As predicted, former Sun Editor, Kelvin Mackenzie’s opinion piece questioning the wisdom of Channel 3 News putting a hijab’ed Muslim woman in front of the camera, to anchor the coverage of the Islamic attack in Nice, has stirred up a veritable shit-storm among the Left and Muslims. Many Leftists and Muslims, some encouraged by the mendacious grievance mongering mountebanks of the Tell Mama organisation, have bombarded the new State Press Regulator with complaints about Mr Mackenzie’s ‘bigotry’.
All Mr Mackenzie did was question whether it was more than a little insensitive for Channel 4 News to use an obvious Muslim to carry out this job. It was as some people said ‘rubbing the people’s noses in Islam’ and ‘insensitive’ to the relatives of those who died to put a Muslim on screen at this tragic time. I believe that Mr Mackenzie was correct to say what he did and a little bit of consideration for taste and decency by Channel 4 News would not have gone amiss here.
It should be noted at this point that one of the groups that is encouraging this campaign of complaints about Mr Mackenzie is as I stated earlier is the Tell Mama organisation. This entity has a known hostility to the concept of a free press and especially a press that is free to speak about Islam and the problems it so often brings. There is nothing that Tell Mama and groups like them would wish than, for there to be a neutered press and a neutered online environment. They and those like them would really love a media sphere that only said nice things about Islam and never ever mentioned the terror, the violence, the corruption, the rapes the misogyny and the welfare poncing that too often is associated with Islam and its followers.
However, it seems Mr Mackenzie values the idea of press freedom much more than some people and groups do. He’s also not taking lying down all these manufactured complaints, designed to shut down opinions that the Muslims and the Leftists may not like.
According to a piece in the UK Press Gazette by Dominic Ponsford, Mr Mackenzie is mulling over putting in complaint to the broadcast regulator Ofcom, over the behaviour of Channel 4 News. Although I cannot quote directly from the article as it is protected (but can be read by clicking on the link), the gist of his complaint is this: Broadcasters have a duty to be impartial in the manner that they present the news. A case many years ago on religious symbols on news programmes came to the conclusion that small religious symbols, such as crucifixes, may be used but they must not be over the top. By any standard of judgement the Islamic hijab is a seriously over the top religious statement and should not be seen on a news programme. Kelvin Mackenzie has pointed out that ten years ago the former BBC director of news said that staff ‘should not wear anything that hints or directly points to a political or religious leaning’. This is a sensible precaution against presenters using the news to subtly or not so subtly proselytise or give offence to viewers who don’t share their belief or political opinion. The problem is this sensible rule or idea seems to have been thrown away by Channel 4 News in their quest to be as achingly politically correct as possible. Channel 4 arrogantly thought that they could take the piss out of the rest of us who are quite rightly disturbed at what Islam is doing to our continent and rub Islam in our faces again. But, they have quite rightly faced a barrage of criticism for doing so.
Mr Mackenzie’s complaint to Ofcom may or not be successful but I commend him for having a go. I would also urge those who are critical of Islam to support Mr Mackenzie’s right to speak his mind on this and other matters. We should not be allowing dodgy Islamic groups with a taste for press censorship, such as Tell Mama to dictate what we can and cannot say about the ideology of Islam. Neither should we be handing over any power whatsoever to the Leftist pro-censorship types that make up the Hacked Off group. The very fact that Mr Mackenzie has put in a counter complaint has seriously and deliciously in my sight enraged the cry-bullies of the Left and the political Muslims. That alone should be a sign that what Mr Mackenzie is doing is exactly the right thing to be doing. Mr Mackenzie if you are taking flak from this lot then you must be right over the correct target.
Link
UK Press Gazette story
