LONDON (Reuters) - The head of the BBC's news operations accused U.S. media organizations on Tuesday night of being overly patriotic in their coverage of the lead-up to the Iraq war.
"Before Iraq, it seemed to me that some U.S. news broadcasters wrapped themselves in the flag and, as a consequence, did not perform the role the public expects of them," said Richard Sambrook, director of the BBC's global news division.
First of all, what the hell is overly patriotic? I think it would be a fine thing for some of these news organizations to remember that their right to report the news was fought for, died for and is protected by patriots. Just think about the stupidity in that statement. He's basically saying "I think US media organizations should be more anti-US." I say screw him.
Second, I wouldn't say that our media is even close to being overly pro-US. Has this guy not seen the constant barrage of negative reporting coming out of Iraq? We never hear about the good things in Iraq. We never hear about hospitals opening or schools opening. We never see the people (like the Kurds) thanking our soldiers for ousting Saddam. All we ever hear about are the problems. If anything I think our media should be even more pro-US if only to balance out the negativity they're giving the public every day. Isn't reporting the whole story, including the good and the bad, what the media is supposed to do?
Third, well the hell does the BBC get off lecturing the US media on matters of objectivity?