Sometimes One Could Weep-

The journalistic standard is so poor, not least at the BBC. Scratch a 'feature' article and you'll find your fingernails all mucky.

I haven't time or (truth be told) inclination to thoroughly eviscerate this obvious piece of rubbish from the BBC- hypnotised as they are by the Michael Moore phenomenon since he is the only person who outstrips them in their keenness to see GWB leave the Whitehouse.

There are, however, some basic points.

One is that one of their substantial vignettes of anti-Bush feeling in the US is over six weeks old- not much of a poll indicator. Here is the gist of their anecdote about cinema owners in the North Carolinan city of Fayetteville, posted at that link on 1st July.

Concerning this story, what is not pointed out by the BBC is that Fayetteville has five cinemas- and the one they feature, 'The Cameo', is an arthouse cinema. Moreover, 'The Cameo' was the only cinema in the town to show Fahrenheit 9/11, and Fayetteville is not, as the BBC say, a 'small town', since it has over 60,000 inhabitants in its own right.

Yes, it is near to Fort Bragg, but 51,000 people, mainly military, are employed at Fort Bragg (which describes itself as a 'major city', and claims to provide services for 250000 people). If a couple of thousand with military discount passes went to see Fahrenheit 9/11 this would not amount to much, when you count in dependents who might make use of them.

Anyone would think that the military were instructed en bloc to vote Republican, when obviously their politics have always been mixed.

If the reporter, Hugh Sykes, honestly thinks he's onto some phenomenon here, he's a idiot. More likely, he doesn't care as long as the trends he wants to further, the vibes he wants to encourage, are nourished.

This, sad to say, was the centrepiece of the BBC article- the local colour, the clinching image- yet it's just more banal reheated Moore-fetishism from the BBC.