Off topic, but this is one IRRITATED American. Would you PLEASE take Glenn Campbell back and SHUT the man up. How skewed can a reporter's work get? He belongs at Pravda.
He is consistently misreporting and skewing American opinion. Notice reporting in a restaurant they cut out the owner's opinion PRO-MacAskill. When American express bafflement, he tries to turn it into hostility.
WORSE, he has consistently omitted parts of his interview with a representative of our State Department. What was REALLY said?
This:
The EXACT conversation was this:
QUESTION: Glenn Campbell from the BBC: Has the United States forgiven the Scottish Government for releasing the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing?
MR. KELLY (US State Department spokesman): Well, our views on that issue, of course, are extremely well known. Again, we’ve passed these views both in private channels and in – also publicly. I think just about everything that we have said to the governments in London and Edinburgh through diplomatic channels have mirrored what we’ve said publicly. I don’t think it’s a matter of forgiving anybody. I think all along, we recognized that Mr. MacAskill had the right to do what he did. We objected extremely strenuously at many different levels and in many different channels to the release of Mr. Megrahi. I think at this point, we’re looking to move on.
NOT what Mr. Campbell and the BBC wanted to hear apparently from the way they consistently edit his comments to leave the part about "nothing to forgive" and "he had the right to do what he did..."
DISGUSTING. It belongs in Pravda. You PAY for this stuff, right? My sympathies.
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24 comments:
Thats a bit unfair considering that Fox News is taken seriously in huge sections of the USA, hopefuly not in the Tomlin houshold though.
Other than that, her comments are on the money about Campbell. Does BBC Scotland not have anyone better than him to report on politics?
Alan's correct re: Fox News but must acknowledge that there are other voices within the US media. In Scotland the media are all singing from the same hymnal.
The word is defenestration, of the BBC in Scotland; the lot of the news department, maybe Brewer excepted.
This has to be a priority, both cometh independence and before that a Cameron controlled Westminster.
Campbell is nothing but a fifth columnist for the Labour Party.
Come the revolution he will need a berth in England but don't bank on England to embrace him.
Where he and his ilk go?
Scunnert.
Yep, very true. I would extend that to the rest of Britain too where the London based print media is a mirror image of the Scottish dead tree based media, where there is "concensus" on/for the Conservitives, rather than New Labour, which is the case up here.
Unlike the US, the broascast media is supposed to be unbiased though, which maked Campbell's Damian Day act all the more unpalatable.
Incidentialy, i saw an article/blog recently arguing for political bias to be allowed on Broadcast media, but can't remember where I saw it, don't suppose anyone else saw this.
I just wish he would go back to singing, don't you remember: "By the time I get to Phoenix", "Rhinestone Cowboy" and the like?
Seriously though, I think your commenter is just demonstrating the whole illiogical hatred of anything perceived as Liberal - usually seen as commie, that persists in many sections of US society. And the MacAskill decision is seen as just, so an interviewer looking to find the other side of the argument in the USA will immediately be labelled a Pravda droog. BTW do you think we should tell her the cold war has ended?
I'll let Jeanne answer your first point herself Allan.
There must be better political reporters in Scotland - after all it wouldn't take much to be an improvement on Campbell.
Allan, I agree that the "news" on Fox is a joke and yet taken seriously by some people. But I, my friend, don't pay a license fee for it and have dozens of other choices.
And I'm showing a hatred of Liberals, polaris? Now why would you suppose that? Because BBC normally supports a supposedly "liberal" party in Labour? Although how truly "liberal" Labour is might be open to question but I'm not a voter over there so that's not my business. However, I am concerned with the US being misrepresented which Mr. Campbell does, day after day. What I do hate is slanted news reporting of any sort.
If Mr. Campbell finds someone who is angry about the al-Megrahi release, as some of the victims' families are, then reporting that is good. But when the US State Department says, "There is nothing to forgive" that should get equal coverage.
