The revolving door at the Baghdad Broadcasting Corp.
: Well ain’t this a lovely coincidence. First…
The Arabic satellite TV channel al-Jazeera says its editor-in-chief has submitted his resignation.
According to an al-Jazeera spokesman, Ibrahim Helal said he had had “a tempting offer” from the BBC.
The charity BBC World Service Trust confirmed that Mr Helal was joining to work on a variety of media training projects over the next two years.
Thanks to a commenter for leaving that bonbon. Next…
Veteran British television presenter Robert Kilroy-Silk has quit as host of a BBC morning chat show following a row over anti-Arab comments he made in a newspaper article.
“I believe this is the right moment to leave the programme and concentrate my energies in other directions,” said Kilroy-Silk on Friday, a former Labour Party member of parliament.
The BBC had suspended his long-running Kilroy topical discussion show after the Sunday Express newspaper published an article by him headlined “We owe the Arabs nothing”.
In the article he asked: “What do (Arabs) think we feel about them? That we admire them for being suicide bombers, limb amputators, women repressors?”.
The Muslim Council of Britain, which had condemned Kilroy-Silk over the article, welcomed his departure.
Let’s add this up, shall we? So the head of an Arab anti-American channel is hired by the BBC at the same time that the BBC forces out a Briton who dares to criticize Arab states. The BBC isn’t clever enough to even care about appearances.