My only point in posting this was for the sake of levity - Rumsfeld is extraordinary gifted in his public speaking, quite unlike the guarded politicos who will refuse to say anything concrete that commits them to an ideology.
And it was really big of him to admit that US foreign Policy was:
'In a hole' and it was time to 'Stop Digging'. What refreshing honesty.
I actually like this in a politician, someone who speaks their mind (even if it is running away and leaving their mouth behind. If only other politicos would do the same (Bush, Blair, Hussein: are you reading this?)
As for the BBC - well the 'Bolshevik' jibe in my earlier post was a sop to to the Christian Fascist Rightwing Gun Rights String 'em Up Lobby (AKA Nuke/ GRUNHERZ/And the rest of you unreconstructed pocket emperors) knowing that that is how they might percieve it.
The BBC news department is the world finest newsgathering machine. Commercial News Networks are beholden only to their shareholders. Pumping the popular beliefs of the day out of the tube is good business sense, so why rock the boat?
The BBC is paid for my British taxpayers like me. And like a good pinko subversive, I believe that in most cases it is money well spent. The fact that it is a NOT FOR PROFIT organisation frees it in greater measure from being beholden to special interests.
Who do the Free Iraqis turn to for their news from Iraq? Where did the Burmese movement for democracy look for news about Burma, or the East Timorese, Rwandans, Liberians, Ivorian?
The BBC World Service.
World Service even broadcasts news in local languages as well as English, and the news is written locally, by local reporters. If you want to know what's really happening (especially to the people who aren't in 'control') you'll find out (and you will also get their side of the story, because there are ALWAYS two sides)
Everywhere there has been a breakdown in free reporting, the BBC is the often one unpolluted source for news, and has, whether you acknowledge it or not, worldwide respect in this regard.
I get Fox news, and like most other output from the Anus of Murdoch, it makes me laugh. Not as much as the Simpsons. mind, but its funny. Now I am no conspiracy theorist (unless you count the theory that conspiracy theories are started by TPTB to distract people from looking into genuine conspiracies), but I am skeptical about News International (FOX) being an impartial news service. The daily TV and newspapers of close to 2 billion people on the planet belong to one man - and he has shown time and time again that he will support incumbent powers in retrun for concessions in creating the worlds largest media monopoly.
Having said all that, I believe they are doing nothing other than televising news programs in the best way they see fit, which is likely to differ the farther away from the US you are.
I am not an intelligent man. I would be the first to admit (and the last to point out), but Fox news is pitched so low it passes right under my feet and into a deep hole in the ground.
CNN is to my mind, a little more adventurous than Fox, but I can't tell you why
I get the feeling that the people who present it aren't actually journalists so much as actors. Is this true? No it can't be can it?
Of course the BBC are a bunch of unreconstructed Stalinists - I mean even their motto gives the game away -
"Nation shall speak peace unto Nation" - now there's a piece of Communist Propaganda if ever there was one.
And this was a bit of fun from a lighthearted Sunday Morning radio show. No one is telling anyone how to run a war on terrorism ...
(although I am bound to add that like all wars against a thing(poverty, drugs, crime, stupidity, bad hair) it is bound to fail so fighting one is a lost cause.)
...merely to highlight that the US defence secretary is a gifted and respected statesman with a commanding mastery of the English Language.
I mean complete nincompoop.
I love you all, yes even you...
