Was it entirely necessary for Bruce Forsyth to prolong the agonies of Strictly Come Dancing’s racism row? Well, no. Anton Du Beke said Lailla Rouass looked like a “Paki” . Anton Du Beke apologised. The apology was generally accepted. Show goes on. But Forsyth felt it necessary to weigh in. Somewhat ironically stating “I’m sure there was nothing vindictive about what he said…the page should be closed on it,” Forsyth then went on to say that in our land of “extraordinary political correctness” we should “keep things in perspective”.
On this, perhaps, Brucie has a point. But it’s his own intervention that has stretched this argument out for another day. There may be no such thing as bad publicity, and it’s true that Strictly has made the front pages of a fair few newspapers this morning. But one can’t help feel that a controversy like this is not really what people want from such a well, wholesome show.
Meanwhile, in a land of slightly less extraordinary political correctness:
The past few days has seen a hell of a lot of righteous indignation over the BBC’s Andrew Marr’s questioning of Gordon Brown’s medical routine (“A lot of people in this country use prescription painkillers and pills to help them get through; are you one of those people?”).
I should say I found the question pretty distasteful myself. Though many of us do rely on pills to help with physical or psychological ailments, it’s just not something we talk about. Interrogating someone on health, which in Britain is seen very much as a private matter, is just not done. (more…)
Well, it’s happened. The BBC has announced that British National Party leader Nick Griffin MEP will appear on political discussion show Question Time on 22 October. Facing him (among others) will be Justice Secretary Jack Straw, a man believed by frequenters of far-right web forums to be a key part of the International Jewish Conspiracy.
I mention this partly because it will be interesting to see if Nick Griffin manages not to mention it when he faces Straw. Griffin, of course, is the author of the 1995 pamphlet Who Are The Mindbenders, which catalogues in some detail how Jewish (and in many cases “Jew-ish”) people control the media. While the BNP is now more noted for its anti-Muslim outpourings, it retains a root in classic far-right conspiracy theories on pernicious Judaism. Anti-fascist website Hope Not Hate just last week claimed to uncover an audio file of Griffin and party comrade Simon Darby alleging that “anti-Islamisation” group the English Defence League is in fact a “Zionist false flag operation”. (more…)
Are reporters who risk their lives in Russia, many of whom are killed, the modern-day equivalents of Soviet-era dissidents such as Andrei Sakharov? This question was central to a debate on press freedom, organised by Index on Censorship to mark publication of a report on the issue by Committee to Protect Journalists. (more…)
