“Another low”

 

I see a Guardian headline this evening: ‘Bolsonaro’s fingerprints are all over this’: how president’s war on Amazon played part in double killing. 

I've not been following this too closely, but when British journalist Dom Phillips and 'Indigenous expert' Bruno Pereira lost their lives, presumably murdered, I saw plenty of journalists expressing their horror.

Understandably. 

But some BBC journalists' comments went beyond what you'd have expected from BBC journalists. 

The BBC's South America correspondent Katy Watson has been one of those taking it personally and raging against Brazilian president on Twitter. “Another low”, she tweeted angrily about the elected Brazilian leader this week.

It's not the kind of BBC journalism we're meant to be used to, though I especially remember her for looking as if she'd genuinely been crying when reporting for the BBC on the night when Donald Trump won the election in November 2016 so it doesn't surprise me. 

It's 'feelings' journalism, and it's spreading. 

Regular hand-wringing

Tapir & chips?

That From Our Own Correspondent Stephen Sackur piece on "vain, shameless, dog-whistling" Viktor Orban was immediately followed by Kate Adie saying:

To the other side of the world and another powerful populist leader, and another man who provokes regular hand-wringing among liberal politicians and journalists. Jair Bolsonaro's homophobic and misogynistic comments have helped make him a deeply divisive figure, though he was the clear winner in Brazil's presidential election last year. He's been criticised for remarks about the country's indigenous populations who he suggested are in the way of mining and agriculture.

Was Kate classing herself, Mr Sackur and her other BBC colleagues as "hand-wringing liberal journalists" there? (Or doesn't she do irony?) 

At least the piece that followed was by Tim Whewell, who was less interested in point-scoring and more interested in telling a story. He couldn't entirely hide the fact that his indigenous friend's taste for tapirs and jaguars wasn't quite what he wanting to hear. 

Our Own Correspondents

The first From Our Own Correspondent of 2019 featured a few interesting pieces and plenty of fine writing, but the piece from the BBC's Anna Foster the Central African Republic follows a trend we've recorded before. 

The BBC has previously downplayed the role that Muslim fighters played in causing the Muslim-Christian slaughter in the country. And they've previously focused on the plight of minority Muslims there rather than the massacres against the Christian majority. 

And today's FOOC similarly skirted around the murderous Muslim fanaticism behind the start of the civil, potentially misleading listeners into thinking that Christian militias were the cause of the war rather than being a reaction to Muslim atrocities. 

And, again, FOOC focused on the plight of the Muslim community there, despite the major massacres there, including all the recent ones, being perpetrated by Muslims against Christians. 

There's something deeply ingrained in BBC thinking here, and you have to read beyond the BBC to see how perverse it is. 

And the second story was related to Brazil's newly elected president Jair Bolsonaro. 

My goodness, if you ever doubted that the BBC takes positions on foreign affairs, just listen to the report on FOOC today, including Kate Adie's introduction! 

Mr Bolsonaro's not my cup of Brazilian coffee either, but I'm no licence-fee-funded broadcaster.

I'll quote the programme's website to give you a hint of it:

As a proudly homophobic, far-right president assumes office in Brazil, Simon Maybin meets some of the country’s gay footballers 

It was a highly opinionated, emotive piece - the radio equivalent of a fine, right-thinking Guardian column. And yet Simon is a BBC journalist.  

Can't the BBC try to strike a little deeper into why such an extreme figure was elected rather than just keep flinging '-ist/-ism' epithets around and siding with the nasty man's electorally-defeated enemies?

Brazil nut

Well, the new 'far-right' President of Brazil strikes me as being "a bit much", but then again so did this week's Profile of him on Radio 4 by Mr. Edward Stourton.

It was critical voice after critical voice for the first eight minutes or so before 'BBC balance' arrived, first in the shape of a declared admirer who then proceeding to slag off Mr Bolsonaro (thus sounding more like a critic than an admirer) and then with a voter who said something nice about him (for a few, short seconds).

Incidentally, the tool I use to help transcribe things - TV Eyes - isn't brilliant at capturing radio programmes. Its brave attempt to render the name 'Jair Bolsonaro', for example, came out as 'Jail above scenario', which is nice.

Tropical Trump

Today's From Our Own Correspondent began by focusing on the frontrunner in the upcoming Brazilian election.

The BBC presenter (Kate Adie) and BBC correspondent (Katy Watson) strew around a fair few adjectives about this man, Jair Bolsonaro. According to them he's "controversial", "right-wing", "notorious", "sexist", "homophobic" and "infamous". Plus he argues some things "falsely" and is guilty of "scaremongering". 

Maybe it's just me but I couldn't help getting the feeling that they weren't that keen on him. 

As for his likely left-wing opponent in the second round, he was described as "left-wing" and...oh, nothing else. So he must be OK then. 

The title of today's episode on the BBC website is: