Johann Hari: “Why do our broadcasters keep giving a platform to a murderous homophobe?”
In an article for gay magazine Attitude, Johann Hari lays bare the rhetoric of Christian Voice’s Stephen Green and delineates the “right to speak”, including “the right to say despicable things” –which even homophobes should have – from “choosing to give him a platform”.
Do you deserve to be killed for being gay? Should you be hanged, or shot, or electrocuted? In Britain today, a man who believes you should be – and who actively supports the on-going campaign to hunt down and kill gay people in Africa – is being given prime-time TV slots by the BBC and Channel Four. When Elton John had a baby, he was given the main response on the flagship Six O’Clock News. He is in the rolodex of all the “moral discussion” programs, wheeled on whenever we inch closer to equality for gay people. He is Taken Seriously, and treated as a neutral commentator by shows like Question Time and newspapers like the Daily Mail. His name is Stephen Green, and if he had his way, you’d be reading this from death row.
… Imagine if the BBC, Channel Four and Daily Mail were giving prominent platforms to a man who believed all Jews should be killed, or all black people, or all Muslims. It would – thankfully – be unthinkable. Yet Green is doing precisely that with gay people. On his website earlier this year, he noted the moves in Uganda to execute people for “aggravated sodomy” – and complained they didn’t go far enough. He wrote: “The Bible prescribes precisely the penalty [MP David] Bahati is proposing for sodomy in any situation, whether or not ‘aggravated.’” Kill all the “sodomites.” Not in theory. Now. That’s his response to hearing that innocent gay people are about to be put to death.
Full article: http://johannhari.com/2011/02/09/why-do-our-broadcasters-keep-giving-a-platform-to-a-murderous-homophobe
Johann Hari: “Why do our broadcasters keep giving a platform to a murderous homophobe?”,
An excellent article, making a very valid point. Although, I can sort of understand the thinking of a TV programme producer:…. telly news programmes would be a bit boring if they only had rational guests. A bit like the X-Factor only broadcasting the good ones.
Although Stephen Green is way beyond irrational, bordering on downright dangerous, surely the majority of viewers can see him for what he is. The only ones likely to be taken in by his bigoted rantings would be Daily Mail readers.
Which reminds me, Johann. You made one glaring mistake, which I cannot overlook: You called the Daily Mail a “newspaper”. It is not. It is a vile publication, produced solely to pander to the misinformed, the bigoted, the racist, the archetypal “Disgusted, Tunbridge Wells”.
Unfortunately, The ABC figures for the Daily Mail daily circulation are 2,100,855. That’s an awful lot of “misinformed, bigoted, racist” readers who lap up the views of Stephen Green. The BBC and Channel Four should not be giving this vile man a platform too.