I completely agree with Prof. Garton Ash's call for a renewed Euro-Atlanticicst vision for the liberal West. I think, though, that his lauding of the BBC as the guardian of the UK's information space runs counter to this ambition. If you look the stories that the BBC leads with, they are regularly reflect the reflexive anti-Americanism of much of the European elite. The Dobbs decision was the main story on the BBC website when it came down. If any other country's courts decided that abortion policy was to be decided by the legislature, would that be the top story on the news. Four people are shot in Alabama, a State that very few British people could find on a map. This murder - 4000 miles away - is the top story on the BBC. The BBCs general sneering attitude towards the US policy on abortion and guns, in particular, and it's editorial decisions to highlight related stories ahead of all other news in the world aims to portrays the US as a kind of Handmaids Tale meets Mad Max hellhole. An alien country with alien values. Such relentlessly negative coverage of a country that has established and then secured our peace for the last 85 years is highly unlikely to cement the bonds which are need between our countries. Sneering, lazy anti-Americanism of the Gaullist kind is not just limited to the French elites.
I completely agree with Prof. Garton Ash's call for a renewed Euro-Atlanticicst vision for the liberal West. I think, though, that his lauding of the BBC as the guardian of the UK's information space runs counter to this ambition. If you look the stories that the BBC leads with, they are regularly reflect the reflexive anti-Americanism of much of the European elite. The Dobbs decision was the main story on the BBC website when it came down. If any other country's courts decided that abortion policy was to be decided by the legislature, would that be the top story on the news. Four people are shot in Alabama, a State that very few British people could find on a map. This murder - 4000 miles away - is the top story on the BBC. The BBCs general sneering attitude towards the US policy on abortion and guns, in particular, and it's editorial decisions to highlight related stories ahead of all other news in the world aims to portrays the US as a kind of Handmaids Tale meets Mad Max hellhole. An alien country with alien values. Such relentlessly negative coverage of a country that has established and then secured our peace for the last 85 years is highly unlikely to cement the bonds which are need between our countries. Sneering, lazy anti-Americanism of the Gaullist kind is not just limited to the French elites.