ABC’s World News Tonight is rebroadcast on the BBC’s news channel. I had earlier watched the CBS Evening News why Sky News retransmit. Coverage of Galloway’s evidence at the Senate committee was buried halfway through the CBS program. The World News Tonight coverage was zip, nada, nothing, silent.
Instead of actual much actual news it was even fuller with filler pieces than it usually is. So what did we get? A long piece on the anniversary of Gay Marriages in Mass with and interview with a couple there and a second interview with a couple who go married in California and then had it declared invalid so they got their money refunded. This was then rather unconvincingly linked to an op-ed piece from George Stephanopolos on how this would be affected by votes on federal judge appointments George felt might be voted on during Wednesday.
There was then a long piece on how the housing market in some godforesaken city was depressed by new building so people could not sell the houses they had already bought. Handy bit of background but hardly earth shattering when more time was given to it than all the actual news coverage.
Other non-news filling up the broadcast were the revelation that the US military had found an interactive training site on the web for insurgents to hone their targetting skills and a gee-whiz new way of treating depression involving sticking an outsized clockwork winding key next to someone’s head. Actually it was a pair of magnetic coils but that is exactly what the device looked like.
On their web site there is no coverage of Galloway’s appearance apart from a reprint of the Reuters report.
Now this may seem an extreme example but from what I could see, the gay marriages piece was probably a couple of feeds from local affiliates with a voice over, with Stephanopolos being dragged in to provide a veneer of topicality. The house price thing was their excuse for “investigative journalism” and much of the spadework had again probably been covered in a local news program selected from those sent in again by their affiliates. The health “news” was obviously mostly made up of research footage with ABC doing an interview with a couple of the trial subjects and maybe adding their graphics to demonstrate the theory. The “terrorist program” was again obviously lifted direct from a Pentagon news release or pre-prepared story.
I started to come to the conclusion that their news team consists of a couple of botoxed bimbos and a few now aging himbos being given a pretense of authority by an anchor who was too “tired and emotional” to be recruited by Turner when he set up CNN and has now survived so long he has gained the title “veteran”. The same description as the ancient cars that annually go from London to Brighton, the amazement is not at their performance but that they manage to get there at all.
It’s tragic, isn’t it, londonbear. It’s a miracle that now — I just heard on Charlie Rose’s show — 60% of the American public thinks iraq was a bad idea.
I just watched Charlie Rose’s show — it’s on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) here. It was excellent. He had the NYTimes and a Time magazine fellow discuss Galloway’s testimony, the Senate committee, and Carl Levin’s ability today, for the first time, to get the word out about how much the U.S. abetted Saddam and made $ off the oil-for-food program.
Galloway was superb on Charlie Rose.
Sadly, Charlie Rose is aired at very odd hours and is often preempted to run some silly local fundraiser. In Seattle, the PBS station airs his show at midnight — long after most people are in bed. I catch his show at 8PM because I get the national feed via DISH satellite. But, at 8PM, probably most DISH subscribers are watching “American Idol.”
Now, I’ll say that Rose’s show is often irritating. In the build-up to war, he ran with the pack, for example. But sometimes he pulls one off.
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VIDEO links and as always excellent BBC In Depth reporting!
British MP George Galloway has told
US senators who accused him of profiting
from Iraq oil dealings their claims were
the “mother of all smokescreens”.
In a combative performance before a Senate committee, the Respect Coalition MP accused the US lawmakers of being “cavalier” with justice. “I am not now nor have I ever been an oil trader and neither has anyone on my behalf.”
The senators say he was given credits to buy Iraqi oil by Saddam Hussein.
Mr Galloway traveled to Washington to clear his name before the Senate sub-committee on investigations. He claims the evidence against him is false. He says forged documents had been used to make claims about him before.
Mr Galloway went on the offensive from the start of his testimony, saying the committee had “traduced” his name around the world without asking him a single question.
George Galloway has been named in a US Senate report as having been granted oil allocations by Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. The new MP for Bethnal Green and Bow denies receiving any benefits and he spoke to the BBC’s Breakfast program.
SEE ALSO ON BBC SITE —
See archive footage of George Galloway in Iraq
02:32 mins
George Galloway’s election night interview with Jeremy Paxman
04:16 mins
» US backed illegal Iraqi oil deals! «
Oui – Liberté – Egalité – Fraternité
Limited cable service so I flipped through the networks last night for Galloway. CBS did a fair job, though not long enough. I have up on ABC a long time ago when Jennings became an apologist for the war. NBC was a pleasant surprise. Galloway came later in the broadcast, but with the best quote fully intact, the “I was right, you were wrong, and 100,000 people are dead” quote.
My hope is he won’t become an icon, but merely one more loud voice.