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August 28, 2005
The BBC's Blinders
OK, I admit it--there have been times when I've allowed a British accent to favorably affect my thinking. It might arise from the fact that I also believe Brits, in general, to be better film actors than Americans, which is at least an arguable position (differences in training, for instance).
But world events of the past decade or so have shown that the BBC's perfectly modulated voices mask a fairly virulent anti-capitalist, anti-American attitude. Curzon at Coming Anarchy adds to the evidence that when it comes to penetrating analysis, the BBC fails miserably. Curzon thoroughly fisks BBC correspondent Justin Webb's visit to Crawford, Texas. Webb:
A few years ago, one of President Bush’s neighbours gave me a tour of the outskirts of the presidential ranch. [...] In Crawford, Texas, I was shown into the back of a tractor trailer and taken off for a half-hour lurch through the dust.
Of course, the presidential compound and land are secure [...]. But, outside the perimeter of the ranch, this is rural Texas. There are shacks, there are rusting cars, there are other ranches. There is dismal, hardscrabble landscape – flat and huge and visually unstimulating. And there are Texans, real Texans.
As a Texan myself, I know what's coming, and Webb delivers by predictably telling the story of a rural man who shot his brother and then hanged himself (this is illustrative, you see, because this only happens in Texas). Webb continues:
The president’s neighbours are not, in other words, a bunch of city slickers. They are not sophisticated thinkers on world affairs, they are at home with guns. I cannot imagine a more hostile environment in which to set up a peace camp.
The emphasis is Curzon's, who notes acidly:
Don’t you love that logic? Texans are hospitable yokels, but there was one [...] crazy case where two brothers killed each other. This means they love guns and hate peace. Oh yeah, and they are, sniff sniff, “unsophisticated.”
Webb then gleefully reports that Senator Russ Feingold's call for a firm withdrawal date from Iraq has added weight because Feingold "is not a maverick, he is a mainstream Democrat with presidential ambitions."
Curzon corrects Webb's placement of Feingold in the political spectrum:
Wait, you’re the Ameican correspondent? Do you know anything about US politics? Feingold was the only member of the Senate to vote against the Patriot Act in 2001 and the Democrat co-sponsor of the McCain campaign finance bill. He is one of the most progressive members of the Senate. Allow me to direct you to this link for a taste of how wrong you are..
Webb's lazy perpetrating of the standard Texan myths is hardly the issue here; all distinctive cultures are subject to the treatment, even Brits themselves. But the BBC is a key node in the matrix that provides the world with a view into America, and if that view is habitually unbalanced and inaccurate, it can't help but have a real and adverse effect.
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» Us Dumb Texas Hicks from Decision '08
I grew up in a small West Texas town of 11,500, so perhaps that’s why I take perverse delight in the BBC’s description of George W. Bush’s Crawford neighbors:
Of course, the presidential compound and land are secure […]. But, o... [Read More]
Tracked on August 28, 2005 06:36 PM
