Saturday 31 October 2015

"Back on British soil..."



"Back on British soil, the last UK resident held at Guantanamo Bay is released...."
The early stages of Shaker Aamer's "homecoming parade" led BBC One's News at Six last night. 

The coverage, from BBC special correspondent Lucy Manning, included the reactions of his supporters, presenting us with his father-in-law, his lawyer (Clive Stafford-Smith) and his friend (Moazzam Begg). 

His father in law was delighted, his lawyer praised Mr Aamer as wonderful family man and his Islamist friend says he been held so long only because of what he 'has' on the US and UK government. 

They got 18 seconds, 18 seconds and 10 seconds respectively. 

The only dissenting note came from Robin Simcox of the Henry Jackson Society who got an abruptly cut-off 9 seconds.

BBC impartiality in action, it seems.

1 comment:

  1. For some reason Lucy Manning always reminds me of Droopy the Dog.

    https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Droopy+the+dog+google+images&biw=1600&bih=715&tbm=isch&imgil=S6hrDdQ8ElfnzM%253A%253B5-pZTOGUCYNXsM%253Bhttps%25253A%25252F%25252Fen.wikipedia.org%25252Fwiki%25252FDroopy&source=iu&pf=m&fir=S6hrDdQ8ElfnzM%253A%252C5-pZTOGUCYNXsM%252C_&usg=__CBcubPPvImthkCTiSGC9UrCFBho%3D&ved=0CDwQyjdqFQoTCP7d5erR7MgCFclXFAodmyQLBA&ei=aqo0Vv6AJsmvUZvJrCA#imgrc=S6hrDdQ8ElfnzM%3A&usg=__CBcubPPvImthkCTiSGC9UrCFBho%3D

    I was dismayed at the way the Henry Jackson Society spokesperson's contribution was presented as a kind of feeling or opinion, rather than a summary of factual evidence. It's the job of the BBC to present the facts. I think they know the facts which is why they wen to HJS, so as to avoid giving the facts themselves.


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