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Fitzgerald: Alan Johnston and the BBC, as morally unkempt as ever

Jul 7, 2007 9:11 am By Hugh Fitzgerald

“When I was captured…I told them not to kill me, I am on your side.” (Alan Johnston, in an interview)

Johnston has been a terrible reporter from Gaza, and he shows every sign of continuing to refuse to comprehend, or even to recognize, the evil that is in front of his face. He was a tool, a tool when a free reporter, a tool when captured, a tool now that he has been freed — a tool of Fatah, and then a tool of a particular local clan, and finally, a tool of Hamas, attempting to burnish its image.

And the entire BBC effort to “free Alan Johnston” was blatantly based on an appeal to the “Palestinians” to free him not because he should never have been taken in the first place, not because he was a journalist, but because he was so “friendly” to the Arab cause, so intent on “telling their story,” so firmly in their camp. I collected a dozen or so examples of this transparent semaphoring — the BBC’s public admission, by executive after executive, of Alan Johnson’s “value” to the “Palestinians” as their propagandist (“telling their story to the world”). In other words, the BBC admitted publicly, but only because it had to, it felt, in order to free him, to the very things which others have charged the BBC with, as part of its systematic anti-Israel and pro-Arab, pro-Muslim bias. Had Alan Johnston never been taken hostage, the BBC would not only never have admitted to these things, but would have stoutly, even indignantly, denied them.
Might the BBC somehow be taken to task by members of Parliament? By Charles Moore? Has anyone noticed that the BBC of Huw Weldon is not the present-day BBC? It is not only a question of atrocious accents and constant misuse (and mispronunciation) of English, not to mention the shrillness of the Judy Swallows, and the palpable nastiness both in her voice and in that of Lyse Doucet. Could we not have some of those well-modulated voices of yesteryear, or are they as rare in England as they are now in the United States? The speech of radio announcers ought to be a model of mellifluousness, not grating — as Judy Swallow grates — on ear and in every other way.

The BBC is bad. The BBC World Service, which answers not to Bush House but to the Foreign Office and its Arabists, is even worse.

Think of all the Muslim personnel. Are they known for taking even a pretend stab at objectivity, anywhere they may be? Think of Robin Lustig, or that Mr. Bennett-Jones who loves to grill those he regards with hostility (you should have heard his nasty treatment of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, but she held her own, and then some).

The BBC, you will recall, has as its World Affairs Editor a certain John Simpson. To truly understand the antisemitic and anti-American and for that matter anti-British BBC World Service, you must find out about Simpson, the man who has described Rafsanjani, that monster, as a “moderate.” Possibly the way that Goebbels was a “moderate” compared to Hitler, or Beria to Stalin. Simpson is a key figure in the IslamIntern — along with Edward Mortimer and Mona Rishmawi, the Palestinian Arab behind Mary Robinson.

Simpson is a good friend of the anti-Israel conspiracy theorist, and promoter of Mordecai Vanunu, Peter Hounam. Hounam wrote a book called something like “The Cyanide Conspiracy” — about “Zionists” in the American government and so on. A book not out of place at any Nazi webpage. Simpson liked the book so much he wrote an introduction to it. Ca dit longue, John Simpson’s involvement in this favorite treatment of the American antisemites’ favorite topic — why, he is just the man to run the BBC World Services. So the next time you have to endure the sneers and snarls directed at Israel from Judy Swallow, Robin Lustig, et al — do make sure to direct some of your ire at John Simpson, No. 3 at the BBC.

So now Johnston is out. And it’s the mixture as before, for brave little Alan Johnston. He may have had a shower and a shave and a haircut after his “terrifying ordeal” (which ordeal is par for the “Palestinian” and Arab Muslim course, but Alan Johnston isn’t focussing on that — Alan Johnston is focussed entirely on…Alan Johnston), but he remains as morally unkempt as ever.

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