning the BBC gave a platform to Gore Vidal and his 'America has become a police state' nonsense.  'Aren't you exaggerating just a little bit?' teased the interviewer.  Most Americans would not regard either Lee or Vidal as representative of their views but that does not stop the BBC representing them as such.

If you read nothing else today I would point you to this by Christopher Hitchens.  Few people have a better understanding of what the war on terror involves.

ATTEND BBC BIAS EVENT TONIGHT.

NOON ADDITION: Drinking from Home on how today's BBC might have reported 1943.

Comments

[George Hinton]

The article by Christopher Hitchens was as ever incisive, and it is well worth reading.
As for the BBC the anti US bias has been apparant for years. One accepts that Auntie Beeb has a left bias and just filters the propaganda message.
However, as the BBC relies on the UK licence payer for its funding, i would prefer the political bias to be eliminated. That might mean a rather large cull of the workforce, most of whom would not find a job in the real world outside the BBC.
No shame there then.

[malcolm]

I think the influence of the BBC can sometimes be overblown. That the BBC is anti American is unarguable but they are also relentlessly pro EU and have been singularly unsuccessful in persuading the British people to follow their line on that subject.
Bush,Cheney, Rumsfeld together with some nightmare immigration and customs officials have made it very easy to become anti American without help from the BBC.The sad fact is that just about everyone I know (except people I've met from this blog) has become quite anti American. To me this is foolish and I would hope that President Bushs successor will be able to reestablish friendly relations between our peoples.

[Richard North]

When is Cameron going to understand - if ever - that the "special relationship" is more than a matter of polemics and involves tangible co-operation, primarily in the military sphere? (See Churchill's Fulton speech.)

Thus, continued political and military integration with the EU is not compatible with the maintenance of the special relationship, to which effect Cameron's continued support for EU membership - and his failure to speak out against military integration - is entirely inconsistent with his professed support for the US.

[Tom]

I think what I have a problem with is what is now assumed: that there should be a "war" on terror (whatever "terror" is). The majority of Mr Hitchens's observations are basically violent crimes that deserve an essentially criminal response (e.g. as per Lockerbie). I cannot see how a war on terrorism (which is what I presume is normally meant by terror) can be won when there no state to fight, army to defeat, or government to topple. This is about as likely as winning the War on Murder. In both cases, I firmly believe the problems need to be dealt with, but don't believe war is the way to do it. I certainly don't feel any safer using King's Cross Station now than when I did in 2001 or 2005.

Making it a war has the further disadvantage of dignifying the criminals as combatants rather than as criminals.

I hope Mr Cameron and friends can inject some fresh thinking into the problem.

Tom (a floating voter)

[passing leftie]

The extraordinary glee with which the BBC has laid into Labour this week, particularly on the Today program, supports the thesis that the BBC is biased. Pro-left bias, though, that's laughable. I can see why when you are looking from far away over on the right the BBC might seem left-biased - it's just a problem of perspective.

Most sensible people are anti-Bush and his administration, anti-neo-con and anti-Christian fundamentalist, but pro the American people.

[Editor]

But, passing leftie, can't you see that the BBC is attacking Labour from the left?

[Tom]

Where else do you attack Labour from nowadays?

[christina speight]

Passing Leftie - "Most sensible people are anti-Bush and his administration, anti-neo-con and anti-Christian fundamentalist, but pro the American people."

From an avowed Leftie that's quite a bunch of cliches strung together. With Cameron an avowed Liberal conservative [ HE defined the small "c"] doesn't that make all intelligent people "neo-cons" however you define them. As for "Christian fundamentalism" it all depends on how you define "fundamental". If PL: means believing what we say in the Creed then quite a lot of us fit that description too. And Bush? I may be in a minority there but I happen to think that he's been more right than wrong and certainly a lot better than Clinton who let the Muslim terrorists set up their Afghan training camps and did absolutely nothing about it. That was betrayal. The war was not started in Iraq - it was started 5 years ago today and not by America.

[passing leftie]

But, passing leftie, can't you see that the BBC is attacking Labour from the left?
I think it is fair to say that with the exception of a few media pundits, most people in the media are left wing to a certain extent, including those who write for the Daily Mail, the Sun, and other similar right-wing rags. In other words, it's quite possible to believe one thing and yet still produce neutral content. I don't agree that the BBC is biased against the Tories - they love Cameron for example.

[christina speight]

Cameron's speech was his usual limp-wristed ineffectual stuff. It verged on talking sense at times but failed to make a clear policy definition or make any hard choices.

Richard North points to the incompatability of EU-wide defence integration with any special relationship.

This is, not least, because defence research is so much more advanced across the atlantic that the best AND THE CHEAPEST weapon systems come from there. Because of Blair's deal with Chirac in St Malo we are continually buying substandard equipment for our troops when cheaper and more effective items are available off-the-shelf from the USA. British soldiers are dying to appease Blair's obsession with European integration.

[malcolm]

Oh passing leftie, your political bias is clouding your judgement the BBC addresses EVERY issue from a left Liberal standpoint.
Having spent Many years working in the national press I can assure you that most journalists do believe what they write.Trevor Kavanagh being forced to write pro Blair editorials and the work of a lefty like Sion Simon at the Telegraph are quite rare exceptions.

[Patsy Sergeant]

Just out of interest 'passing leftie' would you call the Daily Mirror a left-wing RAG??

[passing leftie]

Just out of interest 'passing leftie' would you call the Daily Mirror a left-wing RAG??

A rag, definitely, and left of the other tabloids.