Monday, June 30, 2003
BBC and the British govt
Hugo Young writes in the Guardian on the ongoing scrap between Alastair Campbell and the BBC over the WMD allegations in Iraq. I have always maintained that the war in Iraq was probably justified, but for a different set of reasons than the ones proferred by messrs Blair and Bush, i.e. for the set of reasons that I'd like to see Mugabe and Taylor overthrown. I am glad the BBC is sticking to its guns unlike the jokers in the American media who seem to think that patriotism trumps all forms of objective reporting.
The BBC lives off a textured public understanding of this that took decades to embed in the national culture. No one else has reproduced it. In the US, Murdoch's Fox News sent wave after wave of bombers live into Baghdad accompanied by the national anthem. Patriotism before truth was the networks' guiding star, and even the panjandrums of the print were scared to crack it.
The BBC lives off a textured public understanding of this that took decades to embed in the national culture. No one else has reproduced it. In the US, Murdoch's Fox News sent wave after wave of bombers live into Baghdad accompanied by the national anthem. Patriotism before truth was the networks' guiding star, and even the panjandrums of the print were scared to crack it.
