Blair blasts BBC over US 'hatred'

[cal04]

TONY Blair has sparked another furious row with the BBC
after claiming the corporation's coverage of the hurricane Katrina disaster was anti-American. According to remarkable claims by Rupert Murdoch, the world's most powerful media baron, the Prime Minister was so shocked by the BBC's reporting of hurricane Katrina that he described it as "full of hatred of America".
The Prime Minister told Murdoch he had been appalled by what he saw as the BBC's "gloating" at America's misfortune as it attempted to recover from the catastrophe. Murdoch revealed that he met Blair on Thursday last week while the Prime Minister was in New York for the United Nations Summit. Murdoch made his explosive revelation at a seminar in the city on Friday evening, held by former President Bill Clinton, who also attacked the BBC's coverage.

The News International chairman told the audience: "Tony Blair - perhaps I shouldn't repeat this conversation - told me yesterday that he was in Delhi last week, and he turned on the BBC World service to see what was happening in New Orleans; and he said it was just full of hate of America and gloating about our troubles." Murdoch's revelation was backed up by Clinton, who said there was nothing factually inaccurate but reports were "stacked up" against the government. He said: "It was designed to be almost exclusively a hit on the federal response without showing what anybody at any level was doing."

The criticisms made by Murdoch and Clinton were also supported at the seminar by Sir Howard Stringer, chief executive of the Sony Corporation, and a former head of CBS news. He said he had been "slightly nervous about the slight level of gloating" in the BBC's coverage. "They nailed the government for three days," he added. But it will be Murdoch's revelations about Blair's views which are the most damaging. Last night, they had already re-opened the simmering feud between the BBC and the government, dating back to claims that the BBC was biased over the war in Iraq. That affair culminated in the findings of the Hutton Inquiry, which severely criticised the corporation over its reporting of the death of government scientist Dr David Kelly, who killed himself after being outed as the source of a BBC report alleging that the case for war had been 'sexed-up'.

However, others rushed to the BBC's defence, claiming that Blair had been exposed in what amounted to a cheap attempt to curry favour with Murdoch, who is a long-standing critic of the BBC. His company, News International, also controls the BBC's rival Sky News. Former BBC correspondent and MP Martin Bell said: "Tony Blair was telling Murdoch what he wanted to hear because he needs Murdoch's support. If Tony Blair wants to take issue with the BBC's reporting then he has a forum in which to do it. "I thought the BBC's reporting was exemplary especially the coverage from Matt Frei. If Tony Blair wants to pick a fight with the BBC he will get no support except from the usual henchmen in the Murdoch press. Last time he picked a fight with the BBC it did him more damage than it did the corporation."

http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1956002005

[AX10]

1. Blair is a PIG!

So now we have Blair/Clinton/Murdoch in bed together. How nice. NOT!

Good luck getting me to support your WIFE in 2008 Mr. Clinton.

[Deja Q]

2. Guilt by association?

Of course, everyone was saying at the time how Hillary was the one behind Bill... :shrug:

[Gloria]

3. Blair is on a vendetta. As I've written elsewhere, I listen to the

BBC World Service every day, several times a day, to Newshour as well as the bulletins.
Professional, as passionate as Anderson Cooper; Analysis people did discuss the image of America in the world, but there was no gloating.

Blair-Murdoch-Clinton...what a troika that is....

This is Blair continuuing the job he pulled against the BBC during the Kelly affair. He's trying to gut it and wrest control, make it less independent.

[Baltimore]

17. Blair and Murdoch

I always had a nervous feeling about Tony Blair dating back to shortly post-election, when I heard Murdoch was supposedly his best friend. During the impeach-Clinton uproar, I found BBC radio was just as bad as the American MSM in their hatchet job on Clinton--and Clinton was supposed to be Blair's soul-mate! Ever since 2000, when the BBC was doing their hatchet job on Gore, I've seen the BBC toadying to Bush to a disgusting degree, and Blair openly trying to use the BBC as a right-wing attack on the free press. Owen Bennett-Jones, whom I hear late-night in Illinois, is the worst of them. Don't you UK D-uers realized that if our democracy goes under, you're next, with Tony Blair cheering on your equivalent of Brownshirts?

[muriel_volestrangler]

18. It's not the way I've seen it

I certainly didn't see a 'hatchet job' on Gore, and I don't think they toady to Bush - though they did get less critical after the bloody Hutton Report. Blair doesn't control the BBC - if anything, he uses the press, such as Murdoch's papers, to attack the BBC. The climax of that was the Hutton report.

[Briar]

20. Yes - the leak to the Sun

which featured all the negative comment about the BBC. Hutton swore this grave afront to his enquiry's dignity would be dealt with severely. Strange to relate, nothing has been done about it and to this day the culprit has not been exposed.

[applegrove]

4. You have to wonder exactly what they have Blair tied up in underneath.

What will the official secrets act tell us 40 years from now?

