HARDtalk Stephen Sackur’s task at the BBC is “to hold people accountable” with “[i]n-depth interviews with hard-hitting questions and sensitive topics being covered as famous personalities from all walks of life talk about the highs and lows in their lives.” One must not forget, though, that the BBC is only a semi-autonomous (meaning UK government-dependent) public broadcaster. How its staff has to spread propaganda, for example, about the whole NSA/GCHQ surveillance scandal brought to light by whistle-blower Edward Snowden can be watched almost on a daily basis by televised “opinions” of its reporters.

Thursday’s show had journalist Glenn Greenwald, who had mainly reported on Edward Snowden’s leaks, and the BBC unsurprisingly seems to be surprised that,

“Journalist Glenn Greenwald who reported on the data leaked by US whistleblower Edward Snowden has told HARDtalk it is the job of journalists to investigate the claims of people in power.

Mr Greenwald said the Iraq war was as an example of how the US and UK governments had made ‘false claims’ to gain support for the war.

‘People in power, specifically national security officials will routinely lie to their population,’ he added.” (My emphasis.)

Sackur, who has a reputation of relentlessly and impudently interrupting his guests whenever he would not agree with what they claim, was put in his right place by Greenwald as usual. Here we saw two kinds of journalists, one who claims to be hard hitting but actually just trying to serve authorities, and an honest one who ultimately made his excellent point. Good interview.

30 November 2013 @ 10:39 am.

Last modified December 1, 2013.