Incidentally, if you were wondering where Andrew Marr's discussion with U.S. Democratic Party pollster Stan Greenberg went next, well here's the answer:
Andrew Marr: Is that kind of very hardline message ringing out across America at the same time?Stan Greenberg: Well, I think it is ringing out in the Republican Party and it's really I think quite important in trying to look at what's happening in America. We do have a story here that we're looking at about the fury at Trump, Donald Trump, talking about registering Muslims.Andrew Marr: He actually wants every Muslim in America to be registered. It's like the Jews in Nazi Germany. They're not actually going to have armbands with red crescents, but we're not far away from that in that kind of thinking, are we?Stan Greenberg: Yeah it's quite crazy, but you should know it's not America. I have a new book as you know, America Ascendant...Andrew Marr: America Ascendant. And in that book you basically argue that America's liberal traditions, as embodied in this case by Hillary Clinton, will be triumphant over the next decade or two.Stan Greenberg: Yes, well I think we're at a tipping point moment right now - a huge growth in diversity and acceptance of multiculturalism, belief that the country's better off being diverse, with an immigrant population. The opposite of what you're seeing with Trump. I think the opposite of what you're seeing in Europe, and it's part of why America...Andrew Marr: And it's an absolutely acid moment for all these Western democracies. We've all become kind of global societies, pulling in people from all around the world. We've grown for that reason. We've got lots of energy from that. But now, this is the first moment when a lot of European countries too are saying "Our borders have got to be closed. Can we carry on with Schengen? Can we carry on with a borderless Europe or is that dream now over?"
Trump actually did allow himself to fall into a gotcha moment. He did agree that a database of Muslims might be a possibility, so there's no real defense at this point. Of course, Marr is a hideous human being and ran with it to smear an entire country, and deliberately withheld the information that Trump has since disavowed that idea so it's now a non-story, but that's the BBC for you.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.washingtonexaminer.com/how-the-crazy-trump-muslim-database-story-got-started/article/2576891
I've been following this too, David. It's been fascinating.
DeleteI saw a comment at B-BBC linking to a site that proved that one of the major liberal US broadcasters had edited Trump's comments to make them seem clear-cut and Trump seem bad, in the process distorting what he actually said. A clear goal.
Then I Googled around and found that site that had gotcha'd the US liberal media giant was guilty of exactly the same thing, editing out the continuation of the exchanges where Trump - as you say - actually went along with the register stuff, even if somewhat ambiguously.
And then Donald Trump rejected the idea, denying he'd said any such thing.
Your old 'Echo Chambers' chap Anthony Zurcher went with the same, unambiguous angle as Andrew Marr did here. The BBC likes to keep things simple (or simplistic).
This was actually quite disgraceful from Andrew Marr - yes, Trump was asked that question by a journalist, and gave an alarmingly dangerous & pathetic answer along the lines of "yes, we need all sorts of databases", but Marr should also know that Trump has since stated that this is not his policy, and more importantly, every other Republican candidate has panned him for it - Cruz said it was unconstitutional, Carson said it would set a dangerous precedent, Bush said it was abhorrent - Marr should know all of this, especially if he is going to bring this up on his program, so to present this as Trump's current policy, or representative of Republican thinking is misleading & false.
ReplyDeleteWell said. He should have known that (as even I knew that), and he should have pointed it out, especially during an interview with a Democrat partisan.
DeleteMarr's thinking about the British problem as well, though. He'll see it at his Race Relations Act-bound duty to promote the idea that giving Muslims any extra scrutiny at all is exactly like how the Holocaust started. It would be funny if the disgusting BBC didn't actively refuse to report stories about what's been happening to Jews in Europe and Britain.
DeleteTypical British hypocrisy from Marr. Does Marr really think that every Mosque in the land is not being monitored by our security services? If so, he's naive. I suspect that it probably goes further than just monitoring the Mosques, the security services probably have databases for every single Mosque goer. But as long as no one actually admits to that, the ex-Trot Marr is happy to indulge in his default anti-Americanism.
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