When the head of the BBC says this, you know you've got a real problem. "BBC chief Mark Thompson warns of 'over-cautious' Islam coverage," by Dan Sabbagh in the Times (thanks to all who sent this in):
Mark Thompson, the Director General of the BBC, tonight warned
broadcasters against becoming overly-cautious in their reporting on Islam for
fear of causing offence to Muslims.Speaking at Westminster Cathedral Mr
Thompson, a practising Catholic, said there was “a growing nervousness about
discussion about Islam and its relationship to the traditions and values of
British and Western society as a whole”.
He said that the BBC and other major channels “have a special
responsibility” to ensure that debates about “faith and society” and about any
religion “should not be foreclosed or censored”.In an effort to demonstrate
that his remarks were not targeted solely at ensuring that Islam received
journalistic scrutiny, Mr Thompson also referring to his decision to broadcast
Jerry Springer, The Opera despite an avalanche of complaints from Christians
unhappy at the depiction of Jesus in the satire.
“There is no point having a BBC which isn’t prepared to stand up
and be counted; which will do everything it can to mitigate potential religious
offence; but which will always be forthright in the defence of freedom of speech
and of impartiality,” he said....
And here's a typical example of al-Beeb reporting:
ReplyDelete"The home secretary has described the terrorism threat facing the UK as "severe" and "growing".
In a News of the World interview, Jacqui Smith said 30 terror plots were being investigated and police needed to be able to detain suspects for longer. "
But not a mention of the M-word or I-word in the entire article. Must be the Methodists up to their tricks again.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7344925.stm
Wow! That's quite an admission on the part of the BBC.
ReplyDeleteThe situation in the UK--the pc situation, I mean--must be even direr than I knew.
It would have been good if someone would have asked him about the relative level of threat he feels when confronted with Muslim anger vs. Christian "complaints" over the Jerry Springer opera.
ReplyDeleteCould mean being an English journalist just got more dangerous. We all know how the "religion of peace" deals with truth and accurate reporting.
ReplyDeletee of usa,
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's as if this is a hostage video and the guy is trying to give us signals.