Posted on 08/04/2008 10:37:35 PM PDT by kronos77
Michael Palin's New Europe has been rapped by the BBC Trust's editorial standards committee over its portrayal of the role of Serbia in the Balkan conflict in the 1990s.
Palin's most recent travelogue was "political commentary rather than a travel series" and gave an inaccurate account of the war in the 1990s Balkan conflict, according to one complainant.
Comments made by Palin about the destruction of a bridge at Mostar, Bosnia in 1993 came in for criticism from the complainant. Palin's comments were made in 'War and Peace', the first episode of the series, which was broadcast on BBC1 in September last year.
In its ruling on the Palin show, published today as part of its monthly update on complaints, the ESC said the presenter's comment that there was "no reason for the destruction" of the bridge at Mostar was "inaccurate".
The complainant also took exception to Palin's suggestion in the show that Serbia was "unfairly blamed" for all the trouble in the region.
In its ruling the ESC said that commentary in the show had oversimplified the issues when referring to who was to blame for the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
The committee said that the programme had "tried to provide context to imply that Serbia was not solely to blame".
However, it added that the "choice of phrasing did not do justice to the complex and controversial nature of the issues".
The ESC said that the comments "needed balance and context", adding that while the programme did not carry a political message it "could have done more to highlight Serbia's role in the conflict".
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Ping!
Well the Commrades in London....
LOL!
What is the "official" BBC line, what is the line Palin took, and what is the truth? I'm curious.
His parrot is not dead, it's only sleeping.
It’s an ex-parrot.
Not sure what Palin said. Haven't seen the episode yet, but it wouldn't be the first time Palin has pissed me off with his PC, "Isn't the EU just a wonderful thing?" speeches.
Journalists are scared poop-less of those Big Boy network types and it was sooooo obvious back then! This time it was Pailn's turn in the hot seat.
Brit, U.S. and NATO CYA. They don’t want anyone to point out what a travesty this was.
fiords
Judging by the posting, this one don't sound too very wonderful for the EU..
(Picturing Carol Cleveland in nun's costume, or maybe her underwear, saying "Bad Python...Bad, BAD, Python...")
Sounds very un-PC to me. Kudos to Palin. We always liked his travel shows. And you know its bad when the BBC starts giving a Monty Python a hard time.
Brave New BBC.
Good for Palin-—making an attempt to crack open the whole package of lies and deceit that led up to destruction and death in the Balkans and the fabricated demonization of Serbian people.
“...but it wouldn’t be the first time Palin has pissed me off with his PC, “Isn’t the EU just a wonderful thing?”
Pissed off?? Pissed off??
Whoa.
Life’s too short to get pissed off over what someone says.
Evil, wicked Zoot!
Norwegian Blue? Pining for the Fjords?
The Croatians happily destroyed the bridge.
Wonderful plumage.
Did it have any strategic value, or was it one of those “I’m destroying your hetitage” sort of things?
A little bit of both, the Muslims were asking for a little dose of bitch slap. Dio can fill in the details.
Yes, you are of course right. I'm wound a little too tight these days. Giving up cigarettes is no fun! ;>)
“Giving up cigarettes is no fun!”
To quote Lloyd Bridges in “Airplane!”
Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit drinking.
Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit smoking.
Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue.
Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines
The HVO didn’t “happily” destroy the bridge...it did so with a lot of regret. For several weeks, the Muslims in the ABiH were warned not to use the bridge to supply their tiny little pocket that they held on the Western side of the city. They refused to listen, engaged in an ambush that killed 8 HVO soldiers from my hometown, and then the bridge was blown up.
The Turks built that bridge and the Croats blowed it all up. Three kisses for the Croats that blowed that bridge up good!
And how buh-weet...
Regret my ass.
I don`t remember much, but the general impression is that was like touristic (especially in Hvar), not many comments, not drastic political comments involved - neutral and very reserved (or maybe it`s just me because I expected more anti-serb bias), not positive nor too negative just "that stupid war" kind of thing from his co-speakers and just few - bridge, mines etc, in all very dimmed picture...
About Belgrade it was about 3-4 minutes not more, one of his hosts (Rambo Amadeus - sarcastic name - famous serbian artist) mentioned Milosevic while yachting (! in relaxed "bad things come and go" tone, but people of Belgrade are like that most of the time), talked about night-life in Belgrade Pelin visited "splav" - float club-restaurant (numerous in Belgrade river coasts) and again about the war mentioned "blamed Serbs" etc...
What was hilarious is when he was traveling from Croatia to Albania on a boat, the croatian "barba" - captain, delayed, almost obstructed the voyage by navigating for very long time as he didn`t want to arrive to Albania too quickly as Palin wanted to sail out from the "west Balkans"...and in Albania Palin found interesting to visit some gloomy vilage where he had became a withness of animal sacrifice - some sheep slaughter that some villagers performed for well-being of their cousin-gastarbeiter...it surely do not get along with pictures from Dubrovnik, Mostar or Belgrade
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