'Woke' defence work from the BBC website

 

Gingerly re-entering culture war territory, I spotted a BBC article and a response from Raheem Kassam on Twitter:

The links for the two pieces are here:

BBC: Krystina Arielle: Star Wars supports High Republic host after racist abuse

AltNewsMedia: New Star Wars Show Host Has History Of Anti-White, Racist Tweets

I'd suggest you read the second piece first. 

I always proceed with huge caution when I'm reading pieces like Raheem's, but having read the evidence of her "history of anti-white, racist tweets" there I felt primed to read the BBC's take and found myself laughing (though not in a good way) at all the blatant partiality. 

Let's put in plainly: AltNewsMedia is full of 'anti-woke' agenda-pushing, but their agenda-pushing is at least matched by the BBC's 'pro-woke' agenda-pushing in this BBC News website report. 

It should all be studied at respectable universities (if there are any left). 

And if AltNewsMedia acts as the hostile prosecution against Ms Arielle here, then the BBC acts, 100%, as her defence.

Here's the whole BBC article, with added commentary from me, in italics and [] - which, hopefully, won't make it too hard to read. Please see if you agree:

The official Star Wars Twitter account has tweeted in support for Krystina Arielle, the host of the upcoming Star Wars: The High Republic Show, after she received online harassment. [Her as the innocent victim, starting off straight away on her side]. 

Tweets by Arielle surfaced of her speaking about the role white people play in upholding racism. [That's one way of putting it. How about saying 'about the role she claims white people play in "upholding racism''? How about also reporting that other people would say she was making offensive, racist statements herself? - Well, that's coming next. Sort-of.]

She then started receiving racist abuse, and accusations of being racist. [Fair accusations or unfair accusations? That's the question. The BBC clearly aren't even going there. They've decided the case already. The accusations are obviously unfair to this BBC reporter, despite them being inflammatory at the very least to surely any truly impartial observer].

But Star Wars tweeted in support of her, stating: "Our Star Wars community is one of hope and inclusivity". [More talk of support for her]. 

Ms Arielle was recently announced as the host of The High Republic Show, an upcoming web series about Star Wars: The High Republic, a new subseries of the Star Wars media franchise.

She came under attack [or, to put it more neutrally, 'was criticised'] after social media users resurfaced ['resurfaced' as a verb? We're in academese territory here] numerous old tweets, mostly from last year ['old tweets...mostly from last year'?! 'Offence archaeology' against people the BBC doesn't like can take tweets, and other statements, back decades and be held in damning evidence against them, so this is very telling, defensive language from the BBC here] when protests where taking place around the world in support of Black Lives Matter.

In some of her past tweets, Arielle references ['references'? More woke academese] white people while giving opinions on systemic racism. [That's one way of putting it again. Another way would be, 'In some of her past tweets, Arielle made reference to 'white people' while expressing her views on 'systematic racism'. And yet another way would be to say that 'in some of her past tweets she makes makes what some consider offensive, inflammatory comments about white people while talking about what she calls 'systemic racism']. In one, she states: "Just a reminder that white women are just as complicit in upholding and enforcing white supremacy." [Here the BBC might have mentioned that her critics says that she 'targets' whites, conservatives and women.]

"The last 24 hours have been ... not the greatest," she tweeted on Saturday, along with screenshots of highly offensive, racist messages. [Note the steering-the-reader language here. It probably, unfortunately, will have a huge deal of truth of it, but it continues to paint a picture, built throughout the article, that ALL the criticism of her is unfair and abusive and racist. We don't hear any criticism of her, - and there's plenty of reasonable, non-racist criticism out there from what I can see, none of which is featured here.] 

But many have spoken out in support of Arielle, while the hashtag #IStandWithKrystina started trending on Twitter. [Ah, yes, the famous Twitter echo chamber! And here being echoed by the BBC! "Many" have spoken out in her favour, they say...and here they come!]

[Here comes the first defence witness]. Matthew Mercer, host of the Critical Role podcast, which has featured her, said: "There are few as bright, badass and altogether wonderful as [Krystina Arielle], and anyone who tries to step into her ring better know we're right there beside her."

[Now comes another defence point]. This is not the first time someone involved in the Star Wars franchise has reported receiving racist abuse. 

[Here comes the second defence witness, via video link so to speak, to make that point]. Actor John Boyega said his casting in The Force Awakens elicited a blatantly racist backlash from some fans.

"Nobody else had the uproar and death threats sent to their Instagram DMs and social media, saying, 'Black this and black that and you shouldn't be a Stormtrooper,'" he told British GQ last year.

"Nobody else had that experience. But yet people are surprised that I'm this way. That's my frustration."

[And that's where it ends. No 'prosecution witnesses' were heard from, and all the featured tweets were supportive of her case. It couldn't have been more one-sided].

And if you weren't aware that you were reading a BBC News piece by a 'woke' BBC reporter you're given a You may also be interested in video from a London BLM protest organiser entirely from that female BLM protestor's (rather extreme, many might think) point of view. 

This is one of those 'woke' activist pieces that old BBC hands are said to worry about. And understandably so. 

It takes sides and bends the evidence to makes its case.

It's far, far away from being anything 'traditionally BBC' as far as impartiality goes. 

People may be appalled by the standard of BBC reporting here, but who's shocked anymore?