Well done, BBC
13/5/19 13:14![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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talkpoliticsWatching the hero of the right Ben Shapiro, having a meltdown when BBC interviewer Andrew Neil holds him accountable for things he has said is priceless. Tough guys can't dance, and they can't stand the light of being exposed. Smug is not a very good look for Ben.
Enjoy Ben Shapiro Melting Down and Running Out of a BBC Interview
This was pretty comical the way he worked himself into a lather over literally nothing. Has he no control over his emotions? He later apologised for misunderstanding the interviewer’s intent, but the damage was already done.
Of course, the BBC is not as most US media - and ask questions that can be difficult to answer. I suspect this was the show Hardtalk, where some really seasoned journalists have done a good job, in asking prominent leaders, business, politicans, even heads of states difficult questions, and demanded answers - and where specially Shapiro fell flat by acting like he was in control, which he was not at all. I actually enjoy listening to the BBC interview politicians and others. They seem to actually ask hard questions and follow up with other questions. I never understood why Shapiro has the following he does. He is like that Tomi Lahren... Trolls who managed to make money of the fringes.
Why are American journalists incapable of holding these assholes' feet to the fire? Time and again I hear someone like Mick Mulvaney, Kellyanne Conway, or Steven Miller on the TV or radio spreading some absolute bullshit, and the journalist just allows them to talk without any kind of challenge or pushback.
Enjoy Ben Shapiro Melting Down and Running Out of a BBC Interview
This was pretty comical the way he worked himself into a lather over literally nothing. Has he no control over his emotions? He later apologised for misunderstanding the interviewer’s intent, but the damage was already done.
Of course, the BBC is not as most US media - and ask questions that can be difficult to answer. I suspect this was the show Hardtalk, where some really seasoned journalists have done a good job, in asking prominent leaders, business, politicans, even heads of states difficult questions, and demanded answers - and where specially Shapiro fell flat by acting like he was in control, which he was not at all. I actually enjoy listening to the BBC interview politicians and others. They seem to actually ask hard questions and follow up with other questions. I never understood why Shapiro has the following he does. He is like that Tomi Lahren... Trolls who managed to make money of the fringes.
Why are American journalists incapable of holding these assholes' feet to the fire? Time and again I hear someone like Mick Mulvaney, Kellyanne Conway, or Steven Miller on the TV or radio spreading some absolute bullshit, and the journalist just allows them to talk without any kind of challenge or pushback.
(no subject)
Date: 14/5/19 06:47 (UTC)He's on the Beeb, attempting to put a balanced viewpoint, and Shapiro hadn't done his homework. I believe that Stalin and Trotsky had a few arguments, but that was before the internet age. It is not unknown for folk of similar political stances to find specific ideas unacceptable. I was in favour of going into Afghanistan after Bin Laden, but emphatically against the second Iraq war. I'm a conservative who sees the need for some change. But if I had a mantra it would be "Evolution, not revolution."
However, it appears policing against international terrorist outrages sometimes requires invasions; which appears unfortunate, if you will excuse the meiosis. I'm happy to get the perps who do the bad things, but the scattergun approach of using 9/11 to go after other targets was in my opinion, both a war crime, and the most strategically inept policy of modern times. Whereas all coalition forces centred on Afghanistan might have brought Bin Laden to ground earlier and maybe have mitigated or entirely prevented the clusterfuck-up of Iraq War 2 and its aftermath, the divided forces of a twin campaign contributed greatly to the present chaotic mess. Such is. We are here now.
And we must not let the populist ideologues like Shapiro get away with nonsense. If they have an actual point it tends to be drowned out by the frothing insanity of the rest of their demotic rantings; it is what Shapiro is good at, after all. And that actual point will be presented in a very particular fashion. Sensible folk will reflect on the point being made, badly educated folk will hear the frothing rantings and agree... it is an obvious propaganda strategy but it is still remarkably effective. I'm pleased that Andrew Neil didn't let the blighter off the hook easily.
The original "Spectator" under Addison and Steele is still one of the greatest historical documents of the mores of English society in the C18th; as well as helping define modern English usage, English political journalism, English social journalism etc & etc. We have to thank Addison or Steele for our present use of the semi-colon rather than the Latin colon; for although Ben Jonson was the first notable writer to use it in English, Addison and Steele popularised it. (I went through a period of only using the classical colon, despising the more modern innovations - I am still at heart a conservative.)