Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Proud to Be Censured by the British Government

Thursday, June 17, 2004

By John Gibson

 

gibson.gif

 

I've got a bunch of Brits mad at me because I dared to defend myself for saying that a BBC reporter lied, that his bosses defended the lie and that the network displays a "frothing-at-the-mouth anti-Americanism."

 

Because I dared to say it, I have been "censured by an agency of the British government."

 

My attitude has been... do you get a medal with that? If there were an official "I've been censured" medal, I'd wear it on the air right next to my flag pin. Honest... if the palace has one of those, send it on over and I'll wear it.

 

By the way, it turns out that one of the 24 complainants who busted me to the Brit officials actually worked at the BBC as an intern.

 

Look... censure if you must, oh mighty Great Britain. But you will not change the truth. The Beeb reporter I was speaking of lied. He didn't distort or exaggerate — he lied.

 

It's a lie that was concocted to support the BBC's political bias, which was and is anti-war, anti-Bush, anti-American.

 

I said the Beeb as much, and now I've got Brits writing me to tell me that they're horrified and wondering how I could say such a thing?

 

I listen to the BBC World Service, and I hear the anti-Americanism dripping from every elongated syllable in every story about Bush, Iraq or America.

 

If the Brits don't like that observation... oh well. Read my book — "Hating America: The New World Sport."

 

There is much more of this afoot in the world than just the tired old BBC, and Americans are tired of turning the other cheek.

 

That's My Word.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Most western countries have media morons, but this guy is good enough tio get international exposure for being a first class f-wit.

 

It is so obvious that his programming managers tells him each evening: "Arse Face, go out there tonight and be the biggest turd you can be. It is good for the station and thus good for your bonus. Now get out there and appeal the cockheads in the American populace". He is gold to Fox and I bet gets paid well for it.

 

And before anyone gets carried away, Fox and the political agenda it supports plus the methods it chooses is entirely owned and directed by an Australian. So keep you anti-America accusations in check (even though they would be correct).

Link to post
Share on other sites

deebs

 

I agree with what you're saying, especially about all publicity being good publicity for that kind of commentator, but I think you'll find Murdoch gave up his Australian passport when he took US citizenship back in the 1980s. Foreign ownership of the UK press is not outlawed, so he never had to take UK citizenship for his UK empire. Until recently, the most popular UK broadsheet, the Telegraph, was also owned by a Canadian, Conrad Black.

 

That fellow can only claim that the BBC "lied" because that's what a government- appointed judge, Lord Hutton, said so. It's like saying Bush Jr won Florida because the Supreme Court appointed by his father and the local representatives appointed by his brother said so.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Bill has Boycott France bumper stickers for sale on his website!! ACE!!!

 

And oh yeah, here's Gibbys follow up:

 

I have found it more than just curious that I have mainly had two kinds of responses to my discussion over the last couple days of a British government agency's official censure of me.

 

The most interesting response has been from Brits who have come to live in the U.S. and Americans who have gone to the U.K. for business or vacations for a period of time.

 

Both types of people said I was absolutely right when I said the BBC runs amok with an ingrained anti-Americanism.

 

The Americanized Brits say they notice it when they go home for visits. The visiting Americans say they suffer in silence, except for giggling when they are alone... out of the view of the British hosts.

 

Then there are the outraged fans of the BBC who seem mostly horrified that I have not taken my punishment in the silent dignity of the guilty.

 

First... I am not guilty. I was absolutely correct in every word I said.

 

Second... what is it about these people who tug at their forelock when the king's courtesans come 'round with one edict or another?

 

 

This is the part I just don't get, except I do.

 

I understand this stuff. It all comes from the view held in much of Britain that Americans went off their rocker a few years ago when George W. Bush (search) was elected president.

 

That's why the BBC sounds so normal to them. It is precisely the way they think too.

