The BBC "has become nothing short of a national menace"

By Melanie Phillips via Biased BBC

What all this shows is that the BBC has become far more than a redoubt of Guardian and Independent values; far more than a journalistic disgrace; far more than betrayal of the concept of public service broadcasting. It has become nothing short of a national menace, an enemy of this country’s interests and a fifth column in time of war. There is no doubt in my mind that a major reason why otherwise sane and sensible Britons have totally lost touch with reality, believe the US and Israel are the source of all evil while people who play football with the heads of Jews are the victims of injustice, and are on the way to pressurising the British government to pull out of Iraq, denounce America and thus hand victory to religious fascism, is because of the influence of the BBC, our secular church. And because of its immense global prestige and the fact that it is trusted to tell the truth, the BBC is now helping poison the discourse of the world.

The new BBC chairman, Michael Grade, is reported to believe that the BBC must draw a line under the Hutton controversy and that his job is to restore morale. In other words, business as usual. The government, badly burned by the inextricably linked public hostility to Hutton and the war in Iraq, will now not touch the BBC. The Tories, who do not appear to grasp the vital strategic importance for this country of standing shoulder to shoulder with Blair against the anti-Americanism that threatens Britain’s security, have opportunistically sided with the BBC against the government.

If the BBC had behaved in this way during World War Two, we would have lost it. If it is allowed to carry on in this fashion, we may lose against the new fascism that threatens us.

Absolutely spot on! The West is winning the war on terror in spite of the media trying to lose it.