Monday, August 14, 2006

I Was Going ...

To post about the latest outbreak of BBC stupidity, but Tim Worstall has done the biz.

Miss Fitzpatrick told The Observer that the BBC's team of foreign correspondents should come from the same ethnic background as the country they were reporting from.

This is entirely nonsensical. So we’re reporting from India: the reporter should be of which caste? (Yes, they are very different ethnic backgrounds). A Sikh? Moslem? Hindu? Reporting from Sri Lanka, Sinhalese or Tamil? Nigeria: Yoruba, Hausa or Ibo?

As the UK is majority a vague pinkish colour is she going to fire all reporters currently employed in the UK who are not vaguely pinkish ?


Presumably Ms Fitzpatrick also thinks that the London correspondents of foreign media organisations should be British.

I wonder if she realises that this would mean in practice the disappearance of the specialist foreign correspondent from the BBC. No more Misha Glennies in Eastern Europe, no Michael Buerk reports from Ethiopia, no Kate Adies everywhere. Instead we'd have all reports from foreign parts coming with a native's view, not an outsider's. A native view can be very valuable. But exclusively native views ?

Still, at least Frank "I'm A Muslim" Gardner would be in one piece.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with Mary.
BBC journalists, white or not, are hideous. Morally if not physically.

The best thing would be to sack every single white BBC reporter and presenter. Immediately. Without benefits or severance. F*** 'em, the white Imperialist Colonialist oppressors! They deserve no less.

And then the BBC should fill the positions with authentic (and obviously non-hideous) blacks and Asians.

Ideally, in fact, with blacks and Asians who don't actually speak a word of English.

Then we won't have to listen to the poisonous leftie rubbish that BBC hacks always spout. We can just laugh at the funny faces and gestures the new reporters make, as they attempt to convey their delight at the murder of Jews by Hezbollah, and their anger at the murder of fellow-Muslims by Hezbollah...

It will make watching the news so much less irritating, and watchers will almost certainly feel more kindly disposed to the 'minorities' once they are unintelligible.

The BBC - for once - will be doing something useful in the cause of racial harmony in England.

dearieme said...

I propose a compromise: sack the two Irish gits. Mr Drooling Emotions is just an embarrassment and Ms Whinge Awfully must surely be just about the only person from Eire with an unpleasing accent. And don't let them keep their jobs by offering to black up.

AntiCitizenOne said...

Or just get rid of the License fee and market forces will remove these superfluous propagandists.

Ross said...

{The BBC said last night it was "absurd" to suggest that correspondents of the calibre of Fergal Keane, John Simpson, Jeremy Bowen and Orla Guerin "lack credibility with our audiences because they are white".}

Quite right, they lack credibility because they are outrageously partial and in the case of Fergal Keane, weepy.

Anonymous said...

anticitizenone: we can't rely on 'market forces' to do the job quickly enough.

look at the USA - they had decades with just 3 or 4 networks (all raving lefties) and even with the rise of the internet plus Fox News, they are only gradually losing their death grip on their unfortunate victims.

Squander Two said...

Apparently, the BBC have announced plans for all their reports from Northern Ireland to be read out twice, once by a Protestant and once by a Catholic. Which one gets to go first will rotate from one day to the next.


> must surely be just about the only person from Eire with an unpleasing accent.

As someone who speaks to Irish customers on the phone all day, I have to say that you're insane.

Anonymous said...

As some astute person said above, do away with the licence fee and that will take care of the Fergal Keanes and Orla Guerrins. It will also take care of black news presenters who can't really read and owe their positions to the pignment of their skins.

BTW, off topic slightly, but why isn't there at least one Muslim comedy show on? Why no Muslim comedians? We've got black and Indian funny people. Why not one funny Muslim?

Laban said...

"We can just laugh at the funny faces and gestures the new reporters make"

I used to watch Anna Ford (a long time ago) with the sound turned down, just to watch her lips move as she formed plosives. Delightful.

Of course, she got the job because she was intelligent and articulate. The fact that she was also beautiful had nowt to do with it.

Anonymous said...

So Squander two, you therefore talk to a lot of people from Eire with unpleasing accents then?

Squander Two said...

Not a lot. Just some.

Anonymous said...

Hmm, this policy would mean only Jews could report from Israel. I can't see the Beeb allowing that one myself.

World 1 BBC 0 (BBC o.g. 1 min)

gerald hartup said...

Too frequently the response of intelligent people is to ridicule the actions of the new Establishment. They can bear our derision providing we leave them with the power over our lives intact.

I have asked the Commission for Racial Equality to investigate the actions of this diversity Czar.It only takes an email.

It would be useful if commentators used their skills to get their MPs on the case.