 

That's My Word.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Its sad how as of recent, post 911 days, anything that questions Bush, the war, or America is anti-American. Gives me a damn headache watching and hearing this stuff. I just have to remind myself that many Americans really are that stupid - I, on the other hand, happen to be one of the intellectuals ;\)

 

That slip up was pretty funny. What a ****** - we know what he wanted from J-lo... dont we all lol.gif

Link to post
Share on other sites

Though presenters on Fox may look stupid with all of their posturing, I don't think it's wise to laugh at them. They're not just some nutter talking about aliens on a soap box outside the station. These people are pushing the agenda in a very frightening direction.

 

I doubt anyone thinks Pauline Hanson, le Pen, or Ishihara are "funny".

 

I bet Poles don't laugh when they see film of goose-stepping stormtroopers.

Link to post
Share on other sites

NF - what you're saying couldn't be more true.

FOX news is bad news. Have a look at this article about how they succesfully prevented a whistleblowing report (which was supposed to expose cancer-causing effects of milk produced with Monsanto corporations rBST drugs) from airing.

 

 Quote:
All she wanted to do was warn people about the hidden dangers of hormones in dairy products. And for that, Jane Akre lost her job, along with fellow investigative journalist Steve Wilson.

 

Jane and Steve sued Fox Television for wrongful dismissal under Florida's whistleblower statute, which protects those who try to prevent others from breaking the law.

 

But her appeal court judges ruled that falsifying news isn't actually against the law. So they denied Jane her whistleblower status, overturned the case, and withdrew her $425,000.00 award.

Full Interview

 

seriously, if more americans don't wise up very soon. The country is fukt.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I get the feeling the bottom will drop out of it soon. Bush is looking somewhat unelectable now, and Blair is under a lot of pressure. With a less virulent strain of goonery in government, Fox will either get marginalized or will have to tone it down.

 

Hopefully.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Found this acticle, it's about the movie, Fahrenheit 9/11, but it's an interesting take on the whole media circus that's been going on over there for a while now about the film - kind of ties in pretty good with the discussion going on here too about Fox, etc...

 

 

-------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

June 30th, 2004 3:42 pm

Village Voice: "The Attack on Fahrenheit 9/11: Fox lays back while ABC and NBC pile on"

 

 

Press Clips: Mauling Michael Moore:

The attack on Fahrenheit 9/11: Fox lays back while ABC and NBC pile on

By Richard Goldstein / Village Voice

June 29th, 2004 10:55 AM

 

In just one weekend, Fahrenheit 9/11 earned more money than any feature-length documentary in history. This despite a campaign against the film by the White House and its surrogates. Everyone expected George Bush's media shills to go after Moore, but who would have thought Fox News would keep its attack dogs relatively muzzled while ABC and NBC launched remarkably unbalanced attacks.

 

So far, Fox's main complaint is that Moore won't give them an interview. However, he did allow himself to be interrogated by George Stephanopoulos on ABC's This Week. During that chat, he addressed his critics' major points. Take the fact that Saudi nationals, including members of the bin Laden family, were allowed to leave the United States after 9-11 even though all commercial flights were grounded. Moore implies that the president cleared those flights because of family business ties to the Saudis. But Richard Clarke, the former security adviser—and prominent Bush critic—insists it was he who authorized the flights. When Stephanopoulos brought this up, Moore replied that Clarke's decision had been an error, adding that Clarke has admitted making mistakes "and he apologized to the 9-11 families for those mistakes."

 

Maybe this was an evasion, maybe not; but it certainly constituted a response, and ABC could easily have included it in subsequent news stories about Fahrenheit 9/11. Instead, the network launched a two-pronged attack on the film's accuracy—one that advanced from Good Morning America to World News Tonight—without giving Moore a fair chance to respond to the most damaging claims. Both segments began with the graphic "Fact or Fiction?"—the journalistic equivalent of asking a defendant when he stopped beating his wife. Both relied heavily on Clarke's statements and let them go unanswered.

 

"My feeling is that ABC News gave Michael Moore a fair chance to respond," says Bridgette Maney, the publicist for Good Morning America. ABC News spokesperson Cathie Levine noted that World News Tonight had run a clip from the Stephanopoulos interview after airing Clarke's statement. But that clip did not contain Moore's response to Clarke's comments.

