How Matt ‘Stir’ Frei turned my stomach

David Boothroyd

I may have misheard and be taking it out of context, but even John Simpson seemed to say on last night's Ten'o'clock News that the next President was "presumably a Democrat". I thought the election wasn't until November 2008.

Tiberius

You heard right, David B. Frei is good for laugh when you're trying to wind down before going to bed, I find.

jimmy

Well said, Stephen. I've noticed similar traits in Mr Frei's reporting too. / In his defence, he seems to me more apt than some of his colleagues, to recognise the need to report the "other side" of the story. But as always the "line" comes oozing through in the choices of phrase. / I do not make a study of BBC news output, but did a quick search trying to recall the reporting at the time of the Hurricane Katrina. / This quote from a BBC news article sums up my memory of the "line" being editorialised into articles for broadcast at the time: / "And then came Hurricane Katrina. Mother Nature had dealt him a bad hand, which he made worse." / Yes, it's as simple as that. A disaster of enormous proportions - and how to summarise the contribution from the federal government? Why, put simply, they made the matter worse. / I give up. (And have given up watching most of the BBC's news and current affairs output).

Maria

Yet more sniping about how biased the BBC is - what a precious little flower you must be that this actually induces vomiting. Why not save on carpet cleaning and content yourself to reading the Times, Tele, Mail, etc which will all reinforce your own prejudices (and, please, spare us the crass puns).

Chris Goodman

I appreciate that the jobs of most Guardian/Independent readers rely upon tax farming, but why should Stephen Pollard be forced to pay for the BBC if he despises the judgement of the people who are telling him what to think.

Maria

Are the BBC really telling him what to think ? They're clearly not having much success then. Maybe in Stephen's perfect world, we would all be watching his employers famously impartial Fox News. At least then we would get to choose to pay a small fortune for 24/7 drivel riddled with advertising.

Chris Goodman

"Are the BBC really telling him what to think?" Have you ever watched or listened to the BBC? "They are clearly not having much success then" Maybe they need more taxpayers money? "famously impartial Fox news" The point of a free society, as I understand it, is freedom of choice. That leftists such as Maria are staunch BBC supporter tells you all you need to know about the political balance of the BBC.

Neil Turner

Read your article in The Times over breakfast in the Basildon Holiday Inn. Made me feel much better. I often think "is it me ?" when listening to the BBC, but clearly, others feel the same way. Don't know how they get away with it....on second thoughts, yes I do. It suits the Labour Party.

Verity

Hurricane Katrina did not land in New Orleans, although Matt Frei thinks it did because that's where the BBC wanted it to land (lots of black welfare dependency) and that's where they'd sent their reporters in safari jackets. The full hurricane hit down in (Republican)Mississippi, so you didn't get to see that on your TV. New Orleans got the rainy fringes. Cheap work on the levées by corrupt contractor friends of Governor Blanco ensured chaos from what was, when it passed through New Orleans, only tropical storm force. President Bush called Blanco three times before the storm hit, asking permission to send in Federal troops, and three times she said no. (Hadn't finished dickering and divvying up with contractors and Nagins, no doubt.) Matt Frei, who seems to understand little of the structure of the US government, whined on that Bush hadn't sent in troops. Surely the Washington correspondent of the BBC knows that the President cannot send Federal troops into a state without the permission of the governor? Anyway, Frei's face was steeped in pity for Governor Blanco which morphed into a sneer when he was about to say the hated words, "George Bush". I see that when recent (August)Hurricane Hugo was threatening Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and southern Texas(not vaguely pointed at Louisiana at all),Governor Blanco declared a state of emergency in Louisiana. Next up, she declared a state of emergency from Hurricane Felix which went through NICARAGUA! I don't know whether she declared a state of emergency during the British flooding in August, but I do know that, after her Katrina fiasco, this gal isn't taking any chances.