Thursday, October 22, 2009

Should broadcasters entertain racists views?

By the time you read this it'll probably be all over. But the fall out is likely to be huge.

Hindsight is a wonderful foresight, and months from now could the BBC rue the decision, with the comment that: "Perhaps in hindsight we would have done it differently or not at all.."

Tonight the BBC screens its weekly open ed current affairs chat show with six panelists called Question Time.

And for the first time it has invited Nick Griffin - who heads up a party with overt racist views.

An ex-senior BBC manager tells me the BBC is damned if it didn't and if it does.

So why is the BBC doing this?

The reasons appear plenty. Are the panel of cross questioners up for it? And why is Mr Griffith's organisation licking its lips?

If anything, one thing is abundantly clear, Mr Griffith's party is playing to a bigger audience - on the Net.

So expect to see Mr Griffith clipped in an assortment of ways which will find its way edited to favour his organisation, surrounded by the BBC logo - which provides an unerring, yet from the BBC wholly unintentional legitimacy.

Like I said, someone may likely say "perhaps if we'd thought about that we would have done it differently or not at all".

One last thing: there's a string reason within British politics why this is happening.

Footnote: Have you noticed I haven't mentioned Mr Griffith's organisation. Why?