Or maybe it is as simple as Blair helped to break it. He has to fix it or the middle east will explode and we will all be back - this time by draft - in 4 years.

Which is likely what the neocons wanted in the first place.

[punpirate]

5. Murdoch put huge amounts of money into Blair's campaign...

... with the expectation that Blair would privatize the BBC. I see Murdoch is still doing his best to make that happen, and Blair is still being Murdoch's toady.

Bush's poodle. Murdoch's toady. Britain's embarrassment.

[mwooldri]

23. BBC won't get privatized.

It's too much of an institution. It used to be ITV that was the most watched TV channel in the UK. Not any more; Auntie Beeb's more popular than ever. #1 TV channel, #1 radio channel... anything that threatens the existence of the Beeb will not be tolerated by the British public.

Mark.

[Briar]

24. We used to think the NHS wouldn't be privatised

now Bliar has plans to do just that, using an argument that boils down to, "if you like the end achieved, why worry about the means used to achieve it, however dirty they might be".

And the Great British Public sit by.

[Gyre]

6. BBC is totally cowed since the Kelly "debaucle".

They've been emulating the cowardice of American MSM ever since. Blair is just using a fiction to keep them "in check". And it'll probably work.

Gyre

[cal04]

7. Independent story on this

Greg Dyke, the BBC former director-general forced out in the wake of the Hutton report, last night said Mr Murdoch had provided a telling insight into his relationship with Mr Blair. "If it's an accurate record, Mr Murdoch has provided a fascinating glimpse of his private relationship with Mr Blair," he said. "It may not come as a great surprise that the Prime Minister aims to please Murdoch but it comes as a bit of a shock he goes this far." He added: "Mr Blair, it might be said, is hardly the best judge of the impartiality of news coverage, given his behaviour in the run-up to the Iraq war."

Theresa May, Tory culture spokeswoman, said: "If that is Tony Blair's view of the BBC's coverage, he should be giving it to the BBC, not to the head of a rival news organisation." Anger over Mr Blair's comments will be heightened by a claim made in a diary kept by a former Downing Street spin doctor that Mr Murdoch was allowed to veto any change in UK policy towards Europe.


An entry in a diary kept by Lance Price, who worked for the PM between 1998 and 2000, said: "We have promised News International we won't make any changes to our Europe policy without talking to them." But, according to today's Mail on Sunday, that diary entry was altered on instructions from the Cabinet Office.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article313482.ece

Blair relished ‘first blooding’ in Iraq, claims No 10 diary
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1786295,00.html

[mr blur]

8. Blair has completely lost his fucking mind

Has he gone so far down this road that he has to attack the BBC just because, like many other media outlets, they are willing to point out that his friend Georgie is an incompetent, dangerous halfwit?

[...of J.Temperance]

19. I'm in total agreement with you

Blair lost his mind years ago, probably around circa 2001. However, now he obviously needs Sectioning and putting into a straight-jacket.

I think he's singled out the BBC for obvious reasons. He's trying to bully them into submission again, their charters up for renewal soon. I'm sure that the other news networks had similar coverage to the BBC, yet he's not going off on them.

[mogster]

9. 'Hating America'...um..where have I heard this before..?

Oh, that's right :p

What's up with Tony? He's really after the media, isn't he?

Always a bad sign for a supposedly democratic politician.

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. Blair has had it in for the BBC since he got into power

Labour were constantly complaining about 'anti-government bias'. The Kelly affair was just the culmination of 6 years of fighting.

[mogster]

15. This is very interesting

I have never really dived into British politics, so I realize that I know very little about the new Labour.
But if he complains about anti-govt. bias, it suggests a somewhat paranoid (wrong) perception of what the media really are about.
The media are supposed to pick on the govt. noses, who else will?

Do you remember if he said something like it before coming into power?
It sounds strangely similar to the neocons whining about 'liberal media', and also as our local 'neo conservatives' in Norway.

We have a party called the Progress party here. They came about under murky circumstances in the late 60's/early 70's, as a protest party of blue-brown color (neonazi ties). Since then, they're generally considered to be a extreme rightwing party; hopelessly populist, attacking immigrants and promoting accelerating free market liberalism.

But they also have a 'lust' for the Workers Union, and have (supposedly) managed to get app. 30% of the WU members there to support them. They set up headquarters in the local square traditionally known as a socialist bastion; Youngstorget in Oslo - in a pink building.

Further; their Dear Leader Carl I. Hagen has always made provocative speeches on the 1st of May, challenging the trad. socialists on their home ground.
This has of course made him highly controversial as a political figure, and he has never been in position of govt. in any of the numerous coalitions we've had. Now he's retiring, and I'll toast the day he leaves politics alone, defeated because his dream was ever to hold a position.

