Posted on 03/27/2003 2:50:53 AM PST by Mr. Mulliner
A BBC reporter covering the war from coalition headquarters in Qatar, denounced his network's coverage as "one-sided" and distorted. In his memo to his bosses, which was obtained by London's The Sun newspaper, BBC correspondent Paul Adams asked: "Who dreamed up the line that the coalition are achieving 'small victories at a very high price?'" In fact, he contended, "the truth is exactly the opposite" since "the gains are huge and the costs still relatively low."A BBC reporter, covering the war from coalition headquarters in Qatar, denounced his network's coverage as "one- sided" and distorted. In his memo to his bosses, which was obtained by London's The Sun newspaper, BBC correspondent Paul Adams asked: "Who dreamed up the line that the coalition are achieving 'small victories at a very high price?'" In fact, he contended, "the truth is exactly the opposite" since "the gains are huge and the costs still relatively low."FNC's Brit Hume on Wednesday night highlighted the Sun's story about Adams' scolding of the BBC, a story to which the MRC's Liz Swasey first alerted me.
An excerpt from the March 26 Sun story by Trevor Kavanagh:
The BBC was last night sensationally condemned for "one-sided" war coverage -- by its own front line defence correspondent.The story is online at (scroll down the page): http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2003140559,00.htmlPaul Adams attacks the Beeb for misreporting the Allied advance in a blistering memo leaked to The Sun....
On Monday, he wrote from US Central Command in Qatar: "I was gobsmacked to hear, in a set of headlines today, that the coalition was suffering 'significant casualties'.
"This is simply NOT TRUE. Nor is it true to say -- as the same intro stated -- that coalition forces are fighting 'guerrillas'.
"It may be guerrilla warfare, but they are not guerrillas."
Adams' memo was fired off to TV news head Roger Mosey, Radio news boss Stephen Mitchell and other Beeb chiefs.
It adds stunning weight to allegations that BBC coverage on all its networks is biased against the war.
In one blast, he storms: "Who dreamed up the line that the coalition are achieving 'small victories at a very high price?'
"The truth is exactly the opposite.
"The gains are huge and the costs still relatively low. This is real warfare, however one-sided, and losses are to be expected."...
Now that is definitely the first time in 1,466 CyberAlerts that the word "gobsmacked" has appeared. Oxford defines the word as an informal British term for "utterly astonished."
I'll be gobsmacked if any U.S. network reporter ever has the guts to take on any war coverage bias at his or her own network.
More or less very pleased.
They do, when they jump to Fox! (Cf. Greta Van Susteren.)
During the late sixties and early seventies two out of every three graduate recruits to the Beeb had either been members of their university socialist or communist party societies. These people are now in charge at the Beeb. Their views may have changed somewhat since then but the days of Lord Reith and strict adherence to the facts went out the window long ago.
[...]
I got a lot of my 2000 election news from the BBC because we were living in Singapore. Several times a day I was on the verge of flinging our short-wave radio off our 12th story balcony because of their lies and distortions.
Honestly, the BBC, ABCNEWS, etc, are nothing. You don't know what open, bald-faced America-hate bias is until you listen to or watch the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. I suggest you all join one of our nightly CBC-bashing threads; C-SPAN is airing their nightly one-hour "premiere" newscast live at 9pm Eastern for the duration of the war. I promise you, your jaw will drop.
I happened to catch a little of that and felt it resembled poor white trash envy of people who have all their teeth.
A little blonde cutie who gives a BBC financial report for ABC in the morning....
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