That it doesn't is nothing but bias in reporting and liberal, conservative or up-a-blasted-tree doesn't matter. It is bad reporting. Scotland, in my purely American opinion deserves better.
Scunnert, you will be aware that Jeanne is pro-Scotland so I would doubt if her information comes from only Fox News.
Brewer certainly seems to have developed his own style and attitude FC and it makes quite a difference to watch Newsnicht these days. Shame he's the only one.
Can't recall seeing that Allan, but if I do I'll leave you a message on your blog.
I knew it!! Campbell a failed country singer! With these long pointy upturned toed, dirty shoes he even lets country singers down.
I think you have to read this post of mine to get a little info about Jeanne polaris. Also her blog, because she's not a political animal, she's a writer.
Here's the post:
http://subrosa-blonde.blogspot.com/2009/09/america-boycotts-scotland-american-view.html
Auch FC he'll fly off to America where all unionist politicians go when they're rumbled.
It wouldn't surprise me if he made a tidy sum too. :)
I do sometimes watch your Scottish politics with typical American bemusement, scratching my head a bit.
Yes, I am a writer and no politician. I usually stay out of politics altogether. What got me angry was when Mr. Mueller wrote what I deemed a stupid and offensive letter and made it public. I said so on my own blog that is normally only about writing issues.
The investigation, as I knew from friends in Scotland, was nothing to be proud of, his reference to a "jury trial" was stupid since he knew that it wasn't, and what business did the FBI have telling a foreign government what to do?
Since then I've followed the issue closely and become aware, with dismay, frankly, since I used to think highly of the BBC, of appalling bias in their reportage.
And that's all of my involvement in the whole thing. But I'll repeat what I've told Subrosa before.
By far the majority of Americans, if asked, would say that they think the release was a bad idea or don't understand it, also have no anger over the subject and a supposed backlash is simply non-existent. It has been made up out of whole cloth by the media over here.
If I have a political opinion, it is that I admire Kenny MacAskill for standing firmly behind his own decision with no excuses and Alex Salmond for supporting him with no wavering. I do not feel that kind of behavior is seen in a lot of politicians of any stripe.
And before someone points it out... Saying over "here" was a typo. I am, as I mentioned, an American and am in Oregon to be specific. :-)
I do on occasion visit Scotland. I certainly do, as subrosa said, consider myself pro-Scottish.
Care is needed with US sensitivities. They buy a great deal of Scotch and have been known to change consumer habits quickly if there is something they do not like. And it might be patriotic to switch to Tennessee's best.
For the huge number of Americans with Scottish ancestors, I find that hardly likely. Some people might remember our being mad at the French for not helping in Iraq and deciding to boycott them.
What? No one remembers that? That's because our anger (which was a heck of a lot more widespread and deeper than any of this) lasted about two weeks. We Americans also have notoriously short memories.
Seriously, I live over here. I've paid attention on this side of the pond. There is no backlash--none worth speaking of certainly. There never was. IF you're worried about it, you shouldn't be.
You do know that the cold war has ended, and you obviously are interested in what happens here - however, and I do spend time in the USA, as you do in UK, Fact: there is an irrational fear, nay paranoia, over Liberal (as I said incorrectly attributed as "Commie") policies in the republic. The BBC ties itself in knots trying to be impartial, to the dissatisfaction of anybody who holds right or left (that's Democrat or Republican) views. The BBC is the world's news source of choice, ask yourself why? And although I am not a fan of Glenn Campbell per se, the BBC is worth defending - a Liberal sop? Labour sympathisers? Placators? I don't think so, look at the US broadcasters for bias - one example being the kind of shock jock right & left wing broadcasters that define the worst and most destructive type of broadcasting, or perhaps the recent unrecognisable misrepresentation of another British institution, the NHS. I have listened to 3 pieces of BBC radio today where the Labour party have been seriously criticised, and politicians taken to task. If I was a Labour supporter I may attribute that to a right wing bias - but looking at it objectively the logical conclusion is that they retain their impartiality - despite anti-BBC rhetoric from politicians of all colours. Glenn Campbell wasn't looking for those who were against the decision to release Megrahi, they are aplenty; we in the UK are all too aware of the US penchant for legal retribution with no compassion; lock 'em up for 200 years, 'three strikes and out' and the fact that the USA is second only to China for killing it's own citizens.
