Corrente

If you have "no place to go," come here!

The Beeb goes FOX

Submitted by lambert on Tue, 08/09/2011 - 9:08pm

Yahoo News (which is less awful than so much) on events in the UK:

"Wretched media coverage on London protests from BBC to Al Jazeera," a post on the WikiLeaks Twitter feed read. "Not a single protester interviewed. Absolutely pathetic."

Well, here's one. Finally. And just watch the interviewer. Pathetic and appalling.

NOTE Hat tip WRhouse.

0
No votes yet

Comments

Mad Hemingway's picture
Submitted by Mad Hemingway on

The way to stop Obama from gutting SSI, Medicare, and Medicaid is simple.

Push the GOP to impeach him.

This will get him off track real quick and give someone else a chance at the Dem primary.

It will also make the GOP & Tea Party even more unpopular.

MsExPat's picture
Submitted by MsExPat on

Is far more than just a "protester." He's a venerable West Indian activist from Trinidad, a distinguished journalist, and the nephew of socialist intellectual CLR James. The fact that he was treated in this shocking manner by the BBC interviewer is reprehensible.

Submitted by lambert on

Great detail. Yes, reprehensible. Could you add that comment over at Yves place? She links to this in the links of the day.

DCblogger's picture
Submitted by DCblogger on

I would link to the Telegraph article, but it freezes my browser. The UK has much tighter libel laws than we do, so I don't suppose the BBC had any choice but to apologize.

Submitted by jawbone on

Reading it was almost worse that watching it happen on video. I guess I absorb things better through reading than listening.... I was so fascinated with Fiona Armstrong's pressing, pressing, pressing Howe. I realize British interviewers are more pointed in their questioning, but there was something about her posture and tone of voice....

1708: Here's the exchange between Mr Howe - a writer and presenter - and Ms Armstrong:

Armstrong: "You are not a stranger to riots yourself I understand, are you? You have taken part in them yourself."

Howe: "I have never taken part in a single riot. I've been part of demonstrations that ended up in a conflict. Stop accusing me of being a rioter and have some respect for an old West Indian Negro, because you wanted for me to get abusive. You just sound idiotic - have some respect."

1707: The BBC apologises for a live interview on its news channel - broadcast on Tuesday - in which presenter Fiona Armstrong accused guest Darcus Howe of taking part in riots. The Corporation said it had not intended to show him any disrespect.

OMG!

MsExPat's picture
Submitted by MsExPat on

that I think Lambert will enjoy. This one's on Island records and West Indian music in the UK.

And Howe really seems to have called Obama on his shit in 2008, too.

My friend J., from Trinidad, reminded me this morning that I had met Howe in London, in the mid-80s when I was a musician hanging around the West Indian scene. He was one of the organizers of Notting Hill's carnival, and had a formidable reputation. He'd been involved in political movements since the 60s, and a member of the UK version of the Black Panthers.

Notting Hill was not the upscale setting of Hugh Grant comedy films then--it was, along with Brixton and Hackney, the Harlem of London. The center of Notting Hill was All Saints Road, which at the time I was there had been barricaded at both ends, full time, by the London police. Inside the barricades was a cultural/social/political enclave of West Indian immigrants in London. There were Caribbean restaurants, nightclubs, workshops for the steelbands and carnival costume-makers...and Rastas everywhere. What a scene.

There's nothing new about what's going on in London. It's just the latest cycle of something that stretches back to the late 1950s, when the first big wave of West Indian immigrants moved to the UK. Seeing Howe on television being treated the same way blacks were treated 40 years ago in the UK just drives that point home.

Submitted by lambert on

What a great connection. Somewhere in the past year I posted on white punk and black reggae mixing it up (if I have the argot correct) in eg The Clash, though it seems that was just a year or so before your time there.