Instapundit promotes this story from the Telegraph --
A STORY OF HEROISM DROPPED because the BBC found it "too positive."
[quote from Telegraph] The corporation has cancelled the commission for a 90-minute drama about Britain's youngest surviving Victoria Cross hero because it feared it would alienate members of the audience opposed to the war in Iraq. [end quote]
That says it all, doesn't it?
Well, it depends what the meaning of "all" is. The subject of the story, Private Johnson Beharry, is an incredibly brave person. He's also the answer to the question of whether there's a precedent for the Ministry of Defence's decision to allow serving military personnel to sell their action stories to the media, as with the 15 sailors and marines detained by Iran. There is, and he's the previous example.
Without knowing the full reasons for the BBC's backing out of the project, it's far too soon to identify a supposed lack of patriotism, imputed without evidence by the Telegraph, among the multitude of possible reasons for their withdrawal -- not least because the direction in which this essentially for-profit enterprise was headed might have given them cause for concern.
UPDATE: Mark Steyn, who probably saw the link on Instapundit, leaps to the same conclusion as the Telegraph story and mentions the current context of the sailors being allowed to sell their stories unaware that also applies to Beharry.
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