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."
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing US political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a “globalist menace” in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia. Kirk, 31, who helped amplify US President Donald Trump’s agenda to young voters with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as gender and immigration, was shot in the neck on Wednesday at a speaking event at a Utah university. In Seoul on Friday last week, he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory,” while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference
China has approved the creation of a national nature reserve at the disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島), claimed by Taiwan and the Philippines, the government said yesterday, as Beijing moves to reinforce its territorial claims in the contested region. A notice posted online by the Chinese State Council said that details about the area and size of the project would be released separately by the Chinese National Forestry and Grassland Administration. “The building of the Huangyan Island National Nature Reserve is an important guarantee for maintaining the diversity, stability and sustainability of the natural ecosystem of Huangyan Island,” the notice said. Scarborough
RSS