Anti-American Danger

As you may know, I was in Europe last week.

In fact, so was Bill O'Reilly.

And whenever the discussion turned to Iraq, it was not about deposing Saddam's brutal regime, or about allowing millions of Iraqis to vote for the first time in decades, or about the terrorist Zarqawi beheading civilians and blowing up women and children.

It was about Bill feeling like his global conception of the media did not cow to his Foxy desires, he felt not only saddened, but betrayed. Indeed, The Master O'Disaster has not taken too kindly to the BBC. My experience with the BBC was that a more deliberate, contemplative, expressionistic, and emotional set of coverage was not to be found anywhere else. It was as though they did two things before covering the experiences of the bombings that they endured [not Mr. O'Reilly, I should remind you]:
1) Thought about what they were about to report, and
2) Reported with nuance and room for reflection.

Bill's take?

No, on the telly, Iraq was all about Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. Thank you, left-wing media.

The anti-Bush press and the people who aid them have greatly succeed in turning the war on terror into a "bash America" fest. You have to hand it to those people. They are effective.

But that was before the London terror attack. Will things change now? Don't count on it. That's because media like the BBC won't stop at spin.

I should point out that on the BBC that I watched, there was also a very informative, if not combatative, Q&A with Jack Straw about the timetable of British troops in Iraq; a story about the Downing Street Memo [which we have yet to see stateside]; a delightful car-review of three Euromobiles by reporters and their mums; extensive coverage and documentaries about Africa and the particular challenges and travails of Africa; informative and interesting coverage of the build up to the G8; coverage and interview footage of the meaning behind Live8; a show pre-bombing about Islam in Britain and extensive coverage post bombing examining the same.

In fact, I'd say that in the few hours watching the BBC whilst in Europe myself, I felt like I'd had more depth and information delivered to me in an interesting way than on any news channel stateside. Particularly Fox. But Bill? It all comes back to this: the BBC just doesn't have it right. Why not? Because:

Most Americans are solidly behind the War on Terror [View in particular items 5 thru 7 in this link -GS]. And even the division on Iraq is based on performance, rather than ideology.

The big problem with all this America bashing is that it makes it almost impossible for the USA to get a fair hearing on terror strategy. We've been stigmatized. Anything we do to hunt down the true evil-doers is either suspect or rejected out of hand.

...
Maybe the London killings will help in that effort. What say you, BBC? And that's "The Memo."

What say you, BBC? Cause we're comin' after you!

The AntiCentenarian: who's looking out for You.

[End cheap-target Ranting Post'o'th'Day]