Post by Teddy Bear on Oct 23, 2008 22:49:09 GMT
Listening today to LBC and Nick Ferrari was talking about how the MOD failed our soldiers who were killed recently by a mine exploding as a result of a rescue helicopter trying to land to pick up wounded soldiers.
In the course of his coverage he mentioned that if he heard further reference by the BBC to our Olympic heroes, while they ignored those serving, sometimes with their lives, in this conflict, he would go mad - or words to that effect
BBC Search of 'Olympic Heroes' reveals these stories
Contrast this with the statement I included in a piece recently concerning a statement by John Simpson about why the BBC don't want to focus on heroism on the part of our soldiers, and ask yourselves just how therefore can they refer to UK athletes as heroes? If the BBC were truly bound by the bullshit reasoning that Simpson puts forward, then they wouldn't be able to favour our own competitors, or am I missing something?
Here's Simpson's statement again:
In the course of his coverage he mentioned that if he heard further reference by the BBC to our Olympic heroes, while they ignored those serving, sometimes with their lives, in this conflict, he would go mad - or words to that effect
BBC Search of 'Olympic Heroes' reveals these stories
Contrast this with the statement I included in a piece recently concerning a statement by John Simpson about why the BBC don't want to focus on heroism on the part of our soldiers, and ask yourselves just how therefore can they refer to UK athletes as heroes? If the BBC were truly bound by the bullshit reasoning that Simpson puts forward, then they wouldn't be able to favour our own competitors, or am I missing something?
Here's Simpson's statement again:
Not reporting good news about Iraq is editorial policy at the BBC. During a recent phone-in on Radio Five Live’s Simon Mayo show a serving soldier asked the BBC’s World Affairs editor John Simpson why the BBC didn’t report any of the good things British troops were doing in Iraq. Simpson replied that it’s not the BBC’s role “to identify one group as an enemy and another group as those to be supported” and positive reports about our troops are not “what we would regard the purpose of news reporting to be.”
His reply in full:
Well you see, it depends what you think news is. If you think news is a way of directing, changing public opinion, of influencing people to see, perhaps to support some particular line, perhaps to be against some line, perhaps to identify one group of people as an enemy and another group of people as those to be supported, then yes, of course you would go out and do that kind of reporting and you would want to emphasise the good things, and there are some good things - not very many - but there are some good things and there's been some success in those ways here. I think I'm right in saying not a single hospital has been built in this country since 1987 but maybe I stand to be corrected on that. Um, but you see that's not what the purpose - what we would regard the purpose - of news reporting to be. I mean we just want to tell people what is happening. What's happening today? Well, I mean it may well be that a lot of good things are happening that we're missing but we certainly know that a lot of fairly unpleasant things are happening and I think it's just a question of letting people know what's going on rather than trying to influence them and say actually it's a really good idea that we've got British or American troops in this country and these are the reasons why. I think you've got to understand what the value of news reporting in a free society actually is.
His reply in full:
Well you see, it depends what you think news is. If you think news is a way of directing, changing public opinion, of influencing people to see, perhaps to support some particular line, perhaps to be against some line, perhaps to identify one group of people as an enemy and another group of people as those to be supported, then yes, of course you would go out and do that kind of reporting and you would want to emphasise the good things, and there are some good things - not very many - but there are some good things and there's been some success in those ways here. I think I'm right in saying not a single hospital has been built in this country since 1987 but maybe I stand to be corrected on that. Um, but you see that's not what the purpose - what we would regard the purpose - of news reporting to be. I mean we just want to tell people what is happening. What's happening today? Well, I mean it may well be that a lot of good things are happening that we're missing but we certainly know that a lot of fairly unpleasant things are happening and I think it's just a question of letting people know what's going on rather than trying to influence them and say actually it's a really good idea that we've got British or American troops in this country and these are the reasons why. I think you've got to understand what the value of news reporting in a free society actually is.