Events | 2009.11.20
Hugh Muir's diary
We know what Rupert said, but what did he mean? Is Obama a redneck or isn\'t he?
Bit of a tricky corner for uber-publisher Rupert Murdoch as he seeks to convince the world, and perhaps himself, that he never said President Obama was racist. He was defending his rightwing Fox News commentator Glenn Beck , who said Obama "has exposed himself as a guy, over and over and over again, who has a deep-seated hatred for white people or white culture ... this guy is, I believe, a racist". And in so doing, Murdoch said: "Obama did make a very racist comment about blacks and whites and so on, which he said in his campaign he would be completely above. And that was something which perhaps shouldn\'t have been said about the president, but if you actually assess what he was talking about, [Beck] was right." According to his spokesman, Gary Ginsberg, Murdoch "does not at all, for a minute, think the president is a racist". But what does he think? Ginsberg doesn\'t say, and meanwhile everyone is making up their own minds by watching what Murdoch actually said via YouTube. With one bound he was free? Not quite. Perhaps Ginsberg should have another go.
Or perhaps Murdoch should have another go. Some on Fox have likened Obama to Stalin, said the interviewer on Sky News Australia. "No, no, no, not Stalin, I don\'t think, ah, not one of our people," said Murdoch. Cue the Media Matters for America website , with more Fox footage of a Glenn Beck promotional trailer juxtaposing pictures of Obama (and Gordon Brown, as it happens) with shots of Hitler and Stalin and Lenin. "Is this where we are headed?" asks the dark voice of Fox. Poor Rupert. Did anybody bother to brief him?
So well done, everybody. Another Armistice Day. Poppies all presentable. The 11 o\'clock silence respectfully observed. There was a slight problem on the 10.28 East Midlands Trains service from Nottingham to London. The train manager solemnly announced just before 11 that there would be a two-minute silence on the train to allow all passengers to pay their respects. Within a few seconds, the silence was broken by the intercom and the voice of a catering manager offering "a good selection of hot and cold drinks and snacks". But then two minutes is a long time if you are hungry. That aside, well done for another year.
Because the fate of the planet lies in our hands, we are invited to a precursor event to the crucial climate talks in Copenhagen . Press conferences, preliminary discussions – that sort of thing. Is there an audio link or a webcast, we ask? No, but you could fly here, comes the answer. It\'ll be nice.
So today\'s the day in the Glasgow byelection, and, desperate for something to lift the party, Labour is fighting for every vote. One canvasser, keen as mustard, phoned a certain William Bain to ask the household if they would be supporting Willie Bain, Labour\'s candidate. "Hi, it\'s his mum here; he\'s out canvassing," the supportive householder said.
We are still sifting through your submissions for the all-new contemporary proverb, but it continues to be a sombre process. "Life is a dog, and not just for Christmas," says reader Ron Johnson. What is it? The onset of winter? The dark mornings? Something\'s wrong.
But then it\'s hard to be cheerful, given the calamity of yesterday, when Tom Wise (pictured), once a Ukip MEP for the East of England, was jailed for two years for fiddling his expenses to channel £39,000 into a secret bank account. The loss of an independent voice we mourn, and we see the damage this will do to our already shaky relationship with the European parliament. Of course it\'s a personal tragedy. But most of all, we\'re sad because Tom had in the past been this diary\'s unofficial film critic, pouring scorn on all those hard-to-follow, taxpayer-funded arthouse movies, especially the Belgian ones. We can replace him, of course, but it will be hard.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/nov/12/hugh-muir-diary-murdoch
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