{"id":755,"date":"2018-07-17T22:16:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-17T22:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gentlemancyclist.co.uk\/?p=755"},"modified":"2024-02-05T22:17:32","modified_gmt":"2024-02-05T22:17:32","slug":"monk-and-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gentlemancyclist.co.uk\/?p=755","title":{"rendered":"Monk and Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Posted on 17 July 2018<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are numerous pointers that show the dire times in which we live, and how the march to fascism is progressing. One of these pointers is media compliance: when the mainstream media uncritically, slavishly even, follows the line of the fascists and makes their job easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BBC comes in for a great deal of criticism for giving the right-wing an easy ride, whether it is the frequency of Nigel Farage appearing on Question Time, or Laura Kuenssberg orchestrating shadow-cabinet members\u2019 resignations on air. There have been a few examples of leading interviewers and presenters doing their jobs objectively and fairly: Eddie Mair\u2019s demolition of Boris Johnson a few years ago was a splendid example, and more recently, Andrew Neill\u2019s attack on a Tory vice-chairman for claiming that Corbyn had been instrumental in passing secrets to this country\u2019s enemies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, these are the exceptions and more often than not the extreme right are given a very easy passage. I\u2019m going to dwell on one particular example from BBC Essex which happened on Friday 13th July, and that was Dave Monk\u2019s totally one-sided handling of the anti-Trump demonstrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monk\u2019s approach was with the question \u201cSo does protesting work?\u201d which can be answered quite simply by pointing out that any change for the better in people\u2019s living conditions was achieved through protest. Votes for women, abolition of slavery, people\u2019s improved working conditions have all come about because of protest. It\u2019s what our democracy is based on. Yet he took a call from an \u201cAlex\u201d in Burnham who spouted hard-right rhetoric which Monk, an educated man (King Edward VI Grammar School Chelmsford, Degree in Law) failed to challenge in any way. It was such a cosy chat that I suspected that this \u201cAlex\u201d was actually a plant he was given such a free ride for his odious views. His use of the far-right expression \u201csnowflake\u201d to describe anyone with reasonable, compassionate views, was repeated by Monk without question. The view was that Trump is president of the USA, and \u201cLeader of the Free World\u201d, but it doesn\u2019t seem to have occurred to Monk that the Leader of the Free World does not pass legislation which allows his henchmen to rip babies from their mothers\u2019 arms and lock them in cages, like a scene from the film \u201cSchindler\u2019s List\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then the programme cut to BBC Essex reporter Charlotte Rose in Southend who began by setting the scene, describing the small demonstration that was going on, and then added \u201cIt\u2019s been quite an eventful 24 hours already, Dave. Clearly we saw in the Sun newspaper this morning the president saying the Brexit deal that Theresa May wants to negotiate was hopeless and we wouldn\u2019t be able to do a trade deal with the US if we went ahead; he then rowed back on that this afternoon, saying the Sun story was \u201cfake news\u201d, he would love to do a deal with the UK so there\u2019s been a bit of a reversal there already\u201d. Sherry Fuller, one of the organisers of the protest, was introduced by Rose but was then rounded on by Monk, who clearly didn\u2019t want any of this \u201csnowflake\u201d talk from his junior reporter, in one of the most unpleasant pieces of patronising on-air bullying I think I have ever heard. Sherry did especially well to withstand his line of questioning, and scored some excellent points. Sherry quite rightly pointed out that Trump was encouraging racists and homophobes and that his policies were very damaging. \u201cSounds great, Sherry, sounds great!\u201d was Monk\u2019s response, \u201cbut isn\u2019t the reality in 2018 we\u2019ve got to do a deal with the Americans in a post-Brexit world? We cannot afford to antagonise this man, we need him too much. He\u2019s the President of the United States of America, we don\u2019t have a lot of choice really.\u201d It is curious, given those statements by Monk, that he didn\u2019t challenge \u201cAlex\u201d. If it wasn\u2019t for the stupidity of Brexit we wouldn\u2019t be in the position that we had to rely upon a president who lies outrageously from day to day and who cannot be trusted on any issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Sherry, quite reasonably, pointed out that Trump is closely following the path taken by Hitler in 1930s Germany, he was totally dismissive. \u201cDon\u2019t tell me you are equating Trump with Adolf Hitler, purleez tell me that!\u201d follow by \u201cNo, no, no, no, no, that is going just too far. You may not agree with his views but you cannot say things like this. You are going completely over the top.\u201d Sherry isn\u2019t the first to make this comparison \u2013 serious historians say exactly the same thing, and Monk must know this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Sherry pointed out that Trump had rubbished May as a PM and that he had no respect for her, Monk said \u201cHe said that was fake news, that didn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This facility for a very experienced broadcaster like Monk to adopt the rhetoric of a serial liar, sexual molester, mocker of the disabled, one who allies himself with the KKK and Britain First, whose antics embolden the extreme right-wing thugs who are marching the streets in increasing numbers speaks volumes about where the BBC is politically. It is our licence fee that pays for the likes of Monk to appease fascists like Trump and his broadcast on Friday afternoon showed absolutely no balance. He should be utterly ashamed of himself and should be taken off the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, the fact that Monk\u2019s interview with Sherry Fuller took place on Friday afternoon means that Monk would not have been aware that Trump was about to show appalling disrespect to the queen; that a Trade Union leader was about to get beaten up in a pub by fascist supporters of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, or that Trump was about to conduct a press conference with Putin that even Trump\u2019s republican supporters were describing as \u201ctreasonous\u201d. Of course, he wouldn\u2019t have known these things, but none of them surprise anyone who has spent a few minutes watching Trump\u2019s modus operandi and those of his supporters. They are all very strong signs that we are following a very similar path to that which Europe followed in the 1930s and are eminently predictable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Dave Monk of BBC Essex clearly seems to think that such things are OK with his laid-back appeasement of a fascist president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted on 17 July 2018 There are numerous pointers that show the dire times in which we live, and how the march to fascism is progressing. One of these pointers is media compliance: when the mainstream media uncritically, slavishly even, follows the line of the fascists and makes their job easier. The BBC comes in for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essex","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gentlemancyclist.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gentlemancyclist.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gentlemancyclist.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gentlemancyclist.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gentlemancyclist.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=755"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gentlemancyclist.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":756,"href":"https:\/\/gentlemancyclist.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755\/revisions\/756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gentlemancyclist.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gentlemancyclist.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gentlemancyclist.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}