#bbc pm program

[angelholme]

Rehman Chisthi

So on the PM program I heard this Tory MP DEMANDING that the BBC should follow lock-step with government policy in calling ISIS by another name. 

He was LITERALLY yelling at the presenter, and came *this close* to suggesting that if the BBC didn’t start doing what he and the government wanted, they were terrorist sympathisers who were encouraging ISIS’ recruitment of British youths.

I realise it sounds like I am over reacting to this, but if anything I am understating it. He might as well have said “By calling them Islamic State you are seeking to help them recruit and radicalise young men and women from Britain to kill the decent men and women of this country and providing daily propaganda victories for this evil fanatical death cult - I hope you are ashamed of yourselves you terrorist loving murderers” 

It was one of the most appalling things I have heard in a while.

[angelholme]

Something I don’t get.

Seven months ago we were told a story. One that has yet to be independently validated or confirmed, There was (apparently) very little supporting evidence, it was mostly hearsay and wasn’t independently confirmed.

Today we were told another story. One that has yet to be independently validated or confirmed, one that is entirely hearsay and one that is being told by people who have very, very good reasons to hate the people they are telling the story about.

So - if I can ask as a purely unbiased, independent and somewhat cynical person - why should we believe this story any more than we believed the last one? 

And why is it being reported as unchallenged fact when it is just rumour, comment and hearsay? Are journalistic standards that lax that we just accept any old story we are told just because it happens to fit in with our personal prejudices?

It baffles me. And more than that - it worries me. If we are willing to accept a story based on such flimsy evidence without even questioning whether it might possibly not be true or not, what else will we accept in the future?

I have no real view one way or the other - the story told today might be true, but the story told seven months ago might be true. I genuinely do not know which to believe and - quite honestly - take both with a pinch of salt.

But I suspect the majority of the nation are not going to do that - they are going to take the new story as gospel and spread it far and wide. And the less reputable and ethical people who do this are going to stick it in leaflets suggesting that this is what we are letting in to our country when we open the doors to refugees, that this is what EVERYONE from that faith does and what they will do if we let them come over here.

Given the sheer power of stories and the sheer power that the press wield, is it wrong to want to hold them up to some standards?

[angelholme]

A message to everyone

Due to the fact my sound system in the car is a little flakey, I’ve been listening to Radio 4 on the way home. Which is generally okay, because the BBC knows what fair and balanced means, and is generally not a mouthpiece for right-wing arseholes who make me want to punch them in the face.

However today it read out a few comments from the “PM Mail Bag” (which is the PM Program, not David Cameron’s Mail Bag).

“When in all the political and moral hand wringing will someone say what is obvious to the nation - WHO CARES?”

“They were terrorists so why do we care if they’re dead?”

“They had it coming and good riddance”

First - I am not sure one person can speak for “the nation” - if only because that one person was definitely not speaking for me so I can only assume they were probably not speaking for a bunch of other people.

But - that aside - here’s the message I would like to send the people who are saying “who cares” “fuck ‘em” “bunch of terrorist twats” etc.

Imagine it was your son, your nephew, your brother, your cousin, your daughter, your sister, your niece.

Would you care then, you ignorant windbags?

Would that make you sit up and take notice?

If the government had deliberately and purposely decided your daughter, your son had to die and had blown them up, would you still say “who cares?” and “Good riddance?” Would you still laugh about it with your mates down the pub and praise the papers who are calling this a good and right thing?

Or would you get off your ignorant arses long enough to realise that this is actually quite an important thing and that there are very, very serious questions to answer? 

If you can answer that - honestly - then I will gain more respect for you. Which won’t be hard, given how little I have now.