 

NBC ran highly negative assessments of the film on both its Nightly News and its cable channel MSNBC. The network referred to its coverage as a "truth squad report." As part of this exposé, senior correspondent Lisa Myers targeted the hilarious moment in Fahrenheit 9/11 when Moore asks legislators to sign up their children to fight in Iraq. Myers noted that Moore had failed to include comments by Republican congressmember Mark Kennedy, who appears in that scene looking baffled. "My nephew had just gotten called into service and was told he's heading for Afghanistan," Kennedy told Myers. "He [Moore] didn't like that answer, so he didn't include it." Moore had addressed this allegation in the Stephanopoulos interview: "When we interviewed [Kennedy], he didn't have any family members in Afghanistan. . . . We released the transcript and put it on our website." But NBC made no mention of these readily available rebuttals. (A network spokesman declined to comment.)

 

Note that none of the facts in Fahrenheit 9/11 are in dispute. What ABC and NBC called into question is Moore's extrapolation and interpretation of information; in other words, his slant. But by using loaded phrases like "truth squad" and "fact or fiction," and by omitting Moore's answers to key questions, these networks did the very thing they accuse him of doing. I would argue that this sort of distortion is far more dangerous in the context of a news broadcast than in a clearly opinionated film.

 

Why did NBC and ABC take the administration's line? Well, NBC is owned by General Electric, a prime defense contractor. ABC is owned by Disney, which has no need of Pentagon largesse—but Disney is dependent on the kindness of federal regulators, and to the Bush administration those mouse ears have a lot to answer for. After all, it was Disney subsidiary Miramax that initially planned to distribute Fahrenheit 9/11, and even after the studio pulled out under pressure from the parent company, Miramax chief Harvey Weinstein formed a consortium of companies to release the film. Last Thursday's Wall Street Journal reported that Disney may sever its ties with Miramax next year. And Disney is about to release a feel-good documentary called America's Heart and Soul. With its theme parks under siege for allowing desecrations of family values, such as Gay Day, Disney has much to gain by joining the attack on Moore's movie, which is regarded in certain congregations as the Great R-Rated Satan.

 

But how to account for Fox's relatively merciful coverage (or the exceedingly odd editorial in Monday's New York Post defending Moore from the Federal Election Commission's attempt to muzzle his ads)? Here's my explanation: Rupert Murdoch is covering his ass in case John Kerry wins. For that matter, his news machine doesn't have to prove itself to the Bushies—and besides, an attack from Fox would have easily been dismissed as partisan. Better to let NBC and ABC lend the imprimatur of their "objectivity." I'm not saying these networks acted in cahoots; they merely expressed their interests.

 

That may explain why CNN, whose audience skews slightly leftward, took a careful pro-and-con approach to Fahrenheit 9/11, as did CBS News. Was CBS's neutrality a reflection of its traditional resistance to the right; was it part of a bid for the sizable anti-Bush audience; or is the network's owner, Viacom, banking on an advantage in a Kerry administration? Maybe all of the above.

 

When you consider how well the film is doing despite this pile-on, you have to conclude that most people haven't been affected by the media's negative spin. They want to see what all the fuss is about. Of course, the real question is whether audiences will leave the cineplex arguing about Moore's truthfulness or his insights into Bush. If the film turns out to have an impact on the fall election, we'll learn something about the limits of the media's power to shape perceptions. Since this is a recurring theme of mine, I hope Fahrenheit 9/11 affirms my conviction that the press distorts but we decide.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...

Bill has a lesson for those pesky Canadians today:

 

-------

 

Hi, I'm Bill O'Reilly. Thank you for watching us tonight.

 

Hating America. That is the subject of this evening's "Talking Points Memo." According to a new poll, 40 percent of Canadian teenagers think America is an evil country. Among French-Canadian teens, the number jumps to 64 percent. Those numbers can be laid right on the doorstep of the Canadian media and government

 

As you may know, the FOX News Channel is not allowed in Canada, but CNN is. Fair and balanced? You decide.

