BBC joins the tinfoil hat brigade. most devastating fisking yet of the BBC, in particular, the World Service. As the author points out:
The World Service of the BBC is the planet’s radio station, broadcasting around the clock in virtually every major language, from Arabic to Urdu, to some 150 million people - far more than listen to the Voice of America and CNN Radio combined.
Keep this in mind while reading the story.
. . . By mid-afternoon, I had listened to the World Service for five straight hours. During that time, the World Service, in its reporting and analysis, was obviously deeply skeptical of any Coalition claims of success and insistent that the Americans be denied simple good faith. The anger of Iraqis, however, was widely and consistently featured. . . .
. . . I watched the TV while listening to the World Service on my hand-held radio. It was a startling multimedia event. I could listen to the BBC’s Paul Wood telling me once again that there was no sign of the American incursion into Baghdad. Yet on the screen in front of me there was the 3rd Infantry. They were cruising through Baghdad, driving down the highway, turning into the streets. Along the sidewalks, there were waving children and adults, cheering them on. Men in passed by in trucks and cars crying out, "Saddam down!" and giving the soldiers big smiles and waves.
. . . On the BBC News channel, the anchors got Wood on camera and very gently pointed out to him that they were getting a lot of video in showing the Americans had indeed taken a drive deep into Baghdad and that the information minister’s odd claims didn’t seem to be holding up. Wood was kind of chubby, younger than I expected. He seemed obviously pained. But he had his story - no Americans in Baghdad as far as he was concerned - and he was sticking to it.
But of course he didn’t have the story. One of the war’s turning points had taken place under his nose and he and the rest of his BBC colleagues in Baghdad had missed it . . .
The excerpts here give you the gist of the story, but there is much more colorful, cringe-producing detail - read the whole thing. (via
Sullivan)
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