Sunday 6 October 2019

"These are not the views of the BBC"


So what's John Sweeney up to these days, now that (like John Humphrys) he's free of the BBC? 

Well, THIS:


In the video, "Tommy Robinson and the Adolf Hitler Appreciation Society", John Sweeney calls Tommy Robinson a "Nazi c**t" and shows him speaking to an audience in Bavaria, clipping him saying "German people have for too long lived in the guilt of Adolf Hitler" and setting that alongside chants of 'Oh, Tommy, Tommy!' and scenes of TR being violent.

So, is this Tommy Robinson praising Hitler at the Adolf Hitler Appreciation Society? 

Well, digging around, things aren't quite what the ex-BBC man is implying they are. 

(I know! Who'd have thought it?)

It turns out that Tommy Robinson isn't talking to the Adolf Hitler Appreciation Society (gosh!) but to a audience at last October's Grenzschutzkonferenz (Border Protection Conference) in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, where senior figures from various right-populist parties from across Europe gathered. 

And even from the clipped bit, it's not hard to work out that TR is probably about to go on to tell Germans to move beyond the guilt of Adolf Hitler, be proud of themselves and their culture again and look to the future.

(And, come to think of it, talking of Hitler's guilt doesn't sound very 'appreciative' of him, does it?)

So, John may unstandably be deeply bitter about Tommy Robinson...(though he evidently prefers wine to bitter)...but will his reputation - or what's left of it - survive too many more stunts like this?

Update: Pugnazious at B-BBC has much more on this bit of Sweenian fake news, citing a very interesting blogpost elsewhere from a left-wing blogger. That blogger ends his piece by writing:
On Twitter, the video has been lauded as a defiant gesture against Robinson, but I can’t say I’m impressed by the lazy buffoonery, which comes across as compensatory for Sweeney’s self-evident failure. The video gives the impression that Sweeney has unearthed the clip, when he’s done nothing of the kind, and many Twitter users have taken his “Adolf Hitler Appreciation Society” designation at face value – meaning that Sweeney, whatever his intentions, has effectively dumped misinformation onto social media that Robinson and his supporters will in all likelihood capitalise on. 
In short, Sweeney’s latest antics are actually a hindrance to subjecting Robinson and his associates to proper critical scrutiny.

3 comments:

  1. If it's true that it was the anti gay slur from Sweeney that finally lost him his job at the BBC, then it's a sobering thought that this type of highly selective cut and paste clips - put forward to mean something completely different to the fact, would still be acceptable to the BBC.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, I believe they would be. They are the video equivalent of remarks already made on Twitter by the BBC's Dominic Casciani and Daniel Sandford: prejudicial, selective and misleading.

      It seems to me that people like Sweeney seem to be confusing and in some cases misunderstanding (very often deliberately) a number of different concepts.

      1. The free speech principle. You don't have to be a totalitarian to believe in the right of totalitarians to speak freely in our society in defence and advancement of their ideas. I don't like what Paul Mason and Ash Sarkar but I defend their right to give their views.

      2. Conspiracies to overthrow democratic government. We have seen in history conspiracies by both Far Left and Far Right. These clearly have to be combatted. I quite like the (modern) German approach which has an office for the protection of the constitution. Certainly in the past it used to be active in investigating extremes of both left and right. Not sure if it has been PCised. You can add in people actively organising to replace democracy with Sharia rule as engaged in a conspiracy against democracy .

      3. Legitimate protest. Is it legitimate to protest against a totalitarian ideology and culture that you see as a direct threat to your own? Sweeney and the whole of the BBC seem to answer no, not if the totalitarian ideology is one they like.

      4. Tommy Robinson's character and possible failings as an individual. You can like some or all of what TR says without claiming his character is unblemished.

      I think I've seen the TR clip before and thought it was unwise, though its message was valid. Can anyone believe that Merkel's Million Migrant Madness wasn't in part motivated by a wish to overcome Germany's shameful past through what would be applauded by the liberal media as a grand moral gesture? Who can forget the BBC reporter Jenny Hill's excitement at the Berlin rail station, welcoming the incoming undocumented migrants (nearly all confident-looking young men, rather than the frightened vulnerable families touted by the BBC).

      TR has been made an unperson by the BBC and the whole of the MSM have censorted mention of Panodrama.

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  2. I'm so glad he's done this. All it does is prove beyond a doubt that he is not only a manipulative liar, but that he's also a complete bell end and seems to be going insane.

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