Sometimes it's better not to know your sources

We had our increasingly common experience of saying What? upon reading Andrew Sullivan today. He approvingly quotes from a Conrad Black tirade about the BBC:

The BBC is pathologically hostile to the Government and official opposition, most British institutions, American policy in almost every field, Israel, moderation in Ireland, all Western religions, and most manifestations of the free market economy.

At the simplest level, we wonder, how is it possible for one organisation to be against so much stuff? Where do they find the time? How does an organisation even manage to function, riddled as it is with such contempt for everything around it?

But let's focus on two specific things. First, the Beeb is against moderation in Ireland? Black's own tirade provides no specific on what this means, but he does cite a source: an Eoghan Harris tirade in the same paper a few days earlier. As it happens, we had posted about Harris a few days ago: it's clear that his utter hatred of the IRA has now extended to a contempt for anyone who tried to deal with them with part of the peace process. Note to Eoghan: peace-making generally involves having some words with once nasty people. But Eoghan is clearly very influential: he helps Michael Barone out with a little Clinton bashing, and now he helps Conrad Black out with a little Beeb-bashing.

Enough about Eoghan Harris -- who is Conrad Black? When the books are being written about how the vast right wing conspiracy really did exist, he'll be there. Leave his politics aside a second, and just contemplate the sillyness of his passionate defense of Britain against the evils of the BBC(sadly it has become the greatest menace facing the country it was founded to serve and inform), written by a man who was a Canadian citizen until he renounced it so he could take the title of Lord Black of Crossharbour (the name under which his tirade is actually published). And in your next (and hopefully infrequent) tour around the reactionary blogs, watch out for approving links to articles by Barbara Amiel, also known as Lady Black of Crossharbour.

Anyway, Lord Black's media empire goes beyond the pro-Unionist, pro Liz Hurley rag that is the Daily Telegraph, to a bunch of Canadian papers, to participation in the amazingly dumb New York Sun. So we wallow in the irony of the homegrown BBC being described as a rogue and putschist organisation by a blow-in title chaser who shamelessly uses his cash to promote reactionary drivel in foreign countries. But at least he's for "moderation in Ireland."

NOTE: The BoBW team will be stranded amongst the wild natives of County Meath for a few weeks, so the blog will most likely be quiet until Aug 20 or so.