PRESS GANGED....
Sunday, July 5, 2009 at 11:08PM The Mullahs of Iran are gaining themselves a significant presence on British TV.
In recent weeks it has been self-promoting even more directly in the UK: London buses have been covered with advertisements for Press TV under the slogan “24/7. News. Truth.” And whose face can we see accompanying these ads for the Iranian government’s counter to the wicked western media? Why, it is none other than Andrew Gilligan. You know, the journalist whose dodgy Radio 4 Today programme unattributed report of the views of the late Dr David Kelly (the source Gilligan betrayed via e-mail to members of the foreign affairs select committee) ultimately led to the resignation of the BBC’s chairman and director-general.
Gilligan has recently been hired as “London editor” of The Daily Telegraph, but he has for some time been a presenter of a discussion show on Press TV. He is one of a small number of British journalists who are being paid by the Iranian state to adorn the airwaves. Another is Lauren Booth, half-sister of Cherie Blair, who has been described as a “human rights activist”. Still another is Yvonne Ridley, who seemed to have become afflicted with Stockholm syndrome following her capture by the Taliban in Afghanistan while a reporter for the Sunday Express, and whose subsequent conversion to Islam was facilitated by Abu Hamza, the hook-handed London-based preacher now serving a seven-year jail sentence for inciting murder and race hate. Ridley, who is by all accounts a kindly soul, has referred to Hamza as “very sweet”.
Press TV’s most well-known presenter – sorry, Mr Gilligan – is George Galloway, who has a show called The Real Deal. On it, the Respect MP has defended the conduct of the Iranian presidential elections – in which two provinces apparently managed a voter turnout of more than 100% – contrasting it with the US, where, he said, George W Bush had “actually stolen” the American presidency. Galloway, who has a tendresse for any “antiZionist” leader – how could we forget his face-to-face eulogising of the late Saddam Hussein? – said last week that “Press TV is Iranian-owned, but that doesn’t influence my opinion”.
So Lauren Booth, Yvonne Ridley and George Galloway - just three more immoral grotesque stooges - and all much loved by the BBC as well as Press TV.
View Printer Friendly Version
Reader Comments (4)
IIRC the BBC fired Gilligan. Deservedly so.
So Lauren Booth, Yvonne Ridley and George Galloway - just three more immoral grotesque stooges - and all much loved by the BBC
Eh? I haven't seen any of them lately on BBC.
Give the BBC some credit. Its Iran broadcasts have been blamed by the mullahs for the unrest and its staff in Iran have been persecuted. Obviously it's doing something right.
But of course not a word about that on ATW.
Has little to do with the BBC Peter, and more to do with the Iranians remembering how easy it was to humiliate this country when it picked up those 14 girlie-boy marines in the Gulf of Hormuz a couple of years back.
They dressed them in monkey suits, sent them home, and had a good larf about it.
"let's try it again"....you can almost hear them saying.
Oh please Peter. The BBC is the perceived mouthpiece of the British Government, and Britain is the 3rd most hated figure in the Iranian's sights behind israel and the USA. The BBC's election broadcasts were an absolute scandal - they did everything a good propaganda mouthpiece for the Mullahs would short of live approving coverage of hanging a few gays or stoning some adulteresses.
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2009/06/loathsome-charade.html
And David, you forgot Alan Hart! He'll sue you for leaving him out you know.