Anyway, he has much of the same reaction pattern as Blair when it comes to media; self centered and narcist with a screwed up reality picture in which you are allowed to operate under only your own rules.
He too complains about the media - probably with better reason than Blair, because the media here DID trash him and his party during the 80's and 90's. Only it was fair, because he broke a lot of rules and traditions by his aggressive attacks on weak groups of society; minorities, single mom's and drug addicts.

The problem with these people is that they don't remember further back than yesterday. They are extremists, living for today. Yesterday a right out nazi - today an oiled politician. For normal people this makes you think, it makes you wanna ask hard questions and - if necessary - throw some eggs.

But they don't understand this, they live in a world of their own rules where logic suggests an ever-changing stance on almost anything; there is no political ideology, no tradition - everything can be shopped or dropped at will. Or as the newspaper headlines commands.
The only stable goal is the growth of the party, and the continued collection of power in Dear Leader's hands.



Naturally, this leaves a trail of past misery to which they are in total denial, and any critical question asked results in accuses of 'biased' media.

Sounds familiar? ;-)

[mogster]

16. Here's their latest controversy

An ad used in the recent election campaign. Prior to publishing this, they refused to sign a public doc where the politicians pledge to not use racism in their campaigns - a long standing tradition here.

The ad reads:

The perpetrator is of foreign origins!

(A press quote we're often reading)

[Briar]

11. Not all the media

He loves the Murdoch media. Just the media which tells the truth.

[mrfrapp]

12. I've heard this before

Right wing columnists such as Bruce Anderson and Simon Heffer have repeatedly stated that the BBC was "gloating" over the New Orleans disaster. I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about then and I have no idea what Blair is talking about now. If anything, I would say the BBC were very restrained in the handling of New Orleans. From what I've seen of the news that's been posted on DU, reporting from the American MSM was far more critical and honest than even the BBC.

The following excerpt explains how politician's minds work.

Murdoch's revelation was backed up by Clinton, who said there was nothing factually inaccurate but reports were "stacked up" against the government. He said: "It was designed to be almost exclusively a hit on the federal response without showing what anybody at any level was doing."

So the BBC's reporting was accurate but it "hates America" because the accurate reporting reflects badly on the politicians in power. It's clear to me that politicians view the media as nothing more than their own personal conduits for propoganda. Any deviation by the media from this perceived role invariably results in absurd and illogical accusations designed to whip them back in line.

We've seen these temper tantrums from Blair and his cronies before and I've no doubt we'll see them again.

[T_i_B]

13. I've said this time and again

If the right wing really wants to go after news biased to the left then they would be far better off going after Channel 4 news. However, because the BBC is publicly owned that is what they go after. The level of RW conceit on this issue is simply huge.

All the terrestrial news has shown the response to Katrina in a bad light, but that is because it was a bad response by the US government.

[Benbow]

14. Not so much a poodle, more (Bush's) slave - there was me thinking

irritatedly that the BBC was broadcasting White House press releases, unexpurgated.

It is all going wrong for Blair. The disasterous repercussions of his supporting the US in an illegal invasion are going to play out for decades. Why shouldn't Iran develop military-capacity nuclear power - from Iran's point of view, they look like they will be the next object of Bush's mission to spread democracy - the US has already said it plans to invade/bomb, and the US is building bases in Iraq.

[Briar]

21. I saw Dateline London

on BBC 24 last night discussing this. Gavin Essler, as ever, was conformist in his formalation of questions and the US journo (for some reason while the rest of the world has to take turns in being represented, the US always gets a seat at the table: this time it was a guy called, I think, Greg Katz, who also sang a song of praise about Bush's speech last week) backed Blair and thought that Matt Frei's report was unbalanced - in tone. Everyone then danced around the subject, no one daring to make any of the points made so well and clearly on this board. Self censorship is alive and well and thriving at the BBC...

[flashg]

22. Blair's deal with the devil has its price

As an American who listens to the BBC every day and throughout Katrina, I'm having trouble remembering all the hatred to which I was subjected. I listen to it for hours and had no idea. They must be doing it in a sneaky way, like using op-eds posing as news and reporters with exaggerated facial expressions, raised eyebrows or yelling to tell me how I should think on a given subject. Oh wait, that's what Rupert Murdoch's idea of journalism is!

Is this why Peter Day felt he needed to do that boot licking interview with GE's CEO Jack Welch?

[Frederik]

25. Shut up, Clinton

"Murdoch's revelation was backed up by Clinton, who said there was nothing factually inaccurate but reports were "stacked up" against the government. He said: "It was designed to be almost exclusively a hit on the federal response without showing what anybody at any level was doing." "

Blair, of course, would prefer that the Brits got their only news from Fox.

[mr blur]

26. Er..Bill, if "nothing factually inaccurate", then

the BBC was doing its job. It's not their job to soothe bruised egos or build up the pathetic attempts of an administration into something that they weren't actually doing. Get it?

"It was designed to be almost exclusively a hit on the federal response without showing what anybody at any level was doing."?? WTF?

"They" weren't doing anything, which was the point of the story.