I’m trying to figure out how BBC World can have the following line-up of commentators and analysts for their US election coverage and still maintain some pretence of impartiality:
BBC World will also broadcast a special edition of ‘Question Time’ featuring film-maker and author Michael Moore, columnist Richard Littlejohn and former Bill Clinton adviser Sidney Blumenthal.
Other discussion programmes feature guests such as Madeleine Albright, George Soros and former CIA director James Woolsey.
Albright and Blumenthal both served under Bill Clinton, as did Blumenthal. Woolsey also served under Clinton, though he was hawkish leading up to the war in Iraq. The political opinions of George Soros and Michael Moore are not exactly secrets.
Richard Littlejohn is — well, from the references I can find, he’s a right-wing nutjob British writer.
Now, those aren’t the only folks — perhaps — that BBC World is going to be having discuss the US elections, but, still, it hardly seems to be a representative example of folks with a broad range of opinions about, say, who might make a better US President, or who truly reflects the will of the American populace.
Weird.
The article sounds a bit biased too me *coughEDITINGcough*:
From the BB4
Website :
Former BBC Washington Correspondent Stephen Sackur presents a major debate, filmed on location at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard, which explores the state of American politics, both at home and abroad.
Two panels of leading US politicians, thinkers and opinion-formers,
voice strong convictions and clash over fundamental principles, in front of a voluble 500 strong American audience.
As the race for the White House promises another photo finish this debate gives viewers an unrivalled insight into how the opposing campaigns are shaping up and why.
Viewers can interact live with their comments by email and text.
PANELLISTS
•Madeleine Albright
Secretary of State under Clinton and US Ambassador to the UN from 1993-1997. She describes the current situation in Iraq as “a mess”.
•Graham Allison
Assistant Secretary of Defence in Clinton’s first term, and an expert on nuclear proliferation.
•Bob Barr
Former Republican congressman, on the board of the National Rifle Association, and opponent of restrictions on American civil liberties.
•Sidney Blumenthal
Journalist and author, he is a Guardian columnist and Washington bureau chief for Salon.com. He served as senior adviser to President Clinton from 1997-2000.
•Helle Dale
Director of Foreign Policy and Defence Studies at the Heritage Foundation, and former foreign affairs editor at the Washington Times.
•Chris Edley
Dean of Law at UC Berkeley, he was a senior adviser on economic policy for President Clinton and national issues director for 1988 Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis.
•David Ellwood
Dean of the Kennedy School of Government, he was Assistant Secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services under President Clinton.
•Frank Gaffney
Deputy to Assistant Secretary of Defence Richard Perle 1983-1987, he is now president of the Centre for Security Policy, a leading conservative Washington think-tank.
•Vartan Gregorian
President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the influential philanthropic foundation which donates millions to education and social projects in America.
•Richard Holbrooke
US Ambassador to UN from 1999-2001 and likely candidate for US Secretary of State if John Kerry wins the election.
•Stephen Moore
Economist and president of the Club for Growth, a high-profile pro-Bush tax-cuts political action group.
•Bill O’Reilly
Outspoken and controversial host of Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor, he is reviled by liberal America – although he insists that he is an ‘independent’, not a conservative.
•Congressman Mike Rogers
Republican Congressman for Michigan, loyal supporter of Bush and was involved in drafting the Patriot Act.
•Clare Short MP
Secretary of State for International Development from 1997 until her resignation on May 12, 2003, says UK made huge mistake in supporting America over Iraq.
•George Soros
One of the world’s richest men, he has donated over $18 million to Democrat and anti-Bush groups, and says that removing Bush from office is the “central focus of my life”.
•Shibley Telhami
Former UN advisor and expert on the Middle East, he argues that resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict is the key to peace in the region.
•James Woolsey
Director of the CIA from 1993-95, appointed by President Clinton, he is hawkish in his views, and was an advocate of regime change in Iraq since the first Gulf War.
On Question Time
This week’s panel
Question Time, the BBC’s premier political programme chaired by David Dimbleby, will be in Miami for a US election special programme on 28 October.
He will be joined for the debate by writer and film-maker Michael Moore, former speechwriter to George W Bush David Frum, former advisor to President Clinton Sidney Blumenthal, journalist Richard Littlejohn and Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, chair of the Miami-Dade Electoral Reform Coalition.
