It’s no spoof. In Britain, where the Queen every year delivers a televised Christmas message, the UK’s Channel 4 is planning to air an “Alternative Christmas Message“– from Iran’s Chief Executive Terrorist-Sponsoring Totalitarian Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
If Britons wish to spend part of their Christmas tuning in to Ahmadinejad’s oily talk of a “joyful, shining and wonderful age,” so be it — though one might have hoped they’d learned their lesson about this sort of thing back in the late 1930s. But broadcasting this kind of performance inflicts its worst damage in places like Iran itself, where the problem is not Ahmadinejad’s message to people of Britain, but Britain’s message to the people of Iran: For those in Iran who aspire to freedom, it can hardly be encouraging that in Britain a free people would so demean themselves as to give this preening thug his own special slot on the air — let alone as an alternative, in any capacity whatsoever, to their Queen. This is not an issue of free speech, but of fools at Channel 4 indulging in a stunt that ought to earn them not higher ratings, but a one-way ticket to Iran.
On a brighter note, some things are right with the world this Christmas Eve. The AP reports that in keeping with American tradition, NORAD is watching over Santa Claus. Merry Christmas!
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7 Comments
1. mile:You see it for how it is. People will watch Ahmadinejad because it’s political porn. It’s probably the same reason Dan Wall’s The Da Vinci Code was so widely read.. ecclesiastical pornography?
The free market is amoral and can’t tell right from wrong. Put in morally challenged consumers, and Channel 4 comes out rich. Easy!
Be careful what you wish for though. If Iranians did enjoy our brand of freedom, this very behavior you condemn in this column would by definition be standard for them too.
Sad huh >_<
Dec 25, 2008 - 12:22 am 2. john:The broadcaster of this farce, Channel 4 whines ythat if it doesn’ obtain 150m £ this year in revenue, it will go bust. Let us pray that it is far sooner.
Dec 25, 2008 - 8:10 am 3. MarcH:Merry Christmas to you Claudia.
I’m glad NORAD is watching for Santa but I hope they have also started to keep an eye out for Mahmoud’s EMPs.
Dec 25, 2008 - 8:18 am 4. Amy L.:Dear Claudia, thanks for reporting on this atrocity. Here’s my letter to Channel 4 along w. its website info.
Why is Channel 4 providing a platform to an avowed anti Semite, Holocaust denier and genocidal dictator? Apparently Channel 4 not only hates Israel, but also is comfortable with a regime which publicly hangs men accused of homosexuality and stones to death women accused of “immorality” while developing nuclear weapons. If Dorothy Byrne [Channel 4 spokesperson]hopes to insulate herself from Islamo fascism with this sickening act of appeasement, she’s an uneducated, dangerous fool. Shame on you.
http://help.channel4.com/SRVS
Dec 25, 2008 - 6:31 pm 5. albino:buckingham palace has been pretty swift with its response!
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YmxLRwoR1fc
Dec 26, 2008 - 7:23 am 6. Steynianism 301 « Free Canuckistan!:[...] Delivers Christmas Message On British TV; Why Ahmadinejad’s “Alternative Christmas Message” Does Not Belong on British TV …. (anorak, [...]
Dec 28, 2008 - 8:01 pm 7. Steynianism 301:[...] Delivers Christmas Message On British TV; Why Ahmadinejad’s “Alternative Christmas Message” Does Not Belong on British TV …. (anorak, [...]
Dec 29, 2008 - 3:12 am