President Donald Trump sends crack troops to Venezuela and kidnaps its President
Nicolás Maduro Moros
Why I think that
The Donald may
lose in bid to sue
BBC for billions
“The moving finger types and as it hits
The computer keys it summons all our wits
To try composing some new deathless rhyme
But then, frustrated, pours a glass and quits!”
From Dew Anna Tales, by Bachchoo
President Donald Trump sends crack troops to Venezuela and kidnaps its President. He threatens
Colombia, Mexico and Cuba with the same and Greenland with annexation.
With brute strength on his side and a renewed commitment to police and exploit the natural
resources of “his hemisphere”, Orangeeboob will no doubt raise his popularity with Maggots.
The one battle I predict Strumpet will lose is his attempt to sue the BBC for $10 billion. Though it’ll
be a blow to his ego, it won’t in any way affect his totally illegal foreign policy. But when his case
against “Aunty” is dismissed, I and perhaps billions more will raise a glass.
The word “loser!” somehow springs to mind.
I’m not a betting person (now and then a tote Exacta for £1.80?). But I’m willing to stake a fiver on
my conviction and I’ll tell you why:
The case of Orangeeboob versus the BBC arises from a documentary that the Beeb broadcast just
before the 2024 Trumpistan elections. The Panorama documentary featured the speech which DoJo
gave to his gathered followers on January 6, 2021, after losing the 2020 election and claimed that he
was cheated.
His speech started with: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and we’re going to cheer on our
brave senators and congressmen and women.”
Fifty minutes into his ramble to the belligerent-looking crowd, some wielding batons and wearing
antler hats, he said: “And we fight. We fight like hell!”
The documentary edited the speech to say: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be
there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell!”
This edit caused the Beeb massive embarrassment when one of its own consultants reported “unfair
editing”. It was only after this report was published that Trumpsicle announced his decision to sue.
And that in a court in Florida.
The BBC was chastised in the right-wing British press, which has long wanted the corporation
disenfranchised. They said this edit of the speech gave the impression that Orangeeboob had
instigated his followers to attack the Capitol and cause the havoc they caused by pursuing vice-
president Mike Pence, who refused to take steps to overturn the election result. The attack caused,
according to reports, ten deaths -- six protesters and four policemen.
The media overkill about the BBC bias, with perhaps some government pressure, caused Tim Davie,
the Beeb’s director-general, and Deborah Turness, its head of news, to resign.
The BBC apologised to Mr Trump but refused to acknowledge that he had any claim to damages. The
lawsuit in Florida then followed.
To my mind, reading the Bigly Loser’s speech certainly did goad his mob to attack the Capitol. His
“fight like hell” phrase didn’t mean “please distribute peppermints and daisy chains”.
Then the fact is that the showing of the documentary didn’t harm him in any way as he went on to
win the presidency in 2024.
The strongest persuasion for me to bet on his losing the case arises from the fact that probably no
one in Florida saw the documentary as it wasn’t transmitted in Trumpistan in any state, as the BBC
will prove.
Gentle reader, I had a personal encounter with the number of viewers, or in my case readers, of a
libel allegation. In the 1990s, when I was a commissioning editor at Channel 4 in the UK, the
journalists Christopher Hitchens and Tariq Ali, said they had evidence that Mother Teresa received
funds from Haiti’s Papa Doc and Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha. They also had testimony from British
volunteer nurses who had joined Mother Teresa’s sanctuary and said she was only concerned with
converting souls and had allowed several destitutes she took in to suffer and die as a result. The doc
was made and broadcast.
Dilip Thakore, an acquaintance of mine, then wrote a nasty piece in Calcutta’s Sunday magazine
attacking Hitchens and Ali and alleging that I, who had commissioned the doc, had defrauded the
British government of two houses which I now owned and that I was only given my job at Channel 4
because I claimed to be a Ugandan refugee.
I don’t, and never did, own any houses, legitimately or through fraud, and I’ve never stepped foot in
Uganda… And why would Channel 4 appoint anyone claiming to be a Ugandan refugee to a senior
editorial position?
I didn’t bother, but Channel 4’s lawyers found that Sunday had several hundred British readers and
sent a notice to the magazine saying that they would sue.
Sunday considered this, admitted that the article was libellous and untrue, and settled out of court
for £10,000.
Our legal department gave me £6,000 out of this settlement and I promptly refurbished the kitchen
in my house.
When I was next in India I encountered the editor of Sunday, Vir Sanghvi, and thanked him
graciously for my new kitchen. He wasn’t pleased. I did the same to Aveek Sarkar, the owner
of Sunday, when I encountered him in Delhi at some social occasion. He ignored my thanks and
asked if I would write a regular column for Sunday. I said I didn’t think the editor would countenance
even two polite words about anything from me.
( Source : Deccan Chronicle )
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