Big Lizards:Blog:Entry “BBC's Dilemma”

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October 8, 2005

BBC's Dilemma

Hatched by Sachi

The BBC planned to stake their reputation on the claim that President Bush said that God told him to invade Afghanistan and Iraq. But will they actually broadcast this story, now that their only source is backpedaling like a circus clown on a unicycle?

In its three-part series “Elusive Peace: Israel and the Arabs,” the BBC will feature Abu Mazen, Palestinian Prime Minister, and Nabil Shaath, his Foreign Misnister, describing their first meeting with President Bush in June 2003.

Nabil Shaath says: "President Bush said to all of us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, "George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan." And I did, and then God would tell me, "George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq …" And I did. And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, "Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East." And by God I'm gonna do it.'"

The Bush administration denies that the subject of Iraq and Afghanistan even came up during the meeting. And now Shaath, the only source for the divine-guidance quotation from the president, has already begun to backtrack from his extraordinary claim, according to Fox News:

Shaath, whose comments will be featured in an upcoming BBC documentary, clarified his remarks Friday saying, "We never thought that God was literally whispering in his ears or that the angel Gabriel gave him a direct message from God ... We understood this to mean a commitment by President Bush in the Middle East." Late today Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas issued a statement supporting the notion that Shaath's account was inaccurate.

So the MSM conundrum du jour is, what is the BBC to do? That depends on what they think they can get away with, and how much it will cost them. They may decide they can damage Bush’s credibility world-wide, or at least in the Arab countries, without losing too much of their own reputation when the charges collapse. Just like CBS, the BBC may well decide to trade some of their luster for a chance to bash Bush, and maybe damage Prime Minister Tony Blair on the bank shot, as well. But does even the Beeb have enough chutzpah to broadcast a story that their only source now repudiates?

They are left in a quandry: whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of being caught in outrageous propagandizing, or to drop the only reason why anyone would want to watch a three-part series on the Palestinian Authority in the first place -- the ridiculous "God talks to me" charge -- and end up with the Masterpiece Theater version of Al Capone's Vault.

But there is another option for the BBC, if they're brazen enough to take it. I understand Mary Mapes and Bill Burkett are available at the moment... perhaps, if they put their collective mind to it, they can discover a gospel written by Lieutenant George W. Bush on a word-processer in 1973 in which he reveals that he's the fifth Beatle.

Then at least they'd have something.

Hatched by Sachi on this day, October 8, 2005, at the time of 12:59 AM

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Comments

The following hissed in response by: Dean Esmay

The interesting thing is, if Bush said he prayed hard before each decision and asked God to guide him to the right choice, most Americans would shrug and/or say they admired that.

Others would hear "God told him to do that" and go bonkers because it would sound like the same thing to them.

The above hissed in response by: Dean Esmay at October 8, 2005 1:38 AM

The following hissed in response by: hunter

Most people pray before important decisions. Very few people confuse 'praying to God' with 'God telling me what to do'. I would suggest that those people who would misinterpret one for the other understand neither very well.
As to the BBC and their journalistic mission perhaps they take themselves a bit too seriously, and treat truth a bit too casually, sort of like our own MSM. There have been similar fraudulent quotes from domestic wanker groups like 'Moveon.org', trying to spam the lie that W is hearing voices from God to start wars.

The above hissed in response by: hunter at October 8, 2005 4:33 AM

The following hissed in response by: RBMN

BBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, etc.; none of their leftward bias or selective curiosity would bother me in the least if they would just ADMIT that they come to everything from the left. It's that particular big lie, "we're objective," that ticks me off the most.

The above hissed in response by: RBMN at October 8, 2005 9:52 AM

The following hissed in response by: ambiorix

I think it is time to change beeb to "bleeb" (compound of "bleep" and beeb) since it is unsuitable for the common viewer.

The above hissed in response by: ambiorix at October 8, 2005 1:03 PM

The following hissed in response by: KarmiCommunist