I know some of you don't reckon much to Twitter (including Sue), but the BBC remains in love with it and it can be very revealing about the BBC's priorities.
As some of you will already be aware, two of the audience highlights from this week's Salford edition of BBC One's Question Time, in the wake of the Manchester Arena atrocity, were (1) a very brave young Muslim woman speaking out against "the elephant in the room" regarding radicalisation in her own community and the vile influence of Saudi Wahhabi money "importing" terrorism "right under our noses" and (2) the man who read out the anti-Western leaflet given out at the Didsbury mosque which the murderer and his family had attended (holding his own against a hijab-wearing attendee at the mosque and David Dimbleby, who seemed to panic slightly at that point).
The Twitter point is that the official BBC Question Time Twitter feed ignored both of those and went instead for this:
That came (as you'll also know from Sue) from the man sitting two seats away from the hijab-wearing Didsbury mosque lady - the ubiquitous, Prevent-rejecting, 'Islamophobia'-hunting Muslim chaplain at Manchester University who did the "It seems that Muslims tend to be the target and the collateral damage when these things happen" thing (his exact words).
Why did the BBC's Twitter feed choose him while ignoring the other two audience members who made much more memorable and important contributions?
The answer, as far as I can guess, is that BBC Question Time thought his contribution was worth tweeting to the world, and that the other two's contributions weren't - something highly suggestive of the BBC's way of thinking, I think.
It was very brave of the Muslim young woman to argue that Saudi-funded mosques should be closed down...but it has to be said if any non-Muslim were to call for that on the street or in a tweet - or indeed on the BBC website - they might lose their job, be subjected to threats of violence or be liable to legal sanctions.
ReplyDelete