Impartiality, compassion? Most citizens of the republic wouldn't recognise them if they sailed up the Hudson in a 1000ft pink pyramid ...
Don't lecture me, thank you...
< leaving the building...
Don't lecture me, thank you...
Back at ya. I may be a member of the "Republic" but I can have as much of an opinion on YOUR reportage over there as you do of ours over here.
If I was a Labour supporter I may attribute that to a right wing bias - but looking at it objectively the logical conclusion is that they retain their impartiality - despite anti-BBC rhetoric from politicians of all colours.
Since I am neither a Labour supporter nor a Conservative reporter--you have to find another way to explain my insistence that there is NO impartiality in BBC reporting.
I don't expect it on Fox News. I used to expect it on BBC. It isn't there. The bias is clear for anyone who looks. Mr. Campbell was indeed looking for a particular result and to find that he left out salient portions of his State Department interview.
You ignore it because you can't explain it away.
I did explain it - the actions of one errant journalist does not justify the hilarious comparison of the entire BBC with Pravda, a non-sequitur of enormous proportion I think. You don't have editors in the US news broadcast network? Is everything left uncut? US reporters never put their slant on a story? Thought not...
Sorry, perhaps we should just agree to differ... I guess I should be kinder to you, we all make decisions based on the information we have, and that can be distorted by those who deliver it.
Peace
Well said all round Jeanne - I'd class Campbell as a "daft laddie" if it wasn't for the fact that he's dangerous. We'd like to think that most folk would have an objective sense when it comes to politics, to see through the guff but when it's pumped at you that "union right, independence wrong" by a reporter from an organisation that is supposed to be (at best) neutral, people I think will take their mark from him. Interestingly none of the main media - despite approx 30% of the population supporting an independance view - are or appear to be in favour of independence here. Why? Well as Dasterly and Muttley (Whacky races) might have put it - medals, medals, medals - better to be Sir or Lord Sidney Rough Diamond than plain old Sidney! Just Look at Lord Foulkes -labour ho, ho, ho.
PS Since you are from the US, do an internet trawl on some of the above for a bit of background
polaris, I'm sorry that my comment about Pravda offended you, but they are a classic case of a state-supported news outlet that managed news. If you think my opinion comes only from Mr. Campbell (whose editors don't seem at all interested in reining him in) you're mistaken.
Do I admire a lot of the reporting that is done in the US? No. But the circumstances over here are very different, sans little details like License Fees.
When you lose admiration, I think there is a tendency to be harsh. I have lost the admiration I had at one time for BBC. I can see that you do still admire them and consider them unbiased. I can accept that as your opinion and we will indeed have to agree to disagree.
Dramfineday, I will indeed check those out. Thank you.
Jeanne, your loss of faith in the BBC is shared by many here. It is not that they have a left leaning liberal agenda (which they do), or that they bias by ommission, (which they do) it is that they have built a power base that has become supra-democratic, run by people with an anti-Christian, anti-Israel, homosexual, pro-Muslim, agenda.
They are bloated by monies extorted from the public, they refuse to be externally audited and have turned arrogance into an art form.
The BBC does attract talent and can train people to be the best, and can make the best programmes in the world, but their general thrust is subversive, anti-democratic and unpatriotic.
SR,
This guy is a toadying prick. Wish he could be silenced instead of hearing him continually spout Liebore propaganda.
And he does with laaaaarge helpings of EBC bias. Glad I don;t pay for these feckers.
Saor Alba
CD
You're one of the 'lucky' ones CD. Wish I could just jump in a boat if there's a knock on the door. :)
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