Posted on 02/17/2003 4:18:05 PM PST by The Iguana
Andrew Sullivan deserves the thanks for this tipoff:
THE BBC'S TRIUMPH: Last Saturday's march in London was in part a triumph for the BBC. This enormously influential network - PBS on steroids - has been churning out relentless anti-war polemics for months now. They make Howell Raines seem positively objective. No doubt they had a receptive audience. But it is still quite an achievement. To give you an idea of how it's done, check out this transcript of a major television show, Panorama. Look at the content of the questions. See how the show, which is ostensibly a "debate", is in fact a kind of show trial, with the pro-war party represented by a tiny fringe, and given almost no time to make anything like a serious case. - 2:17:05 PM
-----
Introductory excerpt of the transcript:
NB: THIS TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A TRANSCRIPTION UNIT RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT: BECAUSE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF MIS-HEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY, IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE BBC CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS ACCURACY.
......................................................
PANORAMA
PANORAMA LIVE - TACKLING SADDAM
RECORDED FROM TRANSMISSION: BBC-1
DATE: 2:02:03
......................................................
GAVIN ESLER: Hello and welcome to this special edition of Panorama in which you have the chance to put your questions to the BBC’s correspondents on the prospects of war with Iraq. We may well look back on the past week as the time when war really did seem to be inevitable. The White House is already talking about a final phase which could last about another six weeks. So where do we go from here? Well, four months ago in an earlier Panorama we asked for your emails and questions and we put them to our correspondents. We had a big response to that programme and so have decided to repeat this again for you tonight. I’m joined by the BBC’s political editor Andrew Marr has been on the plane with Tony Blair on his visit to Washington. John Simpson, our world affairs editor who has guided us through many a conflict in the past, Panorama’s Jane Corbin who’s just returned from Baghdad, and we hope to go across to his vantage point overlooking the White House to join our Washington correspondent Matt Frei. Well, to explain how all this is going to be put together, he’s Darshini David.
DARSHINI DAVID: Thanks Gavin. Well throughout the programme you can continue to email or text us with your questions and opinions. We’ve been reading all the emails you’ve sent over the past week, that’s over 2000 of them, and I’m here with our team monitoring what you're saying to us throughout the programme – so keep them coming. Here’s how you can get in touch. You can send us an email through our website which his www.bbc.co.uk/panorama, or you can send us a text message. The short code is 82237. And, if you want to see more of what people have had to say you can visit ceefax page 155 or, if you're watching digital satellite you can press that red button on your handset and some of your comments will appear at the bottom of the screen. Gavin..
ESLER: Well our cameras have also been out and about all across Britain getting your views. Here’s one comment which sums up a lot of the concerns we’ve been hearing from you this week.
RHIANNA KHAN
Cardiff
I’m Riana Curran from Cardiff and I’d like to know when Tony Blair is going to stop following George Bush and think for himself.
ESLER: Well Andrew that, I suppose, is the poodle question, the question of this extraordinary relationship between the British Prime Minister and the American President, given that one would have thought when George Bush came to power, a very different man from Bill Clinton, perhaps the Prime Minister wouldn't get on with him. You've seen this relationship up close. How do they get on?
ANDREW MARR
Political Editor
At a personal level they seem to get on remarkably well, given that alleged political difference. This weekend George Bush stood there and lavished praise on Tony Blair in the most toe-curling manner. I mean it was really quite extreme. And Tony Blair says in private that Bush is no idiot, he’s not like he’s made out to be, he does listen, and clearly Blair thinks that he has influence, that he’s kept George Bush inside the United Nations process for much longer than he would otherwise have done and that he is listened to, and it has to be said in Washington people on the Hawkish end of the spectrum sometimes talk about the relationship being reversed, that somehow George Bush has been conned by Tony Blair.
ESLER: Ah, he’s bright is he?
ANDREW: So the poodle was there. But clearly the poodle tag reflects a grossly unequal relationship and that is inevitable. I mean we are a flea compared to their elephant.
ESLER: One question which will come up a lot and I think we’ll put to Matt Frei in Washington in a moment is this religious aspect. We know they’re both believers, and I’ve heard from people in the White House Press Co and so on there’s much speculation: do they pray together, do they have a sense of religious destiny? What do you make of all that?