MICHAEL MOORE
Title: Writer and Film-maker
Career: Michael Moore has described President Bush as “a thief-in-chief, a trespasser on federal land, a squatter at the Oval Office”.
His unapologetic attacks on politicians, big business and whatever he sees as “social wrongs” have earned him many friends and enemies. His recent, controversial film, Fahrenheit 9/11, won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival and has gone on to become the highest earning documentary of all time.
He is among the world’s best-selling non-fiction writers with books such as Stupid White Men, and won an Oscar for Bowling for Columbine, his documentary highlighting levels of gun crime in the United States.
DAVID FRUM
Title: Writer
Career: The former speechwriter to George W Bush, David Frum is credited with the phrase “the axis of evil”.
He is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and writes a daily column for National Review Online. He contributes frequently to the editorial pages of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, as well as to the UK’s Daily Telegraph and Canada’s National Post.
David Frum is author of The Right Man: The Surprise Presidency of George W Bush (2003), and co-author with Richard Perle of An End to Evil: What’s Next in the War on Terror (2004).
SIDNEY BLUMENTHAL
Title: Former Advisor to President Clinton
Career: The famously loyal former assistant to President Bill Clinton described his time in the White House in his 2003 book, The Clinton Wars.
Following the Monica Lewinsky affair, Sidney Blumenthal was quick to defend President Clinton and labelled Kenneth Starr’s investigation and the allegations against the president as “a right-wing conspiracy.” He was one of the witnesses in Clinton’s impeachment trial .
Before joining the White House communications team in 1997 he had been a journalist, working for The Washington Post and Vanity Fair. He has since written several books, including The Rise of the Counter-Establishment.
RICHARD LITTLEJOHN
Title: Journalist and Broadcaster
Career: Richard Littlejohn is well known for the forthright views he sets out in his column for the Sun newspaper.
Always opinionated and controversial, in 1997 he won Columnist of the Year at the British Press Awards. He is also a best-selling author with his first novel To Hell in a Handcart.
A Tottenham fan, he has hosted BBC Radio 5 Live’s flagship football phone-in show 6-0-6, winning a Sony award for his work on the programme.
LIDA RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF
Title: Civil Liberties Attorney
Career: Chair of the Miami-Dade Electoral Reform Coalition, Colombian-born Lida Rodriguez-Taseff has played a role in ensuring Florida’s 2000 vote-counting controversy is not repeated.
Mr Bush won the presidency at the last election only after a series of recounts in the state, amid an emerging vocabulary of “hanging”, “dimpled” and “pregnant chads”. In this election, Florida’s voters will be using new optical scanning or touch-screen voting equipment.
Lida Rodriguez-Taseff practises in the area of commercial litigation and was also president of the Miami chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union from 2001 to 2003.
The programme will be shown on BBC One on Thursday evening and will also be broadcast on BBC World.
BBC One: Thursday, 28 Oct 2004 at 22:45 BST
BBC World: Saturday 30 October at 0810, 1410, 2110 GMT; Sunday 31 Oct at 1810 GMT
Thank you for even noticing the great BBC. Like Fox, it can choose who it wants to comment on the Presidential race, and yes, Littlejohn is a right wing rent-a-quote.
I’m British, and live in Alabama now. Remeber that sometimes, even in this day, the BBC is not an independent organization.. 🙂 It sometimes is gently turned to reflect the requirements of certain parts of Government.
Perhaps the UK would rather work with someone more flexible (or more easily influenced?) than ‘W’.
Stan, you had better luck than I in finding the BBC info (I looked at the BBC World site). The first “debate” does sound more “balanced” (though, frankly, I can think of a half-dozen names, of either side, I’d rather strike off of any meaningful discussion of the issues — Moore and O’Reilly to start off with).
The “Question Time” show seems a bit more balanced, too — though, again, it’s not clear to me what either Moore or Littlejohn can contribute other than ostensibly witty barbs.
Ummm…
The first show is Stephen Moore from Club for Growth, and not Michael Moore.
Though Michael Moore vs. David Frum in the second show might be very entertaining.
BTW…The BBC has a wonderful search engine and programme guide.
And … you’re right on the Moore mixup. Dagnabbit.
Actually, I’d think Frum/Blumenthal would be the more intersting match-up. Michael Moore I’d — well, never mind. It wouldn’t be pretty.