31/10/2007

Liberal elite working for Murdoch

This is just silly.

In 'A grown-up speech on mass migration' and 'Sky News host back at work after embarrassing on-air immigrant 'extermination' gaffe' we find that Sky News's Julie Etchingham, thinking the microphones were switched off, commented over David Cameron's speech that the Conservatives' policy over immigration should be 'extermination'. This is apparently supposed to be proof that there is a liberal elite in the media and they're out to get us or something.

There are a couple of reasons why this is among the stupidest things I've heard from the paper. The most obvious is that it isn't at all clear from the remark that Etchingham was parodying the Conservative stance at all. From the second story there, we can see the form the actual comment took in its context:
[Cameron says] "Let me outline the action that a Conservative government would take.

"As we have seen, some of the increase in population size results from natural change - birth rates, death rates. Here our policy should be obvious . . ."

At which point Miss Etchingham's voice was clearly heard to say: "Extermination."

It's not clear from this whether Etchingham is parodying the Conservative view or offering her own flippant view of what the policy should be. It would certainly be clever PR for supporters of someone making a horrible right wing comment to actually claim it was a horrible left wing comment. And maybe she was just, you know, mucking about without offering an opinion on anything.

That aside, even if we do take the Mail's interpretation of her comments at face value, this is just effing silly:
[...]wasn't she speaking with the authentic voice of the liberal elite?

For more than 40 years, Left-wingers in politics and the media have successfully silenced rational debate on the impact of mass migration, shouting 'racist' at anyone who dared even raise the subject.
She works for Rupert bloody Murdoch! Is Rupert Murdoch part of the liberal elite now?

Here's the thing - even if she is a horrible lefty, the fact that she has to swallow her principles and work for Rupert Murdoch surely shatters the idea that the liberals control everything.

Clever clutching at straws from the Mail - which manages to report negatively on immigration pretty much every bloody day, often several times a day and still manages to argue that debate on the subject is silenced.

4 comments:

septicisle said...

"Meanwhile, what is unreasonable about insisting that spouses who settle here should be 21 and able to speak English?"

Uh, plenty. Isn't this the same party that's meant to be promoting family life? It's most certainly not those that are bringing wives back that are responsible for the rise in immigration. Stopping someone from settling here because they can't speak English to an acceptable degree when the other partner is already a British citizen is despicable.

Anonymous said...

Am I the only person who wonders why the Etchingham clip was posted on Youtube and then quickly taken off?

septicisle said...

Who knows? With the rumours swirling around of Google sizing up Facebook, you'd expect they wouldn't care too much about offending Mr Murdoch, but you never can tell.

Five Chinese Crackers said...

It was taken off because there's a liberal metropolitan elite who don't want you to see anyone mocking the Conservatives. Or something. Actually, that doesn't make sense.

I'll get back to you.