Be polite to Mr Saddam

The Sun (U.K.) ^ | 12/20/03 | NIC CECIL

[Pokey78]

BARMY BBC bosses have banned reporters from calling tyrant Saddam Hussein a former dictator.

Instead, staff must refer to the barbaric mass murderer as “the deposed former President”.

The astonishing edict was seized on by MPs last night as more proof of a Left-wing bias inside the BBC against the Iraqi war.

Labour MP Kevan Jones, of the Commons Defence Select Committee, said: “This shows the crass naivety of the BBC. Such political correctness will be deeply hurtful to many of our servicemen serving in Iraq.

“It amply demonstrates elements of the BBC have got a clearly anti-war and anti-Government agenda.”

Labour MP Ann Clwyd, who chairs the Indict group which has dossiers on the crimes of Saddam, his sons and henchmen, was astounded at the BBC’s stance.

She said: “It’s frankly ridiculous. Saddam Hussein is a despot, a murderer and a torturer. He will have to answer charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.”

Tory Party chairman Liam Fox also slammed the Beeb — which was accused during the war of giving too much weight to Iraqi propaganda.
He said: “To afford this level of politeness to a tyrant, torturer and murderer is deeply offensive to the Iraqi people.

“It is also an insult to the Coalition forces who have sacrificed so much to liberate Iraq from the evil of Saddam.”

The BBC said the email spelling out the instruction was sent to reporters on its online website, which serves a global audience.

A spokeswoman said: “This was reiterating existing guidelines to remind BBC News Online journalists of the need to use neutral language.”

Later she said the ban on calling Saddam a dictator did not apply to domestic services.

But a BBC insider said: “This is our daftest order ever.”

Saddam has been put on a drip since his capture. Medical experts believe he became dehydrated and malnourished during his eight months on the run.

[Dog Gone]

Saddam has been put on a drip since his capture. Medical experts believe he became dehydrated and malnourished during his eight months on the run.

He was definitely running low on sodium pentathol.

The BBC sucks. Reuters has banned the word terrorist except in quotes.

The British press is even worse than ours, and that's hard to believe.

[onyx]

FGS! Doesn't this beat all? What, I wonder would they call Hitler?

[Happy2BMe]

BBC!? Yes, they are my BIGGEST fans!. .

[Dog Gone]

I'm falsely accused!

[Tempest]

"He was definitely running low on sodium pentathol."

LOL!

[LisaMalia]

The British press is even worse than ours, and that's hard to believe.

Not hard for me to believe. At least we have "Fox News". It might not be perfect, but it's the only news station I can stomach.

[GeronL]

drip, drip, drip...

I once started a story with those words...

[Paul Atreides]

Saddam has been put on a drip since his capture.

He's sitting in Howard Dean's lap?

[Paul Atreides]

What, I wonder would they call Hitler?

Pithy. ;-)

[Paul Atreides]

I have a feeling that, if there was no FNC, CNN would adopt these same guidelines.

[Happy2BMe]

Speaking of "drips" . .

(vanity post) Kerry's Well Wishes In Prostrate Surgery Recovery From Fellow Democrats

[TheRedSoxWinThePennant]

[LisaMalia]

I have a feeling that, if there was no FNC, CNN would adopt these same guidelines.

Really? I have the same feelings...however, I still believe in Santa Claus as well......

[lambo]

And of course we all remember Auntie's measured references to Chancellor Hitler during WWII.

(Hi, Pokey. I haven't thanked you in a while for all the Steyn pings.)

[Happy2BMe]

hehe . . "hopefully the real one will soon be detatched and growing green fuzz . ."

LoL!

[At _War_With_Liberals]

MoveOn.orgy has already created a commercial about the suffering of Saddam.

It features the Sesame Street characters trying to teach Republicans how to play nice with others...

[blackbart.223]

"Medical experts believe he became dehydrated and malnourished during his eight months on the run."

Well isn't that tough sh*t? The murdering basta*d should have died of starvation if you ask me. Or a least from accute lead poisoning.

[blackbart.223]

As I am not too good at this, could someone do a Charlie Manson and a Saddam morph. It might be interesting.

[lainde]

Words fail me...