Thursday 24 January 2013

Harry's home: BBC welcome back 'Xbox killer'

The BBC's solid-service to Harry Wales and his country's crimes goes reliably on.

Here's Peter Hunt, reporting from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, BBC News at Ten (23 Jan 2013 - thanks to Media Lens for noting):
An RAF plane with a royal on board returning via Cyprus from an Afghan desert to a wintry airbase. Its occupants have left behind a front line where Harry felt he was “one of the guys”, able to forget his destiny. Not any more. Disembarking, the soldier-prince was in reflective mood about his life:

“You know, there’s nothing normal about what we’ve been doing for the last four and a half months. There’s nothing normal about what’s going on out there. In the last day that I was there a seven-year-old girl got shot down by an insurgent. So, you know, normality is a very, very ambiguous thing, if you know what I mean.”
We must assume that the absence of "normality" for Prince Harry refers to the said 'insurgency' rather than the 'abnormality' of military invasion. Is it 'normal' for Afghan children to be shot down by Apache helicopters and Nato drones? Or, perhaps, this really is the tired 'normality' of a country once again occupied and bombed by foreign forces.

Any chance of Hunt deconstructing either that or Harry's own notion of "normality" is, as is normal for the BBC, unambiguously absent.

Hunt's grovelling piece then reminds us, in case we need reminding, just what the returning prince's task 'really' entailed:
For 20 weeks in Afghanistan as Captain Wales he served his country and his grandmother; not on the ground, but 2,000 feet up as an Apache helicopter co-pilot and gunner. His job was to protect troops down below, and when necessary to kill Taliban fighters.
Yes, just as Hunt's job is to serve his country and Auntie BBC; not on the ground witnessing UK/Nato's daily assaults, but three-and-a-half thousand miles back in Brize Norton as a royal-welcoming propagandist.

His job is to protect the establishment warmongers up above, and when necessary to provide cover for embarrassing royals who boast of killing Afghans.

But, never fear, Hunt is also ready to report the 'adverse side' of Harry's remarks:
His talk of taking people “out of the game who did bad stuff to our guys” has angered some. 
And that's it. Three token words. The noting of that anger doesn't seem to merit an actual example of it or invitation to any anti-war comment.

Hunt goes on to cite Captain Wales's 'simple' understanding of his job:
“You know, you get asked to do things in… you get asked to do things you’d expect to do wearing this uniform and that’s as simple as that really.”
Again, no probing thought from Hunt on those 'simple things', like the murdering of other human beings he's been asked, or ordered, to carry out.

Reflecting on his own job description, Hunt might, likewise, be saying: 'You know, you get trusted to do things you'd expect to do wearing this BBC title and it's as servile as that, really.'

Hunt's piece dutifully concludes:
For now Prince Harry will continue to juggle what he calls the “three mes” – being in the army, a senior royal and someone who, in his own words, “works hard and plays hard”.
Was there ever a more trite saying, or trite repetition of it?

The 'Taliban-slaying' prince has also reportedly said that his love of video games makes him an ideally-suited gunner, claiming that his job was:
"a joy … because I'm one of those people who loves playing PlayStation and Xbox, so with my thumbs I like to think I'm probably quite useful."
Presumably, as with the BBC's regular indulgence of Apache and other military 'toyware', Hunt must have given a prudent thumbs down to reporting or challenging this crass comment.

So, it's welcome back Captain Wales as he boasts: "I've killed Taliban fighters." And it's duty done, Peter Hunt, as the BBC fires-off yet another round of royal-militarist propaganda.

No comments: