Hating Reagan with the BBC

According to investigative journalist Greg Palast, he'd be nowhere without the BBC:

'My most important investigations, all but banned from U.S. airwaves, were developed and broadcast by BBC Newsnight'

A self-styled 'friend' of Michael Moore, Palast shares Moore's affinity for publicity and sensationalism. Notice the typical 'all but' formulation (also a Moore favourite) in his claim of being banned in the US, which translates as something like 'no one in the States considered him stable enough to trust his reporting'. One supportive critic describes how

'he backs his investigative work with a colorful private dick/Sherlock Holmes persona, complete with breathless descriptions of the crimes of the powerful. His status as one of the new People's Pundits has been magnified by articles like this one in the alternative media, as well as through the support of cultural icons as disparate as Jello Biafra and Hustler magazine.' (Ed.- Hustler magazine?)

But, as Palast admits, his credibility derives from his BBC work, the latest of which was his 'Bush Family Fortunes' documentary, shown on BBC3 in June 03.

According to the above article,

'Palast says "Bush Family Fortunes" is the first in a series of BBC exposes, "culminating with a feature-length film, on the cowboy empire. We've now taken this weird mixing, of Bush family finances and our nation's foreign and domestic policies, to a new level, that is armed and dangerous." As he continues to broadcast truth to power on BBC-TV, we can only wonder when he will be allowed to do so back home, in the land of the free.'

But what's happened to the rest of the sequence of Palast's 'truth to power' documentaries? I haven't noticed them appearing on the main BBC channels, and that BBC3 documentary 'The Bush Family fortunes' I had taken to be a one-off.

However, I can tell what kind of a journalist Palast is, and the BBC have fostered, from his valediction for Ronald Reagan:

'I remember Nancy, a skull and crossbones prancing around in designer dresses...all the while, Grandpa grinned, the grandfather who bleated on about "family values" but didn't bother to see his own grandchildren.' ...

'Well, my friends, you can rest easier tonight: the Rat is dead.

Killer, coward, conman. Ronald Reagan, good-bye and good riddance.'