From: Charlie (charlie@antipope.org)
Date: Tue May 09 2000 - 02:23:31 MDT
On Tue, May 09, 2000 at 02:48:55PM +1000, Damien Broderick wrote:
> SOURCE: 'The Mail on Sunday' May 7 2000:
>
> Dr Patrick Moore, the academic and renowned ecologist, was
> a founder member of Greenpeace, and later became its
> president.
Two points to note for those who aren't intimately familiar with the
British media ...
Firstly, the Mail on Sunday is the Sunday edition of the Daily Mail,
probably the most right-wing (in a reactionary sense -- they're not
exactly libertarian!) newspaper in the UK. (I'm talking xenophobic
little-englanders here.) Their editorial attitude to Greenpeace is
symptomatic of their attitude to _anyone_ who questions the Establishment;
rather than examining issues on their merit, the Mail will examine issues
on the basis of whether or not great-grandpa would have felt comfortable
with them. It's almost as if the entire newspaper was placed in cryonic
suspension in the 1920's and has just been decanted, angry and bewildered,
in a century it doesn't understand. In fact, expecting a pro-Greenpeace
article -- or even an unbiased one! -- from the Mail on Sunday would be
a bit like expecting the Washington Post to feature a topless babe on
Page Three and advocate compulsory nationalisation of industries without
compensation in the business section.
Secondly, Patrick Moore, although a great media personality (and
presenter of one of the world's longest-running weekly TV shows, "The
Sky at Night", on BBC TV) is noted for being somewhat on the barking mad
fringe, politically. (According to a friend of mine who's worked with
him, "the BBC just takes care not to let him talk about anything except
astronomy. And glockenspiels. And penguins.") If I remember correctly,
his take on Margaret Thatcher was that she was a dangerous pinko commie
leftist who was far too soft on immigration issues that would lead to
Britain Drowning in a Sea of Darkies(TM).
I draw no conclusions for you about the accuracy of Patrick Moore's
opinions on Greenpeace other than to point out that both he, and the
newspaper he writes in, have a whole bushel of political axes to grind.
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