Saint Receives Fatwa

Sometimes, the Left is so transparent. Consider the case of 'Sir' Bob Geldof and his lemming-like trajectory from secular saint to ranting whackjob. Oops, no - 'ranting whackjob' is how the L3 would like us to think of him. They haven't got there yet, but not for want of trying. Take this latest missive from the Beeb.

In two television documentaries, Geldof launches a tirade against the evils of the 1960s and the country's high divorce rate.

Geldof doesn't argue, suggest, propose or support, he 'launches a tirade'. Clearly some kind of unbalanced fanatic then.

And it don't get much better. Try this further down:

He has seized on statistics that women initiate 70% of all divorces, suggesting they should lower their expectations of men.

Again, he doesn't quote, cite or point to - he seizes these statistics. When, exactly, was the last time - for the sake of argument - an environmentalist was accused of 'seizing on' statistics ?

Geldof's authority to speak about these subjects (or lack of it, say his critics), stems from the very public breakdown of his marriage to Paula Yates and its messy aftermath.

Ye - Geldof is short of qualificatons to talk about the family, as opposed to Bono, U2 frontman and Professor of economics at Harvard, apparently. To say nothing of any number of thespian experts on counter-terrorism.

Note too the labelling at the end. All three supportive comments come from people who the Beeb is careful to tie to the Conservative Party, yet all three critics are quoted sans any warning labels. This is what lies at the core of BBC bias - the idea that (for example) family campaigners are partisan fanatics, while their opponents are just talking common sense. That's what grates - not the fact that the Beeb pushes a Liberal agenda - though at times it surely does - but the fact that for much of the rest of the time it merely assumes that all the smart, nice people must be Liberals anyway. Dissent from the Liberal agenda is therefore proof of insanity, stupidity or evil and so the gloves come off. Geldof took the courageous decision to take on the Liberal establishment's prejudices when it comes to family issues, and so the Beeb has set the dogs on him - using our money to smear a man for expressing opinions a large part of the country would agree with.

And that's what so objectionable about the BBC.