No blogging time for me for a few days, but I recommend Sarah AB�s article on Harry�s Place about John Humphrys�s bungled interview with Jackie Walker. I wholeheartedly agree with Sarah AB:
�He did not do a very good job. She was introduced as having been suspended for comments she made about Israel. Although a discussion of Israel prompted her remarks, this isn�t an accurate summary of the reasons for her suspension. He also failed to pick up on the significance of the term �chief financiers� or take issue with the dubious nature of some �historical� accounts of the relationship between Jews and the transatlantic slave trade.
Frustratingly, Humphrys� line of questioning, even though it failed to probe the real problems with what she said, was open to a charge of unfairness. He claimed she�d said in effect, �let�s get over the Holocaust� (not really) and then said that there was no need for her to �invoke the Holocaust� (when she wasn�t the first to mention it in the original Facebook conversation), and then claimed she implied �the Jews had it coming, almost�.�
The Slugger O�T piece is very good, too.
The BBC is very slow to pick up on this kind of thing. By the time they�ve decided it�s �newsworthy� people like Walker have had plenty of time to conjure up a defence and even convince themselves of its righteousness.
The problem is that John Humphrys and co. are jacks of all trades and masters of none. He obviously hadn�t been properly briefed. Most of your all-purpose anchors and presenters are out of their depth when dealing with any serious subtlety and complexity. Time constraints as well.
Listeners who hadn�t already read about this incident must have wondered what all the fuss was about. �Reinstate the poor woman,� they�d be shouting at the radio ... �leave her alone�.
Humph has probably done Corby�s Antisemite Party a great service; hope they�re grateful. Probably recruited a few extra BDSers as well.
