While I'm (desperately) catching up with things, I'm going to strongly echo a comment made here yesterday about last night's The World Tonight which noted the "completely sympathetic and unchallenging interview with Pakistani novelist Mohsin Hamid who - what a surprise - writes frequently for the Guardian" re Sadiq election as London mayor.
Mr. Hamid did indeed erect straw men over 'Islamophobia' and knocked them down with little or no challenge from the BBC presenter.
That same BBC presenter (the usually likeable James Coomarasamy), who also raised up the criticisms of "dog-whistle politics" by Zak & the Tories in his introduction, also gave Labour's Lady Nugee MP (aka Emily Thornberry) a gentle interview and Tory MP Stephen Hammond a much tougher interview over the Conservative campaign.
Tony Travers of the LSE was then invited on to denounce the Tory campaign (which he did, very politely and discreetly). The BBC presenter's first question asked him what kind of impact Zak's so-called "dog-whistle politics" would have had and then asked whether it was "a failed experiment".
The interview with Mohsin Hamid was merely the biased icing on the cake.
It's fascinating to ask whether BBC staff actually get together in canteens and bars to map out these memes or whether they simply all think exactly they same as in "He's Muslim - you can't say that, even if it's all true and documented."
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