Amid the deaths and the grim daily struggle bravely borne by Britain’s forces in southern Iraq, one tale of heroism stands out.
Private Johnson Beharry’s courage in rescuing an ambushed foot patrol then, in a second act, saving his vehicle’s crew despite his own terrible injuries earned him a Victoria Cross.
For the BBC, however, his story is “too positive” about the conflict.
The corporation has cancelled the commission for a 90-minute drama about Britain’s youngest surviving Victoria Cross hero because it feared it would alienate members of the audience opposed to the war in Iraq.
The BBC’s retreat from the project, which had the working title Victoria Cross, has sparked accusations of cowardice and will reignite the debate about the broadcaster’s alleged lack of patriotism.
“The BBC has behaved in a cowardly fashion by pulling the plug on the project altogether,” said a source close to the project. “It began to have second thoughts last year as the war in Iraq deteriorated. It felt it couldn’t show anything with a degree of positivity about the conflict.
“said a source close to the project” – now, there’s another reputable Telegraph bit of truth. Worth quoting in Fox Snooze.
Pull this story – have you guys lost your minds?
Nice blind quotes in that article. Sounds like sour grapes from somebody who worked on the project and freaked out when it was turned down. I wonder who …
“The independent production company which was developing the project for a prime-time slot on BBC1 is now believed to have taken the script to ITV.”
Gee, you think they’re the ones feeding the article the juicy quotes?
Sounds about right. It happens a lot in the media here, to help the Democrats talk down the war. Aaron Glantz wrote about it in his book “How America Lost Iraq,” saying Pacifica(a leftie radio statio ) wanted only stories making America look bad, and didn’t want to hear his reporting about how people were glad Saddam Huseein.was out. By the way, the short answer in the book was that the war was lost when America couldn’t produce electricity to meet the market demand, and when they went after Sadr, who was initially neutral/ proAmerica.
2. “have you guys lost your minds?”
I’m trying to figure out were you got the impression that we had minds to lose?!
4-
Way to go! Instead of critically reading the article, you bring up ridiculous ‘leftie’ slams.
I guess that programming faux news has installed in your feeble brain took.
SN I almost fell out of my chair when I saw this story posted.
The BBC’s coverage of the Iraq War is pretty poor to begin with, in terms of the overall political/tribal anaylsis, but this is just outrageous. The valor & courage of Private Beharry, is something that everyone should be informed about, regardless of their view on the war.
“The corporation has cancelled the commission for a 90-minute drama about Britain’s youngest surviving Victoria Cross hero because it feared it would alienate members of the audience opposed to the war in Iraq.” – Don’t want to do that. Just keep telling the audience what they want to hear, instead of what they need to hear.
I find it paradoxical that the BCC is complicent in alienating the supporters of the war against Saddam by not showing this, to appease the ‘sensibility’ of the anti-war community. Perhaps there is more profit in alluring the larger anti-war community, than portraying a living historical legend of the British Armed Forces.
Mass Media is no longer about news, it’s about entertainment. Why report the whole “truth” if your audience only wants to hear half? You’ll lose viewers. True journalism is dead.
This story says it all. Our enemy is televising heads being cut off on live TV yet the BBC doesn’t want to show a positive heroic story for fear it will be perceived as supporting the war. And you all wonder why the Fox “fair and balanced” theme is so popular.
One wonders how cowardly the management and staff of the BBC have become when they spike a story about a true modern day hero..because it might offend a few “antiwar” listeners. I would suggest that the government finally do away with the BBC.
Since the BBC is funded by the government, and the government is elected by the people, all British people should feel ashamed for this.
Really.
The real shame of this article is the fact that people buy it, wholesale, despite the fact that it’s all unsourced. This is how people are slandered/libeled and it’s so easy to do. For example:
“For the Dvorak Blog, however, his story is “too positive” about the conflict.
The Dvorak Blog has refused to publish a series of posts about Britain’s youngest surviving Victoria Cross hero because it feared it would alienate readers opposed to the war in Iraq.
The Dvorak Blog’s retreat from the series which had the working title Victoria Cross, has sparked accusations of cowardice and will reignite the debate about the blog’s alleged lack of patriotism.
“The Dvorak Blog has behaved in a cowardly fashion by pulling the plug on the project altogether,” said a source close to the project. “It began to have second thoughts last year as the war in Iraq deteriorated. It felt it couldn’t show anything with a degree of positivity about the conflict.
“It needed to tell stories about Iraq which reflected the fact that some members of the audience didn’t approve of what was going on. Obviously a story about Johnson Beharry could never do that. You couldn’t have a scene where he suddenly turned around and denounced the war because he just wouldn’t do that.
“The series is now on hold and it will only be published if another blog picks it up.””
See how easy it is? Any idiot can libel another with a willing reporter.
ahh the faux news jockeys are out in force on this one.
Look, the article is unsubstantiated…yet you clowns run with it like it’s truth?
Get a life.
A_B, Brian – What substantiation would you like? Read the damn article, why don’t you?
http://tinyurl.com/2v5q6e
Last para:
“A spokesman for the BBC admitted that it had abandoned the VC project but refused to elaborate.”
Oh wait, it doesn’t count because the spokesman wasn’t named? BBC dumped the project, period. They admit it.