 

The USA takes a relentless pounding from many Canadian news organizations and from the liberal government. So, what can we expect from the kids? They're not getting a full picture. And neither is most of the world.

 

Increasingly, the bully America is being portrayed as the devil. And the far left in this country is gleefully piling on. Guys like Michael Moore [are] running around the world telling everybody what a bad place America is. Moore and his enablers should be very proud of themselves

 

For the benefit of the Canadian kids, let's take a look at the record:

 

•The foreign and defense policies of Ronald Reagan (search) resulted in the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the freeing of approximately 122 million people in Eastern Europe.

 

• The state of Israel would cease to exist if not for American protection, and about 5.5 million Jews would be in grave danger.

 

• Nearly 23 million Taiwanese would be denied freedom if not for American protection. More than 48 million South Koreans would be living under a dictatorship if not for American protection. USA action led to the removal of the Serbian dictator Milosevic (search), who was responsible for the murders of hundreds of thousands of people in the Balkans.

 

• The USA and Britain removed the Iraqi dictator Hussein, who was responsible for the murders of hundreds of thousands of people in the Middle East. And we have also removed the terrorist Taliban government in Afghanistan.

 

• America is sending $15 billion to Africa to help victims of AIDS. We were unable to find out how much France contributes, if anything. To be fair, Canada sends $270 million, which is substantial.

 

• American action in Central America, Grenada (search), and Haiti (search) has kept millions of people out of totalitarian regimes. Of course, all of this has cost every American taxpayer big. And thousands of American servicepeople have lost their lives protecting people overseas.

 

It is insulting and dishonest for Americans and Canadians and Europeans to condemn this country because they don't like certain policies. Dissent is good. Slander is unacceptable.

 

The truth is that the USA has freed more human beings in 230 years than the rest of the world combined. France has freed almost no one. Ditto Canada.

 

So, pardon me as I object to the Michael Moores of the world — and that man is too cowardly to come in here, all right? Pardon me as I object to the anti-American foreign press and bums like Chirac in France and Chretien in Canada.

 

America has a provable history of freeing oppressed people all over the world in fighting evil dictators. Canada should be ashamed that so many of its young people are flat out ignorant. And Americans should wise up and realize we are living in a changing world. Old friends are not necessarily true friends.

 

And that's "The Memo."

 

-----------------

 

And John Gibson is frothing as well:

 

We've got half of America and all of the rest of the world quoting Micheal Moore (search) on President Bush.

 

Let me quote Moore also, but I want to quote for you what he says about us — Americans.

 

"They are possibly the dumbest people on the planet," Moore told Britain's Mirror newspaper.

 

"We Americans suffer from an enforced ignorance. We don't know about anything that's happening outside our country. Our stupidity is embarrassing."

 

Speaking to a crowd in Munich, Moore said. "That's why we're smiling all the time. You can see us coming down the street. You know, 'Hey! Hi! How's it going?' We've got that big [expletive] grin on our face all the time because our brains aren't loaded down."

 

Back in England, he told a crowd in Cambridge. "You're stuck with being connected to this country of mine, which is known for bringing sadness and misery to places around the globe."

 

Not even the outrages of 9/11 could dampen Moore's anti-Americanism. He said this four days after the terror attacks that killed 3,000 Americans:

 

"We, the United States of America, are culpable in committing so many acts of terror and bloodshed that we had better get a clue about the culture of violence in which we have been active participants."

 

And about the war now underway in Iraq, in which Americans are being killed in lockstep with Moore's anti-American speech, he says:

 

"The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not 'insurgents' or 'terrorists' or 'The Enemy.' They are the Revolution, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow — and they will win.''

 

There ya have it... just a bit of the man being hailed for producing a movie all of us must see.

 

I'll must see it in hell, when I drop in on Moore in his cell.

 

That's My Word.

 

 

-------

 

lol.gif

Link to post
Share on other sites
×
×
  • Create New...