h/t RF
A BBC radio show called ‘Last Word’ is described as “Radio 4’s weekly obituary programme, telling the life stories of those who have died recently”.
The June 15th edition of that programme (repeated two days later) included an item – from 13:27 here – in which presenter Tina Daheley spoke with food critic Tim Hayward about Anthony Bourdain.
During that conversation listeners heard the following: [emphasis added]
Hayward: “Like many people in that sector he was involved with pretty heavy drugs. The Manhattan restaurant industry was very much under sort of mob control as well so he was meeting unsavoury characters. Oddly enough, before he wrote the kitchen book he wrote a couple of really quite credible crime novels set in those environments.”
Daheley: “But he…he’s also talked about breaking bread with some…let’s say pretty interesting characters: ah…Hizballah supporters, communists, anti-Putin activists, cowboys, stoners, Christian militia leaders, feminists and Israelis.”
Hayward: “Yeah; I don’t know how the feminists got included in that list of bad people. [both laugh] That’s pretty odd.”
Presumably Daheley was not reciting that list from memory but had a script in front of her at the time which included the original version of the quote from Bourdain – which she ‘adapted’:
“I’m proud of the fact that I’ve had as dining companions over the years everybody from Hezbollah supporters, communist functionaries, anti-Putin activists, cowboys, stoners, Christian militia leaders, feminists, Palestinians and Israeli settlers, to Ted Nugent.”
While just last week the BBC found “racist stereotypes” in a private diary written by a person born nearly 140 years ago to be newsworthy enough to justify at least two reports, apparently BBC Radio 4 is quite at ease with its own distortion of a quote and stereotypical placement of an entire nation on a “list of bad people”.
