UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has accused the BBC's coverage of Hurricane Katrina of being "full of hatred of America" and "gloating" at the country's plight, it was reported on Saturday.
Blair allegedly made the remarks in private to Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, which owns BBC rival Sky News.
Downing Street yesterday refused to comment on the report in the Financial Times. The BBC insisted that its coverage was "committed solely to relaying the events fully, accurately and impartially."
Murdoch, a long-standing critic of the BBC, was addressing the Clinton Global Initiative conference in New York.
He chuckled, "I probably shouldn't be telling you this," before recounting a recent conversation with Blair. He said Blair was in New Delhi when he made his objection to the BBC's coverage of the catastrophe in New Orleans: "He said it was just full of hatred of America and gloating at our troubles."
Bill Clinton, the former US president who was hosting the conference, also attacked the tone of the BBC's coverage during a seminar on the media. He said it had been "stacked up" to criticize the US federal government's slow response.
Sir Howard Stringer, chief executive of Sony Corporation and a former head of CBS News, said he had been "nervous about the slight level of gloating" by the BBC.
The disapproval will come as a blow to BBC executives who had declared themselves delighted with the hurricane coverage, led by Matt Frei. They believed they had learnt the lessons from the Dec. 26 tsunami in Asia, when the BBC was regarded as being slow off the mark.
Yesterday Blair's comments were strongly rejected by Martin Bell, the former BBC war correspondent and ex-member of parliament. He said: "Assuming it's accurate -- it may of course be that Tony Blair was simply telling Rupert Murdoch what he thought he wanted to hear. If he really does have a gripe with the BBC coverage, there is no shortage of forums in which he can say so publicly. But the last time he picked a fight with the BBC, as I recall, the government came off rather badly."
Bell added: "I think Matt Frei's reporting was absolutely immaculate and reflected the fact that one of the things the BBC is there for is to report events as they happened rather than as politicians may want them perceived to have happened. If Tony Blair does want to confront the BBC over this, I'd be surprised -- because he would find absolutely zero support, except perhaps among his usual henchmen."
Charles Wheeler, the veteran former US correspondent for the BBC, said: "I don't believe Murdoch actually said that. It doesn't sound like Blair to me. The coverage I saw was extremely good and got better and better. Matt Frei was very good. He got quite angry, which is what might have annoyed people. I don't see why people should be unemotional; I never was. You have to tell people what you feel and what you hate -- that's part of legitimate reporting."
A spokesman for the BBC said yesterday: "We have received no complaint from Downing Street, so it would be remiss of us to comment on what is reported as a private conversation."
PRECARIOUS RELATIONS: Commentators in Saudi Arabia accuse the UAE of growing too bold, backing forces at odds with Saudi interests in various conflicts A Saudi Arabian media campaign targeting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deepened the Gulf’s worst row in years, stoking fears of a damaging fall-out in the financial heart of the Middle East. Fiery accusations of rights abuses and betrayal have circulated for weeks in state-run and social media after a brief conflict in Yemen, where Saudi airstrikes quelled an offensive by UAE-backed separatists. The United Arab Emirates is “investing in chaos and supporting secessionists” from Libya to Yemen and the Horn of Africa, Saudi Arabia’s al-Ekhbariya TV charged in a report this week. Such invective has been unheard of
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
US President Donald Trump on Saturday warned Canada that if it concludes a trade deal with China, he would impose a 100 percent tariff on all goods coming over the border. Relations between the US and its northern neighbor have been rocky since Trump returned to the White House a year ago, with spats over trade and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney decrying a “rupture” in the US-led global order. During a visit to Beijing earlier this month, Carney hailed a “new strategic partnership” with China that resulted in a “preliminary, but landmark trade agreement” to reduce tariffs — but
SCAM CLAMPDOWN: About 130 South Korean scam suspects have been sent home since October last year, and 60 more are still waiting for repatriation Dozens of South Koreans allegedly involved in online scams in Cambodia were yesterday returned to South Korea to face investigations in what was the largest group repatriation of Korean criminal suspects from abroad. The 73 South Korean suspects allegedly scammed fellow Koreans out of 48.6 billion won (US$33 million), South Korea said. Upon arrival in South Korea’s Incheon International Airport aboard a chartered plane, the suspects — 65 men and eight women — were sent to police stations. Local TV footage showed the suspects, in handcuffs and wearing masks, being escorted by police officers and boarding buses. They were among about 260 South
RSS