ANDREW: Well certainly the White House is extraordinary religious. They have Bible studies every morning and we’re told it’s ‘not compulsory’ to go to Bible study in the White House these days but it’s not ‘not compulsory’ either. Tony Blair is also religious. We put this question to him I have to say: ‘do you pray together?’ and you get this ghastly sort of rictus and he goes quite grey. He hates the question. He knows how damaging it is, and he knows that a lot of people out there who regard the Bush crusade as in some respect a fundamentalist religious one and that terrifies him...
For rest of transcript (a must read, but keep your barf bag handy):
These guys make the New York Times look objective.
Just one more reason why the state has no business in the broadcasting business - unless it's VOA-type endeavours.
Perhaps Mr. Blair will start to consider the virtues of privatizing the British broadcast spectrum.
Regards, Ivan
Regards, Ivan
How bad is Sky these days?
Is there really even a semi-conservative news outlet of note in Britain now?
Television is inhabited by "luvvies", you know the type. To give you some idea - for charity, the BBC news team dressed up in drag and did scenes from the "Rocky Horror Picture Show". I can't imagine the staff of Fox News doing that.
Oh, and the arrival of Fox News via digital television here is a tremendous relief.
Regards, Ivan
Wouldn't help much. Dirty little secret: most of Britain is owned by Arab interests anyway...
The Telegraph is part of my daily surf. I only wish there were more papers like it. Someone has to offset the Leftism of the Guardian and the Independent. There are the tabloids, of course...but you know what I mean.
It would be nice just the same to see some broadcast equivalent in the Sceptred Isle. Too many folks get their news only or primarily from the telly.
The advent of Fox has had an impact well beyond its own audience over here. I can only hope that Murdoch or someone like him ultimately gets the opportunity to create something similar (with British sensibilities, obviously) on your side of the pond.
Blair rating plunges as support for Iraq war drops - poll
Tony Blair's popularity has plunged to minus 20 according to a new poll.
The Guardian/ICM poll also shows Labour's overall lead over the Conservatives has dramatically decreased by five points - from 13 to eight - over the past month.
Meanwhile, for the first time, the poll shows a clear majority - 52% - opposing war with Iraq. Support for the war is at its lowest yet, 29%.
However, even though Labour have slumped from 43% to 39%, the Conservatives have picked up only one point, to settle on 31%.
The situation is even worse for Iain Duncan Smith - with a personal rating of minus 23 points.
Charles Kennedy, the Liberal Democrat leader, emerges as the only popular party leader, with a personal rating of plus 21.
The poll found 41% say the weapons inspectors should be give only a few more weeks, but a further 49% say they should be given "months or longer".
If the US fails to get full UN support, Britons will not be satisfied with a Washington argument that claims the support of Britain, Spain and Australia as a mandate for war. The poll shows that 58% would disapprove of this course of action, with only 31% saying it would be sufficient.
Story filed: 20:15 Monday 17th February 2003
Things are a bit different Over There, however.
But you know what they say about prophets in their own country.
Churchill offered a pertinent observation - on 1933 Britain, but one senses that it could apply to today:
"This was one of those awful periods which recur in our history, when the noble British nation seems to fall from its high estate, loses all trace of sense of purpose, and appears to cower from the menace of foreign peril, frothing pious platitudes while foemen forge their arms." -- Winston Churchill, The Gathering Storm
Take a look at the actual Pew poll results, available as a PDF download here (click on the link "U.S. Needs More International Backing poll" -- note the bias inherent in that title as well): If you scroll down to page six in the Acrobat document, you will see a breakdown of war support by various demographic classifications, including by education. The following numbers represent the percent who support military action: college degree, 58 percent; some college, 71 percent; high school degree or less, 71 percent. Only 33% of people with a college education oppose military action (opposition drops to 25% of less at lower levels of education). While the numbers do show that support for the war drops somewhat at higher education levels, they remain predominantly pro-war, and certainly do not support a contention that "the educated are mainly anti-war." Indeed, even if you accept the presumption that only those with a college degree are "educated," a very solid majority (58 percent) of this enlightened group support war with Iraq!The BBC lefties don't only spin, they lie!
BBC and AP - biggest international news providers....and the left has the gall to ask "why do they hate us?"
They have to be carefully taught.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.