Panorama

[m20gull]

I have recently been accused of being a right-winger on the basis of my allegedly Pavlovian criticism of Panorama and the BBC. Time to lay this to rest.

My objection to Panorama is its lazy approach so that it has become not much better than Watchdog.

The last two programmes for me were not political but the Seroxat and Allied Wire & Steel programmes. Both of these were a few anecdotes strung together with some sensationalism, no hard facts, no evidence and no insight.

I pick on these two because in both cases I have some experience. I have been a user of an SSRI (not seroxat) and work in pensions. When you know something of the subject it is easy to spot the lack of insight. What that makes me realise is that on other subjects where I do not have experience, there is likely to be the same lack of insight, the same sensationalism, the same drawing conclusions from little evidence. That's why I don't bother with Panorama, nothing to do with political bias.

 

[Jambo Seagull]

fascist!

 

[Dave the OAP]

so there

 

[Easy 10]

It was good acting though. That bloke playing Blair had him off to a tee, the mannarisms and subtle inflections in his speech were spot on. The Alastair Campbell was a bit crap though.

 

[London Irish]

Rubbish, m20Gull. You're utterly transparent. So you attack this pension programme when your real target was last Sunday's one about Blair and Scarlett's role in lying to the British people over WMD. Front up and admit this it what you are doing. Gah, I hate dishonest debates like this! John Ware is a brilliant journalist and it was wonderful to see that the hatchet job done by Campbell and Hutton has not cowed the BBC into challenging blatant government deception.

Well done John Ware, well done Panorama.

 

[Easy 10]

Panorama has the scariest theme tune on television as well. Used to be terrified of it as a kid, and would hurry upstairs to bed on a Sunday night before it came on, or I'd have nightmares.

 

[Man of Harveys]

Incidentally, the Panorama theme tune is taken from the excellent (and hard to find) soundtrack to the 60s French film Un Homme Et Une Femme.

 

[Easy 10]

Well, I never knew that.

 

[m20gull]

Rubbish, m20Gull. You're utterly transparent. So you attack this pension programme when your real target was last Sunday's one about Blair and Scarlett's role in lying to the British people over WMD. Front up and admit this it what you are doing. Gah, I hate dishonest debates like this! John Ware is a brilliant journalist and it was wonderful to see that the hatchet job done by Campbell and Hutton has not cowed the BBC into challenging blatant government deception.

Well done John Ware, well done Panorama.

I am on dangerous ground here as I didn't see this Panorama! I stopped watching the programme after the pensions one.

I will see if the transcript is on the BBC website still.

Hurrah for the BBC challenging the government, this government or any other one. Deception, by whoever and what ever means, should be outed.

Hutton was a waste, and so is Butler.

Ccoming soon, why I don't like the BBC......

 

[m20gull]

Right. I have read the transcript. The programme is no more insightful than the Butler report.

Dr Jones dismisses the crucial conclusion because it was based on intelligence he hadn't seen.

Scarlett admits his final last minute strengthening under pressure from No 10 was based on intelligence that has since been withdrawn, though he didn't know that at the time.

Ware quibbles with wording in a way worthy of Kopel about removing the nature of the threat - Britain or Britain's interest? What is the significant difference? As an oil producer, any activity which damages production, even by a small producer like Kuwait can damage our national interest. "Saddam is willing to use Chemical and Biological weapons" - not disputed.

Do you think Desert Fox was based only on UK Intelligence? Why won't Morrison name names on who pressured them. He doesn't know though members of his staff told him of personal pressure. I said before deception should be outed. If he was pressured tell us who by, or at least tell Butler

So what does this Panorama tell us. The dossier was sexed up by a combination of senior intelligence staff and No 10. That's one way of looking at it. Thin intelligence was stretched to its limit and words played with to paint a picture of a brutal dictator who had had WMDs, had used WMDS, had WMD programs in place, threatened neighbouring countries and our national interests.

Somewhere